$38K Service Completed: 1970 Mercedes-Benz 600
The limousine as a vehicle segment has lost some relevance over the years, after decades of a long-wheelbase model being perceived as synonymous with wealth and power. I suppose it has to do with the limo becoming less significant culturally, with less attention paid to presidential motorcades and fewer cameos in movies where the hero protagonist emerges from a stretch Lincoln. But there was a time when there was no questioning the desirability of a high-end model like this Mercedes-Benz 600, which was the forerunner to the esteemed Maybach line.
If one wanted to send a message of having “made it,” few vehicles made as powerful of a statement as the 600. The Grosser Mercedes. or Grand Mercedes, was chosen by royalty the world over as their vehicle of choice, from the Saudi princes to Hollywood celebrities. The vehicle was richly appointed inside and cast a commanding presence on the outside with its extended wheelbase. The 600 was powered by a 6.3L M100 V8, which was necessary to move the additional heft of the limo-like model with authority. The 600 was offered in both sedan and limousine, or Pullman, configurations, with this one obviously being the former.
The seller reports that he has recently spent to the tune of $38,000 getting this 600 into fighting form; while that number is eye-watering, it’s also not surprising. One of the caveats of owning a car like this is remembering that by 1960s standards, these were among the most expensive cars you could buy. Accordingly, everything that goes along with maintaining is also quite pricey. The 600 features an incredibly complex series of hydraulic systems, which accounts for a large portion of any restoration budget. In addition, just look at the trimmings – acres of wood, leather, and high-end finishes everywhere.
The 6.3 V8 is one of Mercedes’ most well-loved engines, producing power and torque ratings that are still respectable today. Recent maintenance on this 300 b.h.p. motor included “….rebuilding the fuel injection pump, installing a remanufactured water pump, and replacing the thermostat housing, lower radiator hose, and battery as well as the fuel tank, pump, filter, and line.” However, despite this tremendous amount of recent repairs, the seller notes that the hydraulic pump – which controls the sunroof, seats, and windows – has gone dark, so factor that repair cost into your purchase price. Find the 600 here on craigslist with an asking price of $84,950.
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Comments
Craigslist seems like an odd place to advertise a car like this. Imagine the goofballs who’ll be calling!
“Will you take $25K?”
Exactly….is it still available ?
I wonder if this is the time one finds out just because one puts money in a car doesn’t guarantee a return of investment (ROI)
Good luck on sale…
Its a nice ride that needs to go on another listing place to get a special buyer
I got to ride in one of these as a kid. After a party at some girls house she gave a bunch of us a ride home. If you owned a 600, would you let your 16year old daughter drive it?
The ask is considerably lower than I’ve seen recently, as most reach well into six figures!
Definition of a moneypit. The hydraulics are very reluable until they are not. They operate everything from windows to seats to sunroof to rear trunk opening and were built to an incredibly high aviation plus standard for the time. Tearing it down really is complicated….
So $38000 may have been spent and the car does look great, but informed buyers will not offer anything like the asking price.
Oh my god, I know from experience from when I made the mistake of purchasing a 1969 300 SEL 6.3 about 20+ years ago, what a money pit. That car was much less costly than the 600, though it had the same 6.3 engine, and mine had a leaky fuel injection pump. It is a foot long MECHNICAL pump that sits in the center valley of the engine, very costly to repair. What I did myself back then was replace the four air bags, cost about $1000 then with my labor. This car has way more costly hydraulics which need replacing. Then it had rust. I traded the 6.3 in for a much better 1984 300SD with the 5-cylinder diesel engine, much less costly and ran fine.
Never rode in a 600, but took a 6.9 in trade on a 911 Targa … that car rode like a tank – just shutting the doors sounded like you were in a vault … car had great acceleration and hugged the curves like a sports car … sold it and made one of my biggest commissions ever …
I worked at the MB dealer in Spokane in the late 60s. Drove and serviced a small few of these. The lot boy rolled one down a bank on his way to deliver it to the service customer. Dark blue with red interior. A true driving pleasure and yes like a tank.
I’ve long thought one of these, or better yet a Pullman, would make an excellent airport car service vehicle. But 9 MPG says otherwise.
Why would one replace the thermostat housing and lower radiator hose on a $85K beast but not the upper, which usu has all the heat and pressure (unless Daimler Benz somehow circumnavigated gravity)?
Asking for a friend…
Beautiful car.
I’m unfamiliar with the cooling system of the Grosser, however, I am well versed in Freightliner cooling systems. This car has a top and bottom tank on the radiator, signalling to me the coolant flows vertically through the radiator, same as a Freightliner, also built by Daimler. The new (2007+) Detroit Diesel engines have the thermostat located on the lower radiator hose and flow coolant up (heat rises) through the radiator and return cool coolant through the upper hose. Maybe Daimler has been doing this longer than I knew…
Lovely car but 85K. No way Jose or Hose B/
Beautiful looking car. This is my idea of what a limousine should be. It’s large enough to seat important people comfortable, but it’s not insanity large like our American limos. I can imagine myself driving something like this.
Sometimes you wish you could just roll your widow down. Lovely car.
Always loved to demonstrate breaking a wooden pencil with those hydraulic windows.
The TV shows of the 70’s constantly had one of these if wealth was in the story line. Rockford Files, Hawaii Five-0 etc. Could this car be on film?
I had the pleasure of driving a 1969(or 70?) 6.3 from San Jose to Marin county over highway 280 years ago. That grin stayed for days
Don’t know what the market is for these dreadnoughts but I don’t understand why a guy who just spent over $38,000 wouldn’t go the extra mile to address the:
“hydraulic pump became inactive and will need attention. The hydraulic pump controls the sunroof, seats, and windows. It was estimated by my mechanic who did all the work on this car that it will cost from $2,500-$4,500 in total to fix.” It begs the question, What else didn’t get done?
I love that turn of phrase, “the hydraulic pump became inactive”. I once looked at a Corvette whose seller allowed that it had an “Internal radio problem”. When I asked him what that meant, he said, “It’s broken.”
Well, duh.
Unsophisticated sellers (read ‘cheap’) listing a car like this on Craigslist should be aware that anyone seriously in the market for this car is going to have a modicum of knowledge. And a well-tuned BS meter.
I know I’m a cranky old man and I’m ok with that. The late, great Richard Pryor once opened, “You don’t get to be old by bein’ no fool.”
I’m ok with that, too.
I did a auction assessment for Sports Car Market magazine some years back and there was a 600 there. As I recall I described it as follows: The Mercedes 600’s value is like that of an aircraft and it’s TBO’s (time between overhauls) and this one has oil leaks in all the wrong places – like under the glove box.
I find it really odd that somebody would invest 38K in a car they are selling. Sure, put new tires and flush the fluids and detail the car, but 38K? Well, lots of people have money to spend, I guess.
“…really odd that somebody would …”
final sales price. Done = some enticement.
as usual . . . . . . ?
A perfect metaphor for the collapse of taste and culture. Today’s PimpDaddies would rather drive a Lincoln Escalade or whatever with blacked out windows and 22 inch wheels. Ah well….
Right? I’d much rather ride around in this any day than a Cadillac Escalade. I remember when the Escalade was first intro’d. I remember thinking “Good lord! What’s the luxury car world coming to?” The more they changed the appearance of the vehicle (if you even call it one) the less appealing I found it.
Oh boy, another Grosser Mercedes for sale – most complex car ever built from my POV. The hydraulics are insane – not only hyd windows that can take a finger off with no safety whatsoever, but as mentioned the rear seat, chauffeurs window, doorlatches, bootlid lift & lock, and of all things, the cowl vent doors are hydraulic!!!
But that’s not all the nonsense: There is no relief valve to release the pressure – the shop manual tells one to “cycle the windows up & down until no further movement occurs – or something to that effect, as I copied
local dealers manual before diving into this behemoth. And no pressure gauge to tell the shop what’s going on.
And the beat goes on – air suspension, & vacuum central locking system just to add to the fun! Of course the 6.3 L engine would take this 6600 lb short wheelbase monster to 125 mph no sweat.
I learned all this up close – got a side job working for a California billionaire by name of Jacques Littlefield, whose father’s co. was one of those building the Hoover dam. When Jacques’ father passed, he used part of his 2.7 billion inheritance to found the MVtF – Military Vehicle Technology Foundation, which housed 280 vehicles atop his 500 acre estate on top of the Portola Valley mountain range after graduating from Stanford. Jacques liked to play with RC tank models as an undergrad, then went for the real things with his newfound wealth. 55 of those vehicles were tanks – like the Merc!
But – his SWB ’65 600 was bought on a whim for his 3rd wife, a Guatemalan Princess who recognized the Guatemalan plates on the car exhibited in a LV casino – prev. owned by a same country dictator. Only prob. was he couldn’t drive the car the 3 yrs he’d had it as the window lifts leaked so he couldn’t close them. When I offered to help him restore a Panhard military reconnaisance vehicle he owned but I also drove Citroens, he said “forget the Panhard, can you fix the Merc?”
So I found a manual at the local Merc shop, looked the system over & said I’d give it a shot. An LA expert told me the 4 togglevalve drivers window master “switch” would be $13,000 to replace – wonderful! Then I found the pressure reserve cylinder under the radiator – for storing pressure when the engine wasn’t operating, as the designers rightly figured it would be nice to be able to operate the windows without bothering the engine – was blown. It cost a mere $7000 from Bosch – yikes! Then I bench tested the very simple pump run off a camshaft & found it was blowing the seals as a prev. backyard mechanic had “fixed” the pump by increasing its output to 3500 psi vs the book spec being 2500 psi – no wonder the system leaked!
The pump is dead simple – I took out a shim washer to bring the pressure down to spec, pulled out my Parker hydraulics book, ordered a custom pressurized accumulator cylinder for $950 off the shelf, some hardware store plumbing fittings to adapt it, then went after the door master switch – 4 tiny togglevalves for the windows. It’s a billet aluminum block with tiny 1/4 inch flex hoses going into it from the doorpost. The seals were about 5/16 inch buried Orings held in place by tiny brass rings pressfitted into the block bores to trap the rings. The high pressure hoses were held to the block by spring clips into undercuts in the nozzle tips – very simple yet adequate for the small local stresses.
The problem was getting those tiny Orings out. So Rube Goldberg came to then rescue: couldn’t get anything down the small holes to extract the seals, so ran a small tap thru the brass retaining rings, threaded an 8/32 screw thru them, then put a nut on the other end and sucked the rings out to liberate the seal rings. The local hydraulics shop supplied the replacement seals. Total parts cost – about $6. Pressed the brass bits back in & reassembled the door.
The final fix was installing a bleed valve under the hood routed back into the fluid tank and a 3000 psi pressure gauge in the engine compartment for the next mechanic. I figure I saved Jacques at least $15K. The car’s hydraulics were simpler than a Citroen DS, just excessive in application for no good reason – just German ego trying to outdo the French!
Let’s see now. After the hydraulic suspension with 3 height levels you also had hydraulic windows, seats front and back, the trunk lid, sunroof and the cowel vent. Even the twin caliper brakes often put tires out of balance (needed better tires when I drove it.). The power windows switches responded to how hard you push the button. I caught a cigarette with driver window once. And the heater system supplied hot or cold air to the rear seat area first. That thing cost $1000 per month back in 1978. Glad I wasn’t paying for it.
I think a ’58 Eldo Brougham beats that ugly thing hands down. And the power systems work better and are a helluva lot more reliable!