Mercedes S124 - W124 estate e2.8 Petrol

I was searching for many months to locate a good well preserved W124 estate and purchased this car early in 2021 with the intention of keeping it for the forceable future but unfortunately my storage option has gone and not wanting to store the car in the open I have decided instead to sell the car.There is considerable history with the car with a sales receipt from McLaren in November 1997 when the car had registered 22,400 miles. There then followed long term ownership with MOT's showing that the car was located in the same area of Surrey from 1997 through until 2011 when the recorded mileage was 118402. After this point the car was apparently sold to an enthusiast who kept it more or less undriven as part of his collection and it resurfaced in 2020 with its next MOT (there was also one in 2012 but I haven't got a copy of this) and a recorded mileage of 121,965. The previous owner who I bought the car from did his own service before using the car on the road again (no paperwork for this work) and prior to this the service history (which is very comprehensive from 1995) ended in 2009. On taking delivery of the car I took it to Star Services a well known specialist in Reading and they performed a complete service and replaced the rear suspension spheres - total cost of this work in May was £908. In addition a new Varta Blue Dynamic battery was fitted last week (£80). Tyres are all in excellent condition and are good quality Uniroyal Rain Experts , the brake pads and disks are all good. There is no visible rust to the body work, likely because of the under sealing that was done many years ago and this is a major plus and was a major influence when I bought the car.The car has the M104 Straight six petrol engine and it is running very sweetly with plenty of pull, the gearbox is the Mercedes 4 speed automatic version and this is considered much more reliable than the 5 speed option with its electronic control system.The car is well fitted out with options:Both seats are electrically adjustable and are workingBlack leather trim throughout - all in very good conditionLeather steering wheelAirbags for front passenger and driverElectrically sliding sunroof - working well with no leaksGreen tinted glassElectric windows8-hole alloy rims in excellent conditionAir conditioning - working wellRear folding seatsSpare wheelThe car drives very well, I have done one "long run" of approx 200 miles and estimate that it returned approx 25 MPG - it does have a long range with a large fuel tank.Bearing in mind that the car is 26 years old there are inevitably a few areas that aren't perfect with some surface corrosion was noted on fuel and brake pipes during the last MOT - reported as advisories. There are a few paintwork blemishes and stone chips. In 2007 (at 104,000 miles) a minor engine leak was investigated and that leak remains to this day - the Star Services mechanic advised me that if it was his own car he would leave well alone and that's what I did.  The head gasket weakness on these engines is well known (usually surfaces at around 100k miles and as far as I can tell inflicts all M104 engines and once sorted will be OK again for a further 100k miles) cars can cover many miles with the issue without causing any problems as is this case here - there is no evidence of water in the engine oil and if the buyer wanted to fix the leak it will likely be only the head gasket that requires replacement. An oil leak from the differential area was noted during the MOT in May'21, likely caused by a propshaft seal which isn't a big job to repair. One of the remote keys isnt working, the other operates the alarm/immobilizer OK. Other than these points the car is in remarkably good condition. I've taken the remedial work into account with my price but none of the jobs is truly essential at this stage. In terms of practicality and comfort plus prestige these cars are really hard to beat and are considered by many people to be the last "real" Mercedes that can be repaired and kept running essentially for ever - its definitely an appreciating classic. I have lowered the price considerably to encourage a sale and avoid leaving the car outside over winter, no offers at this price.Note: the car is currently on SORN.

Also published at eBay.co.uk

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