Faults:

Nothing, I have three of these cars, and not one have ever broken down.

General Comments:

A well built car.

Cheap and comfy.

Good sized boot.

Easy to drive.

Still no rattles.

Faults:

Basically, nothing has gone wrong. The car is well over 20 years old and the only problems I had are due to old age wear.

I had to replace the head gasket as there was not much left of it. I also had the head reconditioned at the same time.

I had to replace the seal in the water pump.

I had to replace the diaphram in the vacuum pump.

All suspension bushes are slowly being replaced.

General Comments:

The W123 is a classic car like all the rest of the models. Nothing can compare, even late model vehicles just don't feel as good to drive.

I found the ride to be a bit to soft, but then this car isn't designed to go fast, it is more of a tourer.

I personally feel that the motor revs to high (up to 5100 RPM), but a slower reving motor from that period would probably vibrate to much.

I like the car so much that I have just bought another one for parts, but it is to good to strip so I will have to rebuild it.

Faults:

We have never had an incapacitating breakdown on the road, but the following malfunctions continue to annoy us.

The harmonic balancer on the short drive shaft fractured its rubber spokes at about 100,000 miles. The balancer cannot be replaced (new) without buying a whole new short drive shaft. I'm running a W124 balancer, but this is too light to remove all the vibrations.

We have never managed to eliminate a problem with pulsing brakes which also started at about 100,000 miles. We have replaced the brake disks (rotors) several times, but the problem comes back each time after about 1500-2000 miles of running.

Some minor problems:

The rear suspension pump valve has failed once.

The driver's seat required new padding some time ago to compensate for a broken spring.

The tailgate gas struts were replaced at 170,000 miles.

The internal handle on the tailgate door broke.

General Comments:

This wagon is a naturally aspirated diesel which means that it is hard to chirp the tyres at the traffic lights. It is a slug on the hills. But the manual transmission gives us great control over the engine.

This wagon was imported from Holland by its previous owner, so it has long legs (autobahn gearing). It loves open road running and is as smooth as silk at speed.

Unfortunately, the big gearing means that the wagon is not really very easy to drive around town: lots of gear changes to keep the revs up, and lots of serious, sudden vibration from the drive-train if revs fall too low.

It is surprisingly economical on the open road: 28-32 mpg (UK gals). Less so around town.

Carries massive loads with ease.

Comfortable, quiet and roomy.

Faults:

Absolutely nothing has gone wrong with this car.

When I purchased this car it had a noisy fuel pump, which I soon replaced and the air-conditioning is not always cold.

This car's diff is a bit noisy and annoying, and it doesn't run turbine smooth, which I'm not sure if it's meant to anyway.