Wagon Wednesday: Euro 1985 Mercedes Benz 280TE

The process goes something like this:

  1. Guy buys some random small German sedan.
  2. Guy realizes that European version of his vehicle has OMG-so-cool-uber-rare-features which for some reason did not come on his U.S. market car.
  3. Guy realizes that the sportwagon/avant/touring version of his sedan is oh so much cooler.
  4. Guy realizes that the older version of his ride gets so much more respect from his online forum members and car show buddies.
  5. Guy sees an old Euro-market version of his ride in a wagon format for sale, hyperventilates.
  6. Guy over-pays for said old Euro-market wagon, becomes alpha-male of  all old Euro wagon things. 

Want to become the alpha male of an obscure group of interesting people? Here is your chance, and it will take only $9800.

[Source: eBay Motors]

It even has the proper manual transmission. And look, original Becker radio too!!! (better not use that, it may stop working). Cloth seats, take that you U.S. spec fools! And have fun replacing your power window regulators as I gently roll up my  windows via those cranks here. 

I do believe that the knob to left of the light switch is a vertical headlight adjustment. Cool… and ssssooo Euro!

Rear seat headrests. Ok, I admit, I was looking for a set of those for my E28 M5. And for my E34 too. They just complete the interior. A proper Euro wagon would also have a net partition between the seats and the cargo area.

While I’m not sure about the “polished” wheels, which look chrome to me, the headlights are a major Euro feature which was taken away us by our Government. 

So, what we have here is a very clean gray-market car. It has all of the Euro goodies that any Euro snob would want, it is one of the last W123s which probably makes it more desirable,… but… does it have the right engine? With that, is it priced well?

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