BigBrownBenz.W140 - 500SEL
Discussion
1992 Mercedes-Benz 500 SEL The Big Brown Benz
I've been meaning to start a Readers' Cars thread for a while, so here goes. Apologies in advance if this turns into a bit of an essay. You might want to grab a cuppa' before you start!
I'm 33, married, work full-time and help care for both of my elderly parents, including my dad, who is disabled. Life can get fairly busy, and I've found that having something outside of work and family responsibilities to get stuck into does my mental health some good.
For me, that something has always been cars.
I've been a car nut for as long as I can remember, mainly spending my time in the VAG and BMW worlds. When I was younger, my dream was to become a mechanic. That didn't quite happen, but I've never lost the interest in how cars work, or the satisfaction of getting something working properly again. Cars have always given me "the fizz", to borrow James May's expression.
A lot of that comes from my dad and uncle, who got me interested in cars in the first place. I don't really have any car-enthusiast friends, so part of the appeal of starting this thread is getting to share the experience with people who understand why someone might spend their Friday evening researching a 34-year-old Mercedes rather than doing something more sensible.
Anyway, enough about me. Onto the car.
Why a second car?
My daily driver is a BMW iX3. It's comfortable, quick enough, cheap to run and generally does everything I need it to do. Crucially, it also has enough room in the boot for my dad's wheelchair.
Before the iX3, I had a 2019 BMW M140i that I'd bought new. I loved that car, but getting the wheelchair in and out of it was becoming increasingly difficult, so I eventually sold it and bought the iX3.
The iX3 has been brilliant, and I don't regret the change. But I did find myself missing the noise, character and general sense of occasion that comes with a petrol engine.
Having done my bit for the environment by going electric, I thought it was only fair to offset those carbon savings with a large, naturally aspirated V8.
So the hunt for a second car began.
The search
I didn't have one particular model in mind initially, although I knew roughly what I wanted: something a bit special, comfortable enough for longer journeys, with a decent engine and plenty of character.
Ideally, it would be a car I could keep for a good few years, maintain properly and gradually improve without turning it into a never-ending restoration project.
I've always had a soft spot for older Mercedes, particularly the big coupes and saloons from the era when Mercedes seemed to engineer things without anyone from the accounts department being allowed into the room.
My dad also had a W126 300SE when I was younger, so this probably helped.
The R129 SL was one of the first cars on my list. I spent a fair bit of time looking at SL500s, while also keeping an eye on the R230.
I followed various specialists and dealers on Instagram to see what was coming up. Mushy Gray's page was a regular source of temptation, as was The Elsworth Collection. I kept an eye on Shane Fela's (Lord Perm) stock, Rude Benz (Ray), and the cars being built by Car Audio Security for their channel, some of which subsequently went up for sale.
Heel & Toe Cars were also on my radar, partly because Chris Harris has spoken highly of them on his podcast and partly because they often have some rather interesting cars in stock.
In other words, I was spending far too much time looking at old Mercedes and convincing myself that buying one was a sensible financial decision.
The R129 that nearly happened
One of the first cars I went to see was a 1995 SL500 advertised for a little over £13,000.
On paper, it looked promising. In person, it was a little more tired than I'd hoped. There were various broken clips and interior fittings, and a fair amount of oil underneath the engine, which I suspected might have been coming from the rocker cover gaskets.
On the plus side, the oil had done an excellent job of coating the underside. Mercedes could probably have saved themselves a fortune on corrosion protection if they'd offered that as a factory option.
The bigger concern was the service history, which wasn't quite as convincing as I'd have liked at that price. I was the first person to view it, and the seller wasn't prepared to move on the asking price, so I decided to leave it.
A few days later, I spotted the same car on the Instagram story of a West London restoration company. It turned out they'd bought it for a few thousand pounds less than the original asking price.
I reached out to them and offered to send over the CarVertical report I'd obtained, along with the photos I'd taken during my viewing. No hard feelings about missing out on the car, but it did confirm that walking away at £13k-plus had probably been the right decision for me.
The search continued.
There were plenty of SL320s around, some of which looked like lovely cars, but I kept coming back to the same thought: if I was going to buy an older Mercedes as a second car, I wanted the V8.
With the way things are going, this could well be the last opportunity I have to own a big, naturally aspirated V8 purely for the enjoyment of it. I didn't want to buy a six-cylinder car and spend the next few years wondering whether I should have held out for the 500.
R230s and CL500s
I then spent a fair bit of time looking at R230 SL500s.
There was a lot to like. They look fantastic, the interiors still feel special, and the idea of a folding hardtop and a V8 was very appealing.
But I kept hesitating over the potential bills. The ABC suspension was an obvious concern, as were the roof hydraulics and the possibility of water ingress through ageing roof and boot seals.
None of these things necessarily makes an R230 a bad buy, but I wanted a car I could enjoy rather than one that had me nervously checking the boot carpets every time it rained.
I also started wondering whether an SL was really the most practical second car for what I wanted to do. I liked the idea of taking the car away for weekends and longer trips, and the boot space with the roof down wasn't ideal.
That led me towards the C215 CL500.
A pillarless Mercedes V8 coupe with four proper seats seemed like a very good compromise. I particularly liked the facelift cars, ideally from 2003 to early 2006.
Finding a good one proved harder than expected, though. I wanted something reasonably original, with decent history, and preferably registered before the higher road-tax band applied to later cars.
Car Audio Security had a lovely-looking silver 2006 CL500 with the AMG kit fitted. I spent quite a bit of time looking at that one, but the prospect of paying around £790 a year in road tax on a car that might only cover a few thousand miles didn't particularly appeal.
I appreciate that road tax isn't the biggest potential expense when buying an ageing V8 Mercedes, but it still felt like an unnecessary annual kick in the wallet.
I carried on looking at CLs and SLs, although by this point I was beginning to wonder whether I was being too particular.
Then the 500 SEL appeared
I'd been keeping an eye on Heel & Toe Cars' stock when a 1992 Mercedes-Benz 500 SEL appeared on their website.
It was an early W140 long-wheelbase car, finished in Impala Brown Metallic with a beige interior. It had covered around 113,000 miles and looked wonderfully original.
It wasn't what I'd originally set out to buy. I'd been looking for a coupe or convertible, and here was a five-metre-plus executive saloon that looked as though it should have a diplomat in the back.
But the more I looked at it, the more I liked it.
It had the sort of presence you'd expect from a cartel boss's car. Not one of the lads doing the running around, but the bloke several levels above them who never needs to raise his voice or explain where his money came from.
Unfortunately, it had already been reserved by another customer.
I sent Heel & Toe a message asking them to let me know if the sale happened to fall through. I wasn't expecting much, but a few days later they got back to me to say the car was available again.
From what I understand, the original buyer was a regular customer who'd bought more than 20 cars from them over the years. He'd decided to go for a Porsche instead a Boxster, I think partly because of the amount of storage space the long-wheelbase Mercedes would need.
Having now tried to fit the SEL on my own driveway, I can see his point.
At the time, I was away in North Wales with my wife and in-laws. Not wanting to miss out, I spent a fair bit of the holiday asking Heel & Toe questions about the car, clarifying its condition and going through the history.
I also bought a CarVertical report, negotiated a slightly lower price and eventually left a 10% non-refundable deposit.
Buying a 34-year-old Mercedes while on holiday, before seeing it in person, probably isn't the textbook approach to sensible car ownership. But I'd missed a few cars by waiting too long, and this one had really caught my attention.
Collection day
On the way home from North Wales, my wife and I made a two-and-a-half-hour detour to Sudbury to see the car at Heel & Toe.
Seeing it in person was quite something. The W140 is a big car in photographs, but standing next to a long-wheelbase example really puts its size into perspective. It's enormous.
The Impala Brown looked fantastic in the sunlight, particularly with the beige interior. It had that understated, slightly old-fashioned presence that I really like. It's not a colour combination I'd necessarily have chosen from a brochure, but it suits the car beautifully.
We had a proper look around it and took it for a test drive.
It was immediately clear that the car needed a little more work than I'd initially anticipated.
There was some rust around the boot lock and the surrounding rear panel. From what I've read, this can be an issue on W140s, with the long rear reflector/trim panel allowing water to get trapped behind it as it ages.
The rear bumper was also slightly misaligned on one side. It could be something as simple as damaged or incorrectly fitted brackets, although I suspect it may have had a minor bump at some point in its life.
My uncle, who used to work as a car sprayer, noticed what appeared to be an old masking-tape/overspray line that you could just feel in the driver's-side rear door shut, on the same side as the bumper alignment issue.
That's not proof of accident damage, of course, but it does suggest some paintwork has been carried out there previously.
Both rear inner arch liners were cracked too. Whether that's related to the bumper having been removed or damaged at some point, or simply age-related deterioration, I'm not sure.
There were a few other things on the list: some small rust spots on the bonnet, areas of lacquer peeling, various scuffs around the bodywork and some delamination along the rear window.
The soft-close function on the front passenger door was temperamental, the reading lights near the sunroof controls weren't working, and the rear vanity mirrors had failed. The seats were also missing a few small circular bolt covers, and the aftermarket rear parking sensors weren't doing anything.
So, not quite the immaculate, needs-nothing classic that everyone hopes to find.
On the positive side, the paintwork was generally in decent condition for its age, the wheels had recently been refurbished and it was sitting on Hankook tyres fitted in 2025.
The service history was reasonably reassuring too. It had received attention from a Mercedes specialist in recent years, including various steering and suspension-related jobs, and Heel & Toe had fitted new trailing arms before the sale.
Mechanically, it drove very nicely. There was a slightly lumpy idle in Park and Neutral, which I noticed during the viewing, but nothing particularly dramatic. I'll cover that separately, as it has since been investigated.
Out on the road, though, the car was lovely.
The M119 V8 was wonderfully smooth once moving, the four-speed automatic gearbox suited the car perfectly, and it had that lovely old Mercedes feeling of being completely unbothered by whatever was happening around it.
The seats were incredibly comfortable, the cabin felt properly substantial, and there was something very satisfying about looking down that enormous bonnet with the three-pointed star at the end of it.
Despite the list of little jobs, I was smitten.
The deal was done, and the SEL was mine.
Forecourt shot as promised on the Best Smoker Barges 1-5 thread:
The journey home
We left Heel & Toe on a Friday evening and began the journey back towards the South East. It was roughly a three-hour drive home.
It also happened to be the Friday of the bank holiday weekend.
Excellent timing.
The traffic was predictably dreadful, but I suppose there are worse places to spend several hours crawling along than in the front seat of an old S-Class.
It gave me plenty of time to get acquainted with the car, although I did discover on the way home that the coolant temperature gauge wasn't working. Not ideal when you've just bought a 34-year-old V8 and have a long journey ahead of you.
Thankfully, the car got us home without any drama.
By the time we arrived, we'd spent around five and a half hours travelling that day, and I was ready to park it up and call it a night.
There was just one final challenge: getting it onto the driveway.
I'd measured the space beforehand, but there's a difference between knowing a car is over five metres long and actually trying to manoeuvre it around your driveway.
It fits, although access to the garage is now considerably more difficult, much to my wife's delight.
The previous buyer's concerns about storage space were beginning to make a lot more sense.
Still, it was home.
So, what's the plan?
I'm not planning a full restoration or trying to turn it into a concours car. I bought it because I love the way these old Mercedes look and drive, and I want to actually use it.
The first priority is to work through the mechanical and electrical niggles, get everything functioning as it should and make sure it's reliable enough for regular use and longer journeys.
That means sorting the coolant temperature gauge, investigating the slightly lumpy idle, getting the parking sensors working, looking into the temperamental soft-close doors and dealing properly with the rust around the boot lock.
The rear bumper alignment and cracked arch liners need attention too, and I'm looking into underbody protection before using it through the winter.
Once those jobs are out of the way, I'd like to make a few tasteful changes.
I recently went to Rollhard '26, my first car show in about 15 years. Seeing some of the cars there reminded me how much I enjoy that side of car culture, and a few of the Mercedes builds helped shape what I'd like to do with the W140.
I've always liked the look of these cars on period AMG Monoblock wheels, so a set of 18- or 19-inch Monoblock IIs is high on the wish list.
I also quite fancy a subtle drop, potentially using air suspension further down the line. I know that won't be to everyone's taste, particularly on an early W140, but I'd like the car to sit nicely at its normal driving height and still be comfortable enough to use properly. I'm not looking to build something that only looks good when it's parked.
I appreciate the appeal of keeping a car completely standard, but part of the enjoyment for me is making it my own. I'll be keeping any changes as sympathetic and reversible as I reasonably can.
I'd love to release a little more noise from the M119 as well. Nothing antisocial or droney just a slightly fruitier V8 note, ideally from a valved exhaust that can be quiet when I want it to be.
Some improvements to the audio system would also be welcome, but I'd like to keep the interior looking as original as possible. It currently has an aftermarket Continental Bluetooth stereo fitted, which does the job for now.
The general idea is to preserve what makes the car special, fix the things that need fixing and make a few changes that improve the ownership experience.
I realise an old W140 probably isn't the most rational choice of second car, particularly when the first car is an electric BMW. But then, I wasn't really looking for rational. The iX3 already does that job.
I'll update the thread as I work through the jobs, starting with the coolant temperature gauge and the idle issue. There have already been a few developments on both fronts.
For now, here's my 1992 500 SEL. It's big, brown, a little bit needy and I absolutely love it.
I've also started a dedicated Instagram page for the car, if anyone fancies following along, your support would be hugely appreciated: @BigBrownBenz.W140
Thanks for reading!
Edited by Moe-6GC on Tuesday 22 September 16:20
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