The 140 underwent a name change during its product life, with the series name changed from SD/SE/SEL to the shorter S. For example, the 600 SE and 600 SEL both became S 600. However, a precise turning point has never been clear. Whereas there are always enthusiastic people pointing out, you have a beautiful 600 SEL! Or, sometimes it confuses people when I use “1993 S 600” to describe Octavius. Sometimes it is necessary to explain, but it takes a long time to convince people, probably as long as this article. So I’m posting it here as an investigation.
Why is this a problem? I don’t think this issue should be taken lightly, it’s about what our car is. Because, the old name means you have an older car and the new name means you have a newer car. In this newer car residual value rule of approximately equaling more monetary value, many people wish they had a newer car, or wish someone else had an older car. If you cannot give a God-like answer, then the person who drives an old car may be laughed at by the owner of the new car: “Haha, you are really vain, you have an old car, but you give it a new name”, but The truth may be that the ridiculed car owner was unjustly accused. The above is just a joke. Officially, we are ethically obligated, both in ownership and restoration, to ensure that cars have the correct names for the sake of accuracy and authenticity.
It’s a rookie mistake I’ve personally experienced. When I got the Octavius in 2012, it had an S 600 plastered on the trunk lid. Since the V12 on the C-pillar is not in the correct position, I assumed all the text had been moved, so my first thing was to change the S 600 to a 600 SEL. In my opinion, this two-color V12 with orange turn signals is the 600 SEL. Not only me, but everyone around me thinks so. So I probably lost the original name plate that I had for 19 years and had to put the S 600 back on again later. This mistake is by no means unreasonable. The vast majority of pre-facelifts have old names, and all facelifts have new names. Therefore, pre-facelifts with new names are ignored as a minority.
If Mercedes can answer this question, there won’t be any need for any discussion at all. The fact is they gave it, but not that constructive. For example, a Google search reveals that the W140 got new names in June 1993. This time, which is only accurate to the month, is Mercedes’ official statement. However, even if we only mention the seemingly unmistakable accuracy like June, it is still misleading. Further, in the EPC, Mercedes instructed that the new designation be installed on cars starting from A151344. Compared to the blurry June, it looks precise enough, but also less correct. These two official answers will be discussed in the search for the real answer.
The goal is to figure out exactly when the name was changed. A short answer doesn’t exist. First of all, the name change did not happen on a single day. We might assume that Mercedes decided to stick a new name plate on the trunk lid on one day of production, and that was that day. Joking aside, Stuttgarters are known for their economy and they don’t suddenly throw away their old name plates just to replace them with new ones. So even if they decide to switch it on exact one day, they also produce 200-300 S-Classes per day, there will come a time when both S and SEL are produced. Then we need to know, who is the last SE/SEL and who is the first S. In any case, the above is just rhetoric, the actual situation is far more complex than this.
Let’s figure out who gave the 140 a new name. It’s not because the 140 is too great, because the S-Class name has been around since the W 116. The turning point was the launch of the W 202, the successor to the 190 E. Because Mercedes-Benz decided to name the new baby C-Class, the entire family has been stirred up, which shows the power of the smallest product! When Mercedes released the first media information for the W 202 on April 16, 1993, it was known as the C-Class.
So, does the arrival of the C-Class unveil the birth of a new name for the S-Class? If we were automotive journalists who lived through that period, we would be confused. At Genf 1993 on March 1, 1993, the two newly launched models, 300 SE 2.8 and 300 SD, still used the old naming method. Before June 1993, the entire family did not get a new name due to the launch of the C-Class. You will find that there are both 300 SD and C 220 on the model list. The 500 GE was even produced until mid-1994. On a positive note, since Mercedes released a brochure in June 1993 telling us the new family name was arriving, can we find out exactly what day in June it happened?
The production information stored for each vehicle includes the original name, so there are many interesting finds, such as the earliest six-cylinder model still being named the 320 SE, back in 1990. Theoretically, by checking the production name of each car one by one (about 150,000 according to EPC instructions), you can find the last SE/SEL and the first S. I have a retrieval system to do this so it saves a lot of time.
We’re not in a hurry to discuss June 1993, as the earliest cars with a new name in production information were built in June 1992. This was not a Prophet built car, they were produced as a kit in Sindelfingen in June 1992 and would be shipped to South Africa for SKD production until assembly started in May 1993. The time when the assembly was completed is why they got their new name, in South Africa they were called S 320 A, these are very rare exotic cars, if you own one, cherish the African nature of its name.
There are some individual examples that should be ignored, such as in May 1993, some newly named cars were shipped to the United States, they were media vehicles in preparation for MY1994. The first large-scale area in which the new name appeared was a shipment of cars to China, starting on June 2, 1993. Judging by this, Mercedes’ claimed timing of the change is pretty accurate. However, the VINs of these cars can be traced back to A142996, which is a difference of more than 8,300 cars compared to A151344 in the EPC. Due to the widespread presence of new-named cars since A142996, this is a considerable margin of error.
I just have an example, which is Nonna, which was acquired not long ago. Nonna is A144545, which falls between the earliest new-named cars and the range claimed by the EPC. The data card shows it was shipped in September 1993, even though A144540-A144549 were all shipped from June 3 to June 7, 1993. The shipping date can be understood as the date the car passed pre-delivery inspection in Sindelfingen. It will be later than the actual production date, but not by much.
What is very certain is that the Nonna is not only an S 320 in name, but even technically. Since before MY1996, the European version (China-spec is one of them) did not have a model year definition, we do not know whether Nonna belongs to MY1993 or MY1994. The American model year that is strictly distinguished by MY can be used as a reference. In the North American market, MY1994 received a new name and technology. According to EPC, the new MOTRONIC engine 104.994 is equipped from A151633. Nonna is equipped with the 603rd 104.994, but it is A144545. This is actually not related to the topic of this article, but if you enter Nonna’s VIN into an EPC query for the part, you will get completely wrong relevant electrical system information (group 54).
The above additional information is to illustrate that the range given by the EPC is not always a reference. Because the actual production number of the car is not the last six serial numbers of the VIN, but the Production Number, this has been discussed in the topic <Investigation: Who’s the last 140?>. All in all, it is inaccurate to use the serial number of a certain VIN as the boundary of some technical improvements. The closer a car is to this so-called boundary, the more likely it is that it will be given wrong repair information. As for why the earliest new names appeared in China? I can only guess that the Chinese market requires a more cumbersome sales process than anywhere else in the world and is therefore being treated as a priority. Just imagine when you order a 300 SEL and eight months later you receive the car and the world is filled with S 320s.
Above, the seemingly more accurate A151344 has been proven to be completely wrong, while the June 1993 one was accurate. Is that true? Let’s wait. The name change is not only the appearance of the new name, but also the exit of the old name. It has not been discovered when the last SE/SEL appeared. If there are still SE/SELs in production after June 1993, that is, in July, then this month also needs to be corrected.
Finding the last SE/SEL is very difficult as it never really disappeared from production information and many special-order cars carried the old name. Literally, there were still 400 SELs shipped to the US as of at least September 1993, and their VIN range was A163000-A164000. Note that at this time, cars in the US market have already entered MY1994. This model year should have received a new name, in 140.043 case it’s S 420. The US is already the market that has implemented the standards most thoroughly, but there is still a “tail”.
There is such a case in the user manual in the archives. A data card of 140.043, A155931 contains both the model name of code 804 (MY1994) and 400 SEL. The car, shipped on August 11, 1993, had the production information S 420L, but still got the 400 SEL stamp in the owner’s manual. If you ask MBNA for a 1994 400 SEL, of course they will claim your information is out of date, but that’s what you get. As a result, Mercedes will provide conflicting information, leaving some cases without a single answer.
The same goes for the Octavius, it’s A149549, shipped August 2, 1993. In the data card we have the 600 SEL V12 and there is the user manual for the 600 SE/SEL. But the production information is S 600L, and the shipping times also support this name. As for third parties other than Daimler AG, all information, such as invoices and registration certificates, are recorded for the S 600.
Apparently, until August 1993, Mercedes was still supplying the production cars with outdated materials, including owner’s manuals and factory stamps from older models. In fact, Octavius’ owner’s manual version is 22.08.1991 DE Ausgabe B, the V12 German user manual was not updated between August 1991 and December 1993. Check the Owner’s Manual archive for details. All of the factory materials delivered with the car are previous versions, without accompanying sales records or import documents, Octavius’s S 600 identity is likely to have been forgotten.
Regarding the technical identity of the Octavius, the European car was very vaguely defined before MY1996, although there were clear model years in independent markets such as North America and Japan. For example, the pre-facelift that got its new name got its full mode year in North America: 1994, so only the 1993 600 SEL and 1994 S 600 theoretically existed in North America (anyway we showed exception in this article). Does this make the Octavius produced in August 1993 should be called the 1994 S 600 rather than the 1993 S 600?
It should be noted that the MY for independent markets such as North America included many other technical improvements in addition to the trunk lid name plate, S 600 is not only a sales name but also a technical name. Octavius just doesn’t have the technical part. In a word, it technically about equal to a 1993 600 SEL, but it received a new name plate on the trunk lid.
After the above investigation, the following conclusions can be drawn:
- The first car with new name delieverd in early June 1993.
- Cars with old names still in production in September 1993.
- Octavius that born in August 1993 is a S 600 with outdated factory files.
When the VIN is entered into the EPC, the EPC automatically filters out those directories that are not related to the target vehicle. For Octavius, this not only filters out non-V12 components, but also newer parts. Because EPC determined that Octavius, A149549 precedes A151344 whose name has been changed, only name plate 600 SEL can be ordered. If I went to the dealer and tried to get a new S 600 name plate, a competent parts employee would probably tell me that only the 600 SEL was correct.
While Mercedes-Benz may be the most dedicated automaker, it can’t be right all the time. During the procees of finding above information, a lot of typos found in the data card, such as some “S 32” and “S 50”. Don’t expect you picked up an AMG, they just missed out on 0’s, this was the era of typewriters and anything could happen, some cars’ names were even completely missed.
All investigations are based on limited information, please email me if you have doubts about the veracity of this article. If you want to quote the content of this article, please contact me in advance, please do not use my text for any commercial purposes.