The automotive world has lost a legend. Famed Mercedes-Benz chief designer Bruno Sacco has died at the age of 90. Under his direction, Mercedes-Benz sustained an incredible legacy through a difficult period of change in the automotive industry, navigating the malaise era with serious poise and grace while creating undeniably desirable vehicles.
Granted, this piece isn’t strictly a eulogy. Our resident rogue designer The Bishop did a superb job of covering exactly what made these Sacco-era Benzes so timeless and so desirable, and I urge you to check it out. However, around the virtual office water cooler, a question lingered: How else can we honor the legacy of a man responsible for some truly iconic designs? Well, how about by considering taking one home?
Part of the joy of these elegant, refined, tasteful cars is that they were mass-produced, meaning values often aren’t crazy. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at some of Sacco’s masterpieces, and see what it would cost for you to put one in your own garage.
W126 S-Class
Well, let’s start with the executive sedan for the 1980s, the W126 S-Class. It’s superbly built, it’s incredibly handsome, it looks great either stock or lowered on some period-correct wheels. More importantly, it melded form with function perfectly. Aerodynamic measures like one-piece molded bumper covers and careful front-end contouring contributed to a modern yet elegant form that was right for newly fuel-sensitive times, and helped the W126 become the most successful S-Class ever.
Gone are the days when you could pick up a decent W126 for well less than $5,000, but that doesn’t mean they’re all hideously expensive. Let’s start with the cream of the four-door crop, the 560SEL. This black-on-black example sold on Cars & Bids earlier this year for a reasonable $8,765. No, there’s no digit missing there. With 124,000 miles on the clock and a bunch of big servicing items done, this is one fabulous cruiser for sensible coin.
Alright, let’s say you’re looking for a driver-spec example. Something that’s not perfect, but still gorgeous in its own way. Well, check out this 1991 300SE that recently sold for a mere $5,100 on Bring A Trailer. Sure, it might have a couple hits on its Carfax and 218,000 miles on the clock, but there are much worse things to spend that sort of money on than a nice-looking classic S-Class.
W124 E-Class
What if you’re looking for something more versatile than an S-Class? Something that, in addition to sedan and pillarless coupe forms, was also available as a wagon or a cabriolet? Well, the W124 E-Class is simply brilliant, and it ought to suit that role nicely. Every tired cliche about bank-vault build quality exists for this car, but it’s so much more than just solidity. With a drag coefficient of as low as 0.28 for the European-market 200 and 200D models on skinny little 185-section tires, the result was a masterpiece that cut through the air while still looking dignified, embodying Sacco’s principles of horizontal homogeneity and vertical affinity, effectively meaning shared styling DNA with bigger and smaller models, along with evolutionary design that won’t immediately date its predecessors.
How about a slightly unusual one? This 1986 300E is a bit special because it’s a five-speed manual car, and the majority of these were automatics. It sold on Bring A Trailer for $8,350 in September, and it seems proper. We’re talking about a Southwest car in an exceedingly rare spec, and although it does have one hit on its Carfax and 237,000 miles on the clock, these things are rare enough with a stick that values should stay fairly stable.
Let’s say you’re explicitly looking for a wagon. How does $4,325 sound? Seriously, that’s what this 1991 Mercedes-Benz 300TE hammered for on Cars & Bids, and as a driver-spec example, it seems pretty great. Sure, it might have 184,100 miles on the clock and a little bit of rust due to living in New England, but as an older daily driver with character and practicality, this is an intriguing proposition for those who can wrench.
W201 Mercedes-Benz 190E
This is one of Sacco’s personal favorites. After all, taking a great luxury brand and creating a smaller, entry-level model can have its pitfalls. Do it right, and it’ll both look and feel proper. Do it wrong, and you end up with a Cadillac Cimarron. Well, under the guidance of Sacco, Mercedes-Benz got this thing right. Sure, the 190E was substantially smaller than an E-Class, but it also had the look, feel, and price of a proper Mercedes-Benz. It also ushered in some serious technical innovations like the five-link independent coil-sprung rear suspension setup, a style of suspension still used to this day. The W201 was a landmark car, and as Sacco himself told Automobile Magazine when asked about his best works at Mercedes, “my favorite is the Mercedes-Benz 190 [W201] because of its importance to Mercedes.”
Let’s start with the most coveted variant of 190E sold in America, the E30 BMW M3-fighting 2.3-16. Cosworth 16-valve heads, a dogleg five-speed manual gearbox, bucket seats, a body kit, and plenty of other tweaks helped make this homologation special a legend, and although they’re now firmly collectable, you can pick up a nice-looking one for new Toyota Corolla money. Take this 112,600-mile example which sold on Cars & Bids for $22,888. You certainly won’t find a clean E30 M3 for that money, and although the BMW gets major kudos, the 190E 2.3-16 handles better in stock form. Shocking, right?
Alright, let’s climb back down from the top of the market and focus on the regular 190E. Would you believe that this 1986 example with 92,400 miles on the clock sold on Cars & Bids for just $3,900? Sure, it’s definitely not cosmetically perfect, what with a cracked dashboard, a missing fender molding, and other smaller flaws, but it’s a genuine Southwest car, which makes it the perfect rust-free starting block for some classic Mercedes fun.
R129 Mercedes-Benz SL
Another Sacco favorite, and my personal favorite, is the R129 Mercedes-Benz SL, because it’s just such a high water mark. Work on the R129 Mercedes SL actually started in the late 1970s, and with a market launch in 1989, that gave Sacco years to provide oversight before a design freeze was implemented. The result is one of the best-looking Mercedes-Benzes of all time. It has just the perfect amount of wedge in its silhouette to imply rakishness without compromising elegance. Just the right amount of muscularity to appear healthy without seeming brash. It was still, in the grand scheme of things, small. Oh, and like every other Mercedes of the era, the sheer solidity of the thing is awe-inspiring.
I’ve already done a full-on Gavel Gazing just on the R129 SL, so let’s see how the market’s been since then. This particular R129, a 1993 500SL, was actually owned by a good friend of mine a few years ago, and it’s a peach that hammered on Cars & Bids for the second time a few months ago. Hammer price? A totally reasonable $12,100, especially considering the rare AMG Aero III wheels and the low 89,900 miles on the clock.
This 1997 SL500 40th Anniversary Edition recently hammered on Bring A Trailer for a mere $7,100. Sure, it might have 125,000 miles on the clock, but it’s got a clean Carfax, that red is mighty fetching, and it looks both complete and well taken care of. As far as mature grand touring roadsters that can still cut a rug go, you aren’t getting better for your money than this.
W220 S-Class
I can already hear the keyboards clicking away over this. Just hear me out. While purists have written that the W140 S-Class of the 1990s was the last great S-Class, there’s just that funny little feeling that might not be the case. Partly because that car had its own problems, and partly because it looks a bit clumsy. I’ve never quite been a fan of the finished product, and as it turns out, neither was Sacco. When Automobile asked him if there were any designs of his that he was dissatisfied with, he answered that the W140 was “four inches too tall.”
However, the W140 wasn’t Sacco’s last S-Class. That would be the W220, a car often maligned as the beginning of the end for Mercedes-Benz. Certainly, it had some quality control issues at launch and marked the shift to building cars for a given cost rather than figuring out pricing later, but here’s the thing — attrition can be a wonderful thing. By now, the newest W220 is 18 years old, meaning the truly crap ones have almost all met their maker. Right now, a good W220 is a sleek, sumptuous, restrained, yet decadent example of an executive sedan for the new millennium. In short, a lovely car.
Let’s start with arguably the most desirable non-AMG model, the 2003-onward S600. It featured a twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter V12 producing such an abundance of buttery horsepower and torque, it feels like God’s hand is pushing you back into your seat until you dare to let off. No drama, just speed. As a car like this ought to be. Well, here’s a 46,000-mile example that recently sold on Bring A Trailer for $17,500. That’s sensible coin for an extraordinarily low mileage example of a seriously fast luxury sedan. Not bad.
Mind you, those twin-turbocharged V12 cars can be quite complex, so what about something simpler, like a Southwest-owned S500 with the AMG appearance package? Well, this one just sold on Cars & Bids for a tidy $6,200, and it seems like a winner. After all, it only had 60,200 miles on the clock when it hammered. Score.
So, if you’ve ever wanted a Bruno Sacco-era Mercedes-Benz, there’s no time like the present to make your dreams a reality. What was once the pinnacle of mass-produced luxury cars is now a wide variety of wonderful affordable classics. Danke, Bruno.
(Photo credits: Bring A Trailer, Cars & Bids)
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“and partly because it looks a bit clumsy.”
Blame it on Wolfgang Peters (chief engineer) and Rudolf Hornig (car line manager) who were quite tall (190 cm tall) and responsible for the disastrous W140 development. They insisted on raising the roof until they could enter and exit without hitting their heads on the roof frames. When the height sweet spot was found, the car looked more like Fiat Multipla so they stretched and widened the W140 to “harmonise” the visual cue.
Bruno Sacco claimed that W140 was his least favourite as he had to work very hard in making W140 look less “substantial” and more “nimble” despite its gargantuan size.
Both Wolfgang Peters and Rudolf Hornig were more or less responsible for Mercedes-Benz descending from “engineering over profit” to “profit over engineering” in the 1990s. W140 was a financial disaster for Mercedes-Benz from the engineering and development perspectives and cost the corporation more than one billion dollars. The recession of 1990–1991, the emerging environmental awareness, and the introduction of Lexus pushed Mercedes-Benz even further down the dark road of “profit over quality”, resulting lower quality and reliability for W202, W210, and W220 in the 1990s and 2000s.
My dad got himself a dark blue W126 1985 380SE when he first moved to the States (early aughts) as a consolation for not managing to find a mid-nineties Town Car in good enough condition. I both loved and hated that car. Hated because he insisted that most of my formative driving happened in it rather than my mom’s ’83 Camry and later ’94 Mazda 626 V6 (which were a lot smaller and less intimidating and the Mazda pretty fun, cracked head gasket notwithstanding) and it was huge and floaty and I couldn’t figure out if it was pointing straight at any given moment while bouncing over L.A. freeways. Loved because it looked cool as hell from the outside and I could easily fit six people into it in comfort when I borrowed it (it got me a lot of cool points as an unpopular college kid, but, sadly, never managed to get me laid). It got shitty gas mileage with the small-block V8, had a ton of problems passing smog and eventually its transmission collapsed just short of the 200K mile mark, so we sold it to a neighborhood fixer-upper for a song. But the nostalgia is so strong, I might actually consider owning one today, if I could find one more tightly sprung than stock.
His last car was a Roasted Under California Sun Black 1994 W124 E320, which he was hoodwinked into buying by an asshole flipper who came off like “such a nice Jewish boy!” It had been owned by an heiress to the Max Factor fortune who was a few marbles short upstairs (I had a few conversations with her following the discovery of a salvaged title that the flipper dude conveniently concealed and…yikes) and who wrecked it, sold it to her mechanic and never bothered to declare any of this to the DMV. After we managed to resolve the title issues, he was really happy to just have another Merc, but that thing was pretty janky, relatively low mileage notwithstanding. I remember driving it when I visited about five years ago, right before he passed, and that thing felt like a death trap. These were pre-COVID days, so it wasn’t worth much and we just ended up donating it in the end.
Also, I call BS on a Cossie for the price of a Corolla, unless that includes the GR. There are six manual ones available right now on Cargurus and the cheapest one is a hair under $40K. There might have been one sold on C&B, but most go for wahahahahahay above that.
I just bought that $7,100 R129. To be clear, it needs a bit of work (CEL code P0410, cracked windshield, door handle doesn’t work, interior trim pieces and leather need replacement, and a bit of paint work), but it runs great. You aren’t getting a nice R129 for less than 15k here in CA.
I have a 98 R129, SL500, it’s absolutely incredible. I rebuilt the top cylinders myself so no leaks there. I bought it cheap because the cylinders were bad, low miles (bought with 55K on the clock). It’s my favorite car. It has given me zero trouble in the 10,000 miles I’ve put on it. I put tires and brakes on it but that’s just maintenance.
July 2014: Mr Vanillasludge buys a clean w126 (300se) with 96,000 miles on it for $3400. It was black, clean and drove like a magic carpet attached to a tank.
My words to the dealer as I shook his hand: “At this price, how can I go wrong?”
Day 2..the transmission grenades. Car towed to shop where it resides for 3 weeks. Cost: $3400
In the subsequent year of ownership I added another $5k in repairs, including, but not limited to:
Water pump, radiator, brakes that warped twice in a month, window regulators, window switches, wheel bearings, and a raft of interior parts that seemed to crumble in my hands.
It developed a hot start issue that nobody could diagnose.
The drivers seat adjustment stopped working…sometimes
The climate control would freak out randomly and blast you with hot air for a minute or two, then regain its grip on sanity.
I finally gave up and sold it for..$3400.
Things you need to know:
These are probably (along with other model Mercedes from their era) the easiest odometers in the world to roll back. The gauge cluster literally pops out with a coat hanger if you don’t want to buy the tool.
The basic car is solid and drives like nothing else, but everything plastic attached to it is garbage.
The window switches are an amazing combination of complexity and frailty…with little brass bearings and cheap ass plastic bodies. Don’t get me started on the window regulators, which make those from a Miata look bulletproof.
If you are a wrencher with a lift and a lot of patience, it can be fun. If not, I recommend an LS400.
Actually, no matter who you are, get the Lexus.
R107 > R129 and it’s not even close.
That said, my next irrational car will likely be a w126 s class.
Please, someone remove that body kit from the W124 E-Class sedan. It ruins everything.
My objection to the W220 isn’t that it’s over the W140. The W140 itself is a pretty clumsily styled car, with its massive slab sides and tiny looking wheels that make it look like an overinflated W124. My issue with the W220 is that it doesn’t loom visually impressive at all. It has the problem that Rybicki-era GM cars had before Chuck Jordan wrested control back away of GM styling, where the shared design elements of all of their cars just made it look like the flagship model of the company was a trim level of the shittiest car in their lineup at a glance.
I’m not sure how much he direct involvement with the original CLK, but that was a *much* better attempt at modernizing the Mercedes style of the time (even though it actually was just a C-class in a frock); and a natural evolution of the things he had done with the R129 that made it age so well.
A W124 wagon is one of my dream cars.
The first time visiting my relatives in Poland, my uncle had a Sacco-era Mercedes that I believe was a W124 (if I ever find a photo of it, I’ll be able to verify), and I remember thinking it was somehow more luxurious than the Cadillac Coupe de Ville my parents owned at the time, despite the Mercedes being smaller.
“When I vas child in Poland, I had pony. I loved that pony.”
But seriously I agree with you.
But the 190 E series was a hoot also. YMMV
The Hyundai pony sucks, nostalgia none withstanding
Somebody find me a W201 stickshift Diesel.
I really like the 220s, I almost bought an S350 (yup, v6) that was in great shape and had full records. But I lost my nerve, probably for the best.
That 190E *mops brow*
Oh I’ve wanted any multiples of various used Mercedes, they truly are beautiful cars, but no way can I afford the maintenance.
Do your research to find the best year of your chosen model,and learn what you need to look out for, be patient for the right one to come up in your area, test drive to confirm the condition. Hopefully few or One owner that took good care of it, has records of maintenance from dealership to present. Then have knowledge and tools to do regular maintenance yourself, and they are very affordable. If you intend to take it to a dealership for Everything, Fuhgeddaboudit!
Up to about 1996 they’re really not that bad.
What? No C126 SEC?
As any Blockhead knows, There’s nothing wrong with it!! The styling is almost literally perfect.
I’m not a convertible person, but I have more than once given serious consideration to picking up an R129 because they are just a gorgeous, timeless design. My preference would be a blue-on-blue SL500 with the hardtop and AMG wheels, but a Silver Arrow SL500 would be pretty sweet as well (I’m not bold enough for the V12).
Uhm 91-96 I believe, used that biodegradable wire insulation! It’s been mentioned on this very site before. They were far from the only manufacturer to be inflicted with that, my 2002 VW headlight wiring was BARE when I took it apart to see WTF.
My formerly-owned 300 SDL rolling on Goodyear Assurance Fuelmax tires could get a steady 30 mpg at 70 mph cruising speeds, all day long. This thing was a heavy brick on wheels, Cd value at 0.36, frontal area about 2.1 m^2, mass around 1,750 kg. The car is a 30 mpg pig. An efficient pig, but a pig none the less. In city driving with lots of traffic and stop and go, the mpg will sink into the teens.
The OM606 motivating that pig is a “bulletproof”, mechanically-injected mostly-analogue masterpiece of an engine, tunable to 300 horsepower, revving to 5,200 rpm, while maintaining daily-driver reliability, on stock internals. Bone stock with no injector pump fuckery, it will make 149 horsepower. Even at a modest 149 horsepower, this car was enough to get you into trouble: 0-60 mph in 11 seconds with a top speed of 121 mph. But with 209 lb-ft of torque coming into use with the turbo spooling up, 30-70 mph acceleration was more closer to a car that does 0-60 mph in 8-9 seconds. This is with a 4-speed slushbox wasting lots of horsepower.
I’ve always wondered what would happen if that engine was tuned to 300 horsepower peak, and placed into a sub-2,000 lb manual-transmission RWD streamliner sized like a Triumph GT6 but with aero drag like a Peugeot CD Panhard 66C. The 200 mph LeMans supercar we never got… and the relatively inexpensive fuel miser we could have had during the late part of the Malaise era had someone had the vision. Casey Putsch’s Omega gets over 100 mpg with a chipped 1.9L TDI engine and does 0-60 mph in a bit over 4 seconds, to give you a clue as to what that might have looked like.
That OM606 tuned for 300 horses would also be quite nice as a swap for a Citroen SM if you needed room for four. I think 50 mpg at 70 mph is possible like that. And if geared properly, 180 mph on the autobahn if you want to.
The vacuum system is the biggest nightmare you will face.
Two things of note:
-Gearing matters a lot.
My ’86 300SDL has never seen worse than 22mpg in any conditions, but I have the taller 560SEL rear gears.
-The 300SDL is motivated by the OM603, not the OM606. The 606 didn’t show up until ’96, and the good (read: turbo) ones showed up for ’97 and ’98.
That being said, the move to turn up the wick on a 606 is to take the mechanical pump off a 603, have it hogged out, and slap it on. It’s been said the 603 will handle upwards of 300whp reliably, I’m aiming to test that.
I’ve read the 5-cylinder predecessor is even stouter. 300 horsepower in these cars will make them boogie…
The 5cyl will run until the inevitable heat death of the universe in stock form. You can even turn them up a *little* bit. But the internals aren’t up to the task of big power and things like aftermarket rods are rare and expensive as hell. They’re realistically good for 200-250whp TOPS before reliability is a problem.
The OM603 is good for around 300whp. It CAN make more if you upgrade the rods. Which, conveniently, are interchangeable with OM606 rods. Which means aftermarket rods for the 606 can be used in the 603. The limit becomes what the head can take/flow as it’s a single cam head with cracking issues when abused.
The 606, in stock form, has guys making between 400-500whp all day long. The lower end of that scale being very reliable. With the aftermarket rods there’s guys in the 600-700whp range. But you’re really stretching the limits of what a 3L mechanically injected engine can do at that point.
I got the engine name/numbers mixed up earlier. The OM603 that powered my car is among my favorite engines. That’s an engine that won’t be disabled by EMP.
An OM606 tuned to 500 whp, in a lightweight sub-2,000 lb mid-engined streamliner, would also be amazing. Consider the Mercedes 1978 Mercedes C111-III prototype that reached 202 mph on a 230 horsepower 3L turbodisel.
Co-worker had a W220, and he would talk about how a car crash could happen right beside him and he wouldn’t hear it. On the other hand, he brought the car in several times because of niggling things like the side mirrors vibrating.
As a designer this guy was awesome but he design as he should cars for the moment. They are mostly 4 door sedans. Now those 2 door models are super cool, not a fan of the red but they are a vehicle a collector would want. Unfortunately high production of a boring looking 4 door sedan will not appreciate in value. I am surprised those 2 door models aren’t twice the price.
Short of the Gullwing, the R129 is the best looking SL. Absolute classic!
Incorrect
SHUT UP! I still want a W126 Coupe and the prices are rising…
Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone about this! Ok, maybe just the Autopians. Seriously, if you can find a well-cared for W126 or W124, avoid a few well-known issues, and know your way around a wrench, you too can be farting into nicely-worn MB-tex for less than the cost of a short vacation.
I had the joy of having two W126 560SELs, they are absolutely one of the all time greatest cars in my opinion, one day I will find another to have, but really anything from the “Sacco era” is generally going to tug at my heart strings. What a fantastic and fruitful career Mr Sacco had at Mercedes.
So for a reliable vehicle capable of 250,000 miles how did you own two and not have one now? Maybe not as reliable as hinted at?
I also have a 560sel, it’s dead reliable. The issue is finding quality parts, many are no longer available or extremely expensive for new old stock. Luckily here in California they get junked due to smog so plenty of Junkyard cars are still available.
That’s why we have the MB Classic Center in Long Beach
They can procure the parts nobody else can
The biggest issue with the gasoline motivated units is the Bosch mechanical fuel injection. The number of folks that can dial them in are getting thin on the ground.
Now if you go for a diesel variant, they have a cult following, including a dedicated market of suppliers that rebuild and upgrade the injection pumps for big power.
No, it’s a longer, sadder, rustier story than that unfortunately.