These Mercedes steering wheels were basically the same for all W108, W109, W110, W111, W112, W113, and early W114 and W115.    Early cars had a round horn ring, which was changed in the early 60s to a flatter top.   The cars of the 50s had a different design that was similar in concept, but with no padded center and a circular horn ring.   The W100 (600) has a wheel that is a similar design, but not identical.

The standard steering wheel was black (ebony) and had a black center pad with the Mercedes logo and a chrome horn ring.   Up until the mid 60’s it was also possible to order an Ivory coloured steering wheel with a colour matched center pad.   When ordered, the gear stick knob was also Ivory coloured.    This was option code 551.   This option was discontinued  for the updated 1968 models (i.e. the 280s and later 300s).    This was also around the time the steering wheel was revised with a large steering column behind it.   The most obvious difference is the removal of the chrome ring around the horn pad.

The picture below shows an early Finnie with the ivory steering wheel and the round horn ring.  Note the end of the gear stick is also ivory.

The Ivory steering wheel is much more susceptible to age and heat related cracking than the black one.  Both are still available from Mercedes, although at significant cost.   The Ivory wheel is very popular in more recent years and is often added to cars during restoration, especially to vehicles such as the 280SE 3.5 Cabriolet that were never available with this option.   In most cases the gear knob is not changed at the same time, so the difference is quite apparent.     These wheels were only ever available with the center pad in the same colour as the wheel, although I’ve seen many ‘restored’ cars have dyed it the same colour of the seats which I find rather garish.  The photo below shows a 280SE 3.5 Coupe with the correct steering wheel and gear knob.   The flattened top of the horn ring is contrasted with the round one above.  This is also the final version without the chrome ring and the thicker steering column.

Another popular owner change over is to add a Nardi wheel.  Personally I prefer the original wheel, but the Nardi wheel can look good on the W113 roadsters.  Apparently in the USA, some very late W108’s were delivered with the W116 style steering wheel in 1973.

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These prices are for the standard car, so most buyers would have selected at least some options, further increasing the price.    The price list covers the W110, W111 and W108 Saloon cars.  The Automatic transmission was an expensive option, close to 10% of the price of the car.

Mercedes Benz Passenger Car Price List
Saloon Range
25th November, 1966

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Style 1:  13″ wheels (1959-1965)

Cars covered:  W111 – all 220s except 220b.   W112 – all 300s.  

These cars were delivered with 13″ wheels, although most cars have been upgraded to 14″ during their lives as it is now hard to get 13″ tyres for a full size car like a W111 Mercedes.

These cars had an attractive two piece design, with a center hub cap that was painted body colour (or roof colour if two tone), and a surrounding beauty ring with 12 holes.   From a distance they look very similar to the later one piece design, but up close they are smaller because of the 13″ wheel and they stick out more.    The wheels are also painted body (or roof) colour.

The W112 300s used this style until the change to 14″ wheels that coincided with the release of the 250 models.

Cars covered:  W111 220b, W110 – all models.

These cars used the same Mercedes hub cap, but omitted the beauty ring.   The body coloured wheel was much more prominent on these cars as it was almost hidden when the beauty ring was used.

Style 2:  14″ wheels (1965-1967)

Cars covered:  W111 250SE & 280SE (up to #0053); W112 all models;   W113 230SL & 250SL; W108 250S, 250SE, 300SEb; W109 300SEL

These cars retained the hubcap from style 1, but replaced the beauty ring with a model that covered the outer part of the wheel only, and no longer had any holes.   With this design, a section of the painted wheel was visible between the beauty ring and the hubcap.

This style only works with the early style 14″ wheels with the W108 part number.   These have been superseded with a W126 part number wheel that does not have the lip to allow the small hubcaps to mount to the wheel.   (which can be seen in the photo below)

Style 3:  14″ wheels (1968-1985)

This is the most common style, which was used on nearly all Mercedes models until the mid 80s.   These were a one piece design and will fit to all Mercedes 14″ steel wheels of this period.   They look very similar to the first style, but flatter.

Many cars that were originally delivered with one of the styles above, are now using this style due to its availability both in terms of the trims but also the wheels.   Getting a set of wheels and hubcaps from a W123 was an easy proposition for a W111 owner who wanted to go from 13″ to 14″ wheels.

Style 4:  15″ wheels (optional extra)

It was possible to order 15″ wheels for rough roads, and they were standard for the universals.    These are rare and 5″ wide.    The car pictured below has these wheels and the matching 15″ hubcaps.

Some of the different styles can be seen in the photo below – the inner hubcaps used for Styles 1 and 2, the 14″ beauty rings and the 14″ one piece hubcaps.  My 250SE had the later style hub caps when I purchased it.  I have since changed it back to the correct 250 type.  I also had the blue and red Mercedes hub caps painted the correct colour.  This ensures I have spares in case one is damaged or lost.   The 250 style is much rarer and I prefer it.

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I have to admit, I am a bit of a sucker for books that cover the W111 coupe and Cabriolet, so with the articles, and the section on these models, I purchased both books on Amazon.com.

In summary, the book is accurate and well written, but let down by poor printing and publishing.

On the plus side, the books is easy to read and a nice mixture of background, personal stories and the like.   I thought the section on the Mercedes-Benz 300SE as compared with the Jaguar Mk10 was especially good. The book is covering many models, and at a time where some would argue that Mercedes-Benz was at its zenith, so each section is not detailed, but there are new pieces of information I have not seen before, and a nice selection of photos.

That leads me to the downside.   The photos are well selected, but unfortunately printed at low resolution.   It feels like the whole book has been printed on the laser printer that you can see at any office.   It’s such a shame, as the photos would really add so much to this book if they were printed properly.

Given the book is quite expensive (around $43 USD), I would expect better.   I can only assume that the author self published, but I think after spending all that time assembling a great set of photos, he should have made sure they were printed properly. That leaves me in two minds on this book.   It is a good read, covers the models well, has a nice technical appendix, but such a shame about the photos.

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