High End Limousine: 1969 Mercedes Benz Pullman
This 1969 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman is a lot of car, and this particular example is one of 304 that were built. If you have ever fancied getting a start in the high-end limousine service, then this is the car for you. You will find it listed for sale here on eBay. It is located in Kingswood, South Australia, but the seller is able to arrange worldwide shipping. It comes with a clear title, and the opening bid has been set at $230,000.
There is no doubt that this is a striking looking car with a real presence about it. The car started life in Japan but has found its way to Australia. I would be very interested to know the back-story on its history because these were an expensive vehicle when new, so the original owner had to be a person of some considerable wealth and note. The car itself presents in the sort of state that you would expect an expensive and well cared for limousine should present. The paintwork exudes a wonderful shine, and all of the external trim and chrome appear to be close to perfect. The color may not be to everyone’s taste, but it is fitting for a car of this stature.
The interior exudes an air of unbridles opulence. Everywhere that you look there is nothing but leather and walnut, and all of it looks to be in rather nice condition with just a few creases in the leather from the years of use. The car features such luxuries as a hydraulically-powered window separating the passenger compartment from the driver along with separate controls for the air conditioning in the rear of the car. Surprisingly, for all of its size and luxury, this particular Pullman does not represent the ultimate version of the car. In addition to this model, there was also a 6-door Pullman produced which featured a further two “jump seats”. There was also a partial convertible version, but only around 60 of these were produced.
With a car like this particular Mercedes, sheer performance was not a consideration. Needless to say, a car of this weight (around 5,800 lbs) definitely required a good engine to get it moving, and Mercedes certainly delivered on that front. The engine fitted was developed originally specifically for the 600-Series and has a capacity of 6.3 liters. Originally designed to produce around 300hp, a total of around 50hp was consumed to operate the car’s complex hydraulic systems. This hydraulic pressure operates the car’s windows, seat adjustments, automatic door and trunk closing systems as well as the complex and adjustable air suspension. The engine on this example looks clean and is backed by a 4-speed automatic transmission. The seller gives us no details about the operation of this particular car, but at the asking price, I would hope that everything was spot on. Parts and maintenance on these can prove to be prohibitively expensive, so that is certainly something to consider.
This Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman is not your average car, but it certainly bears looking at due to its sheer rarity. They don’t come onto the market terribly often, and as a result when they do they command high prices. This is the sort of car that someone would purchase for a luxury limousine service or as the shuttle vehicle for an exclusive hotel or resort. It’s a lot of money, but then it’s also a lot of car.
Auctions Ending Soon
2002 Subaru Impreza WRXBid Now2 days$333
1975 Chevrolet Corvette ConvertibleBid Now2 days$4,000
1964 Ford F-100 Camper CustomBid Now2 days$2,000
2006 Jeep Wrangler SportBid Now4 days$10,500
1974 Datsun 260ZBid Now6 days$460
Comments
I can almost picture Idi Amin being carted around in this when he was President For Life
Yes somebody with lots of medals and an oversize hat and is always hitting up the United States for Money.( which will never be repaid).
Perfect for a certain President of the United States. Gorgeous car. I think I had the Corgi version………The Laudaulette was the version with the rear opened so the plenipotentate could wave to the undesireables
Saddam Hussein’s 600 is in the “vault” at the Petersen Auto Museum in LA, in totally unrestored (flat tires, dents, etc) condition. The vault tour is well worth checking out if anyone is visiting the area.
Great looking car. It harkens back to a time when the film industry was making great cold war spy movies. It’s interesting to learn what went into these cars, they were quite complex.
Steve R
A curious thing… This Pullman is left-hand drive and registered in Japan, where most vehicles are right-hand drive and naturally they drive on the left side of the road.
Can you imagine driving this left-hand drive rig in a right-hand setting???
Since it is from Japan, it was possibly owned by either a Shōgun or even
Emperor Hirohito.
Many Japanese prefer LHD for their high end cars for the novelty value. For instance, both Bentley and Rolls-Royce sell more new LHD than RHD.
Al,
I doubt the Imperial fleet would include a LHD car for use in Japan, it’s not the right “look” they want to achieve, and they will likely always use Japanese limousines for the emperor. Just as the USA won’t use a RHD Rolls-Royce for the President.
I have had several limousines with RHD here in America, and the only problem I’ve run into is trying to pass a slow moving truck on a 2-lane road, because it’s impossible to see oncoming traffic unless I have a passenger seated in the left front, to tell me when it’s safe.
I still have a LHD 1961 Vanden Plas Princess LWB limousine, originally owned by the UK government for the private use of the Royal Family when in the USA. In 1972 they decided it was no longer safe to use as it wasn’t secure, it was traded in on a new LHD armored Rolls-Royce. It would not be proper for the chauffeur & footman to be in the “wrong” front seat locations if the car was returned to England.
Does anyone know if current “President Toadstool’s” Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud is LHD or RHD? His newish Phantom is certainly LHD and both likely undriven since he was, uh, elected or whatever happened to this formerly great country.
Jay Leno has one of these. Go to Jay Leno’s Garage online and just see what you would be getting into with one of these, He knows of one restorer that could take on a project like this. But you had better have a LOT of money. A really great automobile, it has no peer.
Jay has a 600, but I don’t think it’s one of these. Not quite as big.
Yes, I’ve passed him on Beverly Glen as he drove his 600 SWB towards the valley. Strange, I don’t think he recognizes me or notes my Toyota!!
Jay’s is the short-wheelbased 600, and I think his is a couple years older. These LWB versions in top shape bring $800K. Easily.
Not to dispute but clarify please
who are these people paying nearly a million dollars for these cars, where do these sales take place and how many have sold in this price bracket? And when was the last such sale??
“The color may not be to everyone’s taste…”
Whaaaat? Grey with tan is gorgeous and shows off the veneer quite well. Imagine how dark that would be in triple black.
Color choice aside I wonder if this is destined for the Chinese market or if it is perceived as being too old.
I haven’t seen any evidence of an old car hobby developing in China. Their car culture is too recent, and Chinese culture in general seems to have a negative attitude toward anything not shiny and new. That may be changing when it comes to high-end Chinese antiquities, but for nearly all Chinese I think the feeling is “Old is bad, new is good.”
There’s actually a growing car culture in China now and more than a few people trying to find and preserve Hongqi limousines.
Pretty sure the reason why Japanese drivers don’t really have a Old Car Scene is most likely to do with the SHAKEN test & a lot of older vehicles fail leading to the availability of a lot of vehicles for importation to Europe & if 25yrs old the US.
The four / six door thing on the LWB pullmans was just a configuration option; one model wasn’t higher in the range than the other. Most four doors had the vis-à-vis seats whereas those with six tended to have the jump-seats.
The 600 was unusual in that despite the variations in both coachwork and wheelbase, there was just one model. Those who admire these things subscribe to the usual hierarchy of desirably in that the rarest, like the long-roofed “presidential” landaulets, are most fancied. For a pullman, the four or six door configuration makes no difference to the price.
Oh lord wont ya buy me a Mercedes Benz…. .not😄
Even he couldn’t afford it!😆
They are magnificent complicated automobiles. Simply be aware of the fact that you need to live close to someone in your area who knows these cars, or a Mercedes Dealer which will be more expensive but worth every penny. It’s a once in a lifetime experience.
Oooh. Starting bid price down to $200k. Jump on it! There were a couple of these in the neighborhood where I grew up. Cool then. Cool now.
At the risk of offending original restoration purists…if I’m the buyer…I’m budgeting
to replace the hydraulic system with modern electronics where it effects the windows/doors/trunk…new air ride suspension…touchscreen infotainment set-ups (in retro frames to stay with vintage theme) Yes…this car basically only makes sense as VIP transport for a high-end resort/hotel.
Except none of those ‘modern’ versions of these systems are as smooth or as powerful.
I wouldn’t want to use this for a limo service.
How could you put common people in this car.
When I visited Hawaii in 1982, there was a traveling Elvis museum there.
They had his Mercedes 600 limo.
They told me in shipping somebody had forced open and closed the electric trunk and damaged the mechanism.
It is weird the things you remember from 36 years ago
I certainly wouldn’t mind carrying the common people in a car like this. Of course I’d handcuff them (hands behind the back), put on full shakles and carry them in the trunk.
You should consider a Gaz 13 Chaika then – google it if you’ve never seen one. The KGB used them for such purposes!
I was never a “Limo” guy but I find this one very impressive.
I have fond memories of a 600 Pullman. One time I was hitch-hiking to school and one of these stopped and the chauffeur asked if I wanted a ride?
I was somewhat dubious about getting in, and then figured what the heck and did.
The driver asked me where exactly I was heading and I told him the “school at the bottom of the hill”. He then asked me which parking lot was the teacher’s lot, which I directed him to.
When he pulled into the lot, my homeroom teacher was just getting out of his little car of some sort and the Principal was getting out of his rusty Cadillac.
He actually cut-off the Principal, so that the principal was trapped between his car and a wall.
The chauffeur asked me to stay in the car until he came around to open my door for me. He stated, he would ask me a question when he opened the door, and he hoped I would respond appropriately.
When he opened the door, he stated “Shall I pick you up after school, Sir?”
I responded, “that’s not necessary, just drive my Father as usual.”
It’s funny, from that point on the principal greeted me by name, every time he saw me. Most of the teachers went out of the way to help me with virtually anything. I was never again late for school, I never skipped a class and I never was absent or even required a note for anything.
That’s what a 600 Pullman does for people.
Great story! There was a time when people with money had a certain rarefied air about them. They had taste. No gold toilet seats No longer. They shop at Walmart like the rest of us.
Not to dispute, but clarify please – who are these people paying nearly a million dollars for these cars, where do these sales take place and how many have sold in this price bracket? And when was the last such sale??
The 600 Pullman I was in, was owned by an Oil Company.
In about 1985 I made the mistake of buying a ’71 SWB car from the used car lot of the local M-B dealership in Bethesda MD, they had been forced to take it in on a trade-in for a new big Mercedes, and wanted the car gone, as it looked really beat. They gave me what I thought was a very low price, and I jumped on it without doing my research!
This car saw heavy commercial limo service in New York City and needed everything. I discovered that whatever the cost was for a part for my Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, the Mercedes 600 part was at least 3 times more. The parts alone to do a major hydraulics system overhaul were over $10k. In 1985.
At that time I was providing antique cars & spare parts to one of the Royal heads of state for a middle eastern country, and this man owned [I believe my number is correct] EIGHTEEN 600 cars, both LWB & SWB. I sold the 600 to him as a parts car. I still have a full grill shell from a 600, it was removed off one of his cars because it had a TINY ding in the side, barely noticeable. When I found out they were going to scrap the grill, I asked for it, and brought it back on the airplane as baggage. I still have photos of multiple 600 cars lined up in his garages.
Hildagarde Schine had a Mercedes Limo similar to this in a brown with a white roof , She had a camp in upstate NY and when she was in town she got her hair done in a beauty shop in the basement of the building I lived in . I remember her chauffer in uniform standing besides the limo waiting for her return . I guess she had more $$ than I thought at that time ( 1970s) .
Always thought that was a classy car !
Guggie 13,
The Schine hotel fortune was said at that time to be well in excess of $150 million dollars. I knew someone who had inside info on the family fortune and it’s demise. The court records show that her attorney son-in-law had been appointed as the financial manager for the Schine fortune, and he legally siphoned off almost everything by the time Hilda had died, leaving the other heirs without an inheritance. He & his wife became VERY wealthy of course!
For the life of me I cannot warm up to silver to black exterior paired with cream to brown interior. Still, I would really like to ride in this car or one like it just once to play with the hydraulics… even better, to drive this car or one like it just once to, well, play with the hydraulics. Got to be cool, everything moving smoothly without a sound.
Oh and what Barn did it come out of?🏠
…the First National Barn of Money.
Many limos were ordered “curbside driver” as it was more efficient for the driver to open the door for his occupants.
Btw, thought political comments were not allowed on this forum?
When I was a teen, I went to school with a kid named Steve Smith, whose father owned a company that installed radio equipment in police cars. Apparently he made tons of money, because he had a collection of some 6 MB Pullman limos, from the swb up to a couple lwb models. Of course, we weren’t allowed to do anything other than sit in them, we never got a ride in one, and certainly never drive one. I’ve often wondered what became of his collection, this was 45 years ago so the father is certainly long gone. I never got any background on where these cars came from, but I never thought to ask. Wish I had, oh well.