Was in a bar last night and after a few "007s" I started dreaming of putting Euro bumpers (impact strips in actuality) on my 85 300D. How cool would that look! But can it be done? Is it legal? Would it do the car more damage than good???? Thoughts please.

I have two euro 123 cars, actuallly, one of them is a parts car with BRAND NEW euro bumpers on both ends. I plan to use them when I restore the one that is on the road.

The euro bumpers are not as strong, thus not as functional, but the styling of the car was developed around the shorter bumpers, they make the car look much, much better in my opinion.

You can obtain euro bumpers if you want to use them, but there again, there are much more easily damaged.

Have a great day,

That other part of the world has to be Indonesia, I'm from there..
The W123 fanatics love the American stuff.. cuz they look diffferent..

I'd just use what I get w/ the car...

my dad used to have a W123 280E '82..
Which he later sold due to some minor problems and was replaced by a W124...

When he bought that W123, i was ranting tellin him how ugly the W123 was and how out of date it was, etc.....
I was a lil kid..
now... I reallly regret that sold it.. so does he....
otherwise I could have it as my very own car...

I'm in College now, and if I can get my hands on a W123.. I'm gonna paint it the same color..

yeah, I dunno, I thought they would really bring out the look, but I guess your all right... I kinda like the US "bastardized" picnic tables on either end of my ride. They symbolize a time in the 80's when regulation on cars was king. The E28 5 Series Bimmer suffers the same stigma.

But I will say this, euro bumpers look AWSOME on a w116!

What I REALLY want is the euro headlight wiper system for a 123. Talk about awsome.

The euro 123 is awsome. Euro bumpers, Euro lights, Light wipers, Velour, heated seats, rear headrests, drool.

The us bumpers on the 116 are FUGLY
The 126 euro/us bumpers are pretty similar so I dont mind.

Headlight cleaners(wipers) were not available on the small MB models until the 124 cars, even in Europe.

Have a great day,

The Euro w123 IS great... Thin impact strips, euro lights with city lighting, and lets not forget that Euro spec injection pump and manual tranny option.

The Euro cars had no turbos, instead, they had a hotter fuel pump... I wonder if we can get these to hook up with the turbo?

Question, are the euro lights a big deal to set-up? Is wiring easy, or hard?

Oh, screw the velor, I want my euro car with half MB Tex and half tarten houndstooth!

Larry,

What do you call this then?


mmm, euro lights, wipers, velour, bumpers.

image courtesy of www.w123.net

Randall

The euro lights are pretty easy. The existing US lights have a 4-pin connector, you will need to get a 6-pin connector from the dealer or maybe your euro lights will come with them. All you do is switch pins around inside the connector. Installation time: under 1 hour.

John

turbodiesel,

I call it "you learn something new every day". I've never seen a 123 with headlight cleaners, even in Europe.

I also call it beautiful, that's a great picture.

Also, I almost took issue on the headlight connectors, then I remembered that when I put in my 123 euro lights, they went into a euro car that had received US lights in the grey market process before I bought it. I still had to move the pins around in the connector to acommodate the Euro lights. I'm curious to look at the connector on my daughter's US car now.

Have a great day,

Hey Larry, got any pics of that euro 240D? Im dieing to see it, especially a pic of the odometer.

John

I don't have a digital camera, but I will borrow one just for the occasion. I am completely buried right now readying for an extended European business trip, I will be back October 3, and should have time to do it then.

The car is not being driven right now and sitting next to my barn. I will push it out into a better area for picture taking and get some pictures. It has a few minor scrapes and bruises from the 50,000 miles that my son drove it, but it still looks really good considering it's mileage and age. I have a brand new set of euro bumpers on my parts car which I plan on using when I completely restore this car. It's like an old friend, so I will give it a complete restoration some day.

I plan on putting it back on the road after I get finished with my daughter's car. I ran into parts problems on her car, or I would've finished it on the labor day weekend. When done with her car, I will finish rebuilding the original 240D engine and put it back in the car. I drove the 240D with an early 123 engine that I got from a euro parts car that I bought. That engine turned out not to be in as good of condition as I thought and didn't last long. It seems like everything else has worked it's way in front of finishing the engine for the 240D.

When I finally started driving my 124 car every day and then platooning it with my new car, I said I could never go back to driving a 123 car again. But, nostalgia is beginning to take over. I'm actually looking forward to putting the 240D back on the road and driving it often.

Thanks for the interest,