You know those moments when you just have to pinch yourself? Well that was me last night driving home after collecting this.
Some of you might remember i started the below thread as i was pondering the best Merc for a European road trip i'm going on the second week of May.
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/gener...road-tour.html
Did plenty of looking around and eventually ended up with this.
On paper it was ideal, big comfy leather armchairs, cruise control and the 220 CDi lump so would have been pretty economical. In true W210 it was a touch rough around the edges but for a bag of sand I knew I couldn't be fussy. However before long (realistically, probably the day after we collected it) these were the scenes...
Probably poured over £400 into in trying to get it ready for the trip on stuff like two front springs, all new suspension bushes, thermostat, service parts etc and it just wasn't right for what I needed it for. Was a hell of a lot better than when I bought it but just wasn't keen on doing 3,000 miles in it, so cut my losses and got rid.
The other option for my trip was to go in my daily 190d
I'm currently doing 600 miles a week in the 190 and whilst I know it would do the trip easily without fail, I wanted something a bit quicker and after the fiasco with the W210 I was after something more special and in far better condition.
So the search continued and I looked at everything from W203s like my old one, couple of W124 300Ds etc and just couldn't find anything that I fancied.
Then out of nowhere the idea of the C43 came into my head, unsure where from but i've alway wanted one but never had chance due to insurance costs or budget. So that's what I decided would be the dream car for the trip, so I did some research on them, found a couple of options and eventually arranged insurance.
There was a silver one at Euro Performance that I really fancied but unfortunately missed out on that so began the hunt for another, and that's where my old man found what would become my car whilst randomly browsing auto trader.
The car looked pretty good in the photos, sensible mileage, a bit of a story (more on that later) and only half hour from the house which was ideal! Popped up to the sellers last weekend, a small family run outfit in Caldiot that mainly sells modern stuff but Peter one of the members of the family business has his own collection of classic and unusual stuff, and the C43 was one of those cars.
Bascially did the deal there and then as the car was absolutely perfect for what I was after. The car had very little use over the last couple of years so needed MOT and the seller wanted to give it a proper check over before it went. So after the longest week ever I picked it up yesterday evening.
Some of you might recognise the car (i found one of the previous owners on here), it's the original Mercedes UK launch / press car and was also featured in Mercedes Benz enthusiast in February 2010 apparently - If anyone has a spare copy of this issue i'd love to get a copy, I can't seem to find it anywhere online.
These are from last night after collecting it
Drove it home yesterday and driven it a bit today and totally love it. I've had lots of cars but this is just feels something very special.
Weather wasn't the best today so had a little play about with it, including getting rid of the roof bars, which left this
And gave the interior a once over
From what i can see and feel the car needs nothing doing to it, it drives as good as new!
The seller has the original radio which he's going to dig out for me so i can get rid of the awful aftermarket one. Another thing I might do in the future is swap the 18s back to the original 17s if i can find a clean set of genuine ones. I'm also tempted to get the badges for the rear but am unable to find them for not ridiculous money so that might have to wait for now (any recommendations where I can find them let me know).
If anyone has anything or knows of anything relating to the cars press history, magazines, photos, articles etc please let me know as i'd like to build up a bit of a collection relating to it.
Apologies for the long post! If you're interested in following our trip visit Tom Newton and keep an eye on the blog, I plan on doing a daily update throughout the week. :thumb: