Newsletter No.127
MB Spares Newsletter No.127 July 2012
Welcome to the latest MB Spares Newsletter. Had to delay this one a little to get details of a new batch of pre loved cars into it following a rather extraordinary month for car sales..
Also in this month's newsletter you will find a challenging article on originality, some information on filters, discounted mufflers, pictures from the Mercedes-Benz club of Victoria Concours and all the other usual information.
A car is only original once.
Have you read a "For Sale" advert where the seller claims "Totally Original" and then goes onto explain how it has been resprayed and had the interior retrimmed. Go and pick up a copy of Unique Cars or maybe Just Cars and you will see either this story or others just like it repeated many times over. So what is my point?
Well "A Car is only original once". Many cars that are purchased specifically for restoration should not be! Each time a car that is in good condition is "fully restored" it removes from the pool another "original" example. I base this theory on the fact that most restorations do not 100% accurately represent what left the factory.
Now it is not only me who thinks this way. This is a view I have held for some time, but the urge to put it in print comes from Miles Collier who is quoted in Octane magazinewith the following statement:
'If a vehicle doesn't need restoring, then don't restore it. The interpretative quality of a restored car is negligible, and needless restoration is tantamount to vandalism.'
So what do we do with these "original" examples? If they are used for what they were designed for sooner or later they are going to wear out and require replacement parts. How original is a well used example with many replacement parts? If a rare alloy body 300SL Gullwing suffers a catastrophic engine failure and requires a new engine block to make it live again as the result of being used for its original intended purpose, is that also vandalism?? Where is the fine line between conservation and restoration. Or to use Miles Colliers statement, at what point does it become vandalism?
To make this discussion a little more personal, I can use two examples that I own. If I was invited to take my 300CE-24 3.4AMGto a track day, should I take it and risk the potential body damage to the original paint? It is one of 25 ever built. To use another quote (from whom I don't know) "They don't make them any more". Or from the other end of the scale if someone showed interest in the exceptionally original 190Db we have for saleand explains their plans for a "full restoration" should I sell it to them?? Do I let one more original Roundie/Ponton disappear?
My conclusion?? Well I don't have one, yet. I think that the Classic Car Industry is only just waking up to the issue of the value of "original cars". The prestigious Pebble Beach Concours which at one stage was the home of way over the top restored cars now offers a "preserved" class, and I would like to predict that this will be a trend that we will see here in Australia at the various Mercedes-Benz Club Concours 's before too long.
If you would like to discuss this subject I have posted this article on the OZBENZ forum.
Discount Mufflers.
Last Newsletter we had a list of discount windscreens, this time it is Mufflers. MB Spares buys up quantities of old stock from large wholesalers and this time we have a quantity of mufflers that will be going cheap. We have listed them all on or ebay Store. If you are interested in any of them, you can buy either via the ebay store or by ringing us. Due to the varying weight and size of mufflers each one will need to have freight costs calculated individually.
The Pagoda turns 50.
Entrants for the 50th anniversary birthday party of the W113 pagoda are flooding in. The organisers now have 26 Pagoda's entered. You can see the entrants car on their website. Looks like their aim of getting 50 pagoda's together will be achieved with ease.
It is being hosted by the Mercedes-Benz Club of the ACT on behalf of sl113.org. This will be an event not to be missed and possibly not to be repeated here in Australia for some time. sl113.org is one of the new age "online" car clubs and has over 2000 members
MB Spares is proud to be sponsoring this event and looks forward to seeing many of our customers over the weekend.
Mercedes-Benz Club of Victoria Concours.
It has been some time since the Concours, but I guess a late report is better than no report. The Victorian Mercedes-Benz club hold an annual Concours in April at the Flemington Racecourse Carpark in conjunction with the RACV Classic Showcase. MB Spares is proud to be a Prime Sponsor of the event.
This is a great event with many European Car Clubs coming together to put together a wonderful display. I have put together some of my pictures from the event which can be seen here.
You can find a list of the winners along with a picture of their cars here.
Employment opportunity
By the time you are reading this Nick will have retired. We had a farewell dinner for him on Thursday night. Whilst we have had a few possible applicants for the position to replace Nick, none have resulted in the position being filled. So if you are interested or maybe know someone who might be interested please let me know.
Filters that nobody changes!
I thought I would go through a few of the filters that many people rarely change. There are quite a few service items that many people miss and as a result wind up with the possibility of increased service costs later on in the vehicles life.
The most commonly missed filter these days is the CABIN FILTER. Since the early 90's all Mercedes-Benz vehicles have been equipped with a filter to clean the air as it comes into the car. Apart from getting rid of dust, some of them also get rid of pollen and other air borne particles. Brilliant idea but when they block up the increased effort the heater fan has to put in to suck air through the blocked filter caused either fan motor to burn out of the fan speed controller to burn out. We sell way more heater fan parts for these later model cars with cabin filters than we ever did for the earlier models with no cabin filter.
The recommended interval for changing these is between 30000-50000kms, however we have seen cars with 20000kms and the filter is partially blocked. At a guess Australia is way more dustier than Europe and the MB engineers didn't take this into account when setting the intervals.
So all of you with a Mercedes-Benz made after 1993, check when your car had the cabin filter checked last… Next month we will talk about power steering system filters.
Cars for Sale.
As mentioned at the top of the Newsletter it has been a good month for cars sales with only one car parked out the front at one stage!! What is odd is that of all the cars we had for sale the one that was left is possibly the best one. It is the 1998 CLK320 Sport. With only 72000kms on the clock and in exceptional condition, it is a real stunner. Obviously we haven't had just the right person come by as I know it is a car that someone will fall in love with one day…
Cars coming into stock include a 2003 C180k Coupe with only 13000kms on the clock! A 2005 E280CDI sedan and a 2004 E320 sedan. And for the second time in a few years we have an SLSlisted for saleon our website.
The E280CDI is absolutely stunning to drive. The V6 Diesel with 440Nm of torque at only 1400rpm and a 0-100 time of only 7.4 seconds would fool the world's biggest diesel sceptic!
See the links below for details.
Here is a list of the cars currently for sale:
-CLK320 Sport coupe, only 72000kms
- 220SEb sedan, rare floor change manual
-190Db, rare Diesel Roundie with a documented 97000miles
Each one has its location listed with some here in Canberra and the others with an associate of ours in Sydney. If you are interested in any information please feel free toe-mail usor contact the mobile number on the cars listing.
Interesting Mercedes-Benz links.
Now here is a time warp car. A 1928 Mercedes 26/120/180 'S' Type Sports and it is RHD!
And here is another very rare car a 230S Universal. Also RHD and in an odd twist of fate is one chassis number different to the 230S Universal that showed up at the MBCACT Concours last year.
Prices on high quality W123 sedans are going sky high. Maybe I sold my Concours winning 230E too cheap??
And finally, nothing to do with Mercedes-Benz's, but an interesting read is this article on the French version of the internet.
So that's it for now, if you have anything that you feel is newsworthy or just plain interesting please forward it to us via the Contact page and we will include it in the next Newsletter.
John& Sandra Green.
