Merry Mercedes

Update by Tim Suddard to the Mercedes-Benz 230 S project car
Dec 20, 2011

Quite honestly, we did very little research on either the marque, or this particular car—exactly what we advise our readers not to do.

We picked up this 1966 Mercedes-Benz 230 S in a recent buying frenzy. Quite honestly, we did very little research on either the marque or this particular car—exactly what we advise our readers not to do.

In the back of our minds, we have wanted to do a Mercedes project, and we have always liked these “fintail” sedans. They look cool, are rugged as hell and have a great rally reputation.

Restoring one and running vintage rallies seems like a cool, low buck idea with this rather unique car. We contacted the seller, who happened to be one of our loyal readers. He was asking $2000 or best offer, and when he told us it was a rare, factory 4-speed (on the floor) and factory air conditioning car with very little rust that ran and drove, we quickly offered to put $1600 in his PayPal account if he promised to take the car off Craigslist. The fact that the car was only three hours away in Seminole, Florida made the transaction even easier.

He admitted that the car had some carburetor issues and a little rust, and advised us to bring a trailer. We did. The transaction went smoothly and other than the typical feeling that the car never looks as good as it does in pictures, we decided after a little poking around and a quick test drive that we had made a fair deal. We loaded it up on our Trailer World aluminum trailer and towed it home.

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Comments

repairmangeorge New Reader
1/18/12 2:45 p.m.

I have owned two benz. An 84 300cd turbo and currently a 94 e320. They both handle better last longer and return more for the money than they have any right to. If it's going to a long hard trip I always grab the keys to the benz.

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