Mercedes-Benz W210 E-Class History and production

+21Jaromir ha. they are easy to work on. plentiful parts. they are utility cars.

Mine’s got no rust still going strong, td too!

And the next generation, the W211 is the best yet. Absolutely the better car between the two!

MAJSTOR But not in F1 MERCEDES IS THE BEST i m sorry for you...If you had say POSCHE why not...

Indeed... its a shame their transition to water based paints was riddled with "issues" that ruined wheelarches and bootlids within a couple of years. And Sprinter and Vito vans which rusted like cancer. It is said that if you listen carefully on a quiet night you can actually hear them rust :-D

Well... Just do a full body re-paint.

@@vdochev Yeah many people do that

@@energymc22 Looking away from the rust, one of the best sedans ever made.

The W202 is the last "over engineered" Mercedes, they spent 10 years developing it! The W210 is not as bulletproof as the W124 but it is still a very solid car. It is really the W220 S class that was the first Mercedes built to a price.

That is not true, development started at the end of 1986 and production began over 6 years later. They did NOT spend 10 years developing it! The W220 was NOT the first Mercedes-Benz built to a price, that is a toss-up between the W202 and W210. Significant cost cutting was not in mind in 1986-87, but gradually took hold around 1991 in shortly before pre-production assembly of the W202.Cost reductions took hold during 1991-1995 on Daimler-Benz AG developments. This didn't affect incumbent offerings as much (W201, W124, W140). The W210 was affected significantly, as the final design and production specs hadn't been fully solidified until around April/May 1992.

Thats a steal if it works better than my 500 dollar E200 did!

No, they are great!

Bud Ridley why?

Bartul Buzdovačić The rust..EVERYWHERE...was the first sign of the conscious decision for major engineering policy changes at MB....and not for the better. Rust across the whole range W210 W140/220 W203. Rust that was rarely seen in earlier (pre-W210) models. We just sold a 1989 W201 190E 2.6 with NO RUST. Regrettably replaced it with a 2003 W203 C240 (which cost less than we got for the 190....go figure) that has rust in all the wheel arches, along the rear bumper margin. And that paint is soo thin. The slightest stone impact breaks through the the metal and of course rusts. The interior has been scaled back with cheaper material and design changes to make it more cost effective to manufacture...then there are the engine / balancing shaft problems in the M272 / 273 engines produced after 2003. The list goes on. As I said, this is the result of an intended change in direction for the company. No longer is a Mercedes a car that you bought once and cared for. Now it is basically a KIA made in Germany.

+Bud Ridley on some of the w210 models they did not put the lining protection near the wheel wells in some of the w210 so some models rusted quickly. they should have done recalls for that. they all got dipped in the rust protection however that only last for so long. not sure why some models had the protection lining and some did not. i have a w203 and its fine no prob. but i also keep the best wax on it all year round.

My 97 e320 is now 23 years old, drives beautifully and no rust. Not all of them are rusted.

@@ohyeahbabyitson really depend on where you live, here in Canada, my 97 e50 got small rust bubble at rear wheel arch and bottom of right side A pillar even though it never see winter and spend nearly 20 years in south part of Japan. And yes, w210 maybe prone to rust, but definitely not the worst. I've seen many 2 years old chevy (not something from 1980 but produced after 2016) got serious rust issue under the door rubber sealing, meanwhile they never seen salt road either. That make me thinking, maybe MB start to cut cost since w210, but it's still far superior than what came next.