Used Mercedes 380

The Mercedes 380 is an alternative designation commonly used to refer to the Mercedes Benz W126, a series of flagship vehicles produced by the German car manufacturer Mercedes Benz. This series belongs to Mercedes Benz’s most highly touted S-Class of automobile models. In fact, the W126’s sales over all of its body types reached a total of nearly nine hundred thousand units, making it the most popular S-Class ever sold by Mercedes Benz. The Mercedes 380 or W126 followed the earlier W116, which came out in the 1970s, in the S-Class series of luxury automobiles. Codenamed early on as Project W126, Mercedes Benz aimed to further improve fuel efficiency, ride comfort, and handling. By aiming at all of these improvements to the W116, Mercedes Benz hoped to maintain the S-Class’ leadership in the market as the best selling luxury prestige sedans on the globe. The oil crisis in the 1970s put even greater emphasis on fuel efficiency. The Mercedes 380 models, specifically the 380 SE, 380 SEL, and 380 SEC, were produced variously from 1981 to 1985. They shared the same engine, the M116.963 3.8L V8, which boasted of about 200 hp of power. Coupled with the success of the design team in reducing the drag and improving the aerodynamics of the W126, this meant that they were faster and sleeker than earlier models. The visual styling of the W126 series would prove to be pivotal to the future development of used Mercedes Benz automobiles. When they came out, they represented a significant change in look, compared to the existing Mercedes Benz fleet. In particular, the new W126 models had lower profiles and sleeker looks, and the traditional chrome bumpers were replaced with deformable polyurethane ones. Later models in the S-Class would turn out to borrow heavily from these changes introduced by the W126 and the Mercedes 380s. The luxury and safety features of the W126 series were significantly advanced for their time, in the 1980s. These included airbags, ASR or acceleration slip regulation, ABS or anti-lock braking system, crumple zones, courtesy lights, heated front seats, climate control, and a topographical sensor coupled to automatic transmission. These features were combined in a pleasing, harmonious way, and were very durable, adding to the overall appeal of the Mercedes 380 and the other models in the W126 series. The Mercedes 380 models, part of the W126 series, were some of the company’s most successful and best selling cars. Excellent build quality, unmatched features, and the distinctive Mercedes Benz style make these cars true classics.