Comparing Notes with Two W124s

Stepping out of the door of my home, I'm often met with the familiar sight of having two iconic executive compact saloons of the 1980s out on the porch. It's an odd feeling - on one hand, there's this "wow" feeling in me, having two identical cars on the driveway. On the other hand, I felt like it's nothing special. Perhaps because I'm used to having old Mercs in my family throughout my life - something I wrote about here.

Don't get me wrong - W124s are good cars. Despite getting on with the age, it still remains largely relevant today. With plenty of spare parts available (exception for 300E-24), maintenance is comparable to that to a modern-day D-Segment Japanese cars. Performance is best described as "adequate" for daily driving, with a wide variety of engine choices that you can get to suit your need. A frugal, rough and ready diesel? A peppy four-cylinder or a smooth, creamy six for those highway runs? If you live in LHD markets, you even get the choice of a V8 engine in the 400E and 500E - later renamed to E420 and E500 for the facelift model in 1993.

However, they're really just that - a car. Designed during the oil crisis for the middle class of the day, it's hardly what you'd call "special" unless we're talking about the AMG or the V8 models. Sure, it introduced a whole host of innovations that laid the foundation of a traditional saloon car made today and I enjoyed cruising in the W124 as it's reassuring solid build quality keeps you safe from the harms of the outside world in total comfort. However, I'm still young and as a youngster, I needed a bit of zing. The exciting energy that my own Wira possesses, and none of them can be found in the W124s - even the E280 I once drove a while back.

Anyway, I digress. The W124 is obviously a whole different category to my Wira. The ones who bought them knew what Mercedes-Benz are all about - solid and robust, yet comfortable. Hardly a car for those who want some fiery excitement - not that it has ever stopped me from trying, though. It handles corners rather well for an old boat thanks to its rather complex multi-link suspension, and with enough gusto, you could actually get the rear end stepping out - although this has only worked in the wet. Cornering 160 tak goyang bro... 

For this article, though, I'll be comparing notes between the two W124s I have at home. The gold car - though the actual paint is called Smoke Silver Metallic - is the 1992 220E Multivalve that's imported from Japan and the blue car is the 1990 260E that's locally assembled here. I will try not to include the other W124s that I've driven, which would otherwise include a 1989 300E-24, a 1987 300E, an unknown year 250D and two E280 Masterpiece, partly because I'm gonna get sick from talking about W124s too much, mostly because they're not mine aside from these two that I will get into now.

Starting off with the blue car, having two extra cylinders (six opposed to four) became quite apparent once you're up to highway speeds. We all know how great a six-cylinder engine sounds, and the 260E is no exception. Sure, she's not a high RPM screamer, but it's a smooth operator and packs quite a nice punch in the mid-range. 

However, it is rather sluggish when you're starting off from a standstill, and if you decide to rev it out, you can sense that it's doing something it wasn't meant to do. You may have a bigger engine than that Myvi next to you, but that doesn't mean you can win a traffic light drag race with it. It can go fast, sure, but it takes it's sweet time to get there, and you best don't rev it hard if you plan on going high speed - playing mid-range is all you really want.

Another thing worth noting is that the steering and throttle pedal is very light and easy to use. Of course, it isn't too light to the point that it feels disconnected, but it's nice to drive around in town and even park. The gold car, however, has a stiffer throttle pedal and a heavier steering - the former being much to the annoyance of my mom and brother. 

Apparently the 260E - and other six-cylinder W124 models from what I've been told - uses a higher pressure power steering pump over the 220E, hence why the steering wheel is light. As for the throttle pedal, the throttle cable routing played a role in the pedal feel. While I am still unsure how this is the case, I've long noticed that the 260E and other M103-powered Mercs I've personally driven - which comprises of a 300E and a 300SE - all had lighter throttle pedal than the gold car, which supposedly has a higher cable tension. Again, I'm not entirely sure myself - it's best to seek a Mercedes expert to help explain this.

Now that I'm talking about the gold car, the contrast is very noticeable the moment you start accelerating. Despite the stiffer pedal, it felt more sprightly off the line compared to the blue car. Part of this can be attributed to the gearbox which starts in first gear for better acceleration while the blue car's gearbox starts in second gear from standstill (this can be overridden). In fact, it's quite easy to race ahead of the traffic as soon as the light turns green.

The engine in the gold car is also newer, featuring twin overhead camshaft (DOHC), 4-valves per cylinder, Variable Valve Timing and Electronic Fuel Injection - the same tech you can find in most modern cars today, again contributing to better initial performance over the blue car which has a more antiquated engine in comparison (single cam, 2-valves per cylinder, mechanical fuel injection). However, when doing highway runs in the gold car, I can't help but feel wanting for more once it starts reaching 170 km/h where it really runs out of puff - a common trait of a small capacity engine. 

 

For real, the gold car excels when driving in town. Sure, the throttle pedal may require a bit more effort than your average car, but get past that, and you'll find a very sprightly car that is eager to get going. The blue car, with it's larger capacity six-cylinder engine, is more suited for highway cruising.

 

But that is the beauty of the W124 range - there's always a model for every driver with varying characteristics. For me, I tend to be an aggressive driver who wants to race ahead of everyone else and overtake anyone slower than me before settling down to a cruise and in this regard, the 220E fits my driving characteristics well - the blue car's lazier nature is still fine by me, but I still prefer the energy of the gold car. Regardless, they both can get me from A-to-B comfortably, safely and quickly. Maybe someday I will finally be able to afford something with a bit more zing because truth be told, I'm bored with Mercs in general. Until that day comes, though, I'm just going to enjoy alternating between these two and my Wira.

That's the end for this entry. See you in the next update.