My German shite - E320 Estate

[cyruspower]

Bought this a couple of month ago, a 139,000 mile E320 Estate as a daily.  OK, not shite in the truest sense, but it was a reasonable bargain, full enough history, loom done, jacking points need doing soonish.  Paint fairly good and inner wings rust free.  Couple of bubbles on the near side front wing.  Bloody quick old bus, but need a suspension refresh.  So the first thing I've done is buy a set of rare period 7x15 Oz wheels from Budapest.  Can't wait to get them on as they arrived on Friday.  The suspension, jacking points and paint can wait a while yet....  Only five seats and blue leather for added shite status.  The air con works! 

 

I was a Nick Froome car  (www.124.co.uk), bought by the previous owner a couple of years back; Nick is apparently well regarded in W124 circles.  Reckon I paid a pretty fair whack less than the previous owner, who also added pimperish limo tints to the back windows.  Not sure if I should keep the tints or not.  What do you reckon?  Sadly my Staffie has tried to attack the rear wiper (which auto-wipes when the front wipers are on and you engaged reverse) and electric aerial from the inside and damaged some of the film.  Thinking I'll get new film fitted and put the dog in a crate when in the car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Spiny Norman]

Nice car, I do like an old Merc.

Personally I'd ditch the tints and keep the wheels that are on it now, but it's not my car.

[cort16]

Bloody hell that's nice. How quick does the 320 seem?

[cyruspower]

Yeah, I'm 50/50 on the tints.  I like them as it give the car an air of mystery, but I also don't want to look like I'm into car park rendevouz.  The current wheels will serve as a winter set on snow tyres, so I can piss off a few Range Rover drivers.

 

I'd say it's under 8 or 9 seconds to sixty and the mid range between 60 and 120mph is awesome.  On an excessive lads weekend in Bowness my mate Dan said, "Fook me, that's 911 quick" and he used to own a '79 911 SC Targa.  Big Dave was also in the car, so with almost 50 stone of passengers on board, it's fast enough!  

 

Nice that it's debadged too.  So that when Terrance, the inane services salesman, is right up my ass in his black A6 3.0 TDi S-Line Le Mans Edition Avant SE Quattro, he gets a nice surpise when I bury the throttle into the blue shag pile and leave him standing in the fast lane.  With only his Chai Tea Latte to cheer himself up.

[Spiny Norman]

Yep, it's quite an under-rated lump, the big six in these old buses. I've got the exact same one in mine and once the autobox has had sufficient hoof to drop two or three cogs it flies up the road like a stabbed rat, and makes a wonderful sound while it's at it.

In fact I think the multivalve Mercedes straight sixes are even smoother than the similarly sized BMW ones.

[HMC]

Great car! Looks well optioned too (what we take for granted these days) leather 2k air con 2k, cruise, headlamp wash wipe, automatic etc etc all adds up with mercedes bet it was nudging 50 grand new.

 

Ex Nick froome cars are a great buy, he tends to retail well specced really well looked after cars, yours is in a great colour combo. ( though looks like a replacement front bumper in 'bornite' metallic ?)

 

Looking forward to pics with the new wheels, rare as those alloys. Ive shown similar priorities with my 95 e220 estate recently, sod the dicky central locking, ive just replaced the steels it was on with 7j amg monoblock alloys off a c class c36 amg of the same period

[TimothyClaypole]

Looks naff with the tints imho.

[trigger]

That's a smart looking motor alright but I agree with the others about the tints, they are a bit much for it, what if you removed the rear door ones so that you've still got shade for the dog in the boot?.

[Cavcraft]

Lovely looking car but the tints are too dark. Bin them in favour of a lighter shade and it'll look shit loads better. Minor gripe that though, it really is a nice looking motor that.

[Morgan84]

Very nice car indeed, though will be hopeless in winter conditions so your winter wheels idea isn't a bad one !

[cyruspower]

Ok, after sleeping on it, I'm going to have the tints removed, see if the dogs feels too exposed, then have a think about having a lighter set fitted if they compain too much.

 

Any ideals on how or who I should get to remove them? Is it simply a hair dryer job followed by sticky stuff remover?

 

Think the front bumper has been repainted at some point but they haven't got the shade quite right. It has a tinge of Bornite to it, but it's much closer to the other panels in reality.

 

One little detail I love, the red and green lock/unlock flashing LEDs on the drivers door and rear hatch. They are like something from the original Battlestar Galactica series. Makes you feel like you're on set when you lock the car outside Starbucks!

[cyruspower]

Wheels going on this week! : )

[freebird]

Looks naff with the tints imho.

Yes but it will be very handy if he ever decides to go dogging, that car is big enough to hold an orgy in. 

I always fancied a BMW 325 touring, these were not even on my radar, they are now.

Lovely looking car.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Such a great looking car these. I defo support losing the tints, they always give a cheap-ass ‘council estate gangsta’ look and I reckon your dogs will be happy to be seen in a quality motor such as this anyway.

 

Those wheels look potentially great, don’t think I’ve seen any like them before

[cyruspower]

They are a super rare Oz design that I found via a seller in Budapest. You should see some of the rimz he gets in.

 

http://m.ebay.co.uk/search?kw=seller%3A3s-gte_mr2&epp=24&pgn=1&fads=1&so=12&slr=3s-gte_mr2

 

Perfect for building your own Miami Vice Series II or III drug dealer car replica. I'm thinking Mercedes 500SEL with a full Lorinser kit, wheels and boomerang aerial on the boot lid....

 

When I have the suspension done, I think I'll lower the ride height slightly, maybe 10-15mm, as it does look at bit Subaru Outback at the moment.

[barefoot]

When I have the suspension done, I think I'll lower the ride height slightly, maybe 10-15mm, 

 

You could paint stripper the bonnet at the same time.

[cyruspower]

Defo having a small coke fridge, an NHS liveried wheel chair, 1/43 scale replica of the Eiffel Tower, a blind pigmy and Brian Blessed on the roof for da showz...

[Tetleysmooth]

And don't forget the large crucifix hanging from the interior mirror.

[cyruspower]

And don't forget the large crucifix hanging from the interior mirror.

 

Surely it should be an inverted crucifix for full effect?  Or a Maltese cross?

[cyruspower]

Modern shitter update:

 

Just brought a 2006 Volvo C70 (with the hard top that transforms into the boot) over from the IOM, was total mega-barg at £5.5k and it only has 7500 miles on the clock.

Surely it gets an element of modern shite status, as it's a 2.4i petrol?

[Spiny Norman]

They're that price for a reason, mine was so crap it became only the third car I've ever sold for scrap in 30 years of driving. I've rarely hated a car so much.

Still, at least you've got a nice Merc to tool about in while the Ovlov is in the garage.

 

(sorry to piss in your beer, like....)

[cyruspower]

Blimey, was yours the one with the folding hard top or the one Val Kilmner had in The Saint?

 

The Saint version:

 

 

The more recent version:

 

[Spiny Norman]

Mine was the older one, and just the coupe version.

My main gripe with it was the power, or lack of it. 170bhp doesn't sound so bad but in a car that weighs close to two tons by the time there's me and half a tank of petrol in it, it wasn't enough for a car that I'd bought thinking it was a BMW 325Ci/Alfa GTV competitor. Stupidly high gearing and a very long travel throttle just made things worse.

It needed about a grand spending on it, and if I'd thought I might have enjoyed owning it after I'd have spent the money. I still miss its stereo.....

[cyruspower]

Soooo, after the Panzer Wagon passed its MOT with flying colours, I took it to a highly recommended Merc indy/indie, who has subsequently enlightened me about how it should not have passed its MOT and needed a shit load of work doing on it.  Being the trusting sort, I went down to take a look. 

 

All of the rear suspension, which looks like it has more arms than Kim Il Yong, was totally shot, includuding all the arm bushes, arb bushes and subframe mounts.  The entire subframe needed to be taken down to enable the components to be taken apart, as they were melded together like set of conjoined quintuplets.  Taking the subframe down revealed masses of floorpan corrosion, which needed masses of welding.  This in turn revealed that the hydraulic lines were split and leaking, so they've been fixed.  I knew the jacking points were rusty, but they were of course much worse than we thought, so, loads more welding.  The engine mounts were shot too. 

 

I've not listed two dozen or so other items as I can't remember them all, I'll let ya'll know when I get the massive bill.  Safe to say, the E320 will be staying with me for a while now, as she'll be one of the best out there and has cost me a fucking fortune.  BTW the tints have been removed by the same indie and they are also going to refurb the stock 8 hole wheels, attend to a bit of rust on the front passenger side wing and repaint the side cladding and bumpers.

 

Did consider throwing in the towel and getting a recent E350 CDi, but what the repairs have cost me would be easily swallowed up in a years depreciation on the newer car!  That's what I'm telling myself at the mo anyway.....

[bub2006]

Funnily enough my e class has aquired the panzer wagon nick name. Yours looks very tidy for its age. Shame it has concealed horrors. Mine is the w210 model on a r plate. Elegance trim. No air con or leather but has got electric driver seat and dicky seats in the boot. Only 2.0 though so not fast at all off the mark. My mot due in January and I've got my fingers crossed even now!

[Spiny Norman]

Shame it's in such a state underneath, it looks so good up top.

Kind of puts the "W124s are indestructible/last of the good Mercs" theory to bed though, doesn't it? Turns out they rust like fuck just like the later ones.

[brickwall]

Aye, German engineering and all that stuff. I will say that sometimes these things  get sorted better than originally thought. If she gets the work done surely she will be a treat?

 

You do have my sympathy though.

[HMC]

To be fair, quite a few of these w124s have similar issues in the same places these days when you have a proper look.  At least you know its all been properly sorted. Glad you decided to stick with it.

[mercrocker]

Yep Mercs do like to hide their shite.   I have binned all mine off thru rot except for the current 190E - I think I will have to bite the bullet when the time comes and get it welded.   There are just no cars like them available these days.   Modern equivalents to 80s Mercs are just too fookin horrid to contemplate and I do like the Missus to have a safe, reliable and enjoyable to drive car.    If she likes driving it I get to drink more on a Saturday night out....

[cyruspower]

Bit of an update on the Panzer Wagen.  Managed to get the 15 inch Oz wheels to fit using spacers and I reckon they look pretty good.  Having the 8 holes refurbished as an alternative set and thinking about how to discreetly upgrade the stereo.  Looks so much better without those dark tints!  Just need a Twike to go with it, so I can be the German 90's version of Alexg (not sure it will quite fit in the back though)....