Friday 25th November 2011

SOTW: Mercedes 230TE

You'll be winning the space race with today's Shed (but any other sort of race is off the table)

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You would think, given Shed's historical penchant for a German barge, that a Merc W124 wagon would have been covered in these virtual pages many times. But you would be wrong.

Curiously, a Mercedes Shed of the Week is actually relative rarity, and the only coverage we've given to the W124 estate (S124 if we're being pedantic) has been Garlick's (now-departed) PH Fleet E220 estate.

But the time for the load-lugging 124 has finally come. Its coupe and saloon brethren have been dipping into SOTW territory for some time now, but the estate, for so long the darling of antique dealers and upper middle-class families, has always commanded a fair bit more cash.

Now, though, there are W124 estates dribbling below that magic £1k barrier. And some of them are even in ostensibly rather lovely nick.

Which is where today's SOTW comes in. The vendor claims to have bought it solely for a European road trip back in 2008 and, before covering 3500 miles (and most EU countries, from the sounds of things) in just 10 days, seems to have had a good go at replacing anything remotely worn-out. Which means (deep breath) new brakes, exhaust, radiator, thermostat & housing, suspension pipes, gearbox oil & filter change, electric aerial, fuel filter, air filter and spark plugs.

Since then it's not done all that many miles - a mere 89 since its MOT in June - and the overall condition of the seems to consequently rather good. In fact, apart from a small spot of corrosion on the nearside front wing, a knackered electric driver's mirror and a no-longer-remote-locking alarm, there seems to be precious little wrong with the chunky Merc.

And if you want to waft around looking like old money, we can't think of a classier way to do it - especially not one with the ability to swallow six passengers or a Chesterfield sofa (albeit not at the same time...). Okay, you won't go very fast, with an auto gearbox and only 125hp to call upon, but speed really isn't the point of a car like this...

Ps - This was sent to me by an eagle-eyed PHer, so thank you for the spot. Unfortunately I've lost the original e-mail you sent, and I've forgotten your PH name, but ta muchly - whoever you are...!

Advert is reproduced below

1991 MERCEDES-BENZ E CLASS 230 TE Auto 7 SEATER Estate (1991)
145,000 miles £1,000

145,000 miles, Metallic grey, 1 previous owner.

A rare timewarp car with an interesting story.

I bought this in 2008 for a European trip as a 1 owner car with the rare factory 7 seat option, with just 132,000 miles and Mercedes service history.

Needing it to be 100% reliable I had a full service carried out & lots of other bits, some would say overkill but I think I proved myself right as it's been 100% reliable for over 3 years.

It's had routine services and MOTs since but initially it had new brakes, exhaust, radiator, thermostat & housing, suspension pipes, gearbox oil & filter change, electric aerial, fuel filter, air filter, spark plugs - you name it, if it didn't look 100% it got replaced.

We took it round France to Monaco, across to Venice, Rome & Perugia in Italy, Lucerne in Switzerland, through Germany to Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium (where I was racing) & back home via Lille - around 3500 miles in 10 days & the car performed impeccably, the perfect autoroute/autostrada/autobahn cruiser. We actually called him Mercules as no matter what he just keeps going.

Since then it's been regularly used as my brother's winter car (whilst his Morris Minor hibernates) and was most recently MOT'd in June and hasn't really been used since, having covered only another 89 miles.

Besides the rather rare factory option of being a 7 seater with 2 rear facing seats in the boot (that fold down completely flat when not needed) there's a CD player, electric sunroof, electric windows all round, electric passenger mirror & everything works (bar the driver's mirror adjuster) & it drives exceptionally well. The tyres are fine, the toolkit and spare wheel are all there, there's a First Aid Kit (albeit an Audi one, but it fits in the correct compartment so it could well be the same kit with a different name on the case) and there's a spare key (with an original Mercedes leather key fob no less!). It did have a working remote locking alarm, but this ceased to work whilst my brother had it (I'm not lending him a car again!). However, I do have two spare remotes that came with the car so it may just need batteries in them to reactivate it but I haven't tried.

Besides the mirror (which was damaged by some oik who broke the 3 pointed star off the front grille too (which has since been replaced) there's a little corrosion started on the nearside front wing in the usual place. This has happened in the time my brother's had it - I told him to throughly jet wash under there to remove road salt and preserve the car but sadly he never did. A shame, but I'm told brand new wings are only £40. There is also a deepish scratch near the aerial but probably not something that's worth doing anything with and whilst there will be a few marks around the car here and there I think you'll agree it looks incredible for being over 20 years old. It's also remarkably original - I can't see any signs of it ever having had any paintwork whatsoever and it still has the Mercedes dealer's number plates on it and the original windscreen with its factory stickers (see photo gallery for close-ups).

So that you can appreciate the car fully, please go to my separate photo-hosting site at WWW.AUTOPERFORM.CO.UK where there's a gallery of around 40 photos in high resolution, including close-ups of the bad bits as well as the good!

I'll be sad to see it go and would love to keep it but it simply won't get any use (as proven by doing under 100 miles since June!), and as with any car it's better that it's used, so it's for sale and someone else can get some enjoyment out of it.

Just for clarity, this is being sold as a private sale. I am a car dealer, my company is Autoperform Ltd but this was bought as my own personal car in 2008 and then given to my brother, to whom it is currently registered (I didn't register it in my name so it is still a one previous keeper car, two in total) so it qualifies as a privately owned and advertised car, hence the private advertisement - the point being it there is no warranty (it's up to you to view, inspect, test drive and scrutinise the car and make your purchasing decision), no dealer back up and come to think of it, no bunch of flowers on the passenger seat either.

If you have anything to part exchange I will be happy to consider it. I'd rather just sell the car outright though, so anything you trade in will have to either be something I like the look of and might keep or that I can see a way of selling easily to achieve the same sale price for the Mercedes. I will consider anything, cars/motorbikes/bicycles/iPads etc - try me!

Please call or email if you have any questions or to arrange to view & test drive this car.

 

[Hellbound]

Waiting for the 'interesting story'.

Wonder if he'll take a HP Touchpad for it. :^|

[Hellbound]

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C267025

Looks a bit tatty and probably needs a ridiculous amount of money in parts etc but it's AWD.

[Hellbound]

Dapster said:

SuperHangOn said:

Is that a 'proper'/official Mercedes website?

Indeed - a Mercedes factory programme using original parts, and restored to literally new spec. You won't find a better one. You should expect to pay 20 to 40 thousand Euro.

All premium manufacturers should do this. I know most of them have special divisions and whatnot, but they should actively buy and restore cars for sale. BMW should pull their finger out and get an 'Oldtimer' website up.

[Hellbound]

RedWhiteMonkey said:

Not really complaining about this particular car as it seems stonkingly good value for money but it does irritate me when adverts describe cars as being in perfect condition then proceed to give a long list of damage or faults.

Well 'Goose' is a trader so I assume he knows exactly what he's doing when it comes to selling a car.

[Hellbound]

johnpeat said:

Whilst that might sound clever - clearly the designer never parked at the side of a road to load his car.

Opening the doors just to tip the seats = getting doors ripped-off by passing cars!?

Also - tipping seats when in your garage?!??!??

Do you have to open the doors fully or will leaving them very slightly ajar do?