1989 Mercedes-Benz 200TE

This 200TE estate is something of a survivor. It’s remarkable for its low mileage - just 35,000 on the clock - explained by a lifetime spent on the Isle of Man, where no A-to-B journey can ever be longer than about 30 miles.

The car was bought new in 1989 by a local coroner, who kept it (we think) into the 21st century, but he passed away and the car was bought by a friend of a friend. This gentleman hardly used it and sold it to a third owner, a pal of the current vendor. The vendor bought it two years ago as one of a collection of four cars purchased at once. He hasn’t used it much either, and thinks it’s about time it went to someone who can.

The car is unusual for its economy specification - the 2-litre petrol engine is the only one in the W124 range to be carburettor-fed rather than fuel injected, and there’s no leather anywhere inside, nor any electric windows or similar frivolity. It’s equipped with a five-speed manual transmission to make the most of the 109bhp, and it’s a combination that seemed to work pretty well - one contemporary road test got 121mph out of a manual 200, so it’s not a slug.

There’s no third-row seating, but there are of course seatbelts in the rear and all the standard perks of a W124, like that handsome dash veneer, adjustable lumbar support and a soft-close boot lid. The car isn’t concours…it’s been preserved rather than cherished, but it’s clean and sound. There is no MoT on the Isle of Man (though there are harsh penalties for un-roadworthy cars) so the car will need to be tested here before it can be re-registered on a UK plate. This involves a fee (£55, we think), filling in a V55/5 form and sending it off, with the existing IoM registration document, to the DVLA in Swansea.

We reckon the paint is Nelkengrün, or Willow Green Metallic. It’s good to excellent on most of the car but has a couple of weak points - the lacquer is scratched or scuffed on the outer edges of the roof between the roof rails and the doors, and the finish on the bonnet is poor having had an inferior respray. The rear driver’s-side corner of the bonnet sits low, perhaps indicating a maladjusted hinge. We guess the two may be linked, but we don’t think it has suffered any front end shunt as we believe the headlights, bumper and trim look original. Given the light scratching on the wing top, it’s possible the bonnet had a life as a storage shelf for a while and the paint job attempted to remove the scratches.

A life away from British motorways and supermarket car parks means there are few if any of the usual stone chips and door dings, as befitting a 35,000-mile car. The bumpers and rubbing strips are also in good condition. A couple of the painted hubcaps are marked but should be easy to smarten up. It rides on Barum Brilliantis 195/65 R 15 tyres with plenty of tread left.

That big shiny grille is undamaged and the lamp lenses are in good nick although the star is a little droopy. There’s a few touch-ups here and there; a spot on the offside rear arch, on the fuel filler cap and on the frame of the rear quarter-window, near the electric aerial. There’s also a small paint bubble on the window frame of the nearside rear door. On the same side, you’ll find a small touch-up patch at the rear of the front arch. It’s quite possible though that, bonnet excepted, much of the paintwork is original. Like most Mercs of this era, the windscreen is showing signs of delamination in the corners - don’t worry, it’s not an MoT fail and never seems to get much worse.

Here’s where you’d see the signs of 30-plus years of use in most W124s, because even tough Teutonic fabrics eventually wear and show the dirt. In this car, there’s almost none of that, especially in the back seats, which are virtually as new. There’s a crack in the plastic in the driver’s seat base and the veneer behind the gearstick has cracked near the electric mirror adjuster, but that’s pretty much it.

The carpets are clean and the floors underneath are sound and dry. The textured M-B rubber mats show very little wear. In the boot compartment, usually the most beaten-up area of any estate car, the dog guard and load-bay cover are immaculate, the carpet is commendably smart and there are even a pair of roof bars in their original wrappers - never fitted, we assume.

Inside the two pannier compartments, we find the original first-aid kit and warning triangle on one side and the spare wheel on the other. On both sides it looks as though the window seal has leaked a little at some point - someone’s cleaned up and re-painted the steel.

Finally, there’s a Blaupunkt radio cassette head unit that’s probably been there since new. It works, and turning it on causes the electric aerial to rise. The central locking, however, can be a bit intermittent.

The car drives very well, but perhaps feels like one that’s not been used all that much - on start up, the engine isn’t the smoothest for the first 20 seconds, even though it bursts into life as soon as you touch the key. The engine mounts may be a little soft but it probably just needs a set-up and some miles under its belt.

The engine bay is the only part of the car that shows its age, with a previous owner’s lashings of touch-up paint on the closing panel catching the eye. Smartening up the large and untidy air filter would make a big difference. Otherwise it appears free of worrying leaks or corrosion, though the sound-deadening panel is missing from the underside of the bonnet.

Peering under the hull reveals lots of sturdy German steel with either a solid coating of underseal or a light bloom of surface rust. The nearside front jacking point appears to have had a clout, but has been protected with some kind of paint or sealant. Both sills look good but there’s some corrosion to the back box of the exhaust.

There’s very little in the way of printed history, probably because very little has happened to the car during its sheltered life. The original service booklet is there which has a charming number of stamps to help prove good care and possibly genuine mileage, along with the Isle of Man Registration Certificate and an owners’ manual, but there’s no MoT history because there are no MoT tests on the island, as we mentioned before.

The vendor tried to establish more detail by contacting the supplying dealership (whose sticker is still in the rear window) but they’ve been taken over and records from the previous company were not to be had. An AA search or similar check may reveal more, but ultimately this is a car that needs to be judged on condition.

We just checked the hundred-odd W124s for sale in the UK on one popular website - the lowest mileage we saw was 39,000 and the highest well in excess of 200,000, which makes this one something special. If it were a truly pampered powder-puff example, we’d be expecting a five-figure sum, but at one time the car lived a normal working life and so has a few marks to show it, only without the concurrent mileage.

As such, we think this 200TE will sell for between £4000 and £8000. The next owner then has a bit of a choice to make - sort out the minor paint issues and the bonnet fit, and keep it as a mega-smart survivor…or just use it as the simple, reliable, durable estate car it will surely be, safe in the knowledge it’s got a couple of hundred thousand miles of life left.

All of these W124 Mercedes are slowly rising in value as the tired ones fade away and the nice ones gain more and more attention. For a dual-purpose daily driver and depreciation-free classic, you’d struggle to do better.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; to arrange an appointment please use the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.