M plate? 230E forsale

[W124Bob]

I posted about this very car sometime ago as I used to see it in central Manchester,a black 230E with red trim but on an M plate. Well it's now cropped up for sale, note the odd bracket thing on the nearside wing(only). A colleague and Merc fan has a vague recollection of a magazine article which mentions the Chinese buying some cars for use in HongKong. Interestingly the car was always seen in Manchester being driven by a Chinese gent complete with passenger in the back.Pity about the wheel trims, pretty sure it had correct alloys when I saw it last http://www.rixmotorcompany.co.uk/mercedes-230-e-in...

[BGarside]

Almost worth buying for that lush red interior

Thought the 2.3 motor had been replaced by the 220 16V to coincide with the facelift by the time 'M' plate came out though ('94/'95)? Seems a bit late for a pre-facelift?

[r129sl]

Oddball car. I love the interior. The funny bracket is a pennant holder, code 902 (or code 947 if a staff was supplied at the same time). I doubt it was a UK car. The spec is very, very bare: apart from the pennant holder, the only extra is the Becker Grand Prix radio/cassette with fader control. I would be surprised if it were a UK-supplied car. It definitely was not built in 1994 or 1995. The n/s/f wheel trim is different from all the others.

[mickyveloce]

An odd thing indeed. A chap near me had a Singapore market 250 diesel W124 on an R plate. It was more spartan than an SAS training camp with MB Tex seats, wind up windows and a manual 'box. It did have air con however to deal with the humidity of the intended market.
Those wheeltrims are from a newish A Class I think.

[r129sl]

mickyveloce said:

An odd thing indeed. A chap near me had a Singapore market 250 diesel W124 on an R plate. It was more spartan than an SAS training camp with MB Tex seats, wind up windows and a manual 'box. It did have air con however to deal with the humidity of the intended market.
Those wheeltrims are from a newish A Class I think.

They built them in India up to about 1998, all E220s or E250 diesels, nearly all dark blue (the only other available colours were white, black and silver) with grey MB tex, all with a/c, most with manual gearboxes. Apparently they are the best built of all 124s although the tyres were rubbish.

This car is not one of them.

[pattyg]

Cool car. I'd drive it.

[W124Bob]

Ignore the wheel trims, I'm certain when I've seen the car on the streets of Manchester it had correct wheel trims or alloys,I'm a bit of an anorak for details so would have noticed. Anyone with access to back issues of owners club mags might be able to find the article about Chinese embassy cars in Hongkong? All the India built cars as already mentioned where E220 or E250D models, I have seen a couple of E220 on S&T plates. My bet is it's an import that picked up the M plate for the year it entered the UK, I believe this happens sometimes if the importer can't prove(or can't be bothered!) easily the build year.