Non Factory Air Con

[MBZ560]

Anyone else got a Mercedes from the 80's with non factory air con? My 280TE was registered 21.03.85. It came well equipped with cruise, alloys, sunroof,7 seats etc, but the air con was installed a week before registration by Alpinair, Honey Pot lane, Middlesex. The car came from Alan Day of Finchley. I have the original spec sheet which clearly shows air con was a chosen option. Seems strange to retrofit something that should of been factory installed. The air con controls are standard Merc issue. The only clue apart from the paperwork (installation no T50.123) is the Alpinair logo on the auxiliary fan. Just wondered if any one knew why Merc would outsource this kind of work. P.S. System is still working fine, so they knew what they were doing.

 

[Parrot of Doom]

Maybe somebody stuffed up the order?

 

[Rory]

I guess there could be all sorts of reasons (inlcuding stuffing up the order). Perhaps the original buyer cancelled.
Maybe it wasn't an available option on UK cars, or maybe a/c was stupidly expensive as an option but could be retrofitted cheaper (until only a few years ago a/c was a dealer fit option on Honda Civics, for example).

 

[Andy Wr]

In the 80's Honda Accords did not come with air con but the air con kit came from Honda in a box and was fitted by the selling dealer, my job was to pressure test, dehydrate and commission the system, we did 100's for the local main dealer, I still have an installation sheet for installing and testing.

 

[MBZ560]

Thanks for your views. So used to cars coming with air con as standard these days, you forget that back in ye ole days it was a very expensive option. Had a look at the bill of sale for the car, and the aircon came to just under £1,300. When you consider you could of bought a Mini City for just over £3000. It was a lot of money for a bit of chilled air. Maybe the summers were hotter then!