I’ve written up a lot of Mercedes Sprinters, and have been especially excited when I find cool survivors from the old O309/0319 era. This, however, is a new one, a Spanish-built N1300 that served as the smaller counterpart to the full-size 309 vans, and it’s covered just 20k miles in its 37 years. The quality is so spectacular – and flush with ’70s style for better or worse – that it looks like one of those over-the-top VW restomods we’ve seen. The big roof-mounted luggage rack and chrome visor make it look ready to do runs from the airport to the hills in Guatemala (these were primarily used in the South American market) while the interior looks basic but very nice. It even has a little wooden table between the train-style seats doing its best impression of a Westy’s fold out surface. It’s too nice (and barely big enough inside) to convert to a camper and the 85hp from the OM615 diesel four will make highway speeds achievable only on the flats, so this isn’t going to leap to the top of dream adventure vans. Whatever you decide to do with it, you’ll have one of the most interesting looking vans on the road.
Click for details: 1979 Mercedes-Benz N1300 on eBay
Year: 1979
Model: N1300
Engine: 2.0 liter diesel inline-4
Transmission: Manual
Mileage: 20,218 mi
Price: Reserve auction, $27,900 Buy It Now
Unfortunately we have no available history from the listing. Hopefully some is available for truly interested buyers. Obviously the Hella lights are new, but close up shots around the VIN plates show scratches in the yellow that indicate this is indeed an original van. And what an original paint scheme it is, the yellow/brown combining with the chrome to make the perfect transport vehicle to an ABBA concert. It will be interesting to see what market this will draw, but compared to other nice vans, mid-$20ks seems reasonable. If I had to decide between a nice T2 bus or this, I’d go with the unique N1300 every time.
-NR
