This S600 comes with a fully stamped Mercedes service history and just 52,000 miles recorded. On top of this it has effectively had just two owners, as the current custodian explains:
‘I’ve owned a lot of 1990s Mercedes cars over the past 20 years. In addition to this W140, I've owned two R129 SL500s, two W124 320 cabriolets, two W124 220 coupés, one W124 320 saloon and six 190Es (a Cosworth, three 2.6s, a 2-litre and a 1.8). That's 13 1990s Mercedes in total. This car is truly the best of them all, both in terms of both the car itself and, in addition, its condition, mileage and provenance.
‘When new the car was over £100,000 – at the time this would buy you three new 190E Cosworths or indeed two one-bedroom flats in East London. The car’s V5C shows three former keepers, four owners in total. In reality the car has had two owners/drivers proper. Whatever ownership count you prefer, it and the mileage are low given the car is 28 years old. The first multi-millionaire owner/CEO Mr Turner registered the car to both himself and the company he owned, the Elizabeth Rose Group.
‘The company’s name motivated the car’s original number plate – ER 1. By the 2011, the hotel group, by now in financial difficulty, was taken over by administrators – more information can be found online by Googling “Elizabeth Rose hotel Scarborough administration”. With the administrators selling any/all assets, the owner put the Mercedes (and his two Ferraris) into what turned out to be long-term heated storage with a local firm, Cliff Garage, Scarborough.
‘For good measure, Cliff Garage registered the cars to themselves, so the third registered owner was Cliff Garage, Scarborough, who covered 14 miles over almost nine years. During this period, each week the car was started and driven but was not on the road proper. By 2019, with Mr Turner paying (again) his storage bill, Cliff garage offered to buy the Mercedes – already registered to them – before giving it a full ‘everything re-commission’ service, and then selling it to myself, the second owner proper – the fourth registered keeper.
‘On collecting the car from Scarborough – I travelled from London by train – I was excited and astounded to find a similar to new Mercedes car, which appeared to have been kept in a capsule since the 1990s. What looks like an aftermarket radio aerial is actually a phone aerial that was fitted by the Mercedes dealer when new.
For originality I have left this in place but it could easily be removed if desired. Buying the car around the time of my 50th birthday, during January 2020, I decided I would use the car as a daily driver, which I have done over the last three plus years.
‘The car’s original service book shows a full Mercedes service history. Over the last three years I have maintained the car on a money no-object basis, with 20 invoices from that time, and an expenditure of £14,000.'
The original service book Mercedes stamps are:
- 28-11-95: 4,965 miles.
- 07-01-98: 16,376 miles.
- 26-10-00: 27,791 miles.
- 26-09-01: 32,018 miles.
- 24-10-03: 36,289 miles.
- 30-09-05: 40,156 miles.
- 24-06-22: 49,611 miles.
- 04-10-22: 50,475 miles.
Key recent invoices:
- 26-06-20: Check Car By My MB Independent, £222.60
- 11-08-20: New Mercedes Wing Mirror, £549.36
- 09-12-20: ESP Charging Pump, £420.00
- 15-12-20: Gearbox Service with new Filter, £247.96 (Gearbox was perfect before and after but the vendor tends to service Mercedes gearboxes for peace of mind.)
- 06-05-21: Purchase of 2 New Mercedes Keys From Main Dealer, together with synching with car, £444.74 (The car came with two keys, one of which was tired, the other ‘as new’. New keys will be available from Mercedes periodically but not necessarily at all times, so I bought two new keys, and the car now comes with three keys.)
- 29-11-21/21-12-21: ABS pump, £198.69 + £90 + £60 = 348.69
- 03-02-22: Front Suspension Arm, £441.60
- 24-06-22: New Rear Self-Levelling Suspension and Brake Pipes, including fluids, change rear differential oil (preventative), £3312.42 The brake pipes were replaced to address an MoT advisory (at prior MoT).
‘The rear suspension was renewed (largely replaced and new fluid) at the same time to save on combined labour costs (rear sub-frame is shared.) Mercedes W140 600s have the wonderful self-levelling suspension front and rear – a system rarely seen as an option on other cars (it was usually an expensive option) but on 600s was standard equipment. Where you see cheap cars which are ‘a little’ low at the rear this job needs doing – my car is completely different.'
- 04-10-22: Replace engine rubber seals, and fit new Mercedes shock absorber, plus new water pump, £483.06 + £1100 + £1,180.16 = £2763.22
'The seals were replaced to stop an engine oil leak – this seal leak occurs through age not mileage. The leak is mentioned on the latest MoT but this is an error – they just noticed oil from before the seal was replaced.'
‘M120 engines without this having been done will need it. The rear shock-absorber was replaced due to a squeak from the rear. Based on mileage I would expect it not to need replacement. Indeed after replacement the squeak remained and further investigation was needed. I have kept the original shock absorber since it has some value and may be of use to the next keeper.
- 03-06-23: New Optima Red-Top Battery, £181.99. 'As far as I can tell this is the best battery you can buy.'
- 16-03-23: Alloy wheel bare metal refurbishment, £320.00.
- 03-05-23: Full respray, all panels, original colour (149), £4200.
'The car’s paintwork was all original and in very good condition but the front of the bonnet had a couple of stone chips in which a tiny amount of corrosion had occurred. After treating and re-spraying the front bonnet, since the new paint was so vibrant, and, since you could now see the original paintwork was a tiny bit tired, I decided to repaint the whole car.'
