Farewell 300SE

Today I sold my 1986 300SE W126.   It was the right decision to sell, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to miss the car.   It wasn’t the nicest 300SE in the country, but in some ways it was like a favorite pair of shoes, comfortable and familiar.     I originally bought the car as a daily, and I was on full registration for the first four years I owned it.    My requirement was a car that could fit three child seats across the back, and I would have rather walked than have an SUV.  I was actually looking for a W116 originally, and almost bought a 1979 450SE.   In the end I could not find a W116 that wasn’t a basket case, so went with the W126.

In my view at least, It had a great colour combination of Signal red with parchment interior.   Signal red is not a very common colour on the W126.     I also never found a spec of rust on the car.    It served me well for six years and 16,000km.

In the first year I had the car, I had fair few issues with it, culminating in the head coming off for service and rebuilding the entire HVAC system.   It was pretty reliable after that.   The strange issue had was the failure of the oil pump.   Luckily I caught it right away and everything was back to normal after a new oil pump was fitted.

I’ve found in the last year, I just haven’t been using the car like I was.   I only did 1,000km in the entire year.  It was time to find a new owner who will enjoy it as much as I did.    My kids are now older so they no longer need the attached child seats either.

The car has gone to an old friend who bought it for his son.   His son is about to start driving and liked the look of the red 300SE.  His dad liked how it had good crumple zones and a rigid passenger safety shell, along with ABS brakes.   Everyone wins.       It was a bit sad to see it drive out the driveway for the last time though.   Farewell 300SE!