Bigger, blacker balls

[Partridge]

This will get me blackballed for sure...my old W210 became a bit of a basket case, and I ended up taking Fellie's advice to scrap it. It was a hard* call to make, boo hoo and all that. I thought about breaking it for spares, but most of it is fecked anyway, so it shall be taken away on a beavertail trannie (google that, go on) this Monday.

 

Cut a long story short I really wanted to sample a good Istambul taxi, as I really want to prove to myself that old Mercs can still be good. My Rustebuckkete had rare moments of not being shit, but these were overshadowed by me thinking "oh crap it's going to split in half and kill me".

So I've replaced the old snotter with this newer E240, in povo spec.

 

The car was located in the far reaches of leafy sussex, I bribed my friend with the promise of unlimited supplies ginsters pasties and my company for the day, to drive me there.

 

The car has a FSH, which I think is true, as it looks bloody clean. No rust. At all. Anywhere. All the electrics work. Nothing is wet that should not be wet.

I took if for a quick spin, got lost, and found my way back to the vendors before they thought I'd knicked it and phoned the police. All was in order.

£870 fine English pounds were paid, and we wheezed off into the sunset.

I think I has been winner.

 

Wheel trims and cloth seats are for people who know what they want out of life.

 

I drove her back home and did the 70 odd miles with ease. The temperture gauge climbed to the half way mark and stayed there, and no lights came up on the dash...I don't want to jinx it, but I think I might have got a good one.

 

The question is, how black are my balls for buying this?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

That looks pretty nice and a vast improvement on the previous old knacker! Nice work. What engine is it?

[Felly Magic]

You can't be Partridge, he would NEVER buy a Merc, it would be a Lexshush or a Rover 800, and nothing else

[Partridge]

That looks pretty nice and a vast improvement on the previous old knacker! Nice work. What engine is it?

Thanks Boll. It really is very nice. E240 petrol. I thought about a diesel but A) I don't do the miles and b: this was the first one I saw.

[Partridge]

You can't be Partridge, he would NEVER buy a Merc, it would be a Lexshush or a Rover 800, and nothing else

I'm an indipendant Partridge

[gary_davidson]

and there was me thinking you'd drawn a cock on the wall in a toilet, I wonder how well something like that would go down here?

nice car by the way, lot of car for the money an all that, what year is it and how many miles?

[Partridge]

I could draw a cock on the Merc?

 

It's done 135,000 miles, and a year 2000 W plater.

[fordperv]

Thank God it's a merc, I saw the title, saw partridge and thought he's had a few Bacardi's and started a thread about bollocks

 

Looks like a tidy barge fella

[Partridge]

It was a clever thread title I felt. If I put that much attention into everything, I could afford ten old Mercs by now.

 

Aye, she's bang tidy

[HillmanImp]

I could draw a cock on the Merc?.

And a 'piss' and a 'partridge'.

[Partridge]

Feel free to doctor the image if my Merc.

[Twiggy]

A fine machine sir - well bought !

[HMC]

Nice e class! Looks like midnight blue which is a nice deep blue which lasts well. The whole rust/ merc w210 thing is hard to fathom- cars often built in the same year can be either grot free or quite scabby seemingly at random. If the history is mainly MB it could have had MB bodyshop panel repairs as they would often honour their (anti)corrosion warranty if it had MB history. Either that or your earlier one was ein frietag nachmittag auto- but im sure that isnt allowed in Germany.

[Sigmund Fraud]

£870 could have bought you loads of zintec sheet, argomix and mig wire. But with cars as plentiful as W210s it would have made no financial sense, and it would still be a fairly dog-eared example that would inevitably continue asking for attention.

 

Your new E240 looks well cared for, so well bought ! I suppose you'll be investing in some Dinitrol fairly soon ?

[Partridge]

Nice e class! Looks like midnight blue which is a nice deep blue which lasts well. The whole rust/ merc w210 thing is hard to fathom- cars often built in the same year can be either grot free or quite scabby seemingly at random. If the history is mainly MB it could have had MB bodyshop panel repairs as they would often honour their (anti)corrosion warranty if it had MB history. Either that or your earlier one was ein frietag nachmittag auto- but im sure that isnt allowed in Germany.

 

Thanks. I've done a divla and it just comes up as "blue". It's either midnight blue or tahiti blue. I need to find out which, because I need a rattle can or touch up stick for it (there's a few stone chips on the bonnet).

RE the rust, we spoke about this at lengh on here before, and Felly thinks this is down to where the car is made (South Africa or Germany, German cars are better).

Not sure where mine is made.

[Partridge]

 

 

Your new E240 looks well cared for, so well bought ! I suppose you'll be investing in some Dinitrol fairly soon ?

The bloke had it from new! He wanted a slightly newer one though, and told me he was "fed up" with it. Fair enough. Really nice old guy though, we chatted about motors for ages. I've said if I'm out that way again I'll let him know

Waxolying it isn't a bad idea...

[oman5]

 bloody hell.  a lot of motor for not much money and smart looking too

[Hendry]

Looks a nice clean example, but I really cannot comprehend the fact that the money these cost when new even for a base model that alloys weren't standard.

[MrDuke]

OK, it's not great, but I am really ill.

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: Tayne, I am disappoint. You didn't even try.

[Spiny Norman]

It's amazing how much barge you can buy for under a grand, hopefully you'll get enjoy this one a it better, certainly looks the part.

Incidentally, you can easily find out where it's made by putting the VIN into here....http://www.vin-decoder.net/

 

I know if the 11th character of the VIN is A then the car was built in Sindelfingen, because that's where mine came from. I think only the C and CLKs came from South Africa, but I could be wrong.

[Partridge]

LMAO off at these posts guys!

 

Cool link Studebaker Turns out we both have Sindelfingen cars...

[Cavcraft]

Tayne is on fire here!

[ProgRocker]

Looks like a top buy, Mr. Partridge!

[Partridge]

Aye, that makes a change for me.

[cort16]

Fair play for having a car you didn't like then going out and buying another one. The e240 is a didgy v6 isn't it?

The original buyer did the man thing of spent all their money trying to getting the bigger engine to the cost of any kind of comfort. Can I afford the E280 if I don't have any interior fitted and just have it in primer?

 

I think the rust thing is a lot to do with how the owner looks after it. If they clean out the dirt traps (and there's plenty on these and it's not been bumped and re-painted  then they seem to last a bit longer.

[Partridge]

It is a V6-my first ever one. The earlier E240s were four pots though. Yup-on that basis, it's a man's car.

To be honest, it's not short of kit. It has climate control, and a 6 CD autochanger (which I'm not trusting with my CDs, but I am assured it works). And a further prod around reveals it has a cooled centre consol cubby hole armrest thing, which the seller didn't tell me about. Pointless, but nice to know it's there.

Yet it's a base "Classic" model with cloth seats and steelies...a very weird spec.

 

I do plan to look after this one, keep it rust free and hang on to it-but it has to behave through the winter.

[eddyramrod]

For that price, if you get 12 months out of it you've won.  But that's not the AS way, is it?  For that price it's going to need to give you four or five years.  Can't beat a big tough barge.  Taxi drivers all over Europe love these, they almost won't drive anything else.  Best of luck!

[Partridge]

Thanks Ed! I think I'm going to make this one stick...

[Partridge]

Ta for that again, I've poked around with it, and it's a lot more simple than I thought...a multi story car park for CDs.

[Spiny Norman]

 

 

To be honest, it's not short of kit. It has climate control, and a 6 CD autochanger (which I'm not trusting with my CDs, but I am assured it works). And a further prod around reveals it has a cooled centre consol cubby hole armrest thing, which the seller didn't tell me about. Pointless, but nice to know it's there.

Yet it's a base "Classic" model with cloth seats and steelies...a very weird spec.

My Avantgarde version isn't exactly groaning withn goodies either, although it does have alloys and leather, and Merc's brilliant seat shaped electric seat adjuster thingy complete with memory function, but the one major omission it does lack IMO is heated seats. Leather gets chuffing cold in winter.

 

I think the rust thing is a lot to do with how the owner looks after it. If they clean out the dirt traps (and there's plenty on these and it's not been bumped and re-painted  then they seem to last a bit longer.

The only real rust on mine is on the driver's door, mostly along the bottom edge and behind the trim strip, and it's the only panel that's obviously been resprayed at some point in the car's life. There's some overspray on the window rubbers, so it's maybe had a dunt in the door and repaired by a back street garage.

Doors are £50 on Ebay if it gets serious...