Description
1985 Mercedes-Benz 200 T (S123) estate. Astral Silver over anthracite MB-Tex, four-speed automatic, 127, 147 miles, MOT to September 2027.
BUILT JUNE 1985 AT SINDELFINGEN
Right-hand drive, supplied new to the UK. Mercedes-Benz UK confirmed the build date in writing in January 2024, and the Daimler factory production record gives a shipment date of 5 June 1985. Both documents come with the car. It was first registered here on 4 December 1987, which is why the V5C carries a 1987 date and a C-prefix plate; the log book's own special notes read "Declared manufactured 1985".
Both factory plates are still on the slam panel and photographed here: the Daimler-Benz plate reading Typ 123T, VIN WDB1232802F053232, and beside it the stamped plate giving production number 0312339 and the option-code list. Both match the Daimler factory record exactly, down to code 844 — the folding bench in the load area.
At forty-one years old it qualifies for the historic vehicle tax class: no road tax, and exemption from the London ULEZ. The application is with DVLA now and I will confirm the position before completion.
FACTORY SPECIFICATION, from the Daimler build record
Sliding roof, anti-lock brakes, four-speed automatic, electric windows front and rear, self-levelling rear suspension, tow bar, heat-insulating glass, heated rear screen, automatic aerial, Becker Europa Kurier radio, fire extinguisher, load-bay anchorage and luggage net, split-folding rear seat, and the rear-facing folding bench in the load area with two three-point belts. Seven seats.
The radio is the one departure: a modern head unit with USB and Bluetooth is fitted in its place. The original Becker was kept and comes with the car.
HISTORY
Twenty MOT certificates back to December 2005: 101, 483 in 2005, 115, 237 in 2015, 123, 455 in 2023, 127, 133 at the last test. Three former keepers. The file runs to around 150 pages: dealer and independent invoices from 2013 onward, a 2019 Thatcham-accredited alarm certificate, a 2023 pre-purchase history check, previous owners' handwritten notes, and a W123 workshop manual.
WORK SINCE 2023
Around £5, 570 of invoiced servicing and repair, plus about £3, 000 of bodywork. Maintained by Roger Edwards Motors of Amersham, Mercedes-Benz specialists, since August 2024.
September 2026 (£3, 158): full service, inspection, grease-up and MOT. Front fuel and rear brake hoses renewed. Brake fluid and coolant changed. Self-levelling suspension line replaced and bled. New oil pressure gauge line. Bonnet insulation fitted. Rear brakes freed off.
August 2025 (£311): exhaust centre box repaired, MOT.
October 2024 (£923): service, wiper blades, Waxoyl treatment.
August 2024 (£359): MOT and anti-lock braking relay.
March 2024 (£822): uprated 120-amp alternator and new battery.
November 2020: recommissioning, £1, 301.
April 2017: self-levelling suspension fluid and spheres renewed at 119, 000.
2023–24 bodywork: About £3, 000 with Andy's Autobarn near Feltham in South West London. The sun-roof panel taken off the car and refinished separately, the bonnet resprayed, and rust cut out and repaired in the rear arches and the adjoining sill edge. The mechanic photographed the work as it went. Please see photos.
CONDITION
The paint is good across the car and the MB-Tex has no tears or splits. The roof — the first place a W123 goes — was taken off and properly refinished in 2023–24.
The tyres are Michelin Energy Saver 195/ 70 R14, date code 4916 — week 49 of 2016. I have photographed the date code and the crazing so you can judge for yourself. The last MOT noted an oil leak, described as not excessive.
It has covered about a hundred miles in the past year. The rear brakes had seized and were freed off in September; regular use is what keeps them free.
INCLUDED
The full history file. Both keys. The original Becker radio. The dashcam. The tool roll and jack. The fire extinguisher. A Coverzone Stormforce all-weather cover. A set of roof-racks that fit the chrome bars. A second set of wheels: the original steels with full chrome hub caps, on tyres. It currently wears the Mercedes pressed-steel "Mexican hat" wheels with star centre caps. Both sets go with the car.
I bought this in September 2023. The W123 is the last Mercedes built to the old rule — over-engineered to a degree nobody costs in any more, and designed to be repaired rather than replaced. The T-model estate is the rarest body in the range. Saloons and coupés come up constantly. Estates do not.
What sets this one apart is that you can account for all of it. Twenty MOTs back to 2005, invoices from every owner since 2013, and a letter from Mercedes-Benz UK confirming the month it left Sindelfingen. Most cars of this age come with a carrier bag of receipts and a shrug. This one comes with a record you can read end to end, and I have photographed every part of it.
The detail I like most is the rear-facing bench in the load area. Fold it up and the car seats seven, with the two smallest facing backwards out of the tailgate window. My son thinks it is the best seat in any car we own. That is the sort of thing that got engineered out of family cars decades ago, and it is a large part of why the estate has the following it does.
Astral Silver over black MB-Tex is the right combination for it — understated, period-correct, and it hides nothing. The sunroof slides back as it should. It sits level on its self-levelling rear suspension, which is not a given on these.
Worth being straight about what it is not. A 2. 0 automatic is unhurried. If you want to make progress you want the 230TE or a diesel. What this one offers instead is the most useful body Mercedes made in the period, in the most understated colour, with a history you can check and no stories.
I am selling because it is not being used — about a hundred miles this past year, which is no life for it. I would rather it went to someone who will drive it.
