Last year I began a search for a second vehicle. My wife and I realized that we live in the wrong place and are at the wrong time in our lives to rely on only one vehicle. We are ten miles from the grocery store. Most medical appointments and other shopping is at least 25 miles away. Last spring while driving home from the grocery store one Saturday morning the transmission in my GMC pickup....the only vehicle we had at that point in time...decided to grenade. That was interesting as I still had reverse, so I backed the truck the remaining 4 miles home, gathering all sorts of odd looks on the way. I don't recommend the experience.

Anyway, I had the truck towed to my indy for a factory reman transmission and was without transportation of any sort for four days. It took the one rental place in Belfast (ten miles away) to have a car available that was not already reserved. Thus the realization that we needed a second car. So the search began.

I have zero interest in any sort of "modern" car...one that has all sorts of electronic gizzies that give three or four different sources of music and ten or fifteen different ways to automatically back into a parking space or take a half hour to program the big screen on the dashboard to give you directions and make coffee. I just want a nice vehicle that drives and gets me where I want to go. Clearly I was looking for an "old school" car although I had no idea what it might be. I haven't bought a new car since I retired in 1990. The last new car I bought was a 1987 Mercedes 190D-turbo...arguably the best vehicle I have ever had, although the three Audi V8 Quattros I had after retirement were outstanding also. But I figured since I was retired I likely had had my last Mercedes and Audi's on the used market all seem to have lots of miles on them, with very suspect maintenance histories.

By accident I "discovered" the CLK, a Mercedes I found about which I knew nothing. So I began to read and found that they were plentiful; relatively simple and on the surface at least might make a great car for the two of us with the very rare need for one or two more passengers. I found the used car prices to be pretty attractive also and that made it an easy sell to my wife also!

So I began a hunt. There were some restrictions and specific requirements and I expected it to be a long and arduous search. In the "old days" I would have been prepared to jump in my truck and with auto transporter behind drive to see and buy the vehicle I found that was correct, or jump into an airliner and fly out to drive the car back. Not today though as with the pandemic I would not be travelling so the car's listing and presentation had to be perfect. Here are the basic guidelines I have used in buying my cars since 1990:

1. The car must NOT come from New England nor ever to have had a notheast winter.
2. Not more than 60,000 miles total, verified.
3. A perfect service history, preferably with ALL regular scheduled services performed at an authorized Mercedes service center as recorded in CARFAX. I was prepared to make an exception so long as the services were completed and verified in the CARFAX. (Added plus if the actual service work orders were present. VERY rare).
4. The car MUST have heated front seats. This is an absolute requirement and a deal breaker without.
5. The right color: preferably a silver or white. NO reds or blues. Mercedes did not produce the CLK in a red I would be able to live with, unless special order: VERY rare.

So today I did the deal. I have bought a 2004 CLK 320. The car is actually a one owner car. It is BLACK (oh, well!) with dark gray interior. Heated seats. Few other options. The service history is perfect with oil changes at least every year at an Mercedes dealership. And the best part: Original miles: 17413.

I expect it will be shipped to me perhaps on Tuesday and it ought to arrive late in next week. And yes, I paid ALL the money for it, but there is no "book" for a sixteen year old Mercedes with miniscule miles. In my search I did see several with between 27,000 and 48000 miles that were one owner and gorgeous (one was a Designo equipped car). But none of those had heated seats despite having prices hovering around $15 grand. I paid comfortably below that for mine.

I'll post some photos when it's sitting in the driveway. I'm pretty psyched!

 

The 190D especially with the OM606 engine is such a great vehicle. Shame that it's nearly impossible to find one not rotted inside out nowadays. Anyway, to find a 2004 vehicle with such low milage is an amazing find! I'm not sure how correct I am, though CLKs in black is not that common to find. Well at least in my area. I'm searching for CLK myself and I came across only a few of black ones. Nevertheless, a really great find and I'm really looking forward to seeing those pictures!

 

Early in 2000 I was looking through eBay and found a 1987 190D-T for sale somewhere in the central part of the country. It was smoke silver and I was intrigued because it had European headlights. I looked carefully through all the photos and it looked sooo familiar. The interior wasn't terrible but obviously had not been "gently" used. I think the miles were close to 200,000 or perhaps some more. Intrigued further, I did a Carfax on the VIN. YES! The car had originally been delivered in Portland, Maine! It was MY 190D-T. I could see it was getting VERY rusty outside with cancer showing through the wheel wells, rocker panels and even around those headlights. It was still running after all those years. I think the car had around 90,000 miles when I sold it in 1991.

 

Oh wow. That's really cool to see your own vehicle after all these years! I would of been suprised if it wasn't running though. After all, that generation of Mercs were nearly bulletproof despite getting rusty.