Discussion
There are so many things that can go wrong with these cars, so it's difficult to tell you what to look out for, but its usually minor problems such as interior electrical gremlins etc.
Major obvious one is body rust. Front wings for a coupe are mega £££. Make sure engine pulls smoothly through rev range and box changes up and smoothly through all gears. Make sure it goes into reverse quickly. I have to wait up to 5 seconds on one of mine and it's infuriating! Engine should be perfectly smooth on idle. Obviously check all the interior switches and see if anything doesn't work. All have cam chain engines, so nothing to worry about there unless high mileage.
I can recommend going here if you serious about getting one, as there are some very knowledgeable and helpful folk
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w140-s-class/ I sign in as "ScrapingScrap"
Avoid the 600 v12 unless you have deep pockets. Super car performance when they work but expect regular big bills! All other coupes are v8 (they never made a 6-pot coupe) - 282hp 4.2 or 322hp 5.0. All coupes are auto.
Oh, best to avoid early ones too (pre '95), as they had dissolving engine wiring looms! I had one go on my 500 and Benz wanted £600 for a new one!
The spec on the w140 varies hugely, although you do tend to get more spec as standard on the coupes. As per most Mercs, you buy the standard car, then spec it up as required.
Don't let any of this put you off though, so long as it's mechanically fine and not too rusty, they are absolutely fantastic cars! They are surprisingly cheap to maintain - especially if you are reasonably handy with spanners, as most parts are cheap on eBay / GSF / Merc breakers etc. I've had four of them (still got three, albeit 4-door models) and always look forward to every journey.
Major obvious one is body rust. Front wings for a coupe are mega £££. Make sure engine pulls smoothly through rev range and box changes up and smoothly through all gears. Make sure it goes into reverse quickly. I have to wait up to 5 seconds on one of mine and it's infuriating! Engine should be perfectly smooth on idle. Obviously check all the interior switches and see if anything doesn't work. All have cam chain engines, so nothing to worry about there unless high mileage.
I can recommend going here if you serious about getting one, as there are some very knowledgeable and helpful folk
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w140-s-class/ I sign in as "ScrapingScrap"
Avoid the 600 v12 unless you have deep pockets. Super car performance when they work but expect regular big bills! All other coupes are v8 (they never made a 6-pot coupe) - 282hp 4.2 or 322hp 5.0. All coupes are auto.
Oh, best to avoid early ones too (pre '95), as they had dissolving engine wiring looms! I had one go on my 500 and Benz wanted £600 for a new one!
The spec on the w140 varies hugely, although you do tend to get more spec as standard on the coupes. As per most Mercs, you buy the standard car, then spec it up as required.
Don't let any of this put you off though, so long as it's mechanically fine and not too rusty, they are absolutely fantastic cars! They are surprisingly cheap to maintain - especially if you are reasonably handy with spanners, as most parts are cheap on eBay / GSF / Merc breakers etc. I've had four of them (still got three, albeit 4-door models) and always look forward to every journey.
trickywoo said:
Thanks for all the tips.
Quite happy to put up with the odd niggle for a memorable drive.
Was hopeful that rust wouldn't be such an issue but guess this falls into the accountant rather than engineer run era....
The front wings are around £260 each from Mercedes Benz so not that much actually.Quite happy to put up with the odd niggle for a memorable drive.
Was hopeful that rust wouldn't be such an issue but guess this falls into the accountant rather than engineer run era....
Brilliant cars - I have had two
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