Calling W123 fans - some nice statistics

How is parts availability and price over there? From what I understand MB judt doubled the prices on (some? many?) parts here in the past two weeks and dropped prices on parts for newer cars. The examples I was given were a dash for a 123 went from 480 to 1000$ while some ML part went from 380 to 200. "They want us to buy new cars" is what I've heard.

There atr 32 113 headlight doors (at $500) in north american inventory but no blue 123 dashes left.

The 123 has been designated a "classic" here now so parts go through the classics center withcommensurate increaes in price.

IMHO chances are big it will stay the leader in terms of production figures - nowadays car's life cycles are shorter (typically only 7 years with MBs) and there is many more models available than at the time of the W123.

Today there is less than 100.000 W123s left in Germany and of that are less than 10.000 240D, numbers are (still) shrinking fast: Year W123 240D

Yes, of course ;-) ((454.780))

Point with the 240D was it was more powerful - yes, yes, talking about W123 diesels and power in the same sentence... - but didn't consume (noticeably) more diesel than 200D or 220D.

No, that is 230 (196.185) and 230E (245.876) combined (442.061)

Yes, 378.138

Next are 200 gas (376.087) and 300D (331.999).

Aaaaaah - time for extreme nutpicking ;-))) Production began in 12/1975 (280, 280E) and ended in 01/1986 (200T, 230TE, 280TE).

I have a short article about the W123 as coming classic car on the site at

Oh, and YES, serious collector's tip is the MB Vaneo (W414) whose production will stop in summer - only 55.000 produced so far from all variants within 4 years...

V ehicle A attracted N ot E nough O rders

Juergen

Seriously noone is buying a new dash - be it

The blue ones are the ones which cracked first (and that started _many_ years ago) - so no wonder there is none left.

Parts availabilty for technical parts here in Germany is _excellent_, one has the choice of brake pads, rotors, lights, filters etc. pp. but some interiour parts are already sold out (means specific parts in specific colours).

Here in Germany it will become an official classic in late January 2006 as premiere of the W123 series was at the end of January 1976 in France and so in 2006 the W123 series will turn 30.

Juergen

You and I both know that but there are people who want to buy new dashes.

Of course, but compare the demand for blue 123 interior parts to 113 headlight doors :-)

filters but for Mercedes-only parts a 123 just got to be an expensive car.

OE and OEM parts are still cheap, it's the Mercedes-only ones that just got expensive

Doesn't time fly?

Am I missing something? "The W123 remains unrivalled in terms of production figures. About 2.7 m

were made, of which saloons were nearly 2.4 m." Does this mean that there were only 300,000 CE's and wagons made in 9 years?

Yes.

------------------- Coupe total 99.884 (1)

------------------- T total 199.724 (1)

Coupe and T total 299.608 (1) ==========================

Production was 2.696.962 (1) (includes all, sedans, sedans LWB, coupes, T-models, partly bodied chassis, partly bodied chassis LWB, China assembled sedans) so it were 2.397.354 (1) sedans (incl. sedans LWB, partly bodied chassis and partly bodied chassis LWB).

So one can say:

Regular model with lowest number produced is 280C with 3.704, lowest special model is 230 partly bodied chassis with 265 vehicles, highest figure is 240D sedan with

(1) numbers calculated by me

Enough for the moment? ;-)

Juergen - driving one of 454.780

Yes.

------------------- Coupe total 99.884 (1)

------------------- T total 199.724 (1)

Coupe and T total 299.608 (1) ==========================

Production was 2.696.962 (1) (includes all, sedans, sedans LWB, coupes, T-models, partly bodied chassis, partly bodied chassis LWB, China assembled sedans) so it were 2.397.354 (1) sedans (incl. sedans LWB, partly bodied chassis and partly bodied chassis LWB).

So one can say:

Regular model with lowest number produced is 280C with 3.704, lowest special model is 230 partly bodied chassis with 265 vehicles, highest figure is 240D sedan with

(1) numbers calculated by me

Enough for the moment? ;-)

Juergen - driving one of 454.780

seems about half the number of T's built are still on the road in Australia. was the wagon released long after the sedan? Huge fan of this model, and the wagon has a huge following here as you can't kill the mechanicals and our dry climate is kind to the bodies.

Very good point.

BTW, I did round the figures to make them easier to read; the article did show the exact numbers (since most people probably don't care about a few up or down). And, you may nitpick with DC as the production dates were given by them... :-)

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Cast in order of appearance ;-)

First sedans appeared in 12/1975:

T was not built in Stuttgart-Sindelfingen as sedans, but in the old Borgward factory in Bremen. That was more sort of a large-scale hand-build manufacture than a normal serial production - yearly total production number peaked at ca.

The 123 T-models still seem to exist anywhere in the world in numbers, but that is a fallacy.

Juergen