Mercedes-Benz S280 | Shed of the Week
Things can't be all bad if you can still buy an S-Class for Shed money - right?
Resisting the temptation to live the S-Class lifestyle on a Picanto purchasing budget is getting harder with low-mileage, one-owner, long-MOT examples like this one bobbing about on the sub-£2k used car swamp.
The car you’re warily examining here has the same £1,990 tag as the Almandine Black 144,000 mile 3.2 Shed featured here in March, but this time around it’s a fresh-looking 2.8 in what Shed thinks might be Blue Quartz metalliic with an interesting odometer reading of under 87,000.
The 201hp 2.8 is routinely slagged off for being underpowered. Was it, though? The 220hp 3.2 petrol maxed out at 149mph with a 0-60mph time of 7.9 seconds and a 24mph average. The 2.8’s top speed was only 5mph down on the 3.2’s and its fuel burn figure was the same. Yes, it was more than a second slower over the 0-60, but did that really count in S-Class world where trying too hard was never on the menu?
We’ve mentioned Kia purchasing costs but there’s a strong chance that the running costs will be more Pagani than Picanto. The ad talks AI-ishly about the W220 S-Class’s ‘enduring quality and sophisticated engineering’. Few would argue about the second part of that claim – packed with gizmos, the W220 was the first car to offer radar-assisted adaptive cruise – but others will justifiably say that the sophisticated engineering was directly responsible for the kind of quality that, if you were unlucky, was the opposite of enduring.
All W220 S-Classes had electronically-controlled Airmatic suspension, a system not averse to leaving you in the poo, but perhaps the most troublesome item of sophisticated W220 engineering was the hydropneumatic Active Body Control. ABC ran at pressures of up to 200 bar. When (not if) it went wrong, you could end up in 200 bars drowning your sorrows. Luckily, ABC was only standard on the S55 and S600. Most low-spec Ss like our shed weren’t saddled by it.
Our shed did need an MOT retest in April to allow for some tightening-up of parts in the exhaust and front suspension departments, plus some fettling of the SRS warning light and non-functioning horn. They didn’t bother clearing the thin rear brake pads advisory, but from the MOT history it looks like at least one front disc has been replaced in the last year. The cloudy headlamp lenses that were mentioned on (and then apparently cleared from) the list of advisories on the initial fail certificate still don’t look all that great to Shed, but there again most things don’t look great on his Amstrad’s screen.
Some say you should always buy a W220 on condition rather than mileage. This car looks solid enough but it could certainly do with a general cleanse. Air suspension sensors and struts do fail and the electronics are unlikely to improve over time as connectors continue to crisp up, but there are no turbos to worry about with the S280 and this one does have the bonus feature of some string or wool wrapped around its steering wheel.
Who cares about the prospect of expensive repairs anyway because according to the ad this car is protected by the UK’s best used car warranty. It does say ‘terms and conditions apply’ in quite small writing down in the corner of the pic but let’s not be too cynical, eh?
I ran an cheap W210 for a while with I think the same engine, and while the rust was depressing, it was mechanically faultless. The 2 8 engine was superb.
There's a retired chap near me who daily's a W140, it just keeps going.
They all had Airmatic, which isnt actually that bad, you can get budget struts for £150 a corner these days, decent ones are £400, the pump is like £130 but unless you can DIY it, you can run into big bills, the rest of the suspension isnt that expensive but again its labour or DIYing 20 odd year old bolts on a big, heavy car, this is not quite like changing the dainty bits on a Fiesta for example.
This looks quite good as these go, they can look very down at heel but with a bit of work this could look pretty much new seeing as how well the body has survived considering this is right in Mercedes wilderness years for corrosion and general cost cutting shenanigans.
Would be getting under it and looking at the MOT history for mentions of rust. The engine and box in these was bulletproof, the rest less so....
But, do I want it, even as a barge enthusiast, that would be a no, too old, too complex, too slow, 199 lb/ft at 3000 rpm dragging 1.8 tons around would likely be a bit frustrating, this is back when German manufacturers still offered an underpowered version in every range, an S class shouldn't take almost ten seconds to hit sixty, probably cruises on the motorway very nicely and in reality its probably quick enough but if you are taking on all that potential agro, you at least want to feel some "thrunge" and see that three pointed star lift a bit.
Not the slowest S Class ever, a beast compared to the 1980 300SD with 110 BHP, about 16 seconds to sixty, which was still twice as fast and the seventies W123 E Class 200D with 55 bhp, 31 seconds to sixty, or if you were daft enough to order it with an auto box, 33.2. Makes you wonder how anyone signed that off, we have got a bit blase about huge performance but surely that was never ok in a prestige car in that era, thats 1950s numbers.
I'm not brave enough for this, but I bet someone is though, so good luck to them.
Personally, I think I'd prefer the S320cdi. I know it's not the most refined of engines but that I6 is a tough and economical with plenty of go. So you could at least waft economically towards a big bill. I do have a soft spot for these though and on the S/CL group I run on FB, there a fair few of these around.
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