Tuesday 3rd April 2012

Spotted: Mercedes E36 AMG cabriolet

Forget supercars, true exclusivity comes in the form of a 90s Merc...

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If you like your cars rare, forget a new Ferrari, Lamborghini or Aston - they're as common as potholes on a B-road. No, what you want is a W124 Mercedes convertible (all right, all right A124, if we're being picky).

Now, before you think we've gone mad in some way, we do mean a very specific type of W124 - An E36 AMG Cabriolet. And by rare, we mean really rare. Mercedes made fewer than 200 E36 AMGs in total, of which only 14 were right-hand-drive soft-tops. And this is one of those.

So owning it would make you part of a seriously exclusive club. But if £20,995 still sounds like quite a lot for a 17-year-old Mercedes convertible with 111,000 miles on the clock, consider this: a 272hp, 284lb ft 3.6-litre straight six.

That's 'only' enough for 0-62mph in 7.2 seconds, but the cruiser-turned-bruiser will keep going until 155mph, which is a fair old speed for one of these.

Amazingly, the guys selling this car are also selling a 'complete collection' of E36 AMGs so, if you must have a fixed roof over your head, you could pick this E36 AMG coupe (positively common as one of 24 RHD examples, hence the £11,995 asking price, we suppose).

Alternatively, you could go for the saloon version (an even greater bargain at £10,995, and one of 12 RHD cars built). Sadly, the estate doesn't appear on Avantgarde's stock list, so we can only presume that it's been sold. But then you can't have everything in life, we guess...

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MERCEDES E36 AMG CABRIOLET
Engine: 3,606cc straight-six
Transmission: 4-speed auto, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 272hp@5,750rpm
Torque (lb ft): 284@3,750-4,500rpm
MPG: 27.1mpg at 56mph 
CO2: N/A
First registered: 1995
Recorded mileage:111,000
Yours for: £20,995

Check out the other AMG Mercedes we have for sale on PH here

[Bohally]

Want!

[JMF894]

I love the idea of exclusivety but 0-60 in 7.2 secs? That's just TOO slow surely.............

Jimbo

[Petrolhead95]

That looks fantastic

[fozzymandeus]

Aren't these nice things.

I particularly like the look of the coupe.

[Turbobanana]

A collection of AMG Mercedes: weren't these featured in Classic & Sportscar a while back?

[SWoll]

fozzymandeus said:

Aren't these nice things.

I particularly like the look of the coupe.

That coupe is lovely in a very solid and understated way.

[johnpeat]

I'm sure the C36's (W202) were much more common, but I was still surprised to spot one in a driveway when I was walking the dog yesterday - it looking very tasty for a 17-year-old car.

I was far, far more surprised to spot ANOTHER one (a facelift this time - so about 13-14 years old) about 10 driveways further down!!

Perhaps someone should put this in the middle of those for flavour

Edited by johnpeat on Tuesday 3rd April 12:49

[sleep envy]

Riggers - any chance of a story on the blue AC concept rather than picking off the easy targets we find in The Thread?

[johnpeat]

JMF894 said:

I love the idea of exclusivety but 0-60 in 7.2 secs? That's just TOO slow surely.............

Jimbo

I drove a 500 Abarth recently which claims that sort of time and it didn't feel remotely slow. It wasn't modern Cliosport quick either but it wasn't slow.

You cannot judge a car by 1 statistic like that - esp a larger automatic which isn't built for traffic-light drag racing.

The fact you even took in that stat suggests the car isn't for you!!

[JackCarter]

Turbobanana said:

A collection of AMG Mercedes: weren't these featured in Classic & Sportscar a while back?

I think these three cars were featured in a recent issue of "Mercedes Enthusiast" magazine.

Not a very original "Spotted"...

[Johnboy Mac]

Give me the E36 saloon.

[Johnboy Mac]

JMF894 said:

I love the idea of exclusivety but 0-60 in 7.2 secs? That's just TOO slow surely.............

Jimbo

That misses the whole point of the car and nothing shabby about 7.2sec anyway in such a machine.

[Rob Crutch]

Convertible looks beautiful, but would happily take on the coupe if I had too... love the W124 series cars

[sleep envy]

[Matt UK]

Saloon for me.. If only I didn't have to do 25k miles/pa...

[AdamPT]

johnpeat said:

I'm sure the C36's (W202) were much more common, but I was still surprised to spot one in a driveway when I was walking the dog yesterday - it looking very tasty for a 17-year-old car.

I was far, far more surprised to spot ANOTHER one (a facelift this time - so about 13-14 years old) about 10 driveways further down!!

Perhaps someone should put this in the middle of those for flavour

Edited by johnpeat on Tuesday 3rd April 12:49

Had a C36 for a couple years and it was a wonderful car. Definately recommend. Also, with the E36 saloon (v tempted) Better to have one of these in rhd or a left hooker e500? Hmmmmmmm questions questions. These cars were built when Mercedes still did bulletproof...over engineered in every way. Lush.

Edited by AdamPT on Tuesday 3rd April 13:48

[El Shafto]

JMF894 said:

I love the idea of exclusivety but 0-60 in 7.2 secs? That's just TOO slow surely.............

Jimbo

I think you're missing the point. If you had £20,000 and wanted to get a 'fast' car then why not just by an Evo, or an Audi S4? The point of this car is for the prestige and rarity. But the fact that it has such a beast of an engine and trots on to 155mph eventually suggests to me, that although you won't be leaving people for dead at the lights, I reckon it's mid range acceleration (i.e. 40 - 80) is probably pretty good, which let's be honest is more practical when it comes to B road over-taking or motorway driving.

And besides, in my humble opinion, you don't by any Merc for speed. It's the age old rule - if you want performance and an engaging and responsive driving experience then you buy a BMW. If you want a luxury interior and an unparalleled 'cruiser' with a smooth ride, then you by a Mercedes. I thought everyone knew that?

[365daytonafan]

An article about AMG W124 cabriolet, I was expecting it to say Chris Harris next to the word Author?

[ES335]

I would take the saloon. All W124s are cruisers but the standard cabrios really suffer in terms of rigidity/handling. But maybe AMG sorted that?

[V12 Migaloo]

I drove one of these about 6 years back and it felt 20 years out of date back then. Stiff, creaky but with a smashing engine. Then around the same time I drove an A4 Cabrio and the differeance was like chalk and cheese. We bought the A4 instead..