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Paul Harman
Gary Anderson
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Paul Harman
Travelin’ Man
Paul Harman has covered more than 1.1 million miles in his 1981 W123 240D
Onlookers at Peachtree Section’s 2007 Oktoberfest witnessed that rarest of events – even for a Mercedes-Benz – an odometer turning past 1 million miles. The special occasion was covered in the January-February 2008 issue of The Star, when the W123 240D that Paul Harman purchased with 41,000 miles on the clock in May 1983 and used as his daily driver for 24 years was honored by the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in a ceremony with a mileage certificate and grille badge.
Even more amazing, The Star recently learned – from a casual note included in a club-event report – that Harman has continued to drive his W123; in fact, he has added another 143,000 miles. Twelve years on, we thought readers might enjoy hearing about some of his experiences. Let’s let Harman take up the story from here.
Daily driver
Working my entire career for BellSouth Corporation, I spent a lot of time on the road in the southeastern United States. On my travels, I had always admired Mercedes-Benz vehicles as the very best, even though I knew I couldn’t afford a new one. Then while passing through Greenville on my way to Columbia in South Carolina in spring 1983, I spotted a yellow 1981 Mercedes-Benz diesel sedan in the used-car lot of Snyder Auto Sales (now Carlton Motorcars Inc.), a Mercedes-Benz dealer.
I stopped, test drove it, and fell in love. The 240D’s 4-speed manual shifted like a dream, the odometer showed about 40,600 miles, the service records were complete, and the price was within my budget. The rest is history, all carefully recorded in the car’s logbooks.
This car was my family’s daily driver from that day on: By June 1986, I had added 150,000 more miles, though I hadn’t yet fully paid off the car loan; still, I kept driving. I drove the 240D on work trips, to annual training with the South Carolina Army National Guard and on family vacations to the Atlantic beaches each year. By 1997, I had reached 500,000 miles. For the first time, I began wondering if I might reach a million miles in my 240D.
Puttin’ on the miles
When I retired from BellSouth in 1999, I had added another 50,000 miles; by the time of my retirement from the Army National Guard in 2001, I had reached 635,000. With an empty calendar – and sharing wanderlust with other family members – I began to dream of longer trips.
In 2002, I undertook my first cross-country trip, with my brother Arthur and his dear friend Becky Tiller, to visit Becky’s family in Logan, Utah. Upon reaching Utah, Arthur and I took off for eight days, just driving around the western United States.
The 240D proved to be comfortable for long distances, superbly reliable and still averaged around 27 miles per gallon on the highway – even with a trunk full of luggage. That trip set a precedent. Arthur and I completed five more cross-country journeys during the next two years.
Haven’t I seen you before?
On our second cross-country trip in October 2002, Arthur and I were heading home after a visit to Yellowstone National Park. With an odometer reading of 702,010 miles in Worland, Wyoming, we realized the car was due for its regular oil change. The logbook, which I have meticulously updated since buying the car – adding new pages when needed – shows we stopped at Blue Lube Inc. in Worland, where a service attendant named Jeremy Aguilor signed off on the oil change. We played our by-then normal game of asking Aguilor whether he had ever changed the oil on another car with a higher odometer reading. He agreed that he hadn’t.
Two trips later and the odometer showing 822,178 miles, we again found ourselves in Worland for an oil change at Blue Lube. Not recognizing the technician, we asked our standard oil-change question. He replied that he remembered changing the oil for two gentlemen from New York, whom he recalled might have had even more miles. Needless to say, I felt a little deflated.
But when he later signed off on our logbook, the technician said he remembered the folks from back East had the same kind of booklet. Finally making the connection, we leafed back a few pages to discover that the same Jeremy Aguilor had done our oil change two years before – almost to the day. We all had a big laugh. The W123’s service logbook now contains 12 added pages.
North to Alaska
For our sixth long trip, in September 2004, Arthur and I convinced our brother Harry to join us on a sibling adventure from Chicago to Los Angeles on old Route 66. The Mercedes-Benz performed like a champ and the trip became a cherished family memory.
Perhaps our greatest adventure was a 2005 trip through the Dakotas into Canada and on to Alaska. Once in Canada, our journey stretched 1,390 miles from Dawson Creek in British Columbia, to Delta Junction, Alaska, along the Alaska Highway, then south to Valdez following the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, west to Anchorage, north to Fairbanks and past Denali – “The High One” – in Denali National Park. From there, the Dalton Highway – 414 miles consisting of mostly gravel two-lane road built to accommodate construction of the Alaska Pipeline – took us to our goal, Deadhorse, on Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean. This was the trip of our life, just as my 240D has been the car of my life.
‘Lello Sades’
But wherever we have ventured, the W123 has always returned us safely to the East Coast where our children – Brett, Jenny and Shannon – and our four grandchildren all live. Emily, the youngest of Brett’s daughters, and born just after Arthur and I began our travels, could barely talk when she christened her grandfather’s Manila Beige 240D as the “Lello Sades” – and so it has been ever since.
By June 2007, Lello Sades showed 995,000 miles. I had only done the typical maintenance one might expect, – including several new timing chains, a few clutch replacements and a new transmission – and 285 logged oil changes. I rebuilt and reupholstered the driver’s seat; in 1999, I had the car repainted in its factory Manila Beige. The W123 has otherwise remained in original condition – down to the first-aid kit under the rear package shelf.
In 2007, with the 240D approaching a million miles, I thought the company might be interested in my experience. I contacted Mercedes-Benz USA, the Classic Center, and RBM, the Mercedes-Benz dealer in Atlanta. I even sent a note to Ernst Lieb, then CEO of MBUSA. Lieb phoned me directly to congratulate me on my car; Michael Kunz at the Classic Center reviewed my records and arranged for a Million-Mile Certificate and grille badge to be issued; and Ed Nell with RBM contacted me to arrange for the actual 1-million-mile transition to take place at the Oktoberfest concours in Atlanta sponsored by the dealership. At that event on October 13, 2007, Nate Lander of the Classic Center officially witnessed the rotation of my odometer to the magic number, awarded my certificate and helped me mount the grille badge.
The rest of the story
I continued to drive my trusty 240D on a regular basis. In 2008, after my wife Gale and I moved from Alpharetta, Georgia, to Lexington, South Carolina – and with fuel prices rising – I converted the W123 to run on reclaimed vegetable oil, with no modifications required. I made one long-distance trip with that setup – to Las Vegas – with my luggage in the back seat and jugs of filtered vegetable oil in the trunk. The veggie oil finally ran out and I had to finish the last 250 miles on regular diesel fuel.
By 2014, with my annual mileage dropping to only 22,000 miles, and the W123 starting to show its age, I decided to convert back to diesel and at the same time had my Mercedes expert, Rob Wishen in Atlanta, do a complete cosmetic restoration; this included removing all components to clean the engine compartment, replacing upholstery, headliner and carpeting in the interior, and installing the third (maybe fourth) windshield. A second complete repaint in Manila Beige finished the job. It took two years, but by 2017, my 1981 240D was back in service.
I have now clocked more than 1,145,000 miles, including 333 oil changes at roughly 3,500-mile intervals. While it’s true that the car isn’t as tight as it once was, and there is some road noise, it’s still running reliably with its original engine and many of its original components. I wonder how many other owners out there with similar mileage can make that claim about their cars?
1981 MERCEDES-BENZ 240D SEDAN (W123)
TYPE: Four-door, five-passenger sedan
ENGINE: 2,399cc, overhead cam inline-4 diesel • Bosch mechanical fuel injection
TRANSMISSION: 4-speed manual
HORSEPOWER: 67 at 4,000 (SAE) TORQUE: 97 lb-ft at 2,400 rpm (SAE)
LENGTH: 190.9 in • CURB WEIGHT: 3,120 lb
MAXIMUM SPEED: 86 mph • FUEL EFFICIENCY: 25 mpg
LEFT: The old trooper sits in the sun.
ABOVE: On October 13, 2007, Paul Harman at RBM Mercedes-Benz of Atlanta, before his 1- million-mile ceremony. The 240D’s maintenance booklet.
TOP: Harman in RBM’s service department before his 2007 million-mile ceremony.
After restoration in 2014, the W123 now presents as nearly new, inside and out.
The OM616 diesel hasn’t missed a beat in over 1.1 million miles.
The car’s original invoice, Mercedes-Benz Classic Center 1 Million Mile Award, and honorary grille badges.