Classic Mercedes in Surat Thani, Thailand

Surat Thani is a mid sized city in southern Thailand. It is home to about 120,000 people and is a regional centre for agriculture. The main business is trade in crops such as Rubber, Coconuts, Palm oil etc. It is not a tourist destination, but it does function as a connection point for those traveling to islands like Koh Samui via ferry.

I’ve been surprised how many classic Mercedes are still on the road and in daily service. I see a lot more of them than I do in Sydney. On most days I’ll see a couple of W123s and […]

W114 and W123 Coupe Production Figures

In 1968 the new mid-size Mercedes-Benz range made its debut. This was a pretty important model from Mercedes-Benz – it would set the basic platform for their model range for the next twenty years. While stylistically it took cues from the old W108/W109 range, underneath was a far more modern car. The 107, 116, 123 & 126 models would all share an ancestry from the W114/W115 range. Also new was a coupe in the mid size range. This is something that Mercedes-Benz continues to this day. This article covers the W114 and W123 coupe models and their production figures.

An […]

Mercedes-Benz Australia price list – April 1982

In April 1982 Mercedes-Benz was pretty much king of the hill when it came to mainstream luxury cars. Rolls Royce was in a league of its own, and Jaguar was at its quality nadir. BMW were just releasing the E30 which would propel them to a leadership position in the small, luxury market. They still could not touch Mercedes-Benz in the mid or upper tiers.

As a result, Mercedes were able to charge premium prices for their offerings. This was before the introduction of fringe benefits tax in Australia, so many of these cars were purchased as company cars with […]

Guest Article: MrFrotop buys a coupe

The club guys were right about the bug. You know, the one you catch after buying your first classic Mercedes. It’s not that the W108 3.5 wasn’t enough, but after a couple of years you feel an irrational (yet somewhat justified) urge to have a Mercedes for every occasion. Rescuing all of these beautifully engineered machines from an untimely demise is a noble cause, some might argue. The passion was certainly there but in the end, you need a number of factors to align: funds, garage space and spousal approval. I had only one of those, the rest will have […]

2020 Shannons Sydney Summer auction

I went to preview the 2020 Shannons Sydney Summer Auction today. If you had a budget of about $20-$35,000 AUD, there are a lot of interesting cars to choose from. Shannons do a pretty good job of finding a good variety of cars for each of their auctions – both in price range and types of car. They are a bit more picky than other firms such as Lloyds or Grays Online.

This auction also had a large number of the numeric numbers plates at massive prices. I’ve never seen the appeal of these.

Any fans of big German coupes, […]

USA Junkyard Visits

I am currently in the USA and had a few hours to spare in Cincinnati Ohio before I headed out to the airport. When I lived in the USA, I used to go to the self service junkyards to grab bits and pieces. These junkyards are larger in the USA and they have standard price lists for parts, no matter what car you remove it from. Most of the cars I own are too old to turn up in self service junkyards, but the two W126’s just fall into the range where they sometimes come up.

I ended up going […]

Back behind the wheel of a W123

Today I got back behind the wheel of my old W123 280CE. The 15 minute and 5km drive is actually the longest I ever took in that car! This was a car I rescued more than purchased. The previous owner had it up on ebay with no reserve, had mis-spelt Mercedes and it was claimed to have a leaky radiator. Despite sitting in a muddy front yard, it didn’t look too bad a car and so I became its owner for $830.

I trailered it back to my warehouse and straight away I noticed that while it looked a bit […]

280CE W123 power steering

The 280CE came back for a visit this week complaining of groaning power steering. Turned out that the belt was slipping once the wheel got toward full lock. On further inspection, the belt had become too loose – not because it was stretched, but because the bolt that allows the belt adjustment had lost its threads in the critical area and it was slowly adjusting itself outwards.

The lost threads meant that it was also impossible to remove the nut to replace the bolt. Luckily the power steering pump is fairly accessible from below (especially with a hoist), so the […]

W123 transitions from beater to classic

The W123 Mercedes has developed a reputation as workhorse the world over, with dilapidated examples still plying their trade as taxis 30-40 years after they rolled off the production line.

But finally a transition is occurring. The W123 is rightfully being considered more than just a workhorse – cars are being restored, books written about the model and images of war torn countries no longer have multiple 123 taxicabs in the background. Nice W123’s can still be had for less than AUD$10k and they are good buying at that money – being the last of the chrome bumper Mercedes but […]

W123 Radio Upgrade – bypassing the factory fader

The 280CE was back today to get a radio installed. When I purchased the car, the previous owner had removed their radio, so there was a great big hole in the dash. Luckily, my brother who purchased the car from me already had a Sony radio he had removed from his previous 280CE. The W123 radio is a standard DIN fitting. Unfortunately most of them no longer have their original Becker radios but generic 90s CD players.

This car still had the factory fader switch installed. That means that there is only a front and rear channel for the radio. […]