I have been looking to get a new car and I had in mind a Mercedes 250 or 300 Diesel circa 1993-4.
I went out on Monday to trawl round the local wheeler dealer car lots and spent most of the day on a futile search. Then as I'm nearing home I caught site of a Mercedes in the back car park of the local Seat dealer. As it was all locked up, all I could do was to peer over the fence and look from a distance, so I decided to go in and enquire about it.
"yes its one of our trade ins sir". "Great" I say, "is it diesel?". "Yes it is sir". "Fantastic" I say, "It wouldn't be a 250 or 300 would it?" I said "yes sir its an E250" ?Even better I say?. How much? "Its not for sale sir?" "A" I say. "Its not for sale sir. Its company policy not to sell part ex's to anyone, not even us! they have to go to auction?. Well I can understand not allowing staff to buy them but not selling it to a cash buyer prepared to take it sold as seen, seemed a bit odd, so I toddled off home to check the local auction web site. sure enough it was listed in a sale for today.
I ducked out of work for an hour and a half today to go and see it. Well to my surprise it was in reasonable condition with dark tinted windows, dark grey seats and a black dash with walnut wood on it. Not only that it was the W124 range with a 5 cylinder 20 valve engine, and it has air conditioning as a nice little bonus.
Ok now I had a problem, I want it. I want it bad, but couldn't make it back to the auction to bid for it, so I say to the auctioneer. ?Hi, I?m a bit new to all of this, so forgive me if I ask some silly questions? That seemed to impress him a lot and he was quite forth coming with help, so I put in a commission bid at £2,200 which he seemed to think would be enough. The auction was due to start at 4pm and the Merc was lot 37, so by half past 4 I was beginning to bite my nails. Five minutes later I got the call to say it was sold to me at the price of £1900, so I am now the proud owner of an N registration (1995) E250 W124.
Its not perfect, there is a hole on the drivers seat, some minor rust on the boot lid, and there might be a problem with the central door locking. The auctioneer couldn't open the drivers door with the fob, and because there is no key hole on the drivers door, he had to open the car from the passenger door. It looks like the alarm and immobiliser have been disabled, so I will have to get that looked at sometime soon. If anyone knows of a good independent service place in the Bournemouth area, I would appreciate knowing about them.
Thanks and sorry for the long post.
I went out on Monday to trawl round the local wheeler dealer car lots and spent most of the day on a futile search. Then as I'm nearing home I caught site of a Mercedes in the back car park of the local Seat dealer. As it was all locked up, all I could do was to peer over the fence and look from a distance, so I decided to go in and enquire about it.
"yes its one of our trade ins sir". "Great" I say, "is it diesel?". "Yes it is sir". "Fantastic" I say, "It wouldn't be a 250 or 300 would it?" I said "yes sir its an E250" ?Even better I say?. How much? "Its not for sale sir?" "A" I say. "Its not for sale sir. Its company policy not to sell part ex's to anyone, not even us! they have to go to auction?. Well I can understand not allowing staff to buy them but not selling it to a cash buyer prepared to take it sold as seen, seemed a bit odd, so I toddled off home to check the local auction web site. sure enough it was listed in a sale for today.
I ducked out of work for an hour and a half today to go and see it. Well to my surprise it was in reasonable condition with dark tinted windows, dark grey seats and a black dash with walnut wood on it. Not only that it was the W124 range with a 5 cylinder 20 valve engine, and it has air conditioning as a nice little bonus.
Ok now I had a problem, I want it. I want it bad, but couldn't make it back to the auction to bid for it, so I say to the auctioneer. ?Hi, I?m a bit new to all of this, so forgive me if I ask some silly questions? That seemed to impress him a lot and he was quite forth coming with help, so I put in a commission bid at £2,200 which he seemed to think would be enough. The auction was due to start at 4pm and the Merc was lot 37, so by half past 4 I was beginning to bite my nails. Five minutes later I got the call to say it was sold to me at the price of £1900, so I am now the proud owner of an N registration (1995) E250 W124.
Its not perfect, there is a hole on the drivers seat, some minor rust on the boot lid, and there might be a problem with the central door locking. The auctioneer couldn't open the drivers door with the fob, and because there is no key hole on the drivers door, he had to open the car from the passenger door. It looks like the alarm and immobiliser have been disabled, so I will have to get that looked at sometime soon. If anyone knows of a good independent service place in the Bournemouth area, I would appreciate knowing about them.
Thanks and sorry for the long post.
