Here we have an extremely beautiful W210 Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan, seen in June 2016 at the parking lot of a shopping mall in the far east of Beijing. The Mercedes has diplomatic license plates and belongs to the Embassy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The W210 Mercedes-Benz E-Class
Mercedes-Benz manufactured the W210 Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan from 1995 to 2003. The W210 introduced a new design language for the E-Class, with a four-headlight front, flanking a relatively small, shiny grille.
Diplomatic Licence plates
In the old system, diplomatic license plates in the capital Beijing started with the character 使 (shi) in red, short for 大使馆 dashiguan, meaning embassy. Each embassy has its own 3-digit number. In this case, the number is 133, which stands for North Korea.
The next three digits are the car’s number. The ambassador’s official car always carries the number 001, but there are no fixed rules for the other numbers, and plates can be transferred from one car to another. This Mercedes wears number 115, so the plate was originally issued for the embassy’s 115th vehicle. This North Korean embassy is in the Sanlitun embassy district in central Beijing.
The current diplomatic license plates look different; the character 使 has moved to the end of the license plate.
North Korea
It is well-known that the North Korean regime likes cars made by Mercedes-Benz. However, in the early 2000s, many embassies in Beijing used the W210 as the official car. That included the Dutch embassy, where I worked at that time.
The interior
The interior was almost as well-preserved as the exterior. The black leather looks slightly worn, but the wood looks very good. The embassy added a mobile phone holder on the left side of the center stack and a pink device of unknown functionality on the air vents. The radio is an aftermarket unit.
The rear bench seems as good as new. It has black aftermarket floor mats.
Specifications
The W210 was available with many diesel and petrol engines. Sadly, there was no engine badge on this car, so I can’t be sure what was under the hood.
The Beijing government doesn’t allow diesel-powered cars, not even for diplomatic cars, so we can rule those out. Considering trim and luxury, it seems this car is an E 280, powered by an inline-6 with 190 hp and 270 Nm. Mercedes-Benz mated the motor to a five-speed automatic, sending all horses to the rear wheels.
Note the Pepper Lunch text on the building in the background, on the left. Pepper Lunch is a Japanese chain of high-end fast-food restaurants, serving large portions of meat on a sizzling plate! I loved it. The chain mainly operates in Asia, with China being its second-largest market after Japan.
Earlier, I met a Lamborghini Gallardo at the same place. Sadly, the restaurant closed during COVID and never returned. As for the Mercedes, I never saw it again, so the owner probably sold it or shipped it to North Korea. Let’s hope it still looks as good as it did in 2016!