Reluctantly selling this fine, 7-seater Mercedes Benz Estate, metallic Impala Brown on chocolate brown leather, auto and aircon because we simply can’t afford to run it any longer and it’s not very happy tootling around town.
It’s a beautiful car, which when new was almost fully loaded and cost £35,000 in 1990. It’s one heck of a car, with the sports setup and 170bhp when new, and it’s perfectly suited to an owner who can give it a good, long, regular run. We rarely go on long trips, and when we do you can see and feel the car enjoying it. An enthusiast will have this car in concours condition with very little time and effort.
There are lots of good reasons to buy this car: comfort on long journeys is perhaps number one. When we bought the car four years ago we drove from London to Newcastle and back in a day for a funeral and arrived home almost as fresh as on departure. There are very few cars in which you could do that. We drove to Switzerland, and up and down to Bath: every journey was luxury. We would have kept the car for ten years but for the rising cost of fuel. The long wheelbase smoothes out the road, and the amazing load-carrying capacity is helped by automatic load-leveling rear suspension. With the back two rows down you can carry full-size table-tops: I once had four Habitat glass tables, 1800×800mm in there and each one is very heavy. The car was perfect for the job. The third row, by the way, folds into the floor leaving a low, wide, long space and there is a luggage guard and boot cover.
Another compelling reason is: this car is tough. Clarkson and co. tested this model to destruction – and couldn’t. After hitting it with everything they could, and causing barely a dent, they concluded this vintage are the toughest vehicles out there.
This Mercedes had new tires all round in January 2008. New radio/CD May 2008. New MB original fan bearing June 2007. New rear left passenger window glass and winding mechanism (electric) August 2006. New front coil springs and engine bushes in 2006. Digital tracking in 2005. New battery and alternator in 2004 (the person who sold it to us put in a cheap battery when it needed something heavy duty).
It’s not perfect, but at 18 years old you couldn’t expect it to be. But the condition is amazing for the age. With a little tender loving it could almost be showroom again.
The leather is almost as good as new. All the seats look fabulous, except for one small belt-rubbed hole in the drivers right side bolster that was made long before we bought it.
The windows all work, as does the left electric (heated) mirror, the headlamp wipers and the fog lamps, front and rear. A few things don’t work; my son broke the sunroof mechanism on the 3rd day by fiddling in the boot. He didn’t know, but it’s too expensive to fix. The driver outside mirror adjuster broke from metal fatigue, though it still heats to de-ice. A thief broke in, in August 2006, and damaged the centre console walnut surround, and we’ve mislaid a small bit. Since the new radio was installed the instrument lights and front right headlamp don’t work, and the central locking mechanism (including boot electric closing mechanism) and interior lights haven’t worked for about a year. We’re talking problems that an electrician could easily solved but we’ve been told to allow £120 to find and repair the faults and we don’t have the cash.
The bodywork is in generally fine shape, with very few scrapes on the protecting colour-coded panels that run around the bodywork, except for a small dent in the front-right wheel arch. The other party has admitted full liability and will get the work done – we just haven’t got around to it.
Finally, the car uses oil and is leaking a little drop from the engine and the gearbox. A leaky gasket somewhere is letting oil burn; adding stop smoke keeps it clean but needs treatment every three months or so. Again, a bit of time to fix and the car will be running superbly, or take it to a garage, but we don’t have the cash.
If you need this kind of car you may not find a better example for the age. It’s only got 155,000miles on the clock, but should easily live to 450,000miles.
It is currently a non-runner, with SORN status. I am willing to sell it as such for a discount, because I don’t have the time or cash to put it through the MOT and get the road tax sorted. I expect that the instruments need to light or it will fail, so the cost is around £120. Alternatively, for the right person (eg someone in Christian ministry) I will put it through MOT and tax but for a higher asking price.
The asking price is £950 ono. If you’re interested, please call me on +44 7968 625634
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