Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
New Jersey: Strip malls, used car lots and Bon Jovi.
Somehow these things lead me down a convoluted path to talk about a 1994 Mercedes-Benz S500. What’s the connection?
From the title, you’ll know of course this is not just any W140. It is a W140 once owned by Jon Bon Jovi, and now it is for sale in New Jersey. At a secondhand used car lot, across from a strip mall. Bingo!
There are few things that fit together better than a W140 Mercedes with AMG Monoblock wheels. Just like the car, the wheels are big and flat. There are no thin lines, no 18 different curved spokes with fake bolts – just wide but simple 5-spoke wheels. I’d really like to own this combination, but I’d certainly have an aneurysm from my passengers slamming the doors like it’s a 1987 Ford F150 with the word ‘FARM’ spray painted across the tailgate no matter how many times I tell them they are soft-close. If you have friends that take direction better than mine, then you are in luck with this 1999 S500 for sale in San Diego, California.
A few weeks ago I looked at this 2002 Mercedes-Benz S500 with a mere 5,100 miles on it. I explained the downfalls of buying this specific car as you can pretty much predict it’s fate as soon as you start driving it. The auction started out innocent enough with a $200 opening bid but did have a reserve. Seeing as this isn’t a face lift car and you can snag up a decent W220 for very little money, I honestly expected this car to end somewhere in the $15,000 range. That is about double what a 2002 S500 goes for with around 100,000 on it, but boy, was I wrong. This car gathered 44 bids and finished at $30,600 — that didn’t even reach the reserve! Just to put that into perspective, you can grab a 2010 S550 for under $30,000 or if you want to get crazy a 2008 S63 AMG for that same price. Whoever was bidding on this car really must love the W220. Now that the car is up for auction again I can’t wait to see what it ends up this time.
The last report I saw had 97% of the world’s governments owning a Mercedes-Benz S-Class. By process of elimination of car manufacturing countries, you can probably figure out which countries don’t need the services of the S-Class. Statistically, this means that some governments with less than stable political climates have been subject to attacks on politicians riding in the S-Class with some ending up OK while others ending tragically. A big part of that has to do with armoring.
In 1980, Anastasio Somoza, then President of Nicaragua, was attacked by a Sandinista commando team while riding in an armored W116. Two machine guns, two AK-47 assault rifles, two automatic pistols, and a RPG-7 rocket launcher with four anti-tank grenades and two rockets were used to bombard the car. One rocket even hit the upper part of the windshield and blew the roof off. Amazingly the car still ran but sadly, no one inside survived. In 1995, then Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze was attacked while riding in an armored W140 by a group yielding AK47s and was hit twice by RPGs. One hit the hood, the other hit the grill. Two body guards in the front seats didn’t survive but Shevardnadze? Riding in the rear of the car, he survived. In 2008, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s motorcade which included a model similar today’s featured car, an armored W220, was hit twice in the windows by gunfire. No surprise – if a rocket couldn’t get through, neither did the bullets.
That record of survival alone is worthy of us taking a look at this 2001 S500 Guard for sale in Los Angeles.
Last week I checked out a 1978 350SE that was chock-full of little goodies but didn’t really past muster as a good buy. Today we have another W116 that seems to check all the boxes of of what a proper 1970’s S-Class should bring to the table as a nice driver and possible collector car. Located in Switzerland, the black paint is only the tip of the iceberg as to what this 450SEL offers. So let’s check out this blood-red big Benz.
