It's a rare treat when Mr. Jalopy picks up a new Hoopty. The eloquence he issues forth on those occasions is that of an unconsolable car nut with a Snap-on heart and 10W-40 pumping wildly in his high-compression veins (ok, ease up, we're done). His latest is a rare, W124 body 1987 Mercedes 300TD wagon. It's an end-of-era Mercedes, he explains, representing the "absolute end of a marquee," built before Mercedes-Benz "lost the uniquely Mercedes feel of absolute integrity as they tried to build a light and nimble car like the BMW."
Carry on, Mr. Jalopy:
At high speed, the Mercedes W124 hunkers down and holds the road like no other car. The driver feels absolutely connected, aware and uncommonly safe. It is a car for individuals that enjoy driving and don't want to be divorced from the action. It is a car of respect. I do not feel abused and cheated as I do in most modern cars ...The 300TD is not a Bugatti or a Porsche GT, it is a car for practical people that want to be treated tenderly. It is a transition car - a throughly modern driver that still has a soul. I will buy as many 1987 300TDs as I can find and keep them in mothballs in the desert so I will never have be without.
Get us a hankie. Stat.
1987 Mercedes 300TD [Hooptyrides]
Das Mercedes W124 Forum [Mercedes W124]
Related:
The Mercedes Bends: DaimlerChrysler s Luxury Brand Is Fodder for the Autoextremist [internal]