I BOUGHT A CHEAP MERCEDES S-CLASS FOR £1,500!

All right guys, how's it going? Welcome back. Well, today I bought a cheap Mercedes S-Class for just £1,500. I really am a glutton for punishment, aren't I? I just can never say no to a cheap luxury car, and at £1,500 I thought, well, no, I'm not even going to say it. I was going to say, how bad can it be? But I think we know how bad it can be. I love buying heavily depreciated luxury barges, but, crucially, now this is important, I always go into these experiences with my eyes wide open. I just, I know how expensive they can be. Just because it costs £1,500, it's still got the running costs of a £100,000 car. That's crucial that you remember that. Just because I've paid Toyota AYGO money for it, doesn't mean it's got Toyota AYGO running costs. Far from it. This is a 2003 Mercedes S-Class Limousine, it's the long wheelbase. That means it's the quite unpopular and unloved W220 model. Now, I personally am a fan of those, as I've mentioned in previous videos, but I know lots aren't. The general consensus is that it was nowhere near as good as the W140, which it replaced. Anyway, I still like them, I've still got a soft spot for them. I bought this from a YouTube viewer called Eric, he sent me a message about a week ago asking if I wanted to buy it. It seems Eric and I have got very similar tastes, he also likes the R129SL. In fact, he hasn't got one like I have, he's got three. A 320, a 500 and also a 600 V12. So I think it's fair to say this guy's a proper petrolhead, and he's serviced this S-Class really well, apparently. He's done an engine service, a gearbox service, the air conditioning works, all that sort of stuff. The only negative, which is no surprise really in this era of S-Class, is the bodywork. He sent me photographs of it, I haven't actually seen this car yet in person, and it's quite rusty in the usual places. It's a poor show, this, for Mercedes, but this era of Mercedes always rust around the wheel arches. I just think on a £70,000, £80,000 luxury car, it's unacceptable. You'll be wondering which engine this has. Now, it's an S320 CDI, so it's turbo-diesel. But, importantly, I think it's the straight-six turbo-diesel. They latterly replaced that with a V6 turbo-diesel, which was nowhere near as good, but the old straight-six is pretty bulletproof. As I've mentioned in previous videos, I'm not a huge fan of diesel cars. They're noisy, unreliable, slow, all that sort of stuff. But with this kind of car, you know, a car that's going to go up and down the motorway every day of its life, it does make sense. Because this'll do 700-800 miles between fill-ups, whereas an S500, for example, will only do about half that. What's also interesting about this old S-Class is that it's a design-o colour. It's got a design-o leather interior and a design-o paint finish. If you're not aware, design-o's like Mercedes-Benz' bespoke department, so you can literally have any colour you like. I know I've only paid £1,500 for this, so I'm not expecting the earth, but I am quietly confident I think it'll be a nice one. The transport company that I use went down to collect it last night, so I haven't actually seen it yet. They dropped it off at my car park this morning, so I'm quite excited to see it. Right, let's go and see what £1,500 buys you in the world of S-Class, shall we? I'll see you there. Right, while we're here, it's got the nice AMG-style wheels. It's very gold. Very gold. Very big and very gold. This'll be the facelift W220, won't it? With the slatted-style rear lights. It needs a good clean, but that looks quite cool, really. The front wing's been painted at some point, obviously to fix the corrosion. Slightly off-colour. Yeah, I'd say both sides, actually. It's shocking, isn't it? They've been painted once, and yet the rust has just come back through. Tyres look good. Brake disc looks new. I'm quite excited about this. Right, as always then, let's run it through a quick Carvertical check to find out more about it. It's really easy to use this. All you do is go to carvertical.com, type in the vehicle reg. In this case, we've got Papa X-Rate, part exchange, 03, Oscar Alpha Bravo. Old age beige. It's really important that you do one of these checks before you hand over any cash for a used car or motorbike. It's a really thorough check, this. It checks millions of cars across dozens of countries' databases. If you want to do one of these for yourself, and I urge you to do so, click the link below in the video description, or use the promo code HYPEEK, and you'll get 10% off each and every vehicle check that you do. With a quick wash, this should clean up quite well, you know. I'm quite excited to see how it cleans up. It's an unusual colour, that, because it looks kind of different when the sun hits it. Right, and just like that, the report's ready. So, that has never been stolen, never been involved in any accidents, the mileage is fine, and there's no outstanding finance, so we're clear on all four fronts there. The 2003 Mercedes-Benz S-Class is a luxurious and powerful vehicle that offers a range of different engines, body types, and other specifications to meet the needs of different drivers. Let's find out more about the MOT, then. So, at the last MOT, the mileage was £129,350, and it's been fairly consistent. That's weird. It's either been off the road or out of the country. Between 2017 and 2022, there are no MOTs. Isn't that strange? Perhaps it was just sat sitting in someone's garage or driveway. The road tax is £340 a year, it is a S320 2003 3.2 diesel automatic, and it had a good number plate on it, 5GPM. They always do these kinds of cars. It's always got some sort of classy reg on it. Ownership changed, ownership changed, okay, right. On the last MOT, then, in December 22, the only advisor item was rear brake disc warm, but not excessively. It's not too bad, is it? The one before that, 1,300 miles before that, there were a few issues there, but they seem to have been resolved. That's a good sign, then. Right, let's go and have a look around it. Okay, then. Sun's come out. Gotta get really close to the door handle before that'll lock. Right, back to the S-Class. We've got two keys, one original and one copy. Feast your eyes. So, let's talk about rust, then. It always goes, always rust on this wheel arch. It's not too bad. I mean, it's bubbling, I've seen worse. And down here, as well. Wheels look nice, though. Those brake discs, they're a bit corroded. There's a slight lip, but not too bad. The wheels look like they've been refurbished fairly recently. I think they'll clean up well. In terms of tyres, we've got a... what brand is that? That's a Nexon on about 6mm. That's pretty decent. There's a slight dent there, but I wouldn't be too concerned. For some reason, they always get cracked and smashed, but that's fine. Down here, we've got more corrosion. That's definitely been painted. We've got a matching Nexon on the front, again with about 6mm, and those brake discs look brand new. That's good news. I mean, it's filth, it does want a good old clean. But, I'm quite impressed. Needs a set of wrench plates, I'll put my IP Cortos plates on there. We've got another Nexon, and again, it's on about 6mm or 7mm, and new discs. That's good. This side, the wheel arch isn't as bad, which is good news. You can see it's been painted, though. It doesn't quite fit flush with the door. Still, what do you want for £1,500? Round here, it's not too bad. It's just starting to go in the usual places. It's a bit of a shame, though, because it's probably not worth repairing, is it? That's the problem. And it'll be a very difficult colour to match. It's like a pearlescent sort of colour. And we've got a matching Nexon. That's the result. Then the tyres are all decent. Moving around the back, it is indeed the facelift one with the... I knew what I meant, I just couldn't really describe it. It's got four horizontal lines on the lights, which is a facelift model. I think they facelifted them in 2003, so... or in 03, should I say. It's got a rear blind. I can't wait to see how many of the features still work. A little dent there, which would pop out, I think, although that is quite deep. That's in decent order. That bonnet sits a little bit proud there. What do you think? Everything's quiet and refined on this era of S-Class. You can barely hear the central locking working. We've got this brown designer leather interior. I think... I think I'm right in saying this. I think this was called something like Amaretto or something like that, the actual colour of this brown leather. It's quite a nice colour. I wouldn't have chosen this champagne-y sort of colour, to be honest. I'd have gone with a darker colour. But the inside's very nice. And it's a long wheelbase, so look at the legroom you've got. This really is what the S-Class is all about. Chauffeur-driven luxury. And we've got wooden grab handles here. We've got a vanity mirror. Oh, yes. This, I think, is the main sort of complaint, really, with the W220. Get my words out then. Everything just feels a little bit cheap and flimsy. I mean, look at that. That's not really good enough, is it, for a car of this value? So we've got a rear blind. We've got fold-down rear headrests. That's a bit of a clean, but have we got cup holders in here somewhere? I think they're cup holders, aren't they? No, there we go. Very shallow cup holders. And broken already. It's funny, whenever I read the comments on these videos, everyone accuses me of being very heavy-handed. And I'm not, usually, but I'm just trying to do it with one hand, whilst carrying keys and all sorts. I'm usually a bit more gentle than this. Oh, yes. This is nice. Nice Alcantara headlining. And we've got ashtray, window switches, heated seats, electric reclining seats. Look at that in the back. What a way to be driven around. We've got leather even here. Nice soft leather as well. And I think, I guess that's massage. A massage feature, is it? Not sure, really. Got these nice tread plates here. Very nice. That's damaged, actually. The panel there that covers the seatbelt. We've got massaging seats, if you can see that. This is really nice. Because this is a facelift model, you get a slightly different infotainment screen. The early cars had a much smaller screen here with a cassette player. Right. Got the logbook in there. Some bits of... Ah, a spare button, I think. Or a previous... Someone's replaced that, haven't they, at some point? Somewhere for your pens there. This is so cool, this car. Got a place there for your Nokia 6110. More storage there. And it all feels a bit cheap, actually, that sort of stuff. Got a receipt there from Wix, or as the advert calls it, Wix. I think that's refrigerated as well. One cup holder. Something's making some noises here, like it's trying to activate something. I've got Bosch wiper blades. I've got well over half a tank of diesel in it. 28 degrees. Classic FM, look at that. Does my rear blind work? Oh, yes. What about the headrests? Oh, look at that. I was just about to say only one works. Oh, hang on a minute. Do I whack them all, this? Nope. There we go. Will they pop back up? Just pressed it again. I don't quite understand what's going on there. I would say they work. Let's not be negative. Let's just say they work. BBC Radio 3. What about this panel? Never been smoked in. Nice little ashtray there. I wonder what that is. It's like something you'd see on a Hilux, that, isn't it? On cold winter mornings, just to get it to rev a little bit higher, the old diesel engine. But I doubt that's what that's for. I haven't got a clue, though. I guess this will be a five-speed auto as well. I'm not sure. Let's have a look under the bonnet then. Have a look at this big straight six. Oh, we've got bows as well. So we've got mirror controls, powerful mirrors, ventilated and heated seats. This was some car in its day, wasn't it? 20 years ago. What a big lump. So that is Mercedes-Benz straight six engine. That is bulletproof. They just replaced it, I think. I think, I guess the reason was emissions. They could get the emissions lower, I guess, on the V6. So the struts are all fine. There's not too much corrosion under here. Not so good clean, but it's not too bad. Everything's electronic. I know it's not. I know. I was going to say everything's electronic. I thought that was a bit of a thud there. I can't wait to see what this cleans up like. Oh, look at that. Popped up with attention. Right, we've got a plethora of spare parts. We've got, what's that, a power steering pipe, oil pipe, oil line. Okay, genuine Mercedes as well. We've got a steering wheel that's in slightly better shape than the current one. Current one's a bit worn on the top. That's better. I'll get that swapped over and that's the result. Ah, we've got mats as well. More mats. And that's, ah, that's the panel then. That's the driver's seatbelt cover that's all ripped. That's handy. We've got, what's that, a Red X or something? Yep, Red X. Nothing to see here, people. Well, yep, there's a spare under there somewhere. There we go. Fixed it. Right, in there we've got a pulley of some description. A reman... I don't know if I'm going to attempt to pronounce that. Leave that well alone. Ah, what about here? CD changer? Have we got any CDs? Mine on my SL55 is currently jammed, so I need to fix that. I'm just breaking everything today. Well, it's all quite complete, isn't it? Apart from its triangle. We're missing its triangle and its interior light. That shall be an eBay lighter. What weird springs there on the boot. Odd. I always thought that was quite a good feature. This little handle there pops out when you, er, when you open the boot. Jesus. And then it pops back in, er, eventually. There we go, look at that. Nearly made me out to be a liar then. Right, well, shall we fire this big lump up? Steering wheel comes out to greet you. We've got cruise control. I don't know what that is. Is it radar cruise perhaps? Oh yes. It's not even lumpy either, is it? Silky smooth. We've got no soft close though, sadly. Let's get these massage seats on, shall we? Oh yes. Put my ventilated seats on, turn down this. Air conditioning, will that work? I would say straight away it is. This was way ahead of its time, you know, this, this dashboard. Always, always quite like that. What else can I show you then? We've got a broken, broken door there for the, er, first aid kit. Sunroof, dare I try that? Huh? It's all working? It's all nicely finished. I think, first thing, I'm going to go and take this to the car wash, leave it for a mini valet and see what it's like underneath all this filth, because I think it'll clean up really nicely. We've got one warning light on, washer fluid, check level. Okay. How do I press okay? Still some washer fluid in there. Now that does the brightness, doesn't it? Okay. Ah, there we go. So, we've got 292 miles range, 291. After reset, 1400 miles, this has achieved 47 miles per gallon. That's unbelievable, isn't it? 47 mpg from a luxury limousine like this. They are very complicated though. We've got this complicated suspension setup. You can raise the height of it. You're asking for trouble, really. Shall we drive it then? See how it performs. How do I turn my parking sensors off? Because they're having a missy fit. Right. First drive of the old S-Class. There's nothing quite like driving an S-Class. You sit on these really wide seats, like being sat on a sofa. The steering's massively over-assisted, so it's really light. My air conditioning's nice. It's a really nice car, this. What am I going to do with this? Why do I want to keep it? I just feel like going on a big road trip with it. 47 miles per gallon won't even cost that much, will it? Well, it felt quite solid over the little speed bump there. Power delivery's quite smooth. It's not missing or lumpy or rough. They really do pull like trains. This all feels quite nice. So far, my brakes are fine. Parking sensors aren't. I don't know how you turn those off. Shut up. Anyone know? Anyone help me out here? Oh, there we go. It's the button that says P off. Right. Bit of acceleration there. Pulls alright, this. Can you imagine driving this out of the showroom in 2003 after you'd specced it up in gold over brown? Just exactly how you liked it. And the buttons aren't all sticky. Normally, this era of Mercedes, these buttons here on the steering wheel and, well, everything else you press, the top layer wears off, so you end up with really sticky buttons. But I'm happy to say my buttons are not sticky. It pulls in a straight line. When I brake, it doesn't pull either left or right, so we're all good. How do I make it go in manual mode? Red light. Probably best if I don't right off the old Accord in front, isn't it? Right, well, what I'm going to do with this? I think I'll give it a service and MOT and general check over anyway. Probably get my mechanic to see how rust it is underneath. Usually, the chassis on these are fine. It's usually just the body panels. Might get them to give it a good wax oil underneath anyway, just to protect it. What else? I think while it's done I shall let them have a look in the boot and see how many of those parts they can fit. Put the new steering wheel on, put the new trim on, and wherever those pipes go. I've got no idea. I'm sure they'll be a bit more clued up than I am though, so we'll get that done. Then what shall we do? Hmm. It's probably not worth getting the paintwork done, but what do I do? What do I do? If I get the paintwork done, if I spend four or five hundred pounds on paintwork, then I guess five hundred pounds on my mechanic, five hundred pounds on paint, it's going to owe me two and a half grand. It's probably worth three and a half to four grand, I suppose, then, isn't it? Four grand for an S-Class like this? Mate, it's done 131,000 miles. It's not exactly high, is it? I just feel like going on a long road trip in this. Let me know below in the comments where you'd like to see me take this. Could drive it down to the MED, Paris, I don't really like Paris, Bruges, Berlin, could go to Stuttgart, couldn't we? To the Mercedes-Benz factory. That's an interesting idea. Could do some sort of fuel challenge. Oh, look at the old XJ. Yeah, we could do some sort of fuel challenge, see how far we can get on a full tank. In fact, that's an idea. We could brim the tank here at my garage, get my passport, my toothbrush, and just see where a full tank takes us. There's an idea. Right, leave this with me. I shall have some news for you later. Cheers, guys. And we're back in the old S-Class Mercedes. This has been quite a straightforward journey, which is unusual. I've just picked this up from the local car wash, and the lads down there are originally from Iraq, and they were saying that before they left Iraq, they remember seeing Saddam Hussein's son driving a car just like this in this exact colour combination. So what I've bought here, then, completely by accident, is a dictator's car. Who'd have thought it? Anyway, after we last spoke, I took it down to my mechanics for a service in MOT. I also asked them to fit the parts which were left by the previous owner in the boot. I knew what some of them were, like the new steering wheel, but I didn't really know what the rest of them were. They looked like pipes. Oil pipes. The next day I got a call from my mechanic to say, Matt, you know that gold S-Class you dropped off? Yes, that's mine, obviously. Who else would have bought one? Well, it's got quite a bad gearbox oil leak. They said the new pipes in the back wouldn't cure it, it's leaking from the sump. Someone's obviously serviced the gearbox at some point, and then they've threaded the bolts as they put them back in the sump. So it wasn't making a good connection, so they advised that I take it to my auto-gearbox place. So I went and picked it up, took it there, and kept my fingers crossed. Anyway, another day later, my gearbox guy called me to say, right, it's all done. My auto-gearbox guy had to drain the fluid, take the old sump off, put some new bolts in, fit it correctly, and then top up the fluid. Anyway, now it is all sorted. That was the first problem solved. So I picked it up from there, took it back to my mechanics to have them finish the service and MOT. And surprisingly, and I say surprisingly because it's a 20-year-old car, surprisingly it passed its MOT with no advisory items. How good's that? They gave it a minor service and a pre-MOT check, and the only thing that they could find wrong with it was the horn. They tried it once and it worked, but it was very faint. It sounded like it was on its last legs. Then when they tried it again, nothing. It completely died. So they've now replaced it and it works. I think those people doing the Duke of Edinburgh Awards think I was just honking at them. I went to come pick it up from there and I asked them if they'd swapped the steering wheel for the one that was given to me in the boot. And they said they didn't, because when they checked, that one was in no better condition. This one's all right, really. There's a little bit of wear around the top, but that one isn't brand new either. So they figured it was a waste of time and I agreed with them. I also asked them to replace this trim here on the side of the seatbelt because that was ripped. Now when they tried to do that, they realised it was the wrong part and just wouldn't fit. So I had to call my upholstery guy. He came out and he tried to make one decent one out of the two bits that I had. And he's done a really neat job. You'd never know anyone had ever been there. Then I picked it up from there and took it back to work and I went out and bought some new reg plates. I know I always preach this, but it's such an easy job to do and it instantly transforms it. Then I took it down to the local car wash for a quick mini valet. It wasn't that bad, so I thought I'll save £70 and not do a full valet, I'll just do a mini. And it's cleaned up really well. The AMG wheels in particular look really good. They really make the car stand out, actually. Takes your eyes off the poor paintwork. Speaking of which, I haven't had that done. Purely because I wouldn't know where to start or stop. There's loads... Oh, look at the old 911. 1987? Not sure. Purely because I wouldn't know where to start or stop. There's loads of rust on this car all over and I just think in this particular case, with a 20-year-old diesel S-Class, I would be throwing good money down the drain. So I think for now I might just leave it as it is. It isn't the worst thing I've ever seen, is it? What do you think? I just think with a car like this, you've got to draw the line somewhere and I don't want to go spending £1,000 on paintwork unnecessarily. And I still think it looks quite classy. It's not a complete shed. Speaking of which, I've actually got this booked in with Shedfest next month. If you haven't heard of it, it's an Auto Alex event being held at the British Motor Museum down in Gaydon and I'm quite looking forward to it. So I've got this car booked in there. And I also want to take this on a road trip somewhere. I still haven't decided where yet, there's so many options. So let me know in the comments section below where you'd like to see me take this. Now before we end the video, I just want to talk you through my costs. So let me park up somewhere scenic and I'll talk you through exactly what I've spent. Here we'll do then. Lovely stuff. Oh, sensors work. Right, so oh, something else to mention actually. If you remember when I first bought the car, I didn't have a book bag with it. So I got in touch with the previous owner and he managed to locate it for me. May as well turn this engine off, hadn't I? He managed to find it for me and he popped it in the post. Now I didn't quite believe my luck here, but here's the service book. It has got full Mercedes-Benz history. So it's been done at 2004, 2006, 7, 8, 10, 11, all by Mercedes-Benz. Still Mercedes 12, 14, 15, 17 and then nothing until 22. So it had full service history by Mercedes up until 125 in 17. So I'm guessing it's been off the road or somebody's passed away or something like that. Anyway, all helps add to the story, doesn't it? Right, on to my costs then. So I spent £70 then on the upholstery retrim. V5 there, you don't need to see that. I've got a clean MOT with no advisor items. The auto gearbox repair, that cost me £150. So they found to be leaking from the sump pan due to three bolts which had been stripped. So repair the threads and adjust fluid level. Job done, £150. My mechanics bill was oil filter £10, oil £60. Takes a lot of oil this. A horn £28, labour was £112 and the MOT test fee was £40. That takes my total to £292. And that's it, that's all I've spent. Oh no, actually that's not quite right. I've got £15 for some number plates and £15 for a mini valet. Let me add this up then. I paid £1,500 for the car plus £292 at my mechanics, £150 on a gearbox service, £70 for the upholstery trimmer, £15 on plates, £15 on the mini valet. Oh, there was a delivery as well. Can't remember what that cost me. Was it £180? I think it was £180. So my total is £2,200 for all this. Long wheelbase, designer leather, Mercedes-Benz. Bargain. Right, thank you once again for watching. Make sure you give the video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Make sure you subscribe if you haven't done already. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. I'll leave the link below. And yeah, maybe I'll see you at Shedfest. Cheers guys.