so all the euro taxi benz are a facade? - lol
W140 was overbuilt for its time, but owning one after all these years means you will need to have to do component level repairs on it too, e.g. if you buy a soft door closing model, the vacuum pump that pulls the doors is no longer sold by mercedes (its been obsolete for 8 years now) - and so is the key if you have a smart key model (the first gen motorola keys and EIS are no longer sold or serviced by benz and replacement requires a new 3rd gen EIS and keys - very expensive if your EIS fails which it will in Pakistan because of cloned keys from chaabi ustaad)
the mechanicals are very easy on the W140 - its a half hybrid of W124 from the rear axle and the front is unique but the later W210, 202 etc have the same front setup which is again a modified version of the old 116/126 setup but with one piece two mount lower control arm rather than radius rod and lateral arm. The interior finish parts of a W140 are horrendously expensive now - and because W140 are 100% driver hazraat used in Pakistan - they are destroyed/beat to a pulp.
point is - dont buy it unless you do this for a hobby or keep it as a garage decoration piece. I would suggest to buy a W210 as they are way cheaper to buy and its body finish parts along with other small pieces are several magnitudes cheaper than a w140. But again - dont buy it as a pure wallet holder to rely on shops like INH etc unless you have bottomless pockets.
My reason to say all this is that Ive owned many german origin cars in Pakistan and also outside of Pakistan. They are great if you are a bit knowledgeable yourself and your mechanic can actually "diagnose" faults rather than slap a junkyard assembly to test if it works (like 90% of shops in Pakistan do now)
and I forgot to mention - you will need to rebuild the whole engine wiring on any W140 as it degrades and delaminates (bio degradable wiring which was meant to survive 10 years)
and change the AC evaporator coil because of dissimilar metal corrosion - its copper and aluminium - that is a dashboard out job and takes an experienced person 10 hours to do in total - translating that to Pakistan standard time means it will take a week.
and completely rebuild the undercarriage with new rubber too - which is not a problem for someone who knows how to rebuild a suspension - but usually a cancer in Pakistan because "cheetaa ustaad" torques the bushings wrong causing poor driving and also life measured in a few days only (they always blame it on names like china, taiwan, etc etc to take blame off of themselves)
