[christofurr]

Hey guys.

I come to you hoping the W140 community is a small one (especially in this country) and any of the New Zealand members (or eagle eyed international members) can let me know if they know anything about the history of this S280 - Mercedes-Benz S280 WEDDING CAR 1995 | Trade Me

From what I've gathered so far it's a Singaporean import, but has been owned by someone down in Dunedin and used as a wedding car until it was sold recently. It looks like they did a great maintenance job on it too, to their credit! Is this any of you here who have upgraded, or does anyone know someone that fits this bill? I ask because I'm quite keen on it, and with it being my first Merc yet alone S Class, I'd quite like to not buy a lem($$$)on so any info on it's history or reason for sale would be greatly appreciated!

I've taken it for a drive and it drives well. There's a slight shimmy in the pants at 100km/h which I've put down to the wheels being out of balance (there's not a common more major fault with the same symptom?) and to my surprise absolutely everything electric on it still works. The drivers side window does make a clackclackclackclackclack sound if you continue to hold the button down when it's at the top though. Anything major? Seems more an annoyance than a major issue. Other than this I couldn't find any other faults with it. It looks to be in pretty solid shape, as much as a 20min drive can tell anyway! Any other tips that don't feature in the stickies in case I go and have a second look at it?

Sorry for the long post. These cars are quite a step up maintenance wise from the Japanese cars I'm used to, and I'm fully prepared for it, but it would be nice to find out more details than a dealer can (will?) provide, even if it's a long shot…

Cheers!

 

[NZ Benz]

I know this car,

It was owned by a limo company in Dunedin, these guys:

Luxury Chauffeurs - Dunedin, New Zealand

European Auto Services is where I had my W140 serviced when I lived there, based on their recommendation. I actually had a look at the car when it was in their showroom and it appeared (at least 5 years ago) to be in excellent condition. That had three of these: S280, 320 and a light green 500SEL.

I was surprised to see this when it popped up on Trademe in Wellington. How did it get there?

The shimmy could also be some bushings in the front suspension.

 

[christofurr]

Hah how did I know this was going to be a small world? Though even I couldn't have predicted something would come back within an hour. Terrific!

I really have no idea how it ended up in Wellington. I should ask the dealer if I go back to take things further (so tempting), or even get in touch with the Limo company (thanks for that info too!). It's got no/new plates on it so it's impossible to run a carjam on it which is annoying, but I guess the limo company would have personalised plates so they must have been the last owners. I was surprised to see an import with it's original service booklet too, which is a good sign, and it came into NZ with pretty low miles which is yet another thing going for it.

Would bushings going bad come through the steering wheel like a front balancing issue would? Because the steering was as smooth as anything at 100km/h. It was definitely a seat of the pants thing which made me think it was the rears needing a balance. I guess I could get them to fix that as part of a sale anyway. Out of curiosity if you know, what does the dreaded new set of bushings cost in this country?

Thanks once again.

 

[NZ Benz]

They were one of the first things I got fixed on my car back in 2005. They were about 350-400 if I recall.

You should get the car inspected before you buy it - it will be the best $150 you've ever spent. They'll find out all the stuff which is wrong with it and you can make a more informed decision.

You could always try and get the VIN off the car (plate under the front of the bonnet) and run that into carjam. That should give you some info.

European Auto Services are here: European Auto Holdings Ltd - Home they might even be able to give you some of the more detailed service history. When I was a customer it looked like all their invoices were on file so you might luck out. Perhaps phone the limo company first and they might be able to smooth that out for you.