[drizzy]

Since I bought my car a little over a year ago, mechanically, only two things needed replacing, the rear shocks, and one of the cv axles because a boot had torn. one year later and the only mechanical issues with my car are the rear shocks, and the new cv axle.

My girlfriend just bought an 03 saab 9-3. She's had it not even two weeks and has had a window, and one of the locks fail.

My cars windows are still functioning, and the central locking works just as it should.

It's sort of sad to see the lack of quality now.

 

[mercedesbenz911]

Even scarier is the price of parts. This is compounded by the fact that a lot of work is dealer-only.

 

[ALLIKANBE]

Since we are talking about other than MB cars, I bought my son an Audi A4 and a tail light was not working. It wasn't obvious how to replace the bulb so I looked in the manual. It said to take the car to the dealer. WTH! to replace a bulb? I went on the audi forum and found out how. I had to remove ONE bolt from inside the trunk. good grief. really hard to do that.

 

[krhodes1]

Since I bought my car a little over a year ago, mechanically, only two things needed replacing, the rear shocks, and one of the cv axles because a boot had torn. one year later and the only mechanical issues with my car are the rear shocks, and the new cv axle.

My girlfriend just bought an 03 saab 9-3. She's had it not even two weeks and has had a window, and one of the locks fail.

My cars windows are still functioning, and the central locking works just as it should.

It's sort of sad to see the lack of quality now.

Don't forget though, W123s were VERY expensive cars new, much more so than Saab 9-3s. I have one of each, my "Winter Beater" is an '08 9-3 SportCombi. The price I paid for the Saab brand-new two years ago is about what the original owner of my 300TD paid for it 31 years ago!

The 300TD is a wonderful machine, but it is crude, loud, slow, relatively unsafe and seriously lacking in features compared to the Saab. On the other hand, if I can keep the tin-worm at bay I am quite certain my 300TD will still be running 50 years from now, and the Saab will not be!

-Kevin

 

[MBeige]

One of the attributes that the W123 designers had to achieve was to make the model line up highly serviceable. So with that the quality of parts was high and the ease of repair was designed alongside the parts and their individual functions.

 

[Diogenes415]

To me the W123's high level of quality is evident in that nothing seems to have been considered a disposable/replaceable part and it's just a simple yet elegant but rugged design. Almost everything, even the switches, look like they were designed to be repairable.

In contrast my Freightliner Sprinter is NOT an old school MB. It's more along the lines of the typical modern car... expensive to purchase and maintain.

 

[drizzy]

I've been thinking about getting a parts car recently and my family thinks im nuts for thinking that replacing parts with other 25+ year old parts is worth the time of swapping, or money. the fact is though, you can find a rusty, but otherwise perfectly functional w123, for $500 or less. And i feel pretty confident saying that if i replaced the boots on an original and used MB axle, it would last me much more than the 8 or so months i got out of the new one.

and as an update, my girlfriend tried to convince me to buy a new car the other day. i responded by using my power windows.... she didn't find it as funny as i did though.



(side note. SAAB = Something An Asshole Buys)