The owner was like “Hmm, Doug’s multi million sub channel is going to be reviewing my car. Maybe I should get the interior and exterior detailed? Nah, some tire shine will do.”
these cars are so cheap anyways, most people probably wouldn't bother. Not saying I would not appreciate a basic clean etc, but not everyone are living on a healthy budget to just get stuff like that done for a one-time occasion.
@A real bisexual petrol-head If my car was going to be seen by millions of people and reviewed by Doug, I'd spend all the time that's required to make it look the best it could possibly be...just sayin'.
@@mikevale3620 Good on you! I do (did) the same with my motorcycle. But I can understand that not everyone has the time or dedication to it. Just means that clean examples are so much more appreciated :)
Doug, I don't know what to say but " Thank You"! I lived in Germany from 1991-1995 & I had a German friend (Jorst) that owned several Pharmacy Franchises in Germany (like our CVS). Every year he'd go to California USA for a 6-week Conference and would ask me to watch over his (15) cars. THIS was one of them. He told me about the dropping/raising rear head-rests & the electric rear-mirror. I'd take this car on the Autobahn and be in Frankfurt from K-Town in under 30 minutes. You did a correct & respectful review of this car, and I appreciate it.
f308gtb1977 to be fair to Mercedes, that’s because other manufacturers - particularly the Asian companies - have imitated MB’s designs pretty successfully for the past decade or so. It’s not MB’s fault.
I love these cars!💖 I've owned a 1995 S420, 1997 S420 and a 1999 S500 over the years. Each car came with 4 keys. 2 remote controls with folding master keys, 1 valet key (allows valet to unlock drivers door and drive) and 1 flat key (a master to open all locks and drive). Did you know, if you have all the windows and moon roof open after you park you can hold down the lock button on your remote and the car will roll up all windows and close the moon roof as you're walking away? You can even roll up all windows and close the moon roof by putting the key into the door and turning and holding the key into the lock position until all windows and moon roof are closed. Mercedes Benz was WAY ahead of it's time!
My 2001 W210 has this feature where I can controlled the windows opening when parked using the remote. I believe it is also a standard features on conti cars now as I have 2014 VW Polo which also has same feature using the remote.
@@websnail This is true indeed, I was never even once stopped by police whenever I drive mine they just wave me through. I've also noticed that people get a little bit uneasy/scared whenever I arrive with this car and especially when I get out of it. LOL
Also worth noting a few additional interesting points: - There was an alternative armrest with split top to provide storage in one half and two of the most over engineered cup holders I’ve ever seen in the other half (so many moving parts as the fold out on a spring loaded mechanism) - Some were factory fitted with fridges and/or fax machines between the rear seats - An upgraded napa leather seat option was also available which made the seats far more comfortable and hugging (standard on S600 models but also on some others) - The car was shipped with a valet key that was restricted to prevent opening the trunk or glove boxes (top where the phone is on this one and main) - Some had an optional business package that provided a power folding rear tray table and controls to allow the rear passenger to adjust the front seat position from their seat control panel (also had multidirectional pivoting spot lights fitted in the roof above the B pillar) - There was an option to have the rear seats as two separate fully adjustable seats (not bench seat) - The rear armrest has two little cut out slots (you can see in the video) to allow a Walkman headset cable to run out of with the lid closed - The seat controls also alow adjustment of the headrest height in the front and the rear ones will put down or up the folding rear headrests - European spec cars are fitted with a triangle mounted to the boot lid rather than in the wheel well - These cars were sometimes fitted with both a speed limiter and cruise control stalk - The gearbox has a W (wet) and S (dry) mode selector (in W it will try to start using second gear and changes less aggressively) - Rear seats get folding lit mirrors in the roof along with a light in the C pillar (front mirrors are lit too)
16:17 Mercedes of this era with this feature actually have 2 cabin air filters. One is the particulate filter, which is what you find in virtually any modern car. The second is a separate carbon filter. This filter is much thicker than the all-in-one carbon layers you find today, so it actually works longer than a week. Bypassing it also helps it last longer.
@@pinytenis420 Iool I agree look at 7:38 that door section looks terrible and the trunk at 5:53 looks like it's been crooked, buffed out and painted by the intern kid
I remember growing up in Germany in the 80s and 90s and when McDonalds and drive through counters became a thing, you could get plastic cup holders with the McDonalds logo on them. They were plastic contraptions with a hook that you could stick in between your door panel and the window. Just bringing this up to show how weird and novel the idea of a cup holder in a car was to Germans back in those days.
Doug, I really think you shoud rate cars in additional category like "these times rating", because many older cars are getting low rate because you compare it's features with today standards and I think that is unfair in many cases :(
He should have separate ratings for the time it was made, and the time of the video's making. He should also rate them depending on what the car IS. Such as rating an economy hatchback as "slow" isn't fair, because it isn't meant to be fast. He should compare it to other economy hatchbacks to see which one is the fastest/most comfortable etc etc. He should have a personal rating and a "class" rating for each car. Rating a 120 hp economy hatchback as "slow" isn't fair because it isn't made to be a race car. Same thing with an S-class. If the quality is on par with an economy car it shouldn't get the same quality score as the economy car, because it's advertised as a "luxury car".
@@nicklasveva that's the point. What is the point of rating and giving any kind of score to so different cars? Dunno. Maybe we should just ignore Doug Score and consider it as just some unnecesary quirk/feature.
I don’t really see it as an issue because after giving it the Doug score he shows where it ranks next to similar cars from similar eras so you can gauge how good it was for what kind of car from whichever time period
Yeah. He will give a two seater car a low rating for practicality, meanwhile a two seater does exactly what is intended, so it should be rated high for practicality. I like Doug's reviews, but when he starts with the doug score, I pause and move to the next one
I grew up with this car. My parents bought an S500 in 1994, and I felt like the coolest kid getting dropped off in school haha. It was incredibly massive, insanely quiet, and my dad still has it. He even built cupholders for it by milling aluminum retractable cupholders for that tiny center storage box where the cell-phone controls used to be in. I told him he could totally sell that on etsy or whatever but for whatever reason, he won't (he said it costed him lots of time to mill, and with materials cost; it would cost too much to sell). Anyways, the paint quality never held up well with the car. He always had it garage-kept; yet the paint just deteriorated after 20 years. I recall my buddy's dad also has one, and the paint on these were just utter crap. And the windows, them being dual-pane, are insanely expensive too. The outer layer on the passenger-side rear window just decided to shatter one day. Sigh..
SlitWristMisfit I own one. It has routine oil changes and that’s it. Mechanically it’s completely sound for a ‘98. One owner. Always wintered. My e46 cost more in my first year than my Benz. And it’s a lot less comfortable.
Nice review! The 140 was the best MB ever made! I had a ‘95 S320 LWB which had a lot of power for a 6 that you wouldn’t know it because it did not sound like one and behaved like an 8. It was also very economical. The car had a 28 gallon fuel tank and would go over 600 miles on a tank of gas. I know you couldn’t mention every possible feature but for the readers, I don’t think you mentioned the tilt down outside mirrors when you shifted car in reverse so that you can see the curb to help prevent wheel rash. The double-pane windows also made the car more aerodynamic, thus quieter, because the outside pane was made flush with the trim and door frame. The car also had drop-down illuminated vanity mirrors for the rear seat passengers; perfect for those wanting to touch up their hair or makeup before hitting the red carpet. Also, the car had the ahead-of-its-time sound system. The other unique engineering design feature you could not see was the dual a/c compressors which made the car’s separate heat and a/c controls much more effective than other cars. I had absolutely no issues with my 140 and the MB service for maintenance was impeccable. My BMWs on the other hand were a different story.
"Now this, this is TRUE german engineering. Unparalleled innovation, the likes of which has yet to be matched by any modern manufacturer almost 30 years later." *Points at trunk handle*
@@boonamai8926 yeah exactly, i had the coupe two years ago. Coupes are slightly more expensive and i bought mine for about 5k EUR and it was running fine as a daily. However by running i mean just engine and gearbox - all of those quirks and features worked like on schedule which will break this week. Repairs of those features were a lot more expensive than for instance in BMW E39, took a lot of time and nobody wanted to work on it, because everything was made slightly different than in other cars. Even the Mercedes dealerships didn't wanted to deal with some of the issues. Only good thing about it is that parts are still produced by Mercedes. They are expensive but at least if you can't find used you can just order it. After some time i've sold it and i bought brand new Mustang GT. After two years running cost (including monthly payment for Mustang, taxis and rental cars during Mercedes period) of both cars is pretty much similar, and while Mustang is slightly more expensive to run... it actually runs without spending weeks in service. And yes, i could keep Mercedes under the blanket and buy some Skoda for everyday use, but i wanted to drive a fun car, not to own it.
experts. experts everywhere. 2 weeks with w140 dont make you expert. i will tell you secret. after 8 years with w140 i can say that 90% malfuncions can be fixed by spending few h on mb forum then finding cleaning and viola its working again. urban legenda from people who copy legends from other people...
What a time back then. I had two friends. And one friend's parents had exactly this S-Class. And the other friend's parents had this BMW 7 Series, Doug had mentioned in this video this car. And so I drove with both of them more often in the 90s because these parents often picked me up. And the rides were always really cool. Well, and I definitely remember the S-Class. Back then it was extremely spacious, felt like a sofa, like a living room. Just awesome. In my opinion, it was a bit smaller in the BMW 7 Series. But there was already a TV set for that, and on the way to the club on Saturday evening we saw RTL or a German private channel, for me just totally mind-blowing in the mid-90s
Hey Doug, you clearly have a very successful channel, so you can take this feedback with a grain of salt, but for whatever it's worth, I have a quick observation. Whenever you drive the car at the end of your videos, I think it'd be better to give the viewer an audibly and visibly immersive experience, rather than just talking through the whole thing. So you can wear a POV camera and let us hear the engine noise (something many car reviewers on RUclips don't let us hear because they talk over it all the time), show us the view from all sides while driving, hear the turn signals and warning chimes, see the headlights at night etc. The first 2/3rds of the video can be reserved for your narration, while the last 1/3rd can be an actual drive rather than more narration. Just my two cents.
oh god my dad purchased this car when i was a kid. Ohhhh the amount of times I messed with all these features to annoy my parents (like the headrest flipper thing.. blum blum blum blum.. blum blum blum blummmmm; and auto door shut thing as a party trick to show my school friends; messing with my dad's seat memory settings; making faces at cars behind us with the rear-passenger mirrors - ya this thing had rear passenger mirrors!). This video just zipped me down through nostalgia lane big time.
And the rear passenger mirrors got lights 😁 I know because I have one of those, I love this car. So much stuff inside... And makes you feel safe, because not many cars on the road are over 2 tons. It is just great, your baby can sleep even if you run all the potholes. 👌🏻
LOL. I had a friend who tried that with red nail polish. When she got home, there was a charge on her credit card; she'd totaled the car with dings and bits.
My grandma bought one of these new in 1991. The wipers in the headlight are disabled because at least here in CA they were illegal. Another thing if you push up the headrest in the back you can push a button to make them fall back down for easier visibility in the rear view mirror. Great cars felt good driving in that thing.
@@omarbabakarkhail no, I have driven modern lexus’s, modern toyota’s, modern honda’s, 2010’s vw’s, 2000’s lexus’s, 2000’s mercedes benz’s, 2000’s bmw’s and I am convinced that the Japanese car manufacturers will never have the same feel as the european car manufacturers, they will always feel like different cars, they just make them differently, it’s just up to what you prefer
@@haggard1378 I know. We have a Model S and used to drive a Leaf 2016 along with an X3 2016. Sure all these cars differ in price, but the leap from an Asian brand to the Europeans or even Tesla is huge. Yet I do wonder if the Asians incorporate some of these quirks and features, the lack of insulation and “quality” might be negated to an extent. We are going to test drive the Ioniq5 soon, so if that one is good, we might trade our S for it.
These days would be too much money to make this car that's why nowadays they simplified things. But new s classes are pretty on par with this benz it took 20 years though to go back to this awesomeness lol This was pretty spaceship for its time though. This car is the same to when volvo put a turbo in their wagons lol sorta revolutionary thing. Soon in our lifetime we will see some.crazyness coming our way with the electric cars
My neighbor had a 1995 when I was a kid, and it was the nicest car I had been in at the time, and still one of the nicest cars I’ve ever been in. She would drive us to elementary school with her daughter, and I felt like a king getting out of it. It sparked my love of German automobiles. Now I’m driving a W212 E63, but it still doesn’t compare to the feeling of riding in that W140 with the soft, supple, quiet ride and features that seemed so futuristic in that era.
I'm digging the subtle sneak peaks that he's been sneaking into these cars and bids intros. I wasn't paying too much attention but just caught that lagonda before it went off screen. Very interested in seeing that.
He wasnt looking for an S Class with perfect painted exterior. He was looking for a car with a fully functional powered interior rear view mirror. One of the features that made me fall in love with S class Mercedes when i first seen it
Went to Brussels from West London via the Channel ferry in one of these around late 1992 with my ( then ) Chairman as a 31 year old MD of one of his companies. He’d had it about 6 weeks and it was like being in a spaceship such was the ‘tech’ in it. We spend 10minutes just playing with the soft close doors ! We had such a good series of trips in it and every time we went we found something else new on it to play with. Absolute tour de force then and ground breaking. His next one was like getting into something by British Leyland from the 70’s !
For example, the most famous oligarch was Boris Beresowsky. He was almost murdered in armored W140. Also, the most famous russian gangster (the head of Orekhovskaya gang) drove this one in a coupe version. He was killed in that Mercedes.
Hello from Switzerland! I have to say the following, I have some minty low mile fetish 140s in my collection and the cars still look massive next to a new W222. You can look down very well on the pleabian minions when you ride along in the 140. The 140 conveys a certain respectful dictator / plutocrat aura similar to the W100 600, which (unfortunately) no longer embodies the current luxury class vehicles. This is probably why the 140 was one of the favorite vehicles of people like Muammar al-Gadaffi, Putin, the Yakuza and Co. even when there were successor series to choose from. The space, security [extremly rugged in a serious crash, a kind of unique "chopped" ladder frame like a truck, plus (!) a unibody is a construction they have not done on any other mercedes except the W240 maybach which build on the 140 chassis, makes this car a "tigertank" that will crush the other car in a serious accident, newer big cars are build weaker for socialist partner protection in a crash to help the smaller car, so you can say 140/240 was the pinnacle of crash saftey in some way, to only protect the occupants of the 140/240 and crush the enemy car with no mercy] a long-distance suitability and comfort of the 140s are in no way inferior to those of the new luxury vehicles, unlike, for example, the very old-school 126 model. Good examples of the 140 series are expensive, some are above comparable 126s, which was not the case a few years ago here in Europe (minty 140 500/600 under 60kmiles, go for about 50k/CHF, and I guess will be encreasing further in future) I cannot understand the fear of some "control units", the electronics in the 140 are rock solid and really not rocket science, similar to the W124 E500 E420 E320 or all R129 up to ´98, sometimes even redundant and can still be repaired in the distant future, in contrast to today's cheap and over-complex electronics. In terms of mechanical durability and engine design, the M104, M119 and M120 engines are unsurpassed as far as the petrol engines from Daimler are concerned, provided they are properly cared for, that is the golden era of Daimler, something better was not built before and after. I think some are only now beginning to understand what epochal masterpieces have been created. Elsewhere in the world it was already considered a masterpiece that competed with Rolls Royce and Bentley and even degraded them, similar to the W100. It is not for nothing that the W240 Maybach builds on the chassis of the 140 series. An E32 / E38 or Audi V8 / A8, Lexus LS on the other hand, looks like a poorly manufactured mid-range car, the same with the unworthy supposed successor, the W220, which initiated the qualitative degeneration of Mercedes under J. Schrempp. The W220 actually was not the true successor of the 140, even if some may think so, actually the W240 Maybach was the successor/reincarnation of the W140. The development costs of the 140 were the highest in mercedes history with the engineers running the show and going truly megalomaniac, it was the last engineers car from mercedes and not a car, where accountants and shareholders made the development decisions. The ride, build quality and "aura" is unlike any other mercedes before and after, I have to say, these cars do have a soul. I might add that the 140 offered two good cupholders in the front middle armrest but that was an extra option. I find it shameful that you reviewed the best car ever made with this, beat down, roll painted POS. I always was waiting for you to make a Video of the 140 since I remembered you mentioned it was your favourite Mercedes Big Body in an article on autotrader you wrote some years ago. And by no means are the 500 and 600 140s slow, the M120 V12 was put in the Pagani Zonda, the M119 V8 as bi-turbo with KKK-superchargers was put in the Sauber C9 in 1989, 720ps. I guess the car you are reviewing has beyond 500k miles and a shitty maintance history with 7 diffrent owners where the last 5 turned the clock, so it will have lost some horsepowers and have a worn out suspension and steering feeling. I sometimes cruise during the night time on the German Autobahn with 250km/h, the suspension and parameter steering feel (you also forgot to mention parameter steering) is very firm and tight on well maintained 140s, they go like on rails, like a freight train. I own almost all S-Class models five of which are 140 chassis, 240 Maybach including the newest 222 (POS). I know how the 140 compares, it is out of this world, I even dare to say that the build quality on the 140 is even higher than the 240 Maybach. It was and most likley will forever be the best car humanity produced, period.
I can't go through 7400 comments just to see if someone happened to mention this but; If the car Doug reviewed was in fact a long-wheel-base, then this isn't a W140 but a V140 as the W140 had the shorter wheelbase. I just refer to this generation as the 140 series, which had a total 4 iterations: As mentioned-above, you had the W140 and V140, you then had the C140 (Coupe) and the VV140, that's the limo version.
This is a really good read about the W140. As a W140 owner it is highly recommended! auto-didakt.com/cars_blog_leser/mercedes-benz_w140_design_review_history_bruno_sacco.html Really wish Doug had reviewed an example that was in better cosmetic condition (that paint looks terrible, cracked wood trim) but seems like all the mechanical things are in order except the rear powered headrests. I have a final year (1999) W140 and my headrests drop but do not have automatic raising - guess it's one of the things Mercedes did away with to control costs later in the model run.
Marcel Patel sorry this car wouldn’t even wipe its ass with a Lexus. The ls400 is respected in its own right but comes nowhere near the w140’s quality and refinement and luxury amenities.
HELLO!!! I want to spend time with celebrities. Just kidding. GAGAGAGAGA! I only want to spend time with my two girlfriends and record videos for my channel with the 3 of us. OH YEAH. Don't hate me for living the best life, dear doug
Ruben Braekman my 96 cummins ram 3500 has 384k, the body was made of (shit) sheeeeetmetal, but seems to never have been rust prevented. But the engine and frame still are going strong. The cummins is indestructable.
@@EthanL21800 I was, and on purpose, and in a snarky way. (Didn't you catch 'the ticket' part?) The sooner BLM and their 'peaceful protests' go away, the better. I have all colors of friends, 'it's the content of their character'. Stop watching CNN.
@@Colorado_Native who gives a shit about blm here anyways. It has its purpose, but the only one I see bringing it into light here is you mate. If you wanna see it go away, then first step is to stop giving it attention.
Hell, even I have an S420 (same base car, different suspension and lower displacement engine) with the original paint. It's not even funny how much better it is than the paint on this S500
Nice walk through memory lane. I owned the final year of production model ‘98 and it was a dream to own and drive. Understated luxury personified the Big Body Benz and created the Mercedes aficionado that I am today. No knock on the other luxury brands but I’m a Benz Guy for life. Thanks Doug for your cool channel.
Hey Doug! The “donut” button is to turn off the Acceleration slip control (ASR) like a pre-ESP that Mercedes developed at time. It had a tyre with chains because it should be only tuned of in snowy conditions to gain traction.
@@erikh1041 this isn't there to preserve the steering wheel, the leather is probably cracked and worn shiny from years of sweat and greasy hands. the paint looks so atrocious, whoever accepts this isn't the kind of person to protect a 30 year old steering wheel.
There was a mid-cycle refresh...the upper band in the lower cladding, the bottom corners of the truck were rounded and that clear bar that went across the rear was raised up higher into the taillights...wheels the same as earlier. The '97 S, which I have, WAS AN ADDITIONAL REFRESH before the end. The amber/red in the taillights was changed to clear/red, and with that lower clear cross bar under the lights higher still, from the side the taillights look equal of clear/red/clear...'97 were ALL mono-color, no more grey lower panels...mine midnight blue...which sometimes looks black, then evening light a lot of green. Anyway, it's worth the xenons/reworked headlights in the '97...brilliant at night, below the low bean xenons are the driving lamps, then toward the grill were the additional high beams...at night you can all 3 sections lit at the same time by pull of the light switch for the driving lamps lower of the low beams and the inner high beams on same time...the front turn signals were also CLEAR, no longer amber...so front and rear light changes made a huge difference...my front fascia is deeper underneath the front, and rear too. Doug is correct on some later model de-content...the rear parking bars were deleted, inside the power rear mirror is manual, there's no flip up storage in the door armrests, and the top part of the console where the phone is was reworked, phone still there, but when opened are now 2 cup holders...greatly useful, but I wish mine didn't have a phone...more upper/center console storage, but mainly the center top of dash storage would be empty of the phone pad/dialer. ALSO, making a big difference in appearance along w/the clear front/rear lights reworked, '97 got the deep 6-hole sportier looking wheels...make a BIG difference from the flush earlier 7-hole "manhole cover" wheels. I'll give on the few deletes from earlier for the hottest/sportiest looking model, '97. It's gorgeous...esp outside w/the wheels and lights reworked even more than the mid-cycle refresh. Midnight blue (a more rare color) w/parchment int, and cold weather package I think it's called of headlight wipers and HEATED washer fluid...which is currently being a problem, lol. The car is and effortless cloud of a ride, yet authorative and all the Mercedes dymanics when you want to dial it up and move. I ALWAYS get comments fueling up, anywhere in general...classy and elegant...and I got the extended wheelbase...3" more in the rear. But the last of the over-engineered Benz, of what I consider a real Benz to be...as well as the last S-class built that way. 99k miles, I'll never part with it...I have a jeep for my daily/better, but it's hard to not want to get in the S-class every time.
The SEL was only to designate the so seek laser name, fuels injection and long wheel base. All the big premium car from Mercedes since the 70’s were all considered S classes.
I remember reading a consumer magazine back in the days which had this car on it when it just came out with the headline that roughly translated to "a glimp of what options your car will have in 10 years"... Some of these options my car still doesn't have today.
its cool and all but those gadgets are gonna be a headache in long term. To be fair these days lot of people dont own car long enough so they need to pay for anything that breaks and it makes sense.
@@thedeaddonkey8018 Yeah, that's why a 10 year old S class is so cheap. Everything that was state of the art back then, is fairly dated now and likely to break.
@@haggard1378 Extra care as in, you need to be a professional mechanic to be able to drive a car like this often. And even then, some parts will likely be hard or impossible to find. Although 3D printing might fix that issue in the near future.
Other things that I loved about the W140: 1. Steering was one finger turning light and the turning diameter was the best for a big car. At a stop light or road closer I could 360 the car with one turn. 2. When fixing or changing items under the hood, the hood could be raised straight up. 3. All of the outside lights did not need any tools to remove and replace. 4. The dash lights were a breeze to change with the right tool. Same with: 5. The radio 6. The 96 and on AC units 7. The spare tire cover had a rope attached that connected to the boot to keep the cover open while you grabs the tires and tools. 8. The AC and front window defroster was the stongest airflow I have ever seen. 9. If someones fingers are on the window while it is going up. Instead of smashing your fingers, the window will stop. 10. On newer W140s besides having rear sensors for reversing, it had front sensors. 11. If your riding in the MB by your self and you want all the air or heat to you or away from you - there was an open and close vent lever for all 5 vents. All close enough for the driver to reach. I used It all the time. 12. The door handles were just solid.Everything was solid. 13. The hood had two release locks instead usual one. 13. My mechanic said the brake pads were the size of f450 trucks -huge. 14. The roof railing kept the rain from running into the car. I miss my W140. I had a Black on Black w/charcoal bottom half. Loved that color! My only issue was mechanics (and there were many) who claim to know how to fix it - lied. From a perfect car to one that things were no longer working because mechanics while trying to fix one thing actually made everything worse. Or would take parts from it and claim it wasn't working. I could not afford to take it to the dealer. In hindsight, the only one who had all the tools to fix it. One mechanics stole my oil dip stick and replaced it with another (different color and broken dipstick). Another took the power window and lock cartledges in the trunk and replaced with broken ones. To all the alleged Mercedes Benz mechanics who broke, stole, bent, lied, cheated, and took my money.... I hope your penis falls off. My eyes adored her, I loved that car.
I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS CHARACTER WILL HAVE WITH THE W140... AT FIRST HE SAYS THAT THERE ARE NO OTHER CARS LIKE THE W140... WITH ALL THE LUXURY AND DETAILS "WHAT OTHERS" DON'T HAVE... IN THE END HIS SCORE IS ANOTHER ... BUT IT'S HIS OPINION, NOT THE WORLD'S, SO IT DOESN'T COUNT... SOMEONE ELSE'S STORY... HE ALSO SAID THAT AT THAT TIME YOU COULD BUY A CAR SIMILAR TO THE W140 LIKE LEXUS AND OTHERS AND NOT PAY A MONEY, THESE OTHER "CHEAP" DON'T HAVE A STAR!!... THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF CARS IN THE WORLD... MERCEDES BENZ AND OTHERS
And my stupid ass mechanic said it’s extra complicated Man I which I lived in the us or Germany Dubai mechanics have no knowledge on cars other than Nissan and Toyota
Saw this car In person last week here in Nigeria. The door weighed close to a ton. The glass is so thick you would think it was bullet proof. The bumpers had chrome and they looked so tough and tightly fixed in place. I wonder what the latest W223 would be like. The Engineers really did this.
The S600 LWB was a truly insane car. The parent of a family friend had one when I was growing up. Never forget being picked up outside a club in this huge black land yacht.
That's the one that was described by a motoring magazine here in the UK as "the true sybarite's express" as I mentioned above. Over 16 feet long, and *woefully* impractical if you tried piloting it through the mediaeval streets of York or Cambridge here, though its size would be far less of a problem on American roads. Here in the UK it was labelled as the 600 SEL V12, with the prominent V12 badges informing everyone that you had blown £100K to own one. Rear seat room was utterly fabulous, and it was dripping with toys. Though you *really* wanted someone else to pay for the petrol it drank. The UK spec models were, in effect, palaces on wheels. Though most palaces can't sprint at 155mph down an autobahn :)
@@talal-alqahtani ... I would suggest that yes, it is worth restoring. But you should hang on to it for another 20 years first, at which point it will be a collectable that will reap more money when you sell it, than you spent on restoring it. :)
I recently picked up an "as new" '93 W140 as a new daily. Absolutely beautiful machines! Built and drives like nothing I've ever driven, new or old. Even still has an untouched tool kit and now useless first aid kit haha There isn't a single electronic (or vacuum actuated) feature that doesn't work on it, which is amazing coming out of a few similar era BMWs where absolutely nothing powered worked... Picked it up for 8yo Corolla money yet the air or presence it gives you while driving around, even 27 years later, is worth it's original price tag!
Jacob congrats on your w140 sounds awesome. May I ask how much it was ? Original owner ? How did you locate ? I have 2 MBs but am researching our next one. Thanks if you can answer !
@@hellosunshine1090 Thanks! I paid $9,600 Australian, was listed for $12k. Has 105k KM (65k miles) They were the original owners, an elderly retired couple. It had been stored in their garage in between use it's whole life so is basically untouched by the elements and the back seats had never been used! Even still has the original untouched first aid kit. I decided this week that it is too good to use to drive to work so I am fixing the head gasket on my E36 for a daily and retiring the W140 to weekender status to preserve it!
@@19jacobob93 That's a "too good to be True find" story...come true ! Which engine ? Color ? It'd be cool to see a RUclips of her if you'd do one. Actually MB tend to be above average in well cared for vehicles so you CAN find nice ones but some digging is required. I always say 'buy the owner, not just the car'... nicest 2 MB I've bought were from a retired couple - always garaged. Here in Texas probably half are neglected & beat up, half are worth a look. But only 5% are like your gem w140. We got a w163 - ML500, year 2002 in primo low miles condition 98k miles - (2 owners) for $3800 in 2016. I cannot complain at all ! Bulletproof build, but finicky ABS electronics tech can throw you. Its fun & fast holds us 6 & tows trailers nicely. Its super capible off road - my versatile luxury truck. I'm considering a large sedan to replace our aging w210 wagon & I've always loved the w140 body...we have a few hereabouts and they always catch my eye as a timeless design that looks ageless.
@@hellosunshine1090 It was! I didn't want to spend more than $9k while looking for a pre owned car and I went to view this thing out of curiosity and was immediately in love and had to have it. It is white and has the 3.2 M104 I6, so both of these are a blessing and a curse as they are both the least desirable options on paper, but in reality they make for a great affordable ownership and the white paint is the easiest to keep looking fresh as it rejects the most of the hot Queensland sun. I actually plan on making a video on it soon if you subscribe to my channel and be patient haha I made a small tour of my Australian 2000 Ford Falcon last if you like big, interesting sedans, and the W140 replaces it in spirit as someone wrote it off not long after! Sounds good though I love those diamond in the dirt situations with cars!
@@19jacobob93 Great yeah white is nice & easy. Our w210 Wagon is white it looks like a "Storm Trooper" (Star Wars) mobile. So which year w140 ? Yes I will sub your Channel for sure. Ill post links for my ML & e320 Wagon stuff. Queensland is hot desert like conditions ? My Aussie friend said "Everyone's Coastal / Beachfront Down Under" but he exaggerated perhaps ? On these I'm showing my Exhaust Upgrades. W210 - ruclips.net/video/U-_Y9LHt_Vo/видео.html ML500 - ruclips.net/video/GjKdiY0r_ZE/видео.html
Regarding the wipers at the headlights, I also had this on my 1990 Mercedes-Benz W124 230E which I bought new. What is more interesting, however, is that the washer fluid for both the headlights and the front window was heated as part of a so-called Nordic package (I am from Norway). In front of the engine compartment there was a small heat exchanger where hot cooling water from the engine heated the tank for washer fluid. Quite smart and very effective on winter roads when the salt from the roads settles as a coating on the glass. Regarding the design of the W140, it is hardly as elegant as the W126. People here in Europe called the W140 a "stranded whale" when the model came on the market (large, round and visually less agile compared to the more dynamic, low and sporty W126).
In Europe, cupholders weren't a thing. We don't have drive throughs and certainly noon would drink a coffee in the car from the cafe. Starbucks wasn't even a thing back then.
Martin Jones I know ~why~ its just funny with our modern context of literally outlawing phone calls and texting but not caring about eating and drinking.
It’s kind of cool to see Doug’s entire attitude is pure gratitude for the cars he genuinely respects including this car, and it makes the video that much better IMO!
Hello from Switzerland! Mr. DeMuro is loosing his mind for choosing this bad condition 140. I have to say the following, I have some minty low mile fetish 140s in my collection and the cars still look massive next to a new W222. You can look down very well on the pleabian minions when you ride along in the 140. The 140 conveys a certain respectful dictator / plutocrat aura similar to the W100 600, which (unfortunately) no longer embodies the current luxury class vehicles. This is probably why the 140 was one of the favorite vehicles of people like Muammar al-Gadaffi, Putin, the Yakuza and Co. even when there were successor series to choose from. The space, security [extremly rugged in a serious crash, a kind of unique "chopped" ladder frame like a truck, plus (!) a unibody is a construction they have not done on any other mercedes except the W240 maybach which build on the 140 chassis, makes this car a "tigertank" that will crush the other car in a serious accident, newer big cars are build weaker for socialist partner protection in a crash to help the smaller car, so you can say 140/240 was the pinnacle of crash saftey in some way, to only protect the occupants of the 140/240 and crush the enemy car with no mercy] a long-distance suitability and comfort of the 140s are in no way inferior to those of the new luxury vehicles, unlike, for example, the very old-school 126 model. Good examples of the 140 series are expensive, some are above comparable 126s, which was not the case a few years ago here in Europe (minty 140 500/600 under 60kmiles, go for about 50k/CHF, and I guess will be encreasing further in future) I cannot understand the fear of some "control units", the electronics in the 140 are rock solid and really not rocket science, similar to the W124 E500 E420 E320 or all R129 up to ´98, sometimes even redundant and can still be repaired in the distant future, in contrast to today's cheap and over-complex electronics. In terms of mechanical durability and engine design, the M104, M119 and M120 engines are unsurpassed as far as the petrol engines from Daimler are concerned, provided they are properly cared for, that is the golden era of Daimler, something better was not built before and after. I think some are only now beginning to understand what epochal masterpieces have been created. Elsewhere in the world it was already considered a masterpiece that competed with Rolls Royce and Bentley and even degraded them, similar to the W100. It is not for nothing that the W240 Maybach builds on the chassis of the 140 series. An E32 / E38 or Audi V8 / A8, Lexus LS on the other hand, looks like a poorly manufactured mid-range car, the same with the unworthy supposed successor, the W220, which initiated the qualitative degeneration of Mercedes under J. Schrempp. The W220 actually was not the true successor of the 140, even if some may think so, actually the W240 Maybach was the successor/reincarnation of the W140. The development costs of the 140 were the highest in mercedes history with the engineers running the show and going truly megalomaniac, it was the last engineers car from mercedes and not a car, where accountants and shareholders made the development decisions. The ride, build quality and "aura" is unlike any other mercedes before and after, I have to say, these cars do have a soul. I might add that the 140 offered two good cupholders in the front middle armrest but that was an extra option. I find it shameful that you reviewed the best car ever made with this, beat down, roll painted POS. I always was waiting for you to make a Video of the 140 since I remembered you mentioned it was your favourite Mercedes Big Body in an article on autotrader you wrote some years ago. And by no means are the 500 and 600 140s slow, the M120 V12 was put in the Pagani Zonda, the M119 V8 as bi-turbo with KKK-superchargers was put in the Sauber C9 in 1989, 720ps. I guess the car you are reviewing has beyond 500k miles and a shitty maintance history with 7 diffrent owners where the last 5 turned the clock, so it will have lost some horsepowers and have a worn out suspension and steering feeling. I sometimes cruise during the night time on the German Autobahn with 250km/h, the suspension and parameter steering feel (you also forgot to mention parameter steering) is very firm and tight on well maintained 140s, they go like on rails, like a freight train. I own almost all S-Class models five of which are 140 chassis, 240 Maybach including the newest 222 (POS). I know how the 140 compares, it is out of this world, I even dare to say that the build quality on the 140 is even higher than the 240 Maybach. It was and most likley will forever be the best car humanity produced, period.
To supplement my previous comment with pictures, the W240 (Maybach) is the successor of the W140, as the nomenclature also suggests, not the unworthy W220. The Maybach builds on the 140, here are pictures of some Maybach test vehicles. The unique M120 was unfortunately not installed in the W240, which debuted in 2002, for emission reasons, instead the so called M285, a modificated version of the M275 (65AMG). Here are the pictures: nast-sonderfahrzeuge.de/MB-Exotenforum/img/uploaded/image83258.jpg nast-sonderfahrzeuge.de/MB-Exotenforum/img/uploaded/image83257.jpg nast-sonderfahrzeuge.de/MB-Exotenforum/img/uploaded/image83264.jpg
I had 1999 and It was my first Mercedes. Bought it used of course, but very clean.. It was one of the smoothest riding cars I've ever been in until this day. The problem was the high maintenance cost. Every time I opened the hood it was like I was buying a new flat-screen TV. Sold it and bought an Acura RL. The Mercedes basically spoiled me with its comfort and quietness. However, the Acura never broke down and all I ever needed to do was normal maintenance. Sadly, my Acura was hit and totaled. Rest in peace Acura TL. One day I'll get another Benz but as a weekend cruiser.
In Germany these days it was common to go to a restaurant and take a seat to eat. Fast food restaurants with drive through lanes wasn't available. And the clientele who bought an S Class would not have eaten at an fast food restaurant back then.
Wow reminds me when my old man had one when i was a kid and would “chauffeur” me to school. I felt like richie rich! He had one of the first s classes with xenon headlights, which would get him pulled over by the cops all the time since they had no idea what they were.
That charcoal filter was unreal! If you had any smells in the air outside the vehicle (think manure), you could press that button and the smell was GONE. And I owned this car, but I never realized that the armrests on the doors had storage!
Was just about to say the same. As early as in 1970 the Saab 99 already had headlight wipers. Hey Doug, you might want to do a bit deeper research for your videos.
Here in Poland it's been an iconic car for gangsters in the 90s. Always W140s and E32/38 with bullet holes in newspapers and TV when some shooting happened.
BeEg xxc same things were in Russia too. If you had BMW or Mercedes you were the king of the road, even if you had E30 3-series or W201. My father was a businessman in the late 80-s and up to late 2000 (but he was an honest one, not like the most businessmans in Russia, especially in the 90-s), and in 1992 he had a brand hew Mercedes Benz SL AMG. Imagine people’s reactions when they saw that kind of car in Moscow, at a time when even mobsters and politics couldn’t get that kind of car.
I sincerely believe, we owe a lot to Mercedes Benz and their amazing engineers, for a lot of the amazing technology we enjoy today in econo-box cars.... Thanks to those engineers!!
Thanks for the video Doug. I own an 06 "cut rate nightmare" W220, which is perfect and original in every way. I learned some things about my '06 by watching your '94 vid.
They were still prototypes they prepped if any competitors were to launch a v16. No one had sold v16 cars since Caddy in the 30s. V16 is a pain in the A to produce and fit in cars, so no one wanted to do it that bad
Justinian Yi Also with it being a bigger kind of engine, the balance of the car is also messed up because it goes past the front wheels on these sedans. 50/50 weight distribution is further worsened. For example the S70 V12 engine is 583 pound vs the V16 684 pounds which is 100 full pounds heavier than the V12 (Dry weight)
The 16 cylinder engine was never developed !!! it was drawn in one of the magazines at the time. Engineers were reluctant to work on a 12-cylinder engine because they considered the v8 to be the most successful.
Brings back memories, I owned the 1992 500sel same platform. I remember driving this car at 120 mph and it felt like I was sitting on my couch. Very comfortable. Pig on gas . 100 litre tank gave me 600km to the tank ( 26 gallon tank 360 miles per tank). Becker CD changer located in the back of the trunk. Enjoyed it for it for two years. Bought it for approx 22,000 cdn in 2000. Written off in insurance accident, got $26,000 insurance settlement. This car was a tank
I had a 1994 s500, loved this car till someone set it on fire in the weird luxury car arson fad of 2009 in Chicago. I haven't found a car like it again. I only had 124k miles and been hearing with good care and maintenance 200k was possible.
18:40 I'm assuming Mercedes made this switch blank just to make it clear that the switch above refers to a seat.. seeing a random rectangular switch would've been odd.
@@daniellaufer6204 just walked in the garage and checked and can confirm that all 3 buttons are switches in the back seats. But you're right about uniformity in lower trims
Living back home in Hungary in the 90s the germans would come over for vacation and bring the newest and absolute best cars ever made, including this one. This was the peak of mercedes, and many other auto makers of the time. Its a shame how much these automakers and the world changed for the worse since then.
The owner was like “Hmm, Doug’s multi million sub channel is going to be reviewing my car. Maybe I should get the interior and exterior detailed? Nah, some tire shine will do.”
Look at the trunk paint...
these cars are so cheap anyways, most people probably wouldn't bother. Not saying I would not appreciate a basic clean etc, but not everyone are living on a healthy budget to just get stuff like that done for a one-time occasion.
@@Real_MisterSir I actually clean and polish my own car...it costs nothing and I get a workout at the same time.
@A real bisexual petrol-head If my car was going to be seen by millions of people and reviewed by Doug, I'd spend all the time that's required to make it look the best it could possibly be...just sayin'.
@@mikevale3620 Good on you! I do (did) the same with my motorcycle. But I can understand that not everyone has the time or dedication to it. Just means that clean examples are so much more appreciated :)
You can almost hear paint screams to be polished professionally :P
Hahahah I know.. the black paint needs it
Is this what you get for $299 at Mako? This paint looks awful!
FFS Did the use house paint on the poor Merc?
It looks that someone used a brush to paint that car. My 9 yo daughter could make better job
ruclips.net/video/nDwbAkB9r58/видео.html
It was detailed with a grill brush.
Talha Mirza 😆
My grill brush after having a massive barbecue grilling steaks on it
Also it was painted with a paint roller before
Jesus doug did you get this one at a junkyard?
1995 nobody's phone was fitting in anything smaller than a backpack
Doug, I don't know what to say but " Thank You"! I lived in Germany from 1991-1995 & I had a German friend (Jorst) that owned several Pharmacy Franchises in Germany (like our CVS). Every year he'd go to California USA for a 6-week Conference and would ask me to watch over his (15) cars. THIS was one of them. He told me about the dropping/raising rear head-rests & the electric rear-mirror. I'd take this car on the Autobahn and be in Frankfurt from K-Town in under 30 minutes. You did a correct & respectful review of this car, and I appreciate it.
"THIS IS A..." car that needs a paint correction!
More like sandblasted down to bare metal and repainted again..
Paint swirls are underrated.
I noticed that, the car's had a Stevie Wonder respray
@@mattridgley9095 That trunk is also 90% body filler.
Nope, "the best example of the best S-Class ever"!
Jesus, that car was repainted in the middle of a sandstorm.
The most Mercedes looking Mercedes ever!
Probably so! Certainly one of the best. Now they mostly look like every other Amero-Euro-Asian car.
f308gtb1977 to be fair to Mercedes, that’s because other manufacturers - particularly the Asian companies - have imitated MB’s designs pretty successfully for the past decade or so. It’s not MB’s fault.
VideoAmericanStyle , you’re not wrong.
You’d say that to your DAUGHTER!!!???
A real bisexual petrol-head , uh... no.
I love these cars!💖 I've owned a 1995 S420, 1997 S420 and a 1999 S500 over the years. Each car came with 4 keys. 2 remote controls with folding master keys, 1 valet key (allows valet to unlock drivers door and drive) and 1 flat key (a master to open all locks and drive). Did you know, if you have all the windows and moon roof open after you park you can hold down the lock button on your remote and the car will roll up all windows and close the moon roof as you're walking away? You can even roll up all windows and close the moon roof by putting the key into the door and turning and holding the key into the lock position until all windows and moon roof are closed. Mercedes Benz was WAY ahead of it's time!
AND THIS HAD NOT SHOWED ANY OF THOSE OPTIONS... AND THEN SAID CHEAP CAR SAME LEVEL AS W140...
COMPLETELY CRAZY...
this was available on bmw e39 5 series in the 90ies too so I imagine 7 series had it. Could be that mb invented it tho
My 2001 W210 has this feature where I can controlled the windows opening when parked using the remote. I believe it is also a standard features on conti cars now as I have 2014 VW Polo which also has same feature using the remote.
Of course a woman would own them 🙄 must be nice having money
@@elmagnifico1 the rich lady in my neighborhood drove one ,the next time I saw her a young man was driving her in a rolls 😂
Does it have a $12,000 exhaust though?
HAHA! Whats up eff. Good to see you
The S600 would have been a wiser choice for the W140
nice to see you eff :)
Just finished watching your video. rip sony camcorder
More like a stock 500$ exhaust probably 😅.. Just speculating
Me: 1 Million dollars Mclaren Hypercar: Meh
Me: Old Mercedes: Oh yeah, here we go.
Seriously!
Old cars=gold cars
Old but gold
S70 AMG ... pagani v12
im glad im not the only one😂 too many supercars on social media already but not these gems
In 90s Russia, people were afraid to even make eye contact with the person being chauffeured in the back of a w140
I also never got into a police trap, they always wave me through when I am in the W140 :-)
Ну, Кирюха, загнул. "Чёфферед" - сколько ж я этого слова не слышал...
I love Russia and fast W140s.
@@Kerogas_ читай больше книжек английских)
@@websnail This is true indeed, I was never even once stopped by police whenever I drive mine they just wave me through. I've also noticed that people get a little bit uneasy/scared whenever I arrive with this car and especially when I get out of it. LOL
Got to agree. This is the S-Class to beat. Such a timeless design. It's like how a luxury car should look like.
It looks like that thing was repainted with a roller
House paint maybe?
ruclips.net/video/nDwbAkB9r58/видео.html
More like painted with a potted plant
Repainted with the roller by Doug
Thats exactly what I thought
Also worth noting a few additional interesting points:
- There was an alternative armrest with split top to provide storage in one half and two of the most over engineered cup holders I’ve ever seen in the other half (so many moving parts as the fold out on a spring loaded mechanism)
- Some were factory fitted with fridges and/or fax machines between the rear seats
- An upgraded napa leather seat option was also available which made the seats far more comfortable and hugging (standard on S600 models but also on some others)
- The car was shipped with a valet key that was restricted to prevent opening the trunk or glove boxes (top where the phone is on this one and main)
- Some had an optional business package that provided a power folding rear tray table and controls to allow the rear passenger to adjust the front seat position from their seat control panel (also had multidirectional pivoting spot lights fitted in the roof above the B pillar)
- There was an option to have the rear seats as two separate fully adjustable seats (not bench seat)
- The rear armrest has two little cut out slots (you can see in the video) to allow a Walkman headset cable to run out of with the lid closed
- The seat controls also alow adjustment of the headrest height in the front and the rear ones will put down or up the folding rear headrests
- European spec cars are fitted with a triangle mounted to the boot lid rather than in the wheel well
- These cars were sometimes fitted with both a speed limiter and cruise control stalk
- The gearbox has a W (wet) and S (dry) mode selector (in W it will try to start using second gear and changes less aggressively)
- Rear seats get folding lit mirrors in the roof along with a light in the C pillar (front mirrors are lit too)
Seems like he missed a few things.
If Doug didn’t say it, I don’t believe it
He also forgot to talk about the wipers.
You have right bro
Very interesting, thank you
Dude, was this car painted with a paint roller ?
sandpaper
I've painted several cars with paint rollers to more success than this
Palm.
16:17 Mercedes of this era with this feature actually have 2 cabin air filters. One is the particulate filter, which is what you find in virtually any modern car. The second is a separate carbon filter. This filter is much thicker than the all-in-one carbon layers you find today, so it actually works longer than a week. Bypassing it also helps it last longer.
Looks like the car was painted with a cactus.
🤣🤣🤣
Its bondo bro things been crashed hard lmao
that's very funny! ha ha ha ha
@@pinytenis420 Iool I agree look at 7:38 that door section looks terrible and the trunk at 5:53 looks like it's been crooked, buffed out and painted by the intern kid
You spelled "Earl Scheib" wrong.
Cool car owner: hey doug would you like to review my Mercedes?
Doug: only if the power rear view mirror is still working
Assassin Force this was the most Doug thing ever 😅
I remember growing up in Germany in the 80s and 90s and when McDonalds and drive through counters became a thing, you could get plastic cup holders with the McDonalds logo on them. They were plastic contraptions with a hook that you could stick in between your door panel and the window.
Just bringing this up to show how weird and novel the idea of a cup holder in a car was to Germans back in those days.
Whoa! I forgot all about those!
I remember that in the Netherlands. Thx for the memory. But driving is driving would be a good idea still!
this comment is at 69 likes and i dont wanna change it
Jepp, my Mum is still using hers.
Not McD, but it still is as practical as ever.
Honestly, I still think cup holders in cars are a weird idea.
Doug, I really think you shoud rate cars in additional category like "these times rating", because many older cars are getting low rate because you compare it's features with today standards and I think that is unfair in many cases :(
Agreed. He can adjust all scores to the state of the art of the time.
He should have separate ratings for the time it was made, and the time of the video's making. He should also rate them depending on what the car IS. Such as rating an economy hatchback as "slow" isn't fair, because it isn't meant to be fast. He should compare it to other economy hatchbacks to see which one is the fastest/most comfortable etc etc. He should have a personal rating and a "class" rating for each car. Rating a 120 hp economy hatchback as "slow" isn't fair because it isn't made to be a race car. Same thing with an S-class. If the quality is on par with an economy car it shouldn't get the same quality score as the economy car, because it's advertised as a "luxury car".
@@nicklasveva that's the point. What is the point of rating and giving any kind of score to so different cars? Dunno. Maybe we should just ignore Doug Score and consider it as just some unnecesary quirk/feature.
I don’t really see it as an issue because after giving it the Doug score he shows where it ranks next to similar cars from similar eras so you can gauge how good it was for what kind of car from whichever time period
So i think
”Thiiiiis is one of the best luxury sedans ever built: 46/ 100“ 🤠
Nobody passes Doug's Car Class.
I honestly don’t get his rating but it’s his opinion
All the cars he reviews he grades them according to modern standards.so it isn't as good as it was back in the 1990s
It still kicks all asses.
Yeah. He will give a two seater car a low rating for practicality, meanwhile a two seater does exactly what is intended, so it should be rated high for practicality. I like Doug's reviews, but when he starts with the doug score, I pause and move to the next one
Looks like the trunk was painted with a black Kiwi Shoe Dye
That's exactly how it looks
It could be truth
Or a black permanent marker! Omg what crap job
🤣
I grew up with this car. My parents bought an S500 in 1994, and I felt like the coolest kid getting dropped off in school haha. It was incredibly massive, insanely quiet, and my dad still has it. He even built cupholders for it by milling aluminum retractable cupholders for that tiny center storage box where the cell-phone controls used to be in. I told him he could totally sell that on etsy or whatever but for whatever reason, he won't (he said it costed him lots of time to mill, and with materials cost; it would cost too much to sell). Anyways, the paint quality never held up well with the car. He always had it garage-kept; yet the paint just deteriorated after 20 years. I recall my buddy's dad also has one, and the paint on these were just utter crap.
And the windows, them being dual-pane, are insanely expensive too. The outer layer on the passenger-side rear window just decided to shatter one day. Sigh..
The Yakuza company car. Nearly 30 years old, but easily one of my top 3 dream Mercs.
I just picked up a ‘92 500SL. Loving it
They sure loved those i-spy mirrors
I'm still looking for one myself
SlitWristMisfit I own one. It has routine oil changes and that’s it. Mechanically it’s completely sound for a ‘98. One owner. Always wintered. My e46 cost more in my first year than my Benz. And it’s a lot less comfortable.
@@Got_it I envy you dude! That's my all time favorite benz. Just timeless beauty.
Nice review! The 140 was the best MB ever made! I had a ‘95 S320 LWB which had a lot of power for a 6 that you wouldn’t know it because it did not sound like one and behaved like an 8. It was also very economical. The car had a 28 gallon fuel tank and would go over 600 miles on a tank of gas. I know you couldn’t mention every possible feature but for the readers, I don’t think you mentioned the tilt down outside mirrors when you shifted car in reverse so that you can see the curb to help prevent wheel rash. The double-pane windows also made the car more aerodynamic, thus quieter, because the outside pane was made flush with the trim and door frame. The car also had drop-down illuminated vanity mirrors for the rear seat passengers; perfect for those wanting to touch up their hair or makeup before hitting the red carpet. Also, the car had the ahead-of-its-time sound system. The other unique engineering design feature you could not see was the dual a/c compressors which made the car’s separate heat and a/c controls much more effective than other cars. I had absolutely no issues with my 140 and the MB service for maintenance was impeccable. My BMWs on the other hand were a different story.
This video is brought to you by Rustoleum spray cans
Gold-standard Rustoleum. I’m Sure the owner bought the premium cans of paint!
😂Lol
I lol'd
"Now this, this is TRUE german engineering. Unparalleled innovation, the likes of which has yet to be matched by any modern manufacturer almost 30 years later."
*Points at trunk handle*
The w126 was best
W140 is a pain to repair and service.
I love my w126, but almost everything is mechanical. Stuff has a habit of breaking. I want a w126 with some w140 elements
“Thissssss is another car you will think about for days but never buy!”
That is insanely true.
this is another car you will never buy, but be interested in, and quickly check out on carsales.
@@bradford_shaun_murray Here in germany you can get these for 1000 Euro in bad condition xD
@@boonamai8926 yeah exactly, i had the coupe two years ago. Coupes are slightly more expensive and i bought mine for about 5k EUR and it was running fine as a daily. However by running i mean just engine and gearbox - all of those quirks and features worked like on schedule which will break this week. Repairs of those features were a lot more expensive than for instance in BMW E39, took a lot of time and nobody wanted to work on it, because everything was made slightly different than in other cars. Even the Mercedes dealerships didn't wanted to deal with some of the issues. Only good thing about it is that parts are still produced by Mercedes. They are expensive but at least if you can't find used you can just order it.
After some time i've sold it and i bought brand new Mustang GT. After two years running cost (including monthly payment for Mustang, taxis and rental cars during Mercedes period) of both cars is pretty much similar, and while Mustang is slightly more expensive to run... it actually runs without spending weeks in service.
And yes, i could keep Mercedes under the blanket and buy some Skoda for everyday use, but i wanted to drive a fun car, not to own it.
experts. experts everywhere. 2 weeks with w140 dont make you expert. i will tell you secret. after 8 years with w140 i can say that 90% malfuncions can be fixed by spending few h on mb forum then finding cleaning and viola its working again. urban legenda from people who copy legends from other people...
What a time back then. I had two friends. And one friend's parents had exactly this S-Class. And the other friend's parents had this BMW 7 Series, Doug had mentioned in this video this car. And so I drove with both of them more often in the 90s because these parents often picked me up. And the rides were always really cool.
Well, and I definitely remember the S-Class. Back then it was extremely spacious, felt like a sofa, like a living room. Just awesome. In my opinion, it was a bit smaller in the BMW 7 Series. But there was already a TV set for that, and on the way to the club on Saturday evening we saw RTL or a German private channel, for me just totally mind-blowing in the mid-90s
*Whoever painted this car, needs to quit*
seems like they painted it with a hand brush
Mexican body shops left the chat
They use paint roller
Saw that too. Looks like spray tin work.
at the time, the paint quality of mercedes wasn't the best
Doug *points at an obvious tire button Also Doug: “sugar doughnut button”
American things man they always hungry
ruclips.net/video/nDwbAkB9r58/видео.html
Obvious? When I first saw it I thought it was the mitochondria button
I've driven these cars for years. Once you're used to it, it is surprisingly responsiveness nimble. For a giant land yacht, it handles amazingly well.
W140 was the first Mercedes I ever rode in, and it's at that moment I became a fan of Mercedes.
It’s second name in Russia is “Kaban” which means boar. It was mainly driven by Russian Mafia bosses or by Oligarchs in ‘90s . This car is a legend .
In Mongolia nick name is the bull.
@@ironknight2824 oh wow
In Saudi Arabia they call it "shabah" till this day, and it means "ghost".
я искал этот комментарий! я думал, что никто не напишет!
@@MrMrmody1996 Same in Bahrain, they call it the "ghost" for whatever reason but then again, peoplrd called the 90s chevy caprice a "soap bar" lol.
Children: acting up in the back seat
Me: Ok I will just fold down your headrest
ruclips.net/video/nDwbAkB9r58/видео.html
Why not fold the whole back row squish the children in between them.
😩🤣
@Yule Calma but children are so squishy.
Hey Doug, you clearly have a very successful channel, so you can take this feedback with a grain of salt, but for whatever it's worth, I have a quick observation. Whenever you drive the car at the end of your videos, I think it'd be better to give the viewer an audibly and visibly immersive experience, rather than just talking through the whole thing. So you can wear a POV camera and let us hear the engine noise (something many car reviewers on RUclips don't let us hear because they talk over it all the time), show us the view from all sides while driving, hear the turn signals and warning chimes, see the headlights at night etc. The first 2/3rds of the video can be reserved for your narration, while the last 1/3rd can be an actual drive rather than more narration. Just my two cents.
oh god my dad purchased this car when i was a kid. Ohhhh the amount of times I messed with all these features to annoy my parents (like the headrest flipper thing.. blum blum blum blum.. blum blum blum blummmmm; and auto door shut thing as a party trick to show my school friends; messing with my dad's seat memory settings; making faces at cars behind us with the rear-passenger mirrors - ya this thing had rear passenger mirrors!). This video just zipped me down through nostalgia lane big time.
Fucking rich kid
Really cool
87500 in 99 no finance included most peoples house cost at the time
And the rear passenger mirrors got lights 😁 I know because I have one of those, I love this car. So much stuff inside... And makes you feel safe, because not many cars on the road are over 2 tons. It is just great, your baby can sleep even if you run all the potholes. 👌🏻
“How many power operation things do you want?” Mercedes Benz “Yes”
Mercedes: how many Mcoys do you need?
Chuck Norris: yes
Mercedes factory: "We like to order 200 electric motors."
Electric motor producer: "Ah, you mean per day, right?"
Mercedes factory: "No. Per car..."
Compared to new S Classes... few. But my 1996 has over 30 motors in the I interior alone! Power everything!
Looks like someone took his time to repaint it with a nail polish.
It's truly terrible. He should've picked one in better condition for this review. The swirl marks make it look even worse.
Looks good to me
@@tradinwarstoriez5641 so, which polish brand was that?
LOL. I had a friend who tried that with red nail polish. When she got home, there was a charge on her credit card; she'd totaled the car with dings and bits.
and covered the steering wheel in a sporty glove- somebody has tried a bit too hard
My grandma bought one of these new in 1991. The wipers in the headlight are disabled because at least here in CA they were illegal. Another thing if you push up the headrest in the back you can push a button to make them fall back down for easier visibility in the rear view mirror. Great cars felt good driving in that thing.
My all time favorite benz. When i was a valet i loved when this body S class would roll in. Felt like i was important just parking it.
The paint screams! Help me! This looks more like a Tyler Hoovie car
never seen so many swirls in my life
Looks like it was never cleaned properly, such a shame :(
They should have his daughter pick out a color and take it to his Maaco.
Not after his last video
this car literally checks off all the marks that you’d want in a modern luxury car.
why does it feel like we’ve been regressing in ingenuity?
Indeed. I feel like if KIA or one of the smaller brands want to make something good, just get all the quirks and features from this car.
@@omarbabakarkhail no, I have driven modern lexus’s, modern toyota’s, modern honda’s, 2010’s vw’s, 2000’s lexus’s, 2000’s mercedes benz’s, 2000’s bmw’s and I am convinced that the Japanese car manufacturers will never have the same feel as the european car manufacturers, they will always feel like different cars, they just make them differently, it’s just up to what you prefer
@@haggard1378 I know. We have a Model S and used to drive a Leaf 2016 along with an X3 2016. Sure all these cars differ in price, but the leap from an Asian brand to the Europeans or even Tesla is huge. Yet I do wonder if the Asians incorporate some of these quirks and features, the lack of insulation and “quality” might be negated to an extent. We are going to test drive the Ioniq5 soon, so if that one is good, we might trade our S for it.
These days would be too much money to make this car that's why nowadays they simplified things. But new s classes are pretty on par with this benz it took 20 years though to go back to this awesomeness lol This was pretty spaceship for its time though. This car is the same to when volvo put a turbo in their wagons lol sorta revolutionary thing. Soon in our lifetime we will see some.crazyness coming our way with the electric cars
@@haggard1378 of course they feel like different cars, why would they feel the same?
My neighbor had a 1995 when I was a kid, and it was the nicest car I had been in at the time, and still one of the nicest cars I’ve ever been in. She would drive us to elementary school with her daughter, and I felt like a king getting out of it. It sparked my love of German automobiles. Now I’m driving a W212 E63, but it still doesn’t compare to the feeling of riding in that W140 with the soft, supple, quiet ride and features that seemed so futuristic in that era.
I’m more excited for the Langonda Taraf video now... I like this new style of sprinkling in a snippet of what’s to come next.
@Munshat Rahman He could do it without showcasing the cars he will review soon...
I'm digging the subtle sneak peaks that he's been sneaking into these cars and bids intros. I wasn't paying too much attention but just caught that lagonda before it went off screen. Very interested in seeing that.
Doug there are thousands of these cars around how'd you manage to pick the worst painted one
the S on the trunk is upside down
This IS addressed in the review.
He wasnt looking for an S Class with perfect painted exterior. He was looking for a car with a fully functional powered interior rear view mirror. One of the features that made me fall in love with S class Mercedes when i first seen it
Go on 24 min and you will hear why
Because he’s Doug Demuro. 😆
Went to Brussels from West London via the Channel ferry in one of these around late 1992 with my ( then ) Chairman as a 31 year old MD of one of his companies. He’d had it about 6 weeks and it was like being in a spaceship such was the ‘tech’ in it. We spend 10minutes just playing with the soft close doors ! We had such a good series of trips in it and every time we went we found something else new on it to play with. Absolute tour de force then and ground breaking. His next one was like getting into something by British Leyland from the 70’s !
this car is one of the main attributes of 90's russian gangsters and
oligarchs
kaban🔥
600й Мерин 💪💪
I'm pretty sure 90s yakuza also had this car, because foreign brands in japan were seen as classy and powerful
For example, the most famous oligarch was Boris Beresowsky. He was almost murdered in armored W140. Also, the most famous russian gangster (the head of Orekhovskaya gang) drove this one in a coupe version. He was killed in that Mercedes.
Hello from Switzerland! I have to say the following, I have some minty low mile fetish 140s in my collection and the cars still look massive next to a new W222. You can look down very well on the pleabian minions when you ride along in the 140. The 140 conveys a certain respectful dictator / plutocrat aura similar to the W100 600, which (unfortunately) no longer embodies the current luxury class vehicles. This is probably why the 140 was one of the favorite vehicles of people like Muammar al-Gadaffi, Putin, the Yakuza and Co. even when there were successor series to choose from. The space, security [extremly rugged in a serious crash, a kind of unique "chopped" ladder frame like a truck, plus (!) a unibody is a construction they have not done on any other mercedes except the W240 maybach which build on the 140 chassis, makes this car a "tigertank" that will crush the other car in a serious accident, newer big cars are build weaker for socialist partner protection in a crash to help the smaller car, so you can say 140/240 was the pinnacle of crash saftey in some way, to only protect the occupants of the 140/240 and crush the enemy car with no mercy] a long-distance suitability and comfort of the 140s are in no way inferior to those of the new luxury vehicles, unlike, for example, the very old-school 126 model.
Good examples of the 140 series are expensive, some are above comparable 126s, which was not the case a few years ago here in Europe (minty 140 500/600 under 60kmiles, go for about 50k/CHF, and I guess will be encreasing further in future) I cannot understand the fear of some "control units", the electronics in the 140 are rock solid and really not rocket science, similar to the W124 E500 E420 E320 or all R129 up to ´98, sometimes even redundant and can still be repaired in the distant future, in contrast to today's cheap and over-complex electronics. In terms of mechanical durability and engine design, the M104, M119 and M120 engines are unsurpassed as far as the petrol engines from Daimler are concerned, provided they are properly cared for, that is the golden era of Daimler, something better was not built before and after. I think some are only now beginning to understand what epochal masterpieces have been created. Elsewhere in the world it was already considered a masterpiece that competed with Rolls Royce and Bentley and even degraded them, similar to the W100. It is not for nothing that the W240 Maybach builds on the chassis of the 140 series. An E32 / E38 or Audi V8 / A8, Lexus LS on the other hand, looks like a poorly manufactured mid-range car, the same with the unworthy supposed successor, the W220, which initiated the qualitative degeneration of Mercedes under J. Schrempp. The W220 actually was not the true successor of the 140, even if some may think so, actually the W240 Maybach was the successor/reincarnation of the W140. The development costs of the 140 were the highest in mercedes history with the engineers running the show and going truly megalomaniac, it was the last engineers car from mercedes and not a car, where accountants and shareholders made the development decisions.
The ride, build quality and "aura" is unlike any other mercedes before and after, I have to say, these cars do have a soul. I might add that the 140 offered two good cupholders in the front middle armrest but that was an extra option. I find it shameful that you reviewed the best car ever made with this, beat down, roll painted POS. I always was waiting for you to make a Video of the 140 since I remembered you mentioned it was your favourite Mercedes Big Body in an article on autotrader you wrote some years ago. And by no means are the 500 and 600 140s slow, the M120 V12 was put in the Pagani Zonda, the M119 V8 as bi-turbo with KKK-superchargers was put in the Sauber C9 in 1989, 720ps. I guess the car you are reviewing has beyond 500k miles and a shitty maintance history with 7 diffrent owners where the last 5 turned the clock, so it will have lost some horsepowers and have a worn out suspension and steering feeling. I sometimes cruise during the night time on the German Autobahn with 250km/h, the suspension and parameter steering feel (you also forgot to mention parameter steering) is very firm and tight on well maintained 140s, they go like on rails, like a freight train. I own almost all S-Class models five of which are 140 chassis, 240 Maybach including the newest 222 (POS). I know how the 140 compares, it is out of this world, I even dare to say that the build quality on the 140 is even higher than the 240 Maybach. It was and most likley will forever be the best car humanity produced, period.
When i first started watching the video, I thought everyone was being dramatic about the paint quality. Then I saw the trunk lid...
Me too man... me too
SAME.
Lol same
6:50 Same here. This is one of the worst paint jobs I've ever seen.
Finally a W140 S Class review. I’ve been waiting for it for years.
I can't go through 7400 comments just to see if someone happened to mention this but; If the car Doug reviewed was in fact a long-wheel-base, then this isn't a W140 but a V140 as the W140 had the shorter wheelbase. I just refer to this generation as the 140 series, which had a total 4 iterations: As mentioned-above, you had the W140 and V140, you then had the C140 (Coupe) and the VV140, that's the limo version.
Doug: “This is the greatest car EVER in history!!”. Doug score: “Mehh..”
This was until Lexus launched the LS400...
Marcel Patel The Lexus LS400 came out in 1989, this generation S class came out in 1991...
This is a really good read about the W140. As a W140 owner it is highly recommended! auto-didakt.com/cars_blog_leser/mercedes-benz_w140_design_review_history_bruno_sacco.html
Really wish Doug had reviewed an example that was in better cosmetic condition (that paint looks terrible, cracked wood trim) but seems like all the mechanical things are in order except the rear powered headrests. I have a final year (1999) W140 and my headrests drop but do not have automatic raising - guess it's one of the things Mercedes did away with to control costs later in the model run.
Marcel Patel sorry this car wouldn’t even wipe its ass with a Lexus. The ls400 is respected in its own right but comes nowhere near the w140’s quality and refinement and luxury amenities.
Doug Score is only accurate for the newest cars.
As a kid my neighbors had the one with the “reversing poles” next to the trunklid.
HELLO!!! I want to spend time with celebrities. Just kidding. GAGAGAGAGA! I only want to spend time with my two girlfriends and record videos for my channel with the 3 of us. OH YEAH. Don't hate me for living the best life, dear doug
Doug is the type of guy to wear a mask during an online video conference.
You’re the type of person to say this to everyone
😂😂😂
😂😂😂👍
I’ve loved how those comments have been under his videos forever, and they usually reflect on the time they were written.
And still you look the videos
this car was ahead of its time
Back when Benzes were actually reliable and built like tanks!
Yes exactly!
The good ole days
Back then most cars were built like tanks, now everything is tin foil
Ruben Braekman my 96 cummins ram 3500 has 384k, the body was made of (shit) sheeeeetmetal, but seems to never have been rust prevented. But the engine and frame still are going strong. The cummins is indestructable.
There was a line like that in Sin City, something about a particular Mercedes being from the days when that meant something.
The rest of the world: "tyre with snow chains"
Americans: "Sugar Donut"
I wish my car had a sugar donut button!
@@JDsHouseofHobbies Maybe a former police car, oh, excuse me, BLM requires me to refer to them as 'peace cars' now, would be the ticket.
Perry Champ bro just really had to make it political
@@EthanL21800 I was, and on purpose, and in a snarky way. (Didn't you catch 'the ticket' part?) The sooner BLM and their 'peaceful protests' go away, the better. I have all colors of friends, 'it's the content of their character'. Stop watching CNN.
@@Colorado_Native who gives a shit about blm here anyways. It has its purpose, but the only one I see bringing it into light here is you mate. If you wanna see it go away, then first step is to stop giving it attention.
This is probably the worst paintjob ever on this channel.
Or any channel for that matter. (:
well, it was probably the best one he could find
I just kept looking at it thinking, man who did this? It looks like it's been butchered
It is dreadful indeed
Hell, even I have an S420 (same base car, different suspension and lower displacement engine) with the original paint. It's not even funny how much better it is than the paint on this S500
Nice walk through memory lane. I owned the final year of production model ‘98 and it was a dream to own and drive. Understated luxury personified the Big Body Benz and created the Mercedes aficionado that I am today. No knock on the other luxury brands but I’m a Benz Guy for life. Thanks Doug for your cool channel.
Hey Doug! The “donut” button is to turn off the Acceleration slip control (ASR) like a pre-ESP that Mercedes developed at time. It had a tyre with chains because it should be only tuned of in snowy conditions to gain traction.
Hugo Duarte ASR is the german abbreviation of traction control. Still pretty advanced for the time.
Actually this car has an automatic electronic stability control (ESP) for this model 1992
Without a control switch
the Doug? what?
@@vladvulcan The Dougnut?
@@thomassmith6027, hey, I've noticed first!
That steering wheel cover - straight out of a 1990 Chevy S10 🤣 Must have shelled out at least $7.99 for that at Pep Boys!
The wheel itself is probably wrecked
Looks comfy as hell
better than damaging the steering wheel itself, sun exposure ruin steering wheels and dashboards on many cars
@@erikh1041 this isn't there to preserve the steering wheel, the leather is probably cracked and worn shiny from years of sweat and greasy hands. the paint looks so atrocious, whoever accepts this isn't the kind of person to protect a 30 year old steering wheel.
All you guys sound stupid right now. These types of covers were on every car and truck in the 90s. Very common. Looked good back then.
This guy is the same guy from cars and bids.
Yeah, I thought he seemed familiar!
He's a very industrious kind of a dude
Nahh
Doug Demuro created cars and bids.
Nah, it's the writer on autotrader.com/oversteer
There was a mid-cycle refresh...the upper band in the lower cladding, the bottom corners of the truck were rounded and that clear bar that went across the rear was raised up higher into the taillights...wheels the same as earlier. The '97 S, which I have, WAS AN ADDITIONAL REFRESH before the end. The amber/red in the taillights was changed to clear/red, and with that lower clear cross bar under the lights higher still, from the side the taillights look equal of clear/red/clear...'97 were ALL mono-color, no more grey lower panels...mine midnight blue...which sometimes looks black, then evening light a lot of green. Anyway, it's worth the xenons/reworked headlights in the '97...brilliant at night, below the low bean xenons are the driving lamps, then toward the grill were the additional high beams...at night you can all 3 sections lit at the same time by pull of the light switch for the driving lamps lower of the low beams and the inner high beams on same time...the front turn signals were also CLEAR, no longer amber...so front and rear light changes made a huge difference...my front fascia is deeper underneath the front, and rear too. Doug is correct on some later model de-content...the rear parking bars were deleted, inside the power rear mirror is manual, there's no flip up storage in the door armrests, and the top part of the console where the phone is was reworked, phone still there, but when opened are now 2 cup holders...greatly useful, but I wish mine didn't have a phone...more upper/center console storage, but mainly the center top of dash storage would be empty of the phone pad/dialer. ALSO, making a big difference in appearance along w/the clear front/rear lights reworked, '97 got the deep 6-hole sportier looking wheels...make a BIG difference from the flush earlier 7-hole "manhole cover" wheels. I'll give on the few deletes from earlier for the hottest/sportiest looking model, '97. It's gorgeous...esp outside w/the wheels and lights reworked even more than the mid-cycle refresh. Midnight blue (a more rare color) w/parchment int, and cold weather package I think it's called of headlight wipers and HEATED washer fluid...which is currently being a problem, lol. The car is and effortless cloud of a ride, yet authorative and all the Mercedes dymanics when you want to dial it up and move. I ALWAYS get comments fueling up, anywhere in general...classy and elegant...and I got the extended wheelbase...3" more in the rear. But the last of the over-engineered Benz, of what I consider a real Benz to be...as well as the last S-class built that way. 99k miles, I'll never part with it...I have a jeep for my daily/better, but it's hard to not want to get in the S-class every time.
I remember the transition from the SEL class to this S class, this was like the most baller shit ever in the mid 90s
it‘s still a 500SEL. the name changing to S500L came later
There wasn't a transition, a "SEL" Class never existed, the S-Class name has been around since 1972.
The SEL was only to designate the so seek laser name, fuels injection and long wheel base. All the big premium car from Mercedes since the 70’s were all considered S classes.
Sonder (special) Einspritz (fuel injection instead of carb) Long wheel base
This is missing two things:
1. a V12
2. A $12000 exhaust.
I was looking for this comment
Ah, a fellow effspot subscriber
Cameron Wood same
that's a good one lol
I knew it sounded good with exhaust before effspot video! 😁
I remember reading a consumer magazine back in the days which had this car on it when it just came out with the headline that roughly translated to "a glimp of what options your car will have in 10 years"... Some of these options my car still doesn't have today.
That’s sort of the rule of thumb: if you want to know what your “normal” car will have in 10 years, look at the S-Class today.
its cool and all but those gadgets are gonna be a headache in long term. To be fair these days lot of people dont own car long enough so they need to pay for anything that breaks and it makes sense.
@@thedeaddonkey8018 Yeah, that's why a 10 year old S class is so cheap. Everything that was state of the art back then, is fairly dated now and likely to break.
@@stephans1990 just requires extra care
@@haggard1378 Extra care as in, you need to be a professional mechanic to be able to drive a car like this often. And even then, some parts will likely be hard or impossible to find. Although 3D printing might fix that issue in the near future.
Other things that I loved about the W140:
1. Steering was one finger turning light and the turning diameter was the best for a big car. At a stop light or road closer I could 360 the car with one turn.
2. When fixing or changing items under the hood, the hood could be raised straight up.
3. All of the outside lights did not need any tools to remove and replace.
4. The dash lights were a breeze to change with the right tool. Same with:
5. The radio
6. The 96 and on AC units
7. The spare tire cover had a rope attached that connected to the boot to keep the cover open while you grabs the tires and tools.
8. The AC and front window defroster was the stongest airflow I have ever seen.
9. If someones fingers are on the window while it is going up. Instead of smashing your fingers, the window will stop.
10. On newer W140s besides having rear sensors for reversing, it had front sensors.
11. If your riding in the MB by your self and you want all the air or heat to you or away from you - there was an open and close vent lever for all 5 vents. All close enough for the driver to reach. I used It all the time.
12. The door handles were just solid.Everything was solid.
13. The hood had two release locks instead usual one.
13. My mechanic said the brake pads were the size of f450 trucks -huge.
14. The roof railing kept the rain from running into the car.
I miss my W140. I had a Black on Black w/charcoal bottom half. Loved that color!
My only issue was mechanics (and there were many) who claim to know how to fix it - lied. From a perfect car to one that things were no longer working because mechanics while trying to fix one thing actually made everything worse. Or would take parts from it and claim it wasn't working. I could not afford to take it to the dealer. In hindsight, the only one who had all the tools to fix it.
One mechanics stole my oil dip stick and replaced it with another (different color and broken dipstick). Another took the power window and lock cartledges in the trunk and replaced with broken ones.
To all the alleged Mercedes Benz mechanics who broke, stole, bent, lied, cheated, and took my money.... I hope your penis falls off.
My eyes adored her, I loved that car.
No wonder it weighs more than 2 tonnes. Heaviest s class ever made
Not to forget: Lighted cosmetic mirrors in the rear
I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS CHARACTER WILL HAVE WITH THE W140... AT FIRST HE SAYS THAT THERE ARE NO OTHER CARS LIKE THE W140... WITH ALL THE LUXURY AND DETAILS "WHAT OTHERS" DON'T HAVE... IN THE END HIS SCORE IS ANOTHER ... BUT IT'S HIS OPINION, NOT THE WORLD'S, SO IT DOESN'T COUNT... SOMEONE ELSE'S STORY... HE ALSO SAID THAT AT THAT TIME YOU COULD BUY A CAR SIMILAR TO THE W140 LIKE LEXUS AND OTHERS AND NOT PAY A MONEY, THESE OTHER "CHEAP" DON'T HAVE A STAR!!... THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF CARS IN THE WORLD... MERCEDES BENZ AND OTHERS
11.
And my stupid ass mechanic said it’s extra complicated
Man I which I lived in the us or Germany Dubai mechanics have no knowledge on cars other than Nissan and Toyota
Saw this car In person last week here in Nigeria. The door weighed close to a ton. The glass is so thick you would think it was bullet proof. The bumpers had chrome and they looked so tough and tightly fixed in place. I wonder what the latest W223 would be like. The Engineers really did this.
W223 bad.. W222 is very good in today accounting standards.
You're delusional maybe you haven't seen an actual proper car before.
Very popular up north Nigeria during the ibb era
The S600 LWB was a truly insane car. The parent of a family friend had one when I was growing up. Never forget being picked up outside a club in this huge black land yacht.
That's the one that was described by a motoring magazine here in the UK as "the true sybarite's express" as I mentioned above. Over 16 feet long, and *woefully* impractical if you tried piloting it through the mediaeval streets of York or Cambridge here, though its size would be far less of a problem on American roads. Here in the UK it was labelled as the 600 SEL V12, with the prominent V12 badges informing everyone that you had blown £100K to own one.
Rear seat room was utterly fabulous, and it was dripping with toys. Though you *really* wanted someone else to pay for the petrol it drank. The UK spec models were, in effect, palaces on wheels. Though most palaces can't sprint at 155mph down an autobahn :)
@@Calilasseia Rubbish car- I had one of them, and a Skoda Favorit and the Skoda was miles better
I own one, and it's insane! Unless you start having troubles, thats like burning money.
@@talal-alqahtani ... I would suggest that yes, it is worth restoring. But you should hang on to it for another 20 years first, at which point it will be a collectable that will reap more money when you sell it, than you spent on restoring it. :)
@@Calilasseia 600SEL was around the world until about 1993
I recently picked up an "as new" '93 W140 as a new daily. Absolutely beautiful machines! Built and drives like nothing I've ever driven, new or old. Even still has an untouched tool kit and now useless first aid kit haha
There isn't a single electronic (or vacuum actuated) feature that doesn't work on it, which is amazing coming out of a few similar era BMWs where absolutely nothing powered worked...
Picked it up for 8yo Corolla money yet the air or presence it gives you while driving around, even 27 years later, is worth it's original price tag!
Jacob congrats on your w140 sounds awesome.
May I ask how much it was ?
Original owner ?
How did you locate ?
I have 2 MBs but am researching our next one.
Thanks if you can answer !
@@hellosunshine1090 Thanks! I paid $9,600 Australian, was listed for $12k. Has 105k KM (65k miles)
They were the original owners, an elderly retired couple. It had been stored in their garage in between use it's whole life so is basically untouched by the elements and the back seats had never been used! Even still has the original untouched first aid kit.
I decided this week that it is too good to use to drive to work so I am fixing the head gasket on my E36 for a daily and retiring the W140 to weekender status to preserve it!
@@19jacobob93
That's a "too good to be True find" story...come true !
Which engine ? Color ?
It'd be cool to see a RUclips of her if you'd do one.
Actually MB tend to be above average in well cared for vehicles so you CAN find nice ones but some digging is required.
I always say 'buy the owner, not just the car'... nicest 2 MB I've bought were from a retired couple - always garaged.
Here in Texas probably half are neglected & beat up, half are worth a look.
But only 5% are like your gem w140.
We got a w163 - ML500, year 2002 in primo low miles condition 98k miles - (2 owners) for $3800 in 2016.
I cannot complain at all !
Bulletproof build, but finicky ABS electronics tech can throw you.
Its fun & fast holds us 6 & tows trailers nicely.
Its super capible off road - my versatile luxury truck.
I'm considering a large sedan to replace our aging w210 wagon & I've always loved the w140 body...we have a few hereabouts and they always catch my eye as a timeless design that looks ageless.
@@hellosunshine1090 It was! I didn't want to spend more than $9k while looking for a pre owned car and I went to view this thing out of curiosity and was immediately in love and had to have it.
It is white and has the 3.2 M104 I6, so both of these are a blessing and a curse as they are both the least desirable options on paper, but in reality they make for a great affordable ownership and the white paint is the easiest to keep looking fresh as it rejects the most of the hot Queensland sun.
I actually plan on making a video on it soon if you subscribe to my channel and be patient haha I made a small tour of my Australian 2000 Ford Falcon last if you like big, interesting sedans, and the W140 replaces it in spirit as someone wrote it off not long after!
Sounds good though I love those diamond in the dirt situations with cars!
@@19jacobob93
Great yeah white is nice & easy.
Our w210 Wagon is white it looks like a "Storm Trooper" (Star Wars) mobile.
So which year w140 ?
Yes I will sub your Channel for sure.
Ill post links for my ML & e320 Wagon stuff.
Queensland is hot desert like conditions ?
My Aussie friend said "Everyone's Coastal / Beachfront Down Under" but he exaggerated perhaps ?
On these I'm showing my Exhaust Upgrades.
W210 - ruclips.net/video/U-_Y9LHt_Vo/видео.html
ML500 - ruclips.net/video/GjKdiY0r_ZE/видео.html
My friend's mom had one of these and I remember being fascinated by the back up antennae. This car was so massive compared to most cars in the 90s.
Regarding the wipers at the headlights, I also had this on my 1990 Mercedes-Benz W124 230E which I bought new. What is more interesting, however, is that the washer fluid for both the headlights and the front window was heated as part of a so-called Nordic package (I am from Norway). In front of the engine compartment there was a small heat exchanger where hot cooling water from the engine heated the tank for washer fluid. Quite smart and very effective on winter roads when the salt from the roads settles as a coating on the glass. Regarding the design of the W140, it is hardly as elegant as the W126. People here in Europe called the W140 a "stranded whale" when the model came on the market (large, round and visually less agile compared to the more dynamic, low and sporty W126).
American models had the same heated windshield washer setup.
“If you were driving, you were driving- not drinking stuff” ...but a phonecall on the road is fine.
"Off cous' a buzinezman needs se fone!"
It was legal to do basically anything in the car while driving back then.
In Europe, cupholders weren't a thing. We don't have drive throughs and certainly noon would drink a coffee in the car from the cafe. Starbucks wasn't even a thing back then.
Martin Jones I know ~why~ its just funny with our modern context of literally outlawing phone calls and texting but not caring about eating and drinking.
That had a hands free option, have one in the 95 SL320 I've got
Doug is the S-Class version of car reviewers.
Simp
So he's relevant for a very short amount of time, then gets quickly outdated and cheap? I don't think so :/
NOT S CLASS BUT THE MAYBACH
He depreciates like a stone and has rust before hes 10 years old?
BoardShorts Edition
Doug: THIS... is the Best S-Class ever. Now that I've gone over how amazing it is, it's time to give it... a Doug Score.
Doug Score: 8/100
It’s kind of cool to see Doug’s entire attitude is pure gratitude for the cars he genuinely respects including this car, and it makes the video that much better IMO!
When they unveiled this car in Geneva Motor Show in 1991, the CEO of BMW called it "The Mother of all Cars".
tbh that‘s not saying much considering the junk bmw produces
@@iamwritingrightnow8217 no
Zereniti77 *really* !!?!
Was he fired?
alphatrion100 I don’t think so!? 😂😂
That paint job tho, boy! 😂 That's that Pep-Boys "Rattle Can Special".
Hahahahaha
Hello from Switzerland! Mr. DeMuro is loosing his mind for choosing this bad condition 140. I have to say the following, I have some minty low mile fetish 140s in my collection and the cars still look massive next to a new W222. You can look down very well on the pleabian minions when you ride along in the 140. The 140 conveys a certain respectful dictator / plutocrat aura similar to the W100 600, which (unfortunately) no longer embodies the current luxury class vehicles. This is probably why the 140 was one of the favorite vehicles of people like Muammar al-Gadaffi, Putin, the Yakuza and Co. even when there were successor series to choose from. The space, security [extremly rugged in a serious crash, a kind of unique "chopped" ladder frame like a truck, plus (!) a unibody is a construction they have not done on any other mercedes except the W240 maybach which build on the 140 chassis, makes this car a "tigertank" that will crush the other car in a serious accident, newer big cars are build weaker for socialist partner protection in a crash to help the smaller car, so you can say 140/240 was the pinnacle of crash saftey in some way, to only protect the occupants of the 140/240 and crush the enemy car with no mercy] a long-distance suitability and comfort of the 140s are in no way inferior to those of the new luxury vehicles, unlike, for example, the very old-school 126 model.
Good examples of the 140 series are expensive, some are above comparable 126s, which was not the case a few years ago here in Europe (minty 140 500/600 under 60kmiles, go for about 50k/CHF, and I guess will be encreasing further in future) I cannot understand the fear of some "control units", the electronics in the 140 are rock solid and really not rocket science, similar to the W124 E500 E420 E320 or all R129 up to ´98, sometimes even redundant and can still be repaired in the distant future, in contrast to today's cheap and over-complex electronics. In terms of mechanical durability and engine design, the M104, M119 and M120 engines are unsurpassed as far as the petrol engines from Daimler are concerned, provided they are properly cared for, that is the golden era of Daimler, something better was not built before and after. I think some are only now beginning to understand what epochal masterpieces have been created. Elsewhere in the world it was already considered a masterpiece that competed with Rolls Royce and Bentley and even degraded them, similar to the W100. It is not for nothing that the W240 Maybach builds on the chassis of the 140 series. An E32 / E38 or Audi V8 / A8, Lexus LS on the other hand, looks like a poorly manufactured mid-range car, the same with the unworthy supposed successor, the W220, which initiated the qualitative degeneration of Mercedes under J. Schrempp. The W220 actually was not the true successor of the 140, even if some may think so, actually the W240 Maybach was the successor/reincarnation of the W140. The development costs of the 140 were the highest in mercedes history with the engineers running the show and going truly megalomaniac, it was the last engineers car from mercedes and not a car, where accountants and shareholders made the development decisions.
The ride, build quality and "aura" is unlike any other mercedes before and after, I have to say, these cars do have a soul. I might add that the 140 offered two good cupholders in the front middle armrest but that was an extra option. I find it shameful that you reviewed the best car ever made with this, beat down, roll painted POS. I always was waiting for you to make a Video of the 140 since I remembered you mentioned it was your favourite Mercedes Big Body in an article on autotrader you wrote some years ago. And by no means are the 500 and 600 140s slow, the M120 V12 was put in the Pagani Zonda, the M119 V8 as bi-turbo with KKK-superchargers was put in the Sauber C9 in 1989, 720ps. I guess the car you are reviewing has beyond 500k miles and a shitty maintance history with 7 diffrent owners where the last 5 turned the clock, so it will have lost some horsepowers and have a worn out suspension and steering feeling. I sometimes cruise during the night time on the German Autobahn with 250km/h, the suspension and parameter steering feel (you also forgot to mention parameter steering) is very firm and tight on well maintained 140s, they go like on rails, like a freight train. I own almost all S-Class models five of which are 140 chassis, 240 Maybach including the newest 222 (POS). I know how the 140 compares, it is out of this world, I even dare to say that the build quality on the 140 is even higher than the 240 Maybach. It was and most likley will forever be the best car humanity produced, period.
To supplement my previous comment with pictures, the W240 (Maybach) is the successor of the W140, as the nomenclature also suggests, not the unworthy W220.
The Maybach builds on the 140, here are pictures of some Maybach test vehicles. The unique M120 was unfortunately not installed in the W240, which debuted in 2002, for emission reasons, instead the so called M285, a modificated version of the M275 (65AMG).
Here are the pictures:
nast-sonderfahrzeuge.de/MB-Exotenforum/img/uploaded/image83258.jpg
nast-sonderfahrzeuge.de/MB-Exotenforum/img/uploaded/image83257.jpg
nast-sonderfahrzeuge.de/MB-Exotenforum/img/uploaded/image83264.jpg
be nice, someone tried and left residue everywhere. haha
@@vernonvassallo7915 earl schieb paints any car 200$
I had 1999 and It was my first Mercedes. Bought it used of course, but very clean.. It was one of the smoothest riding cars I've ever been in until this day. The problem was the high maintenance cost. Every time I opened the hood it was like I was buying a new flat-screen TV. Sold it and bought an Acura RL. The Mercedes basically spoiled me with its comfort and quietness. However, the Acura never broke down and all I ever needed to do was normal maintenance. Sadly, my Acura was hit and totaled. Rest in peace Acura TL. One day I'll get another Benz but as a weekend cruiser.
The official car of the Russian Mafia
Nice review. Even though the W140 is a nearly 30 year old design it still has a dominating road presence. It still looks classy as well.
hi
That S500 looks like it was bought from a shady used car dealer in Glendale, CA, complete with the salvage title. Don't you know bro?
In Germany these days it was common to go to a restaurant and take a seat to eat. Fast food restaurants with drive through lanes wasn't available. And the clientele who bought an S Class would not have eaten at an fast food restaurant back then.
Wow reminds me when my old man had one when i was a kid and would “chauffeur” me to school. I felt like richie rich! He had one of the first s classes with xenon headlights, which would get him pulled over by the cops all the time since they had no idea what they were.
Wow my pops got one
@@username_117 انا ١٧.
The Florida tag + 94 S500 says " I don't pay taxes because I'm in the mafia"
That Aston Martin lagonda, in the beginning of the video is stunning.
Only two in North America
I saw that and was like 😨😨😨
Its so ugly
That charcoal filter was unreal! If you had any smells in the air outside the vehicle (think manure), you could press that button and the smell was GONE.
And I owned this car, but I never realized that the armrests on the doors had storage!
Saab. Volvo BMW and Mercedes had wipers on headlights since the 70s Lada also had wipers on head lights.
Was just about to say the same. As early as in 1970 the Saab 99 already had headlight wipers. Hey Doug, you might want to do a bit deeper research for your videos.
They have them for snow instead of cleaning for xenon
we called this lovely mercedes, 'tank wagon' or 'tank body' in Iran!
Das ist Panzerwagen von Deutschland!
چه جالب شمام دنبال میکنی این مدل برای اخوندا وارد ایران شد الان هم هنوز خیلیاشون دارنش
Here in Poland it's been an iconic car for gangsters in the 90s. Always W140s and E32/38 with bullet holes in newspapers and TV when some shooting happened.
BeEg xxc same things were in Russia too. If you had BMW or Mercedes you were the king of the road, even if you had E30 3-series or W201. My father was a businessman in the late 80-s and up to late 2000 (but he was an honest one, not like the most businessmans in Russia, especially in the 90-s), and in 1992 he had a brand hew Mercedes Benz SL AMG. Imagine people’s reactions when they saw that kind of car in Moscow, at a time when even mobsters and politics couldn’t get that kind of car.
In russia it's called a kaban
I sincerely believe, we owe a lot to Mercedes Benz and their amazing engineers, for a lot of the amazing technology we enjoy today in econo-box cars.... Thanks to those engineers!!
Mercedes always seemed to set the standards of innovation
Guess we can thank them for needlessly gimmicky and overcomplicated cars that are only meant to be leased, not owned.
@@oinkoink2843 👍
Thanks for the video Doug. I own an 06 "cut rate nightmare" W220, which is perfect and original in every way. I learned some things about my '06 by watching your '94 vid.
*Next week on Hoovies Garage:* "I bought the cheapest Mercedes S500 W140 in the USA!!!!"
And I'm going to repaint it
Haha send it to the wizard
And my daughter choose the color!
@@edwardvalivonis23 At Maaco, like his 911.
It doesn't need a paint correction it needs a full paintjob
21:36 Ironically BMW secretly already made a V16 engine January of 1988 in the E32 7 series “767iL” even before the Mercedes V12.
They were still prototypes they prepped if any competitors were to launch a v16. No one had sold v16 cars since Caddy in the 30s. V16 is a pain in the A to produce and fit in cars, so no one wanted to do it that bad
Justinian Yi
Also with it being a bigger kind of engine, the balance of the car is also messed up because it goes past the front wheels on these sedans. 50/50 weight distribution is further worsened. For example the S70 V12 engine is 583 pound vs the V16 684 pounds which is 100 full pounds heavier than the V12 (Dry weight)
The 16 cylinder engine was never developed !!!
it was drawn in one of the magazines at the time.
Engineers were reluctant to work on a 12-cylinder engine because they considered the v8 to be the most successful.
14:35 it’s not an ‘after thaught’ cup holder, Mercedes had these glovebox cupholders since the W123 (or even before!)
Brings back memories, I owned the 1992 500sel same platform. I remember driving this car at 120 mph and it felt like I was sitting on my couch. Very comfortable. Pig on gas . 100 litre tank gave me 600km to the tank ( 26 gallon tank 360 miles per tank). Becker CD changer located in the back of the trunk. Enjoyed it for it for two years. Bought it for approx 22,000 cdn in 2000. Written off in insurance accident, got $26,000 insurance settlement. This car was a tank
I had a 1994 s500, loved this car till someone set it on fire in the weird luxury car arson fad of 2009 in Chicago. I haven't found a car like it again. I only had 124k miles and been hearing with good care and maintenance 200k was possible.
The quality of materials and attention to detail was really top notch, the last of the bank vault on wheels.
18:40 I'm assuming Mercedes made this switch blank just to make it clear that the switch above refers to a seat.. seeing a random rectangular switch would've been odd.
That would've been a real button on a higher trim model
@@Mr_CJ_rambo I'm almost certain that's not the case... It's just a thing of uniformity.
@@daniellaufer6204 just walked in the garage and checked and can confirm that all 3 buttons are switches in the back seats. But you're right about uniformity in lower trims
@@Mr_CJ_rambo oh ok, that's pretty cool actually, thanks for checking! Appreciate the effort hahaha.
Living back home in Hungary in the 90s the germans would come over for vacation and bring the newest and absolute best cars ever made, including this one. This was the peak of mercedes, and many other auto makers of the time. Its a shame how much these automakers and the world changed for the worse since then.
I don't know what's worse: the paint job or Doug's mic in this video
Also known as the drug lord's daily driver from the 90's 😂
@@mattkim2235 if you're not funny just don't comment, instead of stealing the top comment and making yourself look like a cretin.
This S-Class is not only my favorite, but is the most nostalgic, just like the Lexus LS 400 in the same era!