Mercedes steering wheels of the 60’s

Mercedes had rather elegant steering wheels in the 1960s. Later, safety concerns led to a change to the padded, plastic type. These were thin style, and from an era where driving gloves were the norm rather than the exception. As was the trend at the time, there was a separate horn ring. There was also an early nod to safety with a padded center.

These Mercedes steering wheels were basically the same for all W108, W109, W110, W111, W112, W113, and early W114 and W115. Early cars had a round horn ring, which was changed in the early 60s to […]

Mercedes Saloon Price List – November 1966

I recently came across an old price list for Mercedes-Benz in Australia in the mid 60s. They were very expensive cars back then, probably more so than they are today, and even a base model was around double a holden, let alone the range topping (for the saloons) 300SE.

These prices are for the standard car, so most buyers would have selected at least some options, further increasing the price. The price list covers the W110, W111 and W108 Saloon cars. The Automatic transmission was an expensive option, close to 10% of the price of the car.

Mercedes Benz Passenger […]

W111 Mercedes hub caps and beauty rings

Classic Mercedes have always had attractive chrome and painted wheel trims. Most people are very familiar with the ubiquitous one piece Mercedes hub caps that were available on nearly all models from the late 60s to the mid 80s. W111s (and associated models such as the W110, W112, W113, W108, W109) had a few different styles that are now rarely seen.

Style 1: 13″ wheels (1959-1965)

Cars covered: W111 – all 220s except 220b. W112 – all 300s.

These cars were delivered with 13″ wheels, although most cars have been upgraded to 14″ during their lives as it is […]

Book Review: Mercedes-Benz The 60’s Vol 1 by Bernd Koehling

I had wanted to buy this book for a while, as the author, Bernd S. Koehling had written some interesting blog articles on his website, so I figured I would try a couple of his books too (I also purchased Volume 2 which will be the subject of a later review). Added to that, he obviously has great taste in cars, and I would like to try and support an author doing new works on these fine vehicles.

I have to admit, I am a bit of a sucker for books that cover the W111 coupe and Cabriolet, so with […]