The new S-class (W 140) sales dropped dramatically in Germany in its early years of production due to its environmental unfriendliness. The cars were criticized as being unnecessarily bulk and heavy.
Despite its slab-sided look, the W 140 was mechanically sophisticated and a true engineers' masterpiece. The car was solid and impeccably built, and it was the last "over-engineered Mercedes" which no newer Mercedes including its replacement W 220 S-class could rival it (not even close) for build quality. “

“All models of W 140 received new model naming. For example, a 600SEL was relabelled as S600L, a 600SE was renamed as S600 and a 600SEC was thereafter coded as S600C. It marked the end of era of SE, SEL, and SEC model naming and best avoided the confusion of mixing future models with their predecessors. After then a W 140 500SE will be known as S500, which would not mix up with the W 126 500 SE.”

1996_S500 - 6/1/2006 1:47 AM

o man zeaq! This thread is great. I think this should be stickied. what about you guys?

nomad - 6/1/2006 9:07 AM

Brilliant, thanks for all that info
I really must have a big engined W140

BenzDieselTuner - 6/5/2007 1:51 PM

so i was just reading up there, and it claimed that the C140 was only available with 8 or 12 cyl motor.......now i'm pretty damm sure that i'v seen plenty of 280SEC 300SEC 320SEC cars running around in Deutschland............?????????????

NZ Benz - 6/6/2007 1:53 AM



Yes there was a C140 with the smaller engine but not that common outside of Europe even here. The 500 and 600 were the only ones offered in the US where most of the information written in English comes from.

syljua - 10/21/2007 12:38 PM



No, C140 came in 420, 500 and 600. No 6 - cylinder anywhere in the world.

br,
syljua