{"id":3316,"date":"2019-10-05T10:08:27","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T10:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.co.uk\/magazine\/?p=3316"},"modified":"2024-09-12T16:01:32","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T15:01:32","slug":"project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/","title":{"rendered":"Project W124 – Car & Classic Buys a Benz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Old Mercedes-Benz<\/a> models are deeply important to the classic car world. They all follow a trend. They\u2019re new and expensive, then they fall from financial grace, then they blossom as classics. The W124 is still languishing around the middle stage, ours more so than most. Because, well, look at it. <\/span><\/p>\n

The story starts six months ago, when Mark Longland, a friend of ours bought a slightly crusty old W124. He partnered up with a mate and the plan was to bring the old girl back to her former glory before embarking on a journey around Europe. Instead, after an initial flurry of activity based around sorting out the electrics (this car has a new fuse box, we\u2019ll have you know), life got in the way and the W124 lay idle for some three months. Then, after an exchange on Twitter, the car was offered to us for a mere \u00a3100. It even had a bit of MOT left? How could we possibly say no?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"W124,<\/p>\n

The car was in Cumbria, which was a problem given our Ed is in Bristol. However, Mark kindly offered to bring it back to civilisation, or Lymm to be exact. Ensuring this happened was a tactical move on our part, as it meant Mark would have to rescue it from its slumber. And as you\u2019d expect, it didn\u2019t want to wake up. All the electricity had fallen out of it. The AA were called. Mark made it three miles. Some more electricity fell out of it. Breakdown was called again, a new battery was fitted and finally, Make made it home. <\/span><\/p>\n

We collected it a couple of days later. We of course did this in the dark. You should never buy a car in the dark as a general rule. However, we like and trust Mark, so how bad could it be? Well, as it happens, quite bad indeed. You see, we booked it in for an MOT the next morning. It failed with flying colours. The wing was an issue, but we knew about this, and there is a decent one in the boot. The brake lines are shot, the fuel lines are corroded, the tyres have had it, the exhaust blows (literally), there\u2019s a hole somewhere in the rear floor, it\u2019s leaking oil and\u2026 um\u2026 no, that\u2019s about it. But you pays yer hundred quid, you take yer chances.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"W124,<\/p>\n

\"W124,<\/p>\n

Of course, it would be somewhat naive to think a \u00a3100 car, any car, would pass its MOT with ease. To be honest, we wanted it to fail, as this gives us a goal. An objective for a future \u2018Rescues\u2019 video over on our YouTube channel<\/a>. We just need to get some parts together before we fire up the cameras. <\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to starter classics, you can\u2019t go far wrong with a W124 Mercedes-Benz. They\u2019re cheap, parts are plentiful and not nearly as expensive as you might think (full exhaust system is a mere \u00a396, for example). They\u2019re wonderful to drive – this one, even with its faults, is smoother than Hugh Grant wearing a silk suit – they\u2019re handsome and they have a following that is rich with enthusiasts and specialists that will do whatever they can to help keep your W124 on the road. Furthermore, the W124 comes from an era when Mercedes-Benz really knew how to screw a car together. As such, once the repairs are done to this old girl, even with 201k on the clock, she should be a formidable force in terms of reliability.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"W124,<\/p>\n

\"W124,<\/p>\n

Will our old W124 ever be a show car? Probably not. But it will be a car we can improve, one we can bring back to a more than respectable standard and one that, most importantly of all, we can enjoy. It will also serve as proof that you don\u2019t need to plough thousands and thousands of pounds into a classic car. You can do it without needing to be on first name terms with your bank manager, and you can run it without needing to mortgage your internal organs. This W124 costs a mere \u00a313 a month to insure, for example. This is a gateway way car, one that you can buy if you’re thinking of jumping into the classic car world, and over the coming months we’re going to show how and why that’s the case. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"W124,<\/p>\n

We\u2019re under no illusions. There is a lot of work to do here, but we\u2019re looking forward to the challenge. It will be hard graft, it will be frustrating at times, there will be swearing and skinned knuckles, but that\u2019s fine. It\u2019s all part of the rich tapestry of classic car ownership. And at the end of it, when we\u2019re rolling along in our Mercedes-Benz W124, it\u2019ll all be worth it, hopefully. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Old Mercedes-Benz models are deeply important to the classic car world. They all follow a trend. They\u2019re new and expensive, then they fall from financial grace, then they blossom as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":3326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[190],"tags":[1017,15,12,11,696,1016,208,105,551,14,325,16,550],"yoast_head":"\nProject W124 - Car & Classic Buys a Benz - Car & Classic Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Admittedly, we had no plans to buy an old Mercedes-Benz, but when we were told it was \u00a3100, there was no way we were going to say no\u2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Project W124 - Car & Classic Buys a Benz - Car & Classic Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Admittedly, we had no plans to buy an old Mercedes-Benz, but when we were told it was \u00a3100, there was no way we were going to say no\u2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Car & Classic Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-05T10:08:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-12T15:01:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/app\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSC03791.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1013\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Car & Classic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Car & Classic\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Car & Classic\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/9faf82502e956d89ea59bb842c637f39\"},\"headline\":\"Project W124 – Car & Classic Buys a Benz\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-05T10:08:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-12T15:01:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/\"},\"wordCount\":823,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"230E\",\"automotive\",\"carandclassic\",\"classic car\",\"classic Mercedes\",\"E Class\",\"mercedes\",\"Mercedes-Benz\",\"Mercedes-Benz W124\",\"motoring\",\"project car\",\"retro car\",\"W124\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Car & Classic Fleet\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/\",\"name\":\"Project W124 - Car & Classic Buys a Benz - Car & Classic Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-05T10:08:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-12T15:01:32+00:00\",\"description\":\"Admittedly, we had no plans to buy an old Mercedes-Benz, but when we were told it was \u00a3100, there was no way we were going to say no\u2026\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Project W124 – Car & Classic Buys a Benz\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/\",\"name\":\"Car & Classic Magazine\",\"description\":\"The latest in the classic car world - articles, news, how to's, advice and more\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Car and Classic Limited\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.co.uk\/magazine\/app\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Car-and-Classic-Square-Green-Background-Large.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.co.uk\/magazine\/app\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Car-and-Classic-Square-Green-Background-Large.png\",\"width\":4262,\"height\":3881,\"caption\":\"Car and Classic Limited\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/9faf82502e956d89ea59bb842c637f39\",\"name\":\"Car & Classic\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df8ff943eb64ce998eeba2661f03a69a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df8ff943eb64ce998eeba2661f03a69a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Car & Classic\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/author\/car-and-classic\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Project W124 - Car & Classic Buys a Benz - Car & Classic Magazine","description":"Admittedly, we had no plans to buy an old Mercedes-Benz, but when we were told it was \u00a3100, there was no way we were going to say no\u2026","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Project W124 - Car & Classic Buys a Benz - Car & Classic Magazine","og_description":"Admittedly, we had no plans to buy an old Mercedes-Benz, but when we were told it was \u00a3100, there was no way we were going to say no\u2026","og_url":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/","og_site_name":"Car & Classic Magazine","article_published_time":"2019-10-05T10:08:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-09-12T15:01:32+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/app\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSC03791.jpg","width":1800,"height":1013,"type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Car & Classic","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Car & Classic","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/"},"author":{"name":"Car & Classic","@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/9faf82502e956d89ea59bb842c637f39"},"headline":"Project W124 – Car & Classic Buys a Benz","datePublished":"2019-10-05T10:08:27+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-12T15:01:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/"},"wordCount":823,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#organization"},"keywords":["230E","automotive","carandclassic","classic car","classic Mercedes","E Class","mercedes","Mercedes-Benz","Mercedes-Benz W124","motoring","project car","retro car","W124"],"articleSection":["Car & Classic Fleet"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/","url":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/","name":"Project W124 - Car & Classic Buys a Benz - Car & Classic Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-10-05T10:08:27+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-12T15:01:32+00:00","description":"Admittedly, we had no plans to buy an old Mercedes-Benz, but when we were told it was \u00a3100, there was no way we were going to say no\u2026","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/project-w124-car-classic-buys-a-benz\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Project W124 – Car & Classic Buys a Benz"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/","name":"Car & Classic Magazine","description":"The latest in the classic car world - articles, news, how to's, advice and more","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#organization","name":"Car and Classic Limited","url":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.co.uk\/magazine\/app\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Car-and-Classic-Square-Green-Background-Large.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.co.uk\/magazine\/app\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Car-and-Classic-Square-Green-Background-Large.png","width":4262,"height":3881,"caption":"Car and Classic Limited"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/9faf82502e956d89ea59bb842c637f39","name":"Car & Classic","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df8ff943eb64ce998eeba2661f03a69a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df8ff943eb64ce998eeba2661f03a69a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Car & Classic"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.carandclassic.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/author\/car-and-classic\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3316"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31488,"href":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316\/revisions\/31488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}