A W108 Mercedes-Benz 280SE 3.5, seen in a small car shop in Beijing in December 2017. These old Mercedes sedans are ultra rare in China so seeing one is always an earthshaking event.
The W108 was parked in a shed with a roof and a wall at the rear, but none at the front. Happily, the place looked dry enough. On the left side of the vehicle was a large pile of parts, on the right side the rear entrance to the shop. Sadly, the good W108 was missing numerous parts, including the fog lights, the Mercedes logo and star ornament, the mirrors, and wheel covers.
It had a flag pole holder on the front fender. A guy at the garage told me the car once belonged to an “ambassador”, but he didn’t know from which embassy. It must have been brilliant to cruise around Beijing for diplomatic matters with this machine.
The Mercedes-Benz W108 was manufactured from 1975 until 1973. There were two series: the First Series made from 1965 until 1967 and the Second Series made from 1967 until 1972. The car we have here is an original First Series example.
There was a sedan, a long-wheelbase sedan, a coupe, and a convertible. The W108 was technically not an S-Class, as Mercedes started using that that name only with the W116, which succeeded the W108. However, many consider the W108 an official “S-Class predecessor” model.
The interior was in a great shape but the seat upholstery wasn’t original. It looked like a recent restoration and the guy I talked to said they were trying to restore the whole car, but that it was very hard to get the right parts. I have heard that from many vintage Mercedes collectors in China. I always suggested eBay and eBay Germany, but the language barrier made that hard. I once thought about making a small business out of this but after some thinking it seemed too much trouble for the gain.
The 280SE 3.5 was the top spec model of the First Series W108. It was powered by a 3.5 liter V8 engine with an output of 197 hp and 286 Nm. Top speed was 210 km/h. The top speed in the gauge cluster is 240 km/h!
The W109 had a unique column-mounted four-speed manual gearbox. So it has three pedals, with the accelerator on the far right.
Key was in the hole. Ready to roll.
These cars were incredible spacious in the back, with loads of room for legs and heads. The windows were so large back then, so the interior always felt light and airy. Try that today with windows as large as a letter box.
It wasn’t easy to get behind the vehicle for a photo, there were parts and other stuff all over the place, and I didn’t want to damage a thing. All the chrome bits seemed in good shape and I didn’t see much rust. This car surely was savable.
A nicely complicated light cluster.
The entire area where the shop was went down just a few months later. The shop moved to another area and for a while I exchanged messages with the man I met via WeChat. But after some time there was no response anymore so I am afraid the new shop didn’t fare very well. Let’s hope the Mercedes somehow survived.
In the showroom stood a Nissan President.