It works as testament to the toughness of the Mercedes-Benz W124, that even the most ropey ones still seem to carry themselves with a good amount of grace. The cars rust, they get beaten, terrible modifications are made – and still, underneath all the grief is a well-built car that will withstand at least 700,000 hard kilometers before giving up the ghost.

This 200D I photographed hasn’t had an easy life by the looks of things, and there are numerous things wrong with it. But heck if a black Mercedes doesn’t still look somewhat fine.

In my opinion, one of the things one shouldn’t mess with is the grille. A lot of W124:s have had the star slapped in the middle of the radiator, like here: it just makes the car look pork-like. Clear indicators are nearly always redundant, any alloy wheels should be of a more solid, thick-spoked design, and so on.

The front wings always rust, and when you fix them they will still rust.

Not counting the front bumper, the rest of the car appears to wear an AMG bodykit of sorts. And that’s one of the things you could do the W124: the skirts and the extra jaw the kit gives the car do work, in a period correct show-off style.

Especially from this angle, it makes the 200D look handsome and slightly purposefully menacing.

Even if the kit is peeling and hanging. Or maybe that works in the car’s favour.

The OM601-powered, naturally aspirared 200D had 75 horsepower. It’s not a fast car, but it’ll do. And it’ll do for a long time.

[Images: Copyright 2014 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]