1990 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE

Our second-series 300 SE was first registered to a Mercedes-Benz dealership on 11 April in 1991, which was the final year of W126 S-Class production. Just over six months later, on 25 October, the car found its first private owner, a doctor. Around three years after that, on 28 June 1994, the doc sold the car on to a lady. She clearly loved it because she kept it for nearly a quarter of a century. By the time her driving career came to an end in July 2018, she had established such a powerful relationship with her servicing garage that she wanted them to have it.

Back then, Hull-based dealer Gary Topper handled the transfer of the Benz to its third owner, Andy. Regular viewers of The Market may remember an SL that was sold here a week or so ago. Andy, who pilots business jets for a living, owned that car too. Having only had time to put just 700 miles onto the W126 in the last twenty or so months, Andy has understandably decided that the car deserves more regular exercise.

Gary is now back on the scene to handle the transfer of ownership to only its fourth private owner. For what could turn out to be a surprisingly small sum of money, that fourth owner could be you. W126s S-Classes are getting rare now. Examples in such a useable condition as this one, and with so few names on the ownership record, represent quite an opportunity.

Gary reports that the car starts and runs with all the lofty assurance of Mercs from this era. The M103 3.0 SOHC straight six featuring in the 1985-on second series W126s is refined, powerful and economical enough for a wide range of uses from town pottering to trans-continental touring. Its electro-mechanical fuel injection system allowed it to generate 185hp, enough to hustle the 300 SE from 0-60 in eight seconds and deliver over 30mpg on a steady cruise.

Metallic silver wasn’t always the default colour for just about every car on the road. Once, it was the preserve of top-end cars like this Mercedes, whose Astral Silver was especially posh.

Our Benz is a typical ‘five foot’ car. Get up close and you’ll start to see those small areas of imperfection that you would expect to see in any near-30 year old car. See it gliding down the High Street, however, and you’re more likely to be wondering what the hell went wrong with modern car build standards.

There’s evidence of rust bubbling on the nearside rear wing where it meets the bumper, on the front wheelarch lips, above the chrome strip on the front passenger door, and on the offside slam panel under the bonnet. Almost all of the brightwork with the exception of a small section of the nearside rear bumper trim piece is in excellent condition. There’s some light scuffing to the front nearside bumper and a few more blebs on the lower edge of the front wing and on the headlamp wash-wipe assemblies. Add in some insignificant stone chipping to the leading edge of the bonnet and that’s about it.

Should you prefer to replace panel and trim parts rather than de-rusting and restoring the existing items, a pleasurable pursuit on these sturdy old Mercs, you’ll find these are widely available either new (pattern, or genuine from Mercedes itself) or secondhand from a number of specialists who believe in keeping these fine old cars running.

The black perforated leather seating and pleated leather on the door cards is all in great shape and perfectly complements the lustrous silver paint. Leather map pockets on the backs of the front seats can look baggy over time, but these ones don’t appear to have had much use at all.

The carpets and overmats are again in typically excellent M-B condition. There’s a little scratching on the rear door pulls and on the leather-covered steering wheel that could almost certainly be coloured out. This model of S-Class has a separate panel switch for the interior lighting: in this car, that switch doesn’t function, but the cabin illumination still works fine on door openings.

Gary tells us that the tilt mechanism on the sunroof doesn’t appear to be working, and that it could be a lubrication issue. Our own experience of older Benz roofs sometimes turns out to be ignorance about how the switch operates. They can be somewhat confusing. Gary also notes that the nearside rear window isn’t going down. He can hear the motor whirring, however, which could mean that the glass has just come off its runners.

The pneumatic central locking system works perfectly, as does the W126-correct Blaupunkt Verona cassette radio and indeed the electric aerial – something you can't say about every classic Mercedes. There’s an operation manual for the Blaupunkt in the book pack.

Presumably M-B expected their S-Class to be bought by gangland bosses as well as captains of industry because the 300’s first aid kit has enough bandages in it to deal with quite an extended mob flick-knife skirmish outside an average East End drinking club at chucking-out time.

Last June’s MOT noted ‘some areas of light corrosion’ to the vehicle structure. We’re going to go out on a limb here and say that the vast majority, if not all, of the underbody rust that you can see in the Gallery pics will probably succumb to the tender ministrations of an energetically wielded wire brush.

After that, and after checking and replacing brake lines and hydraulic hoses where necessary and patching up whatever holes might be revealed by the brushing, we’d be looking to spend a few hundred pounds on getting the underside and cavities comprehensively Dinitrolled on the basis that this is surely a worthwhile investment in a car like this. Then we’d be looking at anything rubbery. If they haven’t been replaced yet, original 30 year old bushes are going to be tired and soft. It’s all part of the slow resto.

The underbonnet view on these cars is dominated by an air filter the size of a Mexican’s hat. The finish on this one is a little battered. An hour or so’s work on that with some wet and dry, primer and a rattle can will take you a long way towards reproducing that showroom engine bay look.

Many of the best British television shows ever made will never be seen again because some fool at the BBC decided it was more important to save money on shelving than it was to archive the only tapes in existence.

Something equally tragic happened in the UK motoring world when great beasts like the W126 S-Class were roaming the streets. Service records used to be kept on T-card systems. When the bright new dawn of computerisation came in, a lot of these physical records were simply thrown into garage skips.

It’s thought that this sad fate befell our 300’s records. Only a few bits of paper come with it now. One such document – undated, but we believe it would have related to the work required to get it through last year’s MOT – attests to a stripdown of the offside rear brake, freeing off of the handbrake, draining and flushing of the petrol tank, refitting of the kickdown cable and resetting of the spark plug gaps. Gary says that the car has been recently serviced too and that new HT leads and plugs have been fitted.

Not having all the paperwork is not such a disaster with old Benzes, actually. They are tough machines that lend themselves to being rebuilt. You won't be short of reading material while you're doing it either because this one comes with a comprehensive selection of books, up to and including the totally genuine ‘A Woman’s Guide To Safer Motoring’ booklet provided with M-Bs at that time. Funny how things change. Nowadays you’d probably have to call it the Gender Neutral Person’s Guide To Safer Motoring. Gary tells us that there are three keys with the car.

Remember the time when you could hardly give a W140 S-Class away? You’d struggle to find a decent MOT’d W140 for under £5000 now, and many are very much more expensive than that. Who’s brave enough to bet against W126s values going up in a similar fashion?

Even if this glittering silver specimen hits its top estimate of £4000, we think there’ll still be plenty of headroom there for a canny investor who is prepared to carry out a gentle tinkering on the car over the next few years, enjoying those unique S-Class qualities as they do so. It’s by no means perfect, but nor is it anywhere near to falling off a cliff. Gary reckons it looks more or less the same now as it did two years ago. The process of degradation is very slow. If our hunch about Mercs of this vintage is correct, stopping that process altogether will be pretty easy here. Reversing the process into one of steady improvement could well prove to be rewarding in every sense.

Viewing is always encouraged. This particular car is located at the vendor’s premises in Brough, near Hull. 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’.

If needed, please remember we have a network of trusted suppliers we work with regularly and can recommend: Classic & Sportscar Finance for purchase-financing, Footman James for classic car insurance Thames Valley Car Storage for storing your car and AnyVan for transporting it.

BORING, but IMPORTANT: Please note that whilst we at The Market always aim to offer the most descriptive and transparent auction listings available, we cannot claim they are perfect analyses of any of the vehicles for sale. We offer far greater opportunity for bidders to view, or arrange inspections for each vehicle thoroughly prior to bidding than traditional auctions, and we never stop encouraging bidders to take advantage of this. We do take a good look at the vehicles delivered to our premises for sale, but this only results in our unbiased personal observations, not those of a qualified inspector or other professional, or the result of a long test drive.

Additionally, please note that most of the videos on our site have been recorded using simple cameras which often result in 'average' sound quality; in particular, engines and exhausts notes can sound a little different to how they are in reality.

Please note that this is sold as seen and that, as is normal for used goods bought at auction, the Sale of Goods Act 1979 does not apply. See our FAQs for more info, and feel free to inspect any vehicle as much as you wish.