MERCEDES-BENZ

W123

The Mercedes-Benz W123 was presented to the press on 23 January 1976 at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France, and the four-door saloon went on sale on 29 January 1976 as the successor to the W114/W115 "Stroke Eight". Demand was so intense that waiting lists stretched to a year and lightly used cars traded above list price on a grey market. The W123 range grew quickly: an elegant coupe on a shortened wheelbase arrived in spring 1977, a long-wheelbase seven-seater from August 1976, and the S123 estate, unveiled at the 1977 Frankfurt Show and built from March 1978 in Bremen, became the first factory-built Mercedes station wagon. Engines ran from the immortal 200D and 240D diesels to the 280E twin-cam six, with the 300TD Turbodiesel topping the estate line. Engineered under Hans Scherenberg with a safety-first body, available ABS from 1980 and legendary over-engineering, the Mercedes-Benz W123 became the definitive taxi, family car and million-kilometre workhorse of its generation. When production ended in January 1986, 2,696,915 had been built, the best-selling Mercedes ever at the time, led by the 240D with about 455,000 units, the 230E with 442,000 and the 200D with 378,000. Today the Mercedes-Benz W123 is prized worldwide as perhaps the best-built saloon of all time.