VALUES

Nice examples start at about £3000 advises John at Avantgarde. Yes, you can buy usable, solid cars for £2000 if you’re lucky, but anything less than that is pushing it. For a really solid low-mileage car, reckon on around £7000. The coupes and estates though will fetch much more: around 50-75% as much again as the saloon, with really nice examples starting at around £10,000.

ENGINE & GEARBOX

• Engines are very long-lived, whether diesel or petrol. You still want to see a service history though.
• Differentials can get noisy at 100-150,000 miles but will most likely carry on without problems.
• The four-cylinder engine isn’t as robust as the straight sixes. You need to see evidence of 60,000-mile timing chain swaps and regular oil changes.
• You can run the diesels on straight vegetable oil but biodiesel will attack the rubber components of the fuel system.

PARTS

• Mercedes is one of the best at supporting its older models and can supply just about everything for the W123... at a price.
• Some trim parts are getting tricky to source at sensible cost, especially chrome trims and those big bumpers.

To read the complete Buyer's Checklist feature buy the April 2012 issue of Classic Car Mart.