I’d been trudging as much as the Alps chalet, my ft stopped of their snowy tracks. A glimmering gold W126 Mercedes-Benz S-Class sat on winter tires, with chains on the rears. It seemed excellent.
Immediately I used to be transported to a storage in Fargo, N.D., that belonged to my grandparents, Grandpa and Nonnie as I referred to as them. It was like…an out of physique expertise. However it didn’t final lengthy.
“Are you OK?” a German Mercedes-Benz spokesperson requested in what certainly was much less time than it felt.
“Yeah, I’m good,” I stated. “This automotive, it takes me again to a different time and place.”
However I wasn’t right here for the basic S-Class. I used to be on the facet of a mountain in Austria after sleeping in a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV van, to then experience in a 2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA EV prototype.
However all through the day I couldn’t cease eager about that W126. It’s a part of my household historical past.
Joel Feder washing the 1991 Mercedes-Benz 350 SDL
Grandpa’s W126 goes into the farm fields
I used to be solely 5 when my grandpa, Paul Feder, died. My reminiscences of him are restricted, however (stunning nobody) most embody his final automotive: A custom-ordered blue-on-blue 1991 Mercedes-Benz 350 SDL.
To this present day, in some way, I’ve a digital copy (certainly because of my father) of the automotive’s window sticker. The Ice Blue Metallic on Blue S-Class arrived within the U.S. on the port of Baltimore and was prepped for supply in Chicago. When my grandfather died in November of 1991 the automotive had 8,408 miles on the odometer. He cherished that automotive.
From an early age I held to a few of the identical truths: Vehicles had been meant to be handled with respect and revered as unbelievable feats of engineering.
Paul and Joel Feder
My grandfather, an accountant, owned business actual property together with farm land when he died, and would drive that automotive in every single place by the whole lot.
A formative reminiscence features a journey to the farm in his diesel-burning Mercedes. We had been driving down the gravel highway between the fields when swiftly he turned abruptly and we had been out of the blue driving by the fields. I misplaced my thoughts and screamed, “we are able to’t be driving by the fields on this automotive!” I used to be 5.
Ever the calm, cool, and picked up smart man that he was, Paul Feder smiled and stated, “it’s fantastic, Kitchik.” He referred to as his grandchildren Kitchiks.
It was not fantastic. I used to be not fantastic. My thoughts may merely not comprehend the very fact we had been driving this gorgeous blue Mercedes by the sphere. However my grandfather didn’t suppose twice. I bought to experience within the mix that day.
Joel Feder standing on the mix
When my grandfather died my grandmother, Nonnie, stored the automotive and made it her each day driver with my father shopping for her 1990 Audi V8 quattro (what a machine within the snow on Nokian Hakkapeliittas).
My grandfather’s automotive legacy lived on by my grandmother and my childhood. Nonnie drove the automotive year-round with it driving on winter tires within the snowy and really chilly Fargo winters.
She took my sister Hannah and I to a film throughout winter break as soon as, and to make sure the diesel gasoline didn’t gel within the chilly snap she left the automotive idling within the car parking zone all the film. I freaked out, saying, “Nonnie, somebody’s going to steal the automotive!” All the time calm, she stated: “No, Expensive (everybody was Expensive), I’m locking it with the spare key.” And so she did with the hydraulic lock system going “clunk,” with the precision of a financial institution vault.
Betty Feder’s 2001 Audi A6 with a vanilla and blue inside
When Nonnie moved on from the W126 to what can be her last automotive, a Ming Blue on vanilla and blue 2001 Audi A6 4.2, the 350SDL was bought to a household pal. I noticed it two extra instances earlier than it met its last destiny: It hit a deer. A tragic finish to a spectacular car.
1988 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE generally known as the Goldkäppchen automotive
The Goldkäppchen W126 proves the previous set the longer term
The gold W126 that stopped me in my tracks in Austria was a 1988 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE. The Champagne metallic paint glimmered and its clear Euro-spec headlights and tight bumpers, seemed so elegant versus the uglier headlights and bigger bumpers mandated for U.S.-spec vehicles. It had a roof rack with skis hooked up to suit the situation.
At Mercedes-Benz it’s generally known as the Goldkäppchen automotive, with Goldkäppchen which means Golden Crimson Driving Hood. This W126 is owned by Mercedes-Benz Basic, however it’s not formally a part of the 1,100-car assortment. “It’s too good,” Mercedes-Benz Basic spokesperson Peter Becker instructed me.
Solely two individuals, Becker and a colleague, maintain the Goldkäppchen automotive. It’s like an off-the-books form of factor, regardless of being owned by Mercedes-Benz. It’s additionally the one automotive within the assortment to get fitted with winter tires.
1988 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE generally known as the Goldkäppchen automotive
The earlier proprietor, a meticulous German, had a thick stack of receipts for all the upkeep. When Becker and the crew bought the automotive it had lived with its earlier proprietor for 10 years, however the remainder of the automotive’s historical past is fuzzy except for being first delivered to a Daimler-Benz dealership in Mannheim on April 29,1988. That’s noteworthy in historical past as Mannheim is the town Karl Benz was from.
Being a considerably off-the-books automotive, it’s not normally pushed by the media. One other journalist and pal of mine, Eileen Falkenberg-Hull, occurs to be associates with Becker and noticed the look in my eye upon seeing the Goldkäppchen automotive. She texted Becker and vouched for me. Becker gave the inexperienced mild and minutes later the keys had been in my hand.
The second the laser-cut (a wild notion in 1988) key was positioned in my hand I felt linked with my grandparents. Someplace they had been smiling down upon me.
I grabbed the driver-side door deal with and it clicked with the identical bank-vault-like clunk. Immediately I used to be transported once more to the storage in Fargo. Recollections.
As I slid into the entrance throne-like gold-cloth-covered seat, the basic Mercedes-Benz scent overwhelmed my senses. It smelled similar to my grandparent’s W126. I closed my eyes and simply remembered Nonnie on the way in which to select up my buddy Mark for a playdate on Freeway 7 in Minneapolis, Minn. This was the identical day I spotted Nonnie was older than my grandfather when he died and I instructed her, “Nonnie! You can drop useless any minute!” She laughed. I used to be a gem of a kid.
1988 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE generally known as the Goldkäppchen automotive
Sliding the important thing into the ignition immediately introduced the gauges to life. One flip, two turns, however no glowplug mild or want to attend for the glowplugs to heat. This automotive didn’t have glowplugs as a result of it has a gas-powered 3.0-liter inline-6. The straight-6 was rated at 179 hp and 188 lb-ft of torque despatched to the rear wheels by a 4-speed automated transmission. The turbodiesel-6 in my grandfather’s 1991 350SDL made 136 hp and 228 lb-ft of torque, additionally despatched to the rear wheels by a 4-speed automated. At present’s S-Class has a 9-speed automated transmission with as much as 791 hp and 1,055 lb-ft of torque.
As I located myself within the automotive I spotted how a lot smaller this W126 was than my grandparent’s 350SDL. The S stood for S-Class, D for diesel, and L for long-wheelbase. Most of that additional area was between the wheels for a bigger rear seat. The 350SDL was a U.S.-spec solely automotive that Germany by no means had. Goes to indicate not less than as soon as in historical past America bought a cooler automotive than the Germans from Mercedes.
1988 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE generally known as the Goldkäppchen automotive
The entrance seats had been the identical, albeit coated in gold fabric reasonably than blue leather-based, as those in my grandparents’ automotive. I may really feel the springs beneath the seat backside as they squished below my weight. I used to be absolutely supported with loads of thick help from the lengthy seat backside.
After maneuvering the automotive for some fast pictures I headed down the mountain with Falkenberg-Hull sitting proper seat. Somebody needed to take pictures to doc this second in historical past. She made it occur.
After the shock and awe that I used to be driving a W126 wore off I began to essentially begin taking note of what it’s wish to drive. Naturally I started to match it to the 2025 Mercedes-Benz S 580e 4Matic I had simply pushed within the blizzard, which was painted in gorgeous China Blue with a Manufaktur Deep White inside. I’d’ve most popular a Manufaktur Yacht Blue inside…subsequent time, Mercedes.
The seating place within the W126 is extra upright than in as we speak’s S-Class, and there’s an enormous quantity of glass across the greenhouse. That plus the skinny pillars made outward imaginative and prescient improbable.
Driving the 1988 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE generally known as the Goldkäppchen automotive
Out forward, the hood appeared prefer it was a mile lengthy and a airplane may land on it. It doesn’t circulation down like as we speak’s S-Class, so that you see each inch of that entrance finish proper to the upright Mercedes-Benz star.
The three.0-liter inline-6 didn’t have the thrust of as we speak’s plug-in hybrid S-Class, which has 503 hp and 533 lb-ft of torque. Mashing the pedal within the W126 introduced an achingly sluggish kickdown of the 4-speed automated, albeit with a clean however noticeably shift, and a rise in revs. The ahead thrust got here on sluggish and constructed. It’s all torque because the revs by no means go excessive into the higher reaches of the tachometer’s vary. This can be a momentum automotive.
Becker had the Goldkäppchen automotive on chains within the rear, so in an effort to not destroy this immaculate car I by no means went above 60 kph (37 mph) and stored it to a mean cruising velocity of about 45 kph (28 mph).
Contained in the cabin the W126 appeared almost as quiet as as we speak’s S-Class because the wind whipped round outdoors. No thrum from the inline-6 made its manner into the cabin. The one noise or vibration felt was the rhythm of the chains on the rear tires hitting the pavement.
The gentle suspension blunted each highway influence simply because the 580e 4Matic’s adaptive air suspension smoothers highway imperfections. Going round corners the W126 had extra lean than as we speak’s S-Class, however it was composed and by no means felt as if it had been flopping throughout itself. It doesn’t roll just like the Lincolns and Buicks my different grandparents additionally had throughout my childhood.
Maybe most stunning was the steering. It’s properly weighted and felt as if I had been shifting the steering rack by honey because the wheel rotated. So clean. There was a little bit of on-center slop, however it wasn’t annoying like in a “fashionable” Ineos Grenadier with its circulating ball steering system. The W126 was exact and didn’t wander in its lane just like the Grenadier does.
1988 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE generally known as the Goldkäppchen automotive
The similarities between the W126 and its vault-like expertise and as we speak’s S-Class are hanging. From the proportions to the construct high quality and expertise, it’s related but of a special period.
Above all else, driving the W126 felt like coming full circle in a part of my automotive, and household, journey. My grandparents’ W126 left the household earlier than I had a license. I by no means drove that automotive. Driving the Goldkäppchen automotive closed the loop on the previous and jogged my memory that even as we speak’s S-Class carries the burden of a flagship. Marvel what the present S-Class would seem like in Ice Blue Metallic with a blue inside.
Mercedes-Benz paid for journey and lodging so I may drive the CLA EV prototype and sleep in a van on a mountain in a blizzard. I occurred to drive the Goldkäppchen W126, too.
