1972 Mercedes-Benz 200-Series

SE Sedan

I6

Automatic

10801812096246

Salvage

Gasoline

For your consideration is a vehicle I purchased from a friend of mine who was leaving the country back in 2011 and offered me this very neat car for a super price of $2000.00 My family has always been fond of the w123 models but I always admired the beautiful styling of the w108s. I drove this car locally around town for the past three years until last month when I parked it in front of my house and then tried to start it one morning with no success. I figured perhaps the battery was weak from not driving it for over a week and I tried to jump it, but the motor turned over and did not want to start. Although I really enjoyed driving this car and getting all kinds of waves from friends and strangers around town and generally looking sharp, I have decided that it is time to sell it so I can go back to graduate school to work on my doctoral program which will be costly. Originally I toyed with the idea of putting a 300 Diesel motor into this car because I planned on slowly restoring it. I do not know why it is a salvage/restored title and neither did my friend who bought it from an old guy in Phoenix. The good: This car looks remarkably good for being over 40 years old, the paint must have been redone at one point and it looks like an older restoration. All of the chrome is there and is in perfect shape, bumpers are almost perfect; the lights are all there and look pretty good except the rear side markers which are kind of faded. The tail lights are remarkably good and not faded like so many others I have seen. There are no chips or cracks in any of the glass and overall the car looks really sharp. The interior mb-tex seats are in remarkably excellent condition with no rips or tears or sagging. the vinyl edges of the drivers sear are chipping a bit but it does not compromise the integrity of the seat itself. There is no cancerous rust that I can see, just little pin pricks of surface rust as you will see on the photographs. The car drove good and strong and I was not afraid to drive it on the freeway as it easily attained freeway speeds. I have looked over the receipts and back in 2011 the tank was cleaned and flushed as were some fuel lines. When I got the car I installed a new starter and electrical switch because the old one was hotwired in some strange way. I have a few other various receipts back to 2001. One of the receipts shows the cylinder heads being worked on for a whopping total of 2396.95 ! I was always surprised that the AC worked quite okay when I used it in the summer and all the original knobs are still there. It also has its original Becker German radio which worked dubiously, but it worked... no tape player or aftermarket cd player here... Most of the wood trims on the door frames are in excellent condition. The glass is still present in the gauges and they worked reasonably well. This is the fuel injected model. All the electronics except the power windows worked as they ought to. The grill and the enamel in the grill are remarkably perfect as is the iconic hood star. The Not-So-Good: The tires are getting old so will need to be replaced, I always just drove around town so never worried about them, but they should be replaced for anyone who will be doing freeway driving, they have surface crackle. The body panels are in very good shape with a few very small dings here and there. The trim is losing some of the rubber molding as you may see in the pictures, and the front bumper has a crack in part of its rubber molding (also pictured). There are some rock pocks on the front of the car as is common with many used cars, you may see these. The drivers side front window will not go all the way up and my nitwit friend put some scissors in it to keep it up(see picture), the rear passenger side window has the same issue but stays higher. It never rains here so I just put a tarp over the car to keep stuff out. I cant start the car as already noted, but I already have two other Mercedes cars, one truck and another car so it is not practical for me to put any more money into this car and I have decided to just sell it. I am not sure why it wont start, but it did stall on me once at a stop light so that may have something to do with it. Air in the system maybe? The gas cap is missing . The steering wheel has a few minor cracks (as may be seen in the pictures) one of the front fenders looks like it has had a bondo or filler put in, I only noticed because of a small chip on top of one of the fenders. The floor mats are not so great, so I put some other ones over them. The dash wood is okay but some of the edges have started to deteriorate, the wood on the drivers door is in poor shape also. The hood latch cable is broken and is detached from the kickboard, but the engine is still accessible. The trunk has some minor scratches and rust formed on them. Overall many minor issues but I wasn't a stickler so they never bothered me. This is an ideal project car for someone who wants the awesome styling of an old Mercedes and would like to take the time to restore it themselves, as I hoped to. This car wouldn't need much to bring it back to tip-top shape. I imagine these cars will become more scarce and will only go up in value. I am located three hours east of Los Angeles and two hours west of Phoenix. Any interested parties are welcome to come and look at the car before or during bidding. I never thought I would list a car that "ran when parked" but this is exactly that car. I back it in and it has sat there for a month, I tried a few times to start it to no avail. I can offer no guarantees because it is a 42 year old car. :) I am happy to answer any questions and will try to respond in a timely manner. Please look over the pictures carefully and ask questions before you bid. Thanks for looking!