1966 Mercedes 230SL Pagoda
Discussion
Going to be a long one this - having a crap day at work and thought this would cheer me up!
I've been keeping notes so this is all cut-and-paste to get up to today, from here I will update the thread as things happen.
This story started a few years ago when one of my neighbours had a cream 230SL. I bought an R129 SL320 which I still have as a daily driver. My wife loves it, I love it and it has taken us on a few great trips to the south of France and back home to Scotland. Its fair to say I like old SLs.
On holiday last year I hired a 190SL and did 120-odd miles in it over the 24hours we had it. I have been in and driven a lot of cars but nothing had the same experience as this. It was a nice one (and given a well used hire car it had to be reliable). I just loved the feeling of the interior, all the little details, and the feeling of being allowed to drive and sit in and poke about something thats just so, well, old and cool.
190SLs have gone pretty stratospheric and for our usage are probably a bit too old. I wanted something that I can drive to work in daily in summer. The w113 fits the bill perfectly. The forums and internet are full of stories of cars held together by the paint and people complaining about the cost of parts. I know that if I wanted to buy a car and return it to better than new condition it will cost more than all the money in the world but I was looking for a daily useable, non-perfect but not rusty car with “patina”.
20TH Jan 2014
I had spent many an hour looking at pagodas in garages, parked on the street and on visits to MBworld at Brooklands, so I had a fair idea of the cars in general. I spent a lot of time reading the great W113 group forum which is a great source of info on every component.
Browsing ebay.com in search of something nice, I found a blue pagoda for sale at a dealer in Yorktown, Virginia. It was a pretty great advert in terms of honesty, photos and info that it caught my attention. Stupid idea. Dont buy it.
21st Jan
Id spent 24hours since seeing the advert thinking about it. Thoughts of “its 47 years old and will be a wreck” and “but i cant even see it first” were completely obliterated by “look at it it”.
More thinking.
22nd Jan
I had emailed the dealer and asked what they would take for it. I bashed the numbers into a currency convertor and spoke to some shippers. Hmmmm. I had found a company called shipmycar a few months back and used their online quote generator. I liked the idea that they uplift from the dealer, container it over and then do all the import tax, DVLA and MOT changes and work.
23rd Jan
I found a classic car group in the county the dealer was in and contacted some members via facebook, who instantly put me in touch with a “vehicle appraisals” guy who was very helpful. I decided to get him to inspect the car, thinking well maybe $300 will put the idea out my head if its a proper basket case. He went to inspect the car and whilst saying on balance he probably wouldn't buy it, I bought it anyway.
I've been keeping notes so this is all cut-and-paste to get up to today, from here I will update the thread as things happen.
This story started a few years ago when one of my neighbours had a cream 230SL. I bought an R129 SL320 which I still have as a daily driver. My wife loves it, I love it and it has taken us on a few great trips to the south of France and back home to Scotland. Its fair to say I like old SLs.
On holiday last year I hired a 190SL and did 120-odd miles in it over the 24hours we had it. I have been in and driven a lot of cars but nothing had the same experience as this. It was a nice one (and given a well used hire car it had to be reliable). I just loved the feeling of the interior, all the little details, and the feeling of being allowed to drive and sit in and poke about something thats just so, well, old and cool.
190SLs have gone pretty stratospheric and for our usage are probably a bit too old. I wanted something that I can drive to work in daily in summer. The w113 fits the bill perfectly. The forums and internet are full of stories of cars held together by the paint and people complaining about the cost of parts. I know that if I wanted to buy a car and return it to better than new condition it will cost more than all the money in the world but I was looking for a daily useable, non-perfect but not rusty car with “patina”.
20TH Jan 2014
I had spent many an hour looking at pagodas in garages, parked on the street and on visits to MBworld at Brooklands, so I had a fair idea of the cars in general. I spent a lot of time reading the great W113 group forum which is a great source of info on every component.
Browsing ebay.com in search of something nice, I found a blue pagoda for sale at a dealer in Yorktown, Virginia. It was a pretty great advert in terms of honesty, photos and info that it caught my attention. Stupid idea. Dont buy it.
21st Jan
Id spent 24hours since seeing the advert thinking about it. Thoughts of “its 47 years old and will be a wreck” and “but i cant even see it first” were completely obliterated by “look at it it”.
More thinking.
22nd Jan
I had emailed the dealer and asked what they would take for it. I bashed the numbers into a currency convertor and spoke to some shippers. Hmmmm. I had found a company called shipmycar a few months back and used their online quote generator. I liked the idea that they uplift from the dealer, container it over and then do all the import tax, DVLA and MOT changes and work.
23rd Jan
I found a classic car group in the county the dealer was in and contacted some members via facebook, who instantly put me in touch with a “vehicle appraisals” guy who was very helpful. I decided to get him to inspect the car, thinking well maybe $300 will put the idea out my head if its a proper basket case. He went to inspect the car and whilst saying on balance he probably wouldn't buy it, I bought it anyway.
Edited by jke11y on Wednesday 5th March 22:04
His “appraisal method” meant he would never tell someone to buy a car, but reasons why not to. The main concerns he had were 3, which I didn't think was too bad. He also had a lot of positives, so I had to do some more reading and weigh them all up. They were 1) rust in the boot area 2) autobox a bit clunky and 3) couldn't verify the underside as its undersealed. They score them from 1-6 with one being a concours example and 6 being a collection of rusty panels. This was a 3. Some areas were a 3-, one a 4. It sounded like what I was after, as I wanted a car I wouldn't worry about too much. I also got the impression that his measure of a classic car (i.e. how good it was) was based solely on concours cars and how rubbish one was compared to a concours version. Since I absolutely didn't want a mint one, that was fine with me.
I did some research and the autobox (being old) seems to be characteristically clunky and has some sensors that can be adjusted, the under seal thing didn't phase me that much as at least its done and would be more likely to pass its MOT, and finally the dealer took more photos of the boot which I showed to some people more knowledgeable than me.
24th Jan
Paid the deposit and the dealer took it off eBay. Told some mates who assumed I was lying and asked why I wanted a car that is almost twice as old as I am. Told them to get lost. My wife was over the moon, being a lady that loves cool stuff and fashion she has ideas that she will be cruising down the Kings Road in it to do some shopping ASAP. Given that when it arrives she will be 4 months pregnant I cant see this happening for a while, but she didn't bend my ear too much for buying an ancient car unseen off the internet so on balance not a bad response all round.
3rd Feb
Dealer confirmed the funds arrived (on this note I hugely recommend transferwise as a way of sending money, got there next day and the rate was more or less the spot market rate - I saved £550 over doing it via my bank). Shipping company also booked and paid deposit, so car will be picked up this week. The area the dealer is in had a lot of snow last week so hopefully that wont hinder progress too much.
10th Feb
Car uplifted from dealer by shipping co's contractor. Dealer sent me a whole load of pics. Was pretty pleased with these as its not like they are trying to make the car look better than it is, as its paid for by this point. There was a bit of a delay between paying and uplifting, as they had a lot of snow which they don't normally have, or so I was told.
I did some research and the autobox (being old) seems to be characteristically clunky and has some sensors that can be adjusted, the under seal thing didn't phase me that much as at least its done and would be more likely to pass its MOT, and finally the dealer took more photos of the boot which I showed to some people more knowledgeable than me.
24th Jan
Paid the deposit and the dealer took it off eBay. Told some mates who assumed I was lying and asked why I wanted a car that is almost twice as old as I am. Told them to get lost. My wife was over the moon, being a lady that loves cool stuff and fashion she has ideas that she will be cruising down the Kings Road in it to do some shopping ASAP. Given that when it arrives she will be 4 months pregnant I cant see this happening for a while, but she didn't bend my ear too much for buying an ancient car unseen off the internet so on balance not a bad response all round.
3rd Feb
Dealer confirmed the funds arrived (on this note I hugely recommend transferwise as a way of sending money, got there next day and the rate was more or less the spot market rate - I saved £550 over doing it via my bank). Shipping company also booked and paid deposit, so car will be picked up this week. The area the dealer is in had a lot of snow last week so hopefully that wont hinder progress too much.
10th Feb
Car uplifted from dealer by shipping co's contractor. Dealer sent me a whole load of pics. Was pretty pleased with these as its not like they are trying to make the car look better than it is, as its paid for by this point. There was a bit of a delay between paying and uplifting, as they had a lot of snow which they don't normally have, or so I was told.
Good eh 
23rd Feb
A box arrived to work today from the dealer. This excited me way more than it should have, but I am easily interested and a bit of a sadsacks when it comes to this type of thing, as I am sure many PHers are.
It was a couple of sets of keys for the car, and all the documents and manuals. This was very cool as it told me who the first owner was, and from this info and all the receipts it turns out the same husband and wife owned it from new in 1966 until 1991. I did some googling of the addresses I have and the names and even found a report on the Husband from when he died in ’91; stating he was some steel company chief exec and that he died at their holiday house (the address on one of the invoices). Pretty amazing.
No history since 91 until now but the car has some new bits; hoping I can piece together some info when I get the title. I think I counted 35 services in the service book up until 1991.
23rd Feb
A box arrived to work today from the dealer. This excited me way more than it should have, but I am easily interested and a bit of a sadsacks when it comes to this type of thing, as I am sure many PHers are.
It was a couple of sets of keys for the car, and all the documents and manuals. This was very cool as it told me who the first owner was, and from this info and all the receipts it turns out the same husband and wife owned it from new in 1966 until 1991. I did some googling of the addresses I have and the names and even found a report on the Husband from when he died in ’91; stating he was some steel company chief exec and that he died at their holiday house (the address on one of the invoices). Pretty amazing.
No history since 91 until now but the car has some new bits; hoping I can piece together some info when I get the title. I think I counted 35 services in the service book up until 1991.
Edited by jke11y on Wednesday 5th March 16:43
I am using www.shipmycar.co.uk - I haven't really spoken to the guys there that much but they are knowledgeable and friendly and so far have done precisely what they said they would in terms of times, dates and costs.
In total from the dealers door to my door, including VAT, all the land transport, MOT, DVLA and registration it will be about £2.9k. I have also earmarked a bit more dough for when it gets here and its a shed but hopefully that won't happen
In total from the dealers door to my door, including VAT, all the land transport, MOT, DVLA and registration it will be about £2.9k. I have also earmarked a bit more dough for when it gets here and its a shed but hopefully that won't happen
matt21 said:
That's not bad. Is uk VAT 20% of sale price?
Also assume if it fails Mot it's your problem and you may get a tasty bill depending?
No, UK VAT is 5% under some historic vehicles tariff. Of course, if it fails its MOT that's my business - it does have its State inspection from the US though but thats a pretty mild MOT. Also assume if it fails Mot it's your problem and you may get a tasty bill depending?
25th Feb
The port registration code the shippers gave me allows you to login and check status of a car; I could see it was booked on a boat etc and also when they check it in they take a dozen or so photos.
Now, given that these guys are really trying to cover their backs in terms of the condition of the car I was pretty pleased that it even still looked good in these photos. I cannot work out the colour of the car (its a repaint) but in some pics it looks dark blue like the chassis tag and in others it looks more like the 60s merc colour medium blue.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff