It's funny, all the other cars I've had this year, once I've had the V5c
documents I've put a 'FOR SALE' sign in the windows, but not this one, I
kept thinking I should, and I knew that I had to, but just that I really couldn't bring myself to do it. I hate dealing with people who are trying to buy my car at the best of times. But dealing with the morons who seem to infest fleabay I find especially tiresome.
Anyway I'm going to try not to dwell on the negatives of selling a car, let alone a car that you really want to keep too much. I thought the best thing to do was hope that the fella who I gave the second chance offer would take me up on it and turn up and buy it. But I figured that no matter what, as Freddie Mercury once said, The Show Must Go On! So with that thought firmly lodged in my mind, on with the show, and yesterday morning, this happened...
No really, I'm as surprised as you guys! I got up yesterday morning really early, even for a work day because my phone went off, it was the guy who originally won the Mercedes, he said that he was stood outside and he had come to collect it. So, eager to make the sale I got up, got dressed, and went outside to meet up once again. He said that while he was waiting for me, he'd had a good look at it, and was now prepared to offer me just £1800 for it. To which I simply said, SEE YA, and headed off towards my front door muttering to myself that I couldn't believe that I'd been dragged out before I'd even had a cup of Tea in the Morning for this shizzle! Anyway, he followed me, and we chatted about it some more, and went for yet another drive in it, and eventually he offered me £1900 for it, I said no. So he continued looking at it, and he offered me £1950. He was heading in the right direction, but frankly he was really irritating me, and I wanted the price it ended on fleabay for it really, but by this time I was thinking call it £2000 and it's all yours. Before my brain had thought that all through, my stupid mouth had already said it. To which he replied ok. Still, atleast I got my money back on it, which I guess is good enough, plus, atleast it's now gone, and that makes it easier for me to continue the story.
It's more of a storage space problem thing, and had I not been trying to get through the twelve cars this year, and I was just selling my car I would've said no, as really I'm only interested in the price it ended at. But as he was here, with the cash, I thought I'd just cut my losses, get my money back, and move one, which is what I did. Anyway, to add insult to injury, after he had gone I thought I'd better remove the second chance offer from the bay of E, to my relief the guy had not accepted my offer, phew. Offer removed, oh, I've got a message. It was from the guy I'd given the second chance offer to, it said, that he had the money ready, and he could come and collect it today! Damn, damn, DAMN!!! Should've checked my fleabay messages before selling it to the original bidder, I'd have got another £100 if I had! Oh well, more life experience I guess, but the thing is, now I feel like the one who's messing people around on fleabay! Anyway, enough talk about selling it, let me tell you about my month of driving it.
To sum up my experience with the Mercedes 500SEC I really could do it in a single word, FANTASTIC!!! Even though for me this was a re-visit, I quite enjoyed it. Although, when I collected it
I was initially a bit dissappointed as it wasn't quite as good as I'd
hoped for, and it was nowhere near as nice as my first one. However once you
were driving it, it was perfect, it drove beautifully! In my month I managed to cover 548 miles. This took care of 127.93 foreign litres of go-go
juice, or for those of us still working in imperial units (as should
everyone be) that was 28.14 UK Gallons! This means that Mr T's Merc was
averaging about 19.47 MPG!! Cruising in a cool car comes with a price tag, and this month the price was £140.00 suckers!
However, the 5.0 litre V8 never wanted for power, and wafted along absolutely
effortlessly. I don't really think that Mercedes had sportscar
performance in mind when they put this engine in these coupés. This was
built as a big wafty cruiser, able to eat up miles effortlessly on the
autobahns, although that being said it was equally at home burbling about town, and
perhaps it was a little bit thirsty, but surely having a big car with a big engine that was to be expected. No one in their
right mind would buy a car with a 5.0 litre V8 thinking that this was
going to be a thrifty little ride. Having said all that it was no slouch
either as two backwards baseball cap wearing window lickers in their
Fabia VTS could tell you. The 237 brake horsey power V8 engine could
launch this 1.6 tonne coupé at the horizon faster than it had any right
to, but you didn't need to drive it fast to enjoy it. You have nothing
to prove, you know its quick even though its a big old heavy coupé. I
never, well, almost never felt the need to show anyone just how much
power it had.
However the little device that hands you the seatbelts took a little getting used to, although once it had punched me in the face the first time I remembered how it all worked. So the next time I jumped into the car, and didn't put my seatbelt on so as to reverse out of a parking space I remembered that the seatbelt would want to punch me in the face, and from the second time on, I kept my face out of the way. I'm not gonna lie to you guys, I'm ugly enough!
I'm presuming that Mercedes probably put these on more for the American
market, where perhaps the owner of the car may be as luxurious, or maybe
even more so than the Mercedes its self! To be fair to it, this is a
better system than was fitted to my last Ford Thunderbird. The Thunderbird wouldn't
try to hit you if you were hanging out your door trying to reverse into
a space, that thing would try to hang you instead!
Anyway, enough about my Uncles fashion sense or lack thereof, lets get back to the point in hand, the Mercedes 500SEC...
For me though it's the exterior of this car that does it. The power is great, and the seats are extremely comfortable, but that big coupés bodywork is where this thing really stands out! I love pillarless coupés, I've always thought that with the windows rolled down leaving that massive hole in the side they just look so uncluttered, and just fantastic. Driving this car and peering out through the windscreen and down that bonnet you always felt that you were in charge of something very special indeed. It didn't feel like you were just driving a big piece of pressed steel, it had a feel of solidity about it, more like it was hewn from a solid block of Granite.
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