Fifth Gear Sound Funny on 86 Goldwing

I wrote the cadre of this story in 1987, after spending a calendar week behind the bicycle of the then-new 300TD railroad vehicle. I rewrote and expanded it for Amazon's Car Lust Blog, to which I am an occasional contributor. It appeared there in April of 2009.

Over the past few months, while other commitments have kept me from venting in this venue, my far-flung colleagues have heaped much praise on a succession of flimsy econoboxes. I take comfort in knowing that most of these objects of their misguided car animalism take long since been consigned to junkyards, landfill, and recycling plants. I take fifty-fifty more condolement in knowing that a representative sampling of these turkeys have found homes in the garages of borderline fanatical owners, and that those owners gladly spend not-lilliputian sums to keep the objects of their obsession in what passed for tip-acme status when they were new. To see a "Cadillac" Cimarron in the wild, and then to speak, can serve equally a reminder of the kind of thinking that led GM to its current country. Similarly, to see a Datsun B210 with an intact body shell, and in whatsoever kind of drivable shape at all, serves as proof that rust is no match for a large pile of money.

I wasn't a fan of these pitiful little vehicles when they were new, and time hasn't acquired me to alter that opinion. Indeed, I prefer my tin foil to be wrapped effectually leftover pizza, rather than turned into a auto'due south torso panels. With that in heed, I'd like to heap some well-deserved praise on a auto that belongs on whatever list of the best, and near important, cars ever built. That motorcar is the Mercedes-Benz E-Course of the W124 generation, which was introduced in 1986 and remained in product through 1995. Given the huge success of the model that it replaced, the W124 needed to bring something very special to the table. Fortunately, in those pre-Lexus days "something very special" was nothing more than than "business as usual" at Daimler-Benz AG.

<rant>When Lexus hit the scene information technology seemed as though Daimler-Benz lost the formula. The models adult in the post-Lexus environment overtly skimped on overall quality in social club to accommodate ever more than complex gadgets and subsystems. And, taking a page from the GM playbook, they used paying customers equally the test bed for those gadgets. Rumor has it that, after a couple of decades in the wilderness, the company is back on runway. We'll meet. </rant>

The W124 debuted to worldwide acclaim, receiving accolades for its ride, handling, and banking concern vault solidity. Over the course of its lifetime, the W124 was available equally a four-door sedan or wagon, a two-door pillarless hardtop, and a convertible. Worldwide, the W124 was equipped with gas and Diesel engines ranging from 2.0 to 6.0 liters, and betwixt 1989 and 1993 the car could be had with 4Matic all-wheel drive. Through 1993, the model names consisted of a number (roughly indicating engine size) followed by a alphabetic character code whose meaning sometimes described the torso style, and sometimes didn't. In 1994 the letter of the alphabet/number position was reversed, and the letter described the position of the platform in the Mercedes-Benz line. And so for 1994, the 300E became the E320.

At its introduction in the U.S., the W124 was bachelor merely as a gas-powered sedan. In 1987 the W124 lineup was expanded to include a Diesel fuel-powered station wagon, and I was given the use of a make new one for a week. Hither's what I had to say almost that car 22 years agone:

The introduction of a new Mercedes-Benz thrills me all of out proportion to the immediate event it volition have on my life. This is no big trick, considering new Mercedes-Benzes have no immediate effect on my life. I am, in fact, as likely to actually buy a new Mercedes-Benz as to carry one across the Alps on my dorsum. So why am I so thrilled each time a new Benz is introduced? Simple: forward planning. I look at every new Mercedes as a future used Mercedes, and I'1000 a sucker for used Mercedeses.

In fact, I'd rather accept a used Mercedes-Benz than a new anything else. My recently acquired 1971 300SEL iii.5, which price less than a well-equipped Hyundai, is as satisfying a four-door sedan as I have ever driven. Information technology's got a forest's worth of burled wood, several cows worth of leather, a wonderful air suspension, and more sheer elegance than Cary Grant and William Powell put together. That it's too burdened with some truly aboriginal technology, including king pins and a fox-or-treat automatic transmission, matters not a bit. If yous offered to swap me a brand-new Audi 5000 for my 3.5 I'd bear witness yous the door.

I feel the same style about my 1976 450SL. At age 11 information technology is worth more than its original sticker price, which in turn is more than I paid for it a couple of years ago: about the same as Toyota wanted for a full-tilt Supra. Granted, the Supra is faster, quicker, handles better, and uses less fuel. But does that sleek hardtop come off in the summer? No! And will information technology exist as rust- and rattle-free in the mid-1990s equally my SL is today? Check out the average x-year-old Japanese sports car--if you can observe i--for the answer to that question.

I've even got a soft spot for the one-time "slash viii" models: the 220s, 230s, and 250s of the late 1960s and early '70s--the Ford Falcons of Mercedes-Benzes. You can buy one today for a couple of grand and with reasonable care it should have y'all well into the side by side century.

Fairness requires that I present an opposing point of view, and equally it happens, I have one. Offset: y'all can go along the Diesels. They're slow, noisy, and hard to beginning. And the smoke is embarrassing. And second: the W123 carriage--the 300TD through the 1985 model--could be the well-nigh wearisome vehicle of its blazon since the showtime generation International Travelall. That it was burdened with a Diesel engine tin only exist ascribed to our government's Draconian Cafe regulations. But regardless of motive, the Serial 123 300TD was doubly cursed, and I don't want one. And hither in Scarsdale, where Mercedes-Benzes are adequately thick on the ground, neither does anybody else.

It's non that nobody in these parts needs a station wagon. (Everyone, everywhere, needs a station railroad vehicle; virtually folks merely don't know it yet.) No, Scarsdale has plenty of station wagons, merely about every i of them a Volvo. My estimate is that the locals see the 300TD as beingness about as exciting every bit yesterday'southward yawn. Since station wagons themselves are perceived equally being pretty dull, it's only natural that the less boring ones get the nod. That staid onetime Volvo finds itself in that position indicates that some of the Turbo's panache has rubbed off on the bottom models.

At any rate, unless I miss my guess, the station carriage demographics in Scarsdale are going to alter. Y'all see, Mercedes-Benz has a new wagon, and despite its Diesel engine I want one. It's an all-new wagon, with an all-new engine, and in one fell swoop all of my objections to Diesels and Mercedes wagons have been swept away. The new 300TD is apartment out gorgeous. Information technology's no surprise, these days, for wagons to exist better-looking than their sedan counterparts: look at the Volvo 700 and the Audi 5000. But in the example of the Mercedes Benz 300 series the transformation is amazing. Its body could accept been created by a glass blower. We accept our share of interesting cars up here, and it takes something special to rate a second wait; the 300TD was openly and plain admired by pedestrians, and past the drivers of some of pretty slick machinery. (A trip through Manhattan, where you lot could drive nude in a motorized hot tub without attracting much attention, evoked several positive comments from the natives, two of whom insisted upon a demonstration of the headlight washers.) To my mind, y'all buy the 300 sedan in spite of the style it looks, because information technology is such a terrific piece of engineering. The wagon, by contrast, tin can (and in many cases probably will) exist bought on looks solitary, the engineering being a nice bonus.

Just what a bonus. After putting some serious miles on the 300TD I've come to the conclusion that it is the car that Cadillac should be (maybe is) trying badly to build. Let me explain. Cadillacs have, for years and years, been prized for their ability to provide a sense of fantabulous isolation. Recall that "The Cadillac Hour" ad campaign? Driving home in the Cadillac was portrayed as being second merely to a handful of Valiums equally a means of calming downward afterwards a difficult day at the part. And it was true. The tradeoff was control, which under all simply the most serene circumstances was something y'all were probable to be out of. In recent years, Cadillac has done an admirable job in remedying this situation. The electric current Seville, for instance, handles pretty well, but as far as comfort is concerned you lot'd be as well off in a Cutlass Ciera. The new Cadillacs take all but forgotten they're Cadillacs!

The new Benz, by contrast, combines isolation with control in a mode that is both uncanny and a bit eerie. The car is exceptionally quiet. At speed on a smooth, straight road, current of air and road noise are virtually non-existent, and the but mechanical noise to exist heard is the very satisfying muted hum of the engine. So far, very Cadillac-like, no? But in the 300TD a most un-Cadillac thing happens when the road gets crude: the isolation remains! You know that the road is rough, both because you lot can run across it, and due to the almost subliminal signals coming from the suspension, but the auto continues to rails directly and true, and there'south a not a hint of a squeak or rattle.

The same thing happens when you need to turn. Without telegraphing any harshness into the interior, the 300TD's break provides the feedback that permits precise command of the machine's position, regardless of road surface. This is a car that doesn't fight you. It doesn't even reveal that the interruption is working hard, which means that the commuter doesn't have to!

The only clue to the 300TD's lack of spark plugs comes when accelerating from rest. The engine'due south torque curve is almost apartment between 2000 and 4000 RPM, but that initial run from idle to 2K, before the turbocharger gets into the act, can be tense if you're used to the more than direct response of a conventional engine. It's non that the 300TD's overall dispatch from rest is terribly slow; zero-to-60 is perfectly satisfactory. It's zero-to-ten that can ups the pucker factor by an lodge of magnitude. That caveat aside, the new engine is terrific, with plenty of mid-range dial for passing, and a top end that makes for relaxed high speed cruising. Speaking of top end, this is ane Diesel fuel that really has one. I backed off at an indicated 100 and at that place was plenty left, then Mercedes' claim of 123 mph is probably realistic. As important, I think, is the fact that the engine sounds skillful. Dissimilar most Diesels, which sound as though they're working hard even when they aren't, the 300's in-line six hums contentedly at whatsoever speed.

Returning for a moment to the Cadillac illustration, permit'due south look at the civilities. Expensive cars, regardless of their strictly mechanical credentials, should exist equipped with all sorts of doodads designed to cosset and coddle their occupants, and those doodads should work well and without fuss. The 300TD'south seats and headrests, for instance, adjust electrically via door-mounted seat-shaped controls. You move the part of the command that corresponds with the part of the seat you want to adapt. Associated with the seat controls are a pair of buttons which automatically recall two favored seating positions, along with that of the electrically-operated telescoping steering wheel. That's clever, but fifty-fifty better is the fact that all adjustments takes place silently; the final time I adjusted a Seville's seats, it sounded like a 727's landing gear beingness raised.

While we're on the subject of seats, the 300TD is bachelor with "MB-Tex" or, for a ton of coin, real leather. In years past, the option could be made solely on a financial basis, because MB-Tex was pretty dismal stuff. No more: the wonderful world of vinyl has evolved to the extent that MB-Tex, 1987 style, is equally shut to the real stuff every bit you're going to see. Shut enough, in fact, that you lot could describe it equally leather without being chosen a liar more than one in ten times. Regardless of covering, the 300TD's front seats are a fine place in which to spend fourth dimension. Truthful to Mercedes tradition, they're firm, but in all the right places. Because the seats have so little "give" they keep your muscles from having to make abiding adjustments in social club to keep y'all in position. This, in turn, almost eliminates the fatigue that is inevitable after several hours on plush, merely non-supportive, seats.

Is in that location annihilation bad to say about the 300TD? Absolutely: information technology's got a digital exterior temperature gauge, the sensor for which is mounted in a identify that insures a wrong reading. In fact, the owner's manual points this out. It does, withal, read in Fahrenheit, so fifty-fifty though it's wrong, it's incorrect in a number that has some meaning. The climate command, past contrast, is calibrated in Centigrade, which has nothing to do with temperature as we know information technology. When I was too cold I turned the dial to a higher number, and vice versa; but to me, 20 and 22 are temperatures I want to escape from, non encourage.

Across that, the 300TD combines more virtues in a single vehicle than any other that I've encountered. Information technology handles similar a sports sedan, rides like a luxury machine, sips, rather than gulps fuel, and packs like a U-Haul. Its structural integrity is crawly, and if my experience is typical should remain and so for years and years to come.

The big question is whether the 300TD -- or whatever automobile -- tin can exist worth $42 thousand. The answer, of course, depends upon who is doing the asking. Merely if yous want the best sedan in the earth, and need a station carriage, there's no other choice. I can't wait for them to appear in the classified ads!

OK, that'southward what I had to say in 1987. And sure enough,in 1998 I bought a nearly-mint 1988 300TE, which was the gas version of the automobile described higher up. A decade old, and with more than 100K on the clock, information technology was every bit tight, smooth, and silent as the brand-new 300TD I drove in 1987. Now, xi years on, I'yard once again thinking that a W124, possibly even i of the convertibles, deserves pride of place in my garage.

Given that the last one congenital is now fourteen years erstwhile, you might be inclined to warn me that this could be a risky proposition. By way of respond, I commend your attending to these four videos, which document the attempt by British Telly'due south Fifth Gear to destroy ane. (And remember, if you run across it on Telly, it has to exist true.)