How long did it take you?

[iftykhan]

I recently visited a local classic car garage as their website showed they had four pagodas for sale.
 I had driven past this garage a few years ago and spotted a dark blue 280 in the main showroom and had to do a quick u turn to have a closer look. This was my first ever proper encounter with a pagoda and I knew from that moment I wanted one.

My latest visit to tbe garage was more out of curiousity than anything else but they had actually sold two of the cars and another was having some paint so only got to see a 250 in silver.
I had a nice chat with the owner of the garage who actually owned the 280 and he told me that the car in question was sold in 2006 for £28000.
It dawned on me that it has taken seven years from knowing I wanted a pagoda to actually owning one.

I was wondering how long it had taken other members to go from wishing to physically owning?

Ifty

Ps. Anyone got a time machine!!

[Bonnyboy]

Oh thats an easy calculation - Sept 1988 to Sept 2011 - 23 years.  The car was not even on my radar until my Dad showed up at my place the first week of my first job out of University.   He saif that he may come down to visit within the next month to look at a car.  He wouldn't tell me exactly when or what kind of car so I had Visions of a 60 Vette or a 57 TBird (why else would he drive 800 miles to look at a car - it had to be special).    I got home and there was a white Pagoda sitting in the drive way - I knew it had to be Dad - go big or go home he would say.  I was elated - the car was a convertable, it was very sexy and it was a mercedes - How cool was that... At that moment I knew I needed that car - not one like it but that car.  I told him that I would take it off his hands when he was done trashing it and he made a comment somewhat to the effect that it would be over his dead body (still had hard feelings over his cars I wrecked I guess).   

The car turned out to have ALL of the typical rust issues so Dad started to work on it slowly and became disenchanted 1/2 way through replacing the heater levers (the cables were siezed).  Thankfully he didn't get too far into it and left it to rot in the neighbour's yard with a dead cat in it for good measure.  I say thankfully because he figured it wasn't worth his time to sell it as a complete car as he was 800 miles away from civilization (almost Alaska) and it would need to be trailered anyways.  Fast forward 20 years and I finally convinced him to sell it to me at an agreed upon then 280SL current scrap value.   Once I paid him off in full I went and picked it up and the fun began. 

[garymand]

I was lucky, I had grown up with hotrod Chevy's, found it was a great way to dump cash fast.  Then I tried to hotrod a Spitfire,Triumpth.  Quickly found how to break just about every part on the car by boosting HP beyond what the designer had in mind.  Even the gear box was junk, the hardness had worn through in 60K miles!.

I just happened to see a hood up on a 190SL in Sausalit, CA.  It had dual Webbers I thought were stock, but it had everything else I wished the Spitfire had, Overhead cam, tuned exhaust, and a beautiful dash.  Hooked.  I found a 190SL in Berekley from a German exchange prof and he talked me into it.  He assured me the drive train was the most importpart of the car, and this one was in fine condition.  It had been shipped over from Germany and I had no idea about rust or why it had a hard time doing 65mph.  I soon learned I'd made a mistake.  A body man assured me if he took all the bondo out, there wouldn't be anything to paint and I couldn't possible aford to pay him enough to do what needed to be done even if he felt like doing it.  We did a quick face lift, new paint and sold it at a little profit.

But I was still hooked on the SL.  At the time, there were lots in the Bay Area.  230's were going for 2500 -3500$.  I could aford that.  I lined up 3 to try and just knew I had to have one until I drove the 3rd one up a hill in Redwood City.  Those are some long steep hills and I couldn't believe I needed to downshift a sports car to get up the hill!  So I tried 280's.  The 280's were surprising fast but were all autos and $3500 to 5000.  I wanted a stick and couldn't afford 5000.  (I was still in college and didn't have a fulltime job yet.)

Each morning checked the want adds for San Fran, San Jose, and even LA looking for a a 280 stick for about 4K.  It took about 2 weeks and a 250 stick in for 43200 in SF WED. morning.  I drove like crazy the one hour to get there to be first. It was funny, I tried to bargain down below 4K and the guy looked at me and said, you hear that phone ringing?    It was a hot car even then.  I couldn't afford it and that was the right decison.  Still no regrets 40 years later, except for one.  The same morning there was a 300SL for 5k... if I had only known it had a full race tubular aluminum welded fram under those beautiful lines... I woulda, shoulda, coulda!

[49er]

I saw my first 230SL in 1964, sat in one at Mercedes dealer in Germany in 1965, drove  my first SL, a 250, home in '67, and my current 280SL in 1968. For me, it is truly a "time machine" and still looks like it did back then but can't say the same for the owner

John

[andyburns]

My first ever experience with a pagoda was back in the late 80's when I was just a teenager.  My father was heavily involved with the Mercedes car club here in New Zealand.  A guy by the name of Colin Giltrap was a big player over here in the luxury car industry at the time and was one of the wealthiest guys in the country.  He had owned this particular pagoda since new or near new and by the 80's it had traveled very limited km's, spending most of its life in pride of place here in one of his show rooms in Auckland.   At the time the car was for sale but due to the huge asking price, around 100k from memory, did not sell for quite a few years afterwards.  

Colin decided to 'lend' the little pagoda to the car club for a run to stretch its legs.  The honor was given to my father who took a few milliseconds to think about it and accept.  He rang and asked me if I would like to come.  At that point I had no idea what a pagoda was other than a brief description from my father around its lack of roof.  He did tell me about how special the car was in regards to its limited mileage and the fact it was owned by Colin Giltrap.  I agreed and one overcast Saturday morning he rumbled up my drive and sounded the very distinctive Mercedes fog horns.
 
I remember being stunned at the condition of it.  Basically new.  I also distinctly remember wondering why the heck they had let it out of their sight.

The car club run was up to a logging museum hundreds of k's north from Auckland and started on tarmac but ended up on some gravel roads.  I remember cringing as loose gravel was spat up and machine gunned the firewall and floor pan.  When we came to the first rest stop, where the photo was taken, the side of the car was filthy.  I guess they were made for driving but such a lovely example probably should have been reserved for dry weather driving on decent roads.

At the time a car like this was just a dream to our family, well beyond our means.  I remember thinking I could never afford one and that this was just a one off opportunity to walk a few miles in a more affluent person shoes.  

I never gave it another thought until almost 30 years latter when coincidentally while restoring my W108 drmb picked me up in a little green pagoda he was dropping off to one of his customers after a service.  It didn't take me long after a few questions to figure out it was the same car.  Along with another friend who had a pagoda and constantly raved about it, this particular event really rekindled my interest and I started my journey searching for a suitable  candidate.  A year latter after I found what I was looking for.  

[Artur]

Let me tell my story...

I started to think to have a classic car 2 years ago... I told my friend living in Sweden about this idea. He said I should look for a cabrio, because it gives more of fun in summer time, then just sedan or coupe. So I started to search. I paid my attention to MB W107 - recommended as a perfect car to start with. And after a few days I found beatiful signal red 280SL W107 from 1972. I called the seller. He said if i want to see more pics I can find them on his picasa web album. There was many pictures of a few more cars - my first love among them... Beatiful light ivory Pagoda. It took me a second to fall in love. I called him is it for sale. He said it was sold to Germany a couple of months before. What a bad luck!

But I knew I had to have one... After 3 months of searching I bought my moss green 280SL in Massachusets.

If you want see my "first love" there is a link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/m/viewer#album/107749470404333437753/5514637090049018961

If somebody recognize this car let me know... It was bought in 2010/2011 in Ostrów Wielkopolski near Poznan, Poland.

"Anybody seen my baby..."

[star63]

42 years

[Cees Klumper]

In my case I decided I should have one one day when I was twenty, and on the day I decided to actually get one I was thirty-eight, so eighteen years later. The 'actual getting' after that took about a week.

[Flyair]

I already wrote my story once and it must have been listed among other posts in he Member Introduction thread, so the short version of it would be that I first saw a B&W picture of Pagoda when I was about 10 or 12, which is slightly more than 40 years ago. Beyond the Iron Curtain, it was an impossible dream. So impossible that I probably inhibited it profoundly inside my memory. This dream somehow resurrected in 2008 for no particular reason. I started to get information about the car and my oldest daughter, interested about my sudden research, asked my about that. Once she learnt the story, she asked the very simple question why was I wasting my time on watching internet pictures rather than simply buying one?.
She is very persuasive in general and this time it wasn't any different. I saw an interesting one in Holland, but it was sold before I could make an offer. Then we went with my daughter to Belgium, but I was somehow less courageous to buy one in signal red color. Finally we went to the US and bought one from a dealer in Long Island in June 2009.

So, I could say that the dream took some 40 years to materialise, but the actual purchasing process lasted about 1 year. Don't ask how long or how much took the restoration, as this is an everlasting and self-soustaining process

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

To pull the trigger and purchase the Pagoda I found in March 2013 to the date I purchased her (after in detail inspection) May 2013 would be approximately 8 weeks. 

Last I drove one was in Montreal around 1970, at that time it was impossible for me to own  one o those fine cars I was simply too young and too poor 

I became a car nut (mainly for German cars) in 1954 when as a student my part time employer allowed me to wash his MB 600 every weekend (driving her out and back into the garage).

[iftykhan]

Star63

Short and sweet.....how come it took so long?
I thought my seven year wait felt like a lifetime.

Ifty

[star63]

Star63

Short and sweet.....how come it too so long?
I thought my seven year wait felt like a lifetime.

Ifty

Very simple. At age of four, I didn't have the money. (but the seed was planted... )

- Petri

[GGR]

I don't really know how long it took me to really want a Pagoda. I always liked the car, but my preferred MB design of the era is the W111 Coupe. I find it really very elegant. I think the Pagoda option started to appear when I was considering procuring a W111 cabriolet. My problem was that the W111 Cabriolet is not really good looking with the top down (looks like a big barge) and it is so expensive that for the money I could afford to own both a W111 Coupe AND a Pagoda. So rather than selling my Coupe in order to partly finance a W111 Cabriolet, I just used the additional money to buy a Pagoda. It took me a while to find the right car within my budget, as all the cars I saw within what I could afford were rust buckets. But I'm now happy to have both cars.   

[Jonny B]

I knew I wanted a Pagoda when I first saw one while in high school (1970's) - just loved the design and engineering, but could not come close to affording one then. College and then three Corvettes. I started seriously looking in 1984 and was reading as many articles and such as I could find on what to look for, what to watch out for, what not to buy, etc. I saw a light blue one, single owner in the Peoria Illinois area. By the time I got there, made a contact with the previous owner, it was sold. Looked for a bit longer and finally ended up with a 1980 450 SL. I had that car for a thirteen year diversion (was a great car, very comfortable, and aside from the Chrysler AC unit, quite dependable). I finally got serious again in 2002, while living in Ohio. I found my 250 SL about 10 miles away in the hands of Pete Lesler, who had done the restoration. Ten + years later it is still in my stewardship. It was joined in 2011 by "Bob" a 1970 280 SL (904 with red leather) that many of you may have seen at the PUB gatherings. I purchased that car from its second owner, Bob Fellows (of almost 40 years).

[W113SL]

I ma probably the exception here.  I fell in love withe the230SL ehile I was attending college.  I stated to llok to buy one in earnest inn 1967.  The 230's were then around $4,000/  Still to expensive for someone making around $5000 per year.

Then after two years in the military, I started to look again in 1971.  I bought my 250SL in September 1971.  The 280SL's were then about $6,000 used and I was fortunate to buy my 1967 250SL, with only 23,000 miles on it,  for $4150.

It took me seven years, but I wold have done it sooner, had they been more  affordable in 1965 or 1966.

Pete Lesler
W113SL

[Garry]

I sort of fell into the Pagoda world unintentionally. I had always has some sort of old car from 20's Chevs (3), to E types (2), Alfa Spyder (1), and Triumph Stags (2) but had always wanted a Morgan but could not find one that I could afford. Then I did my back in and a friend warned me about the ride in the Morgan and that I would not be able to use it.  He suggested looking at the highway cruiser like the Pagoda.  The first one I saw, I drove it, became an instant convert to Pagodas and purchased it as a 1969 4 speed manual that had come from Scotland.  I joined the Group early when it was Yahoo under a different name and saw about the Data Cards so went to Tom Hanson and got mine.  To my surprise, the car was listed as a 5 speed.  Had never tried to put it in to 5th gear

Unfortunately, there was no fifth gear there, a PO had obviously removed it at some point. I put in a Getrag box and ordered one of the new 5 speed gearboxes that were being made. Now nearly 12 years later and still having back problems, I decided I would change my car over for an Auto so my wife could also drive and I looked for nearly 2 years this time before finding what I wanted, a car that had been in a barn for many years, Blue as my wife wanted, very original and other than a bad engine, all there and in very good condition so I purchased it and sold my 5 speed last year to cover the cost to buy, and have since concoursed the engine bay and soon to replace the interior and top.

Garry

[wwheeler]

Since the title didn't specifically say "Pagoda", I will mention my W111 coupe.

35 years, more or less. My Dad test drove a '80 W123 300D and I tagged along. We went over a large hump in the road and the 300D acted like it was never there. That left a strong impression with me.

Fast forward 24 years. A friend had a '84 300D for sale and wanted to know if I was interested. I remembered that test drive 24 years prior and thought how cool that would be. In the process of researching the W123 car, I ran across a picture of an early W111 Euro coupe white exterior and red leather interior.

Yowza! So much for the 300D!

From that point it was another 3 years finding the right W111 coupe. I think because of the styling of the 60s Mercedes cars, just one look is all it takes.       

[Benz Dr.]

To pull the trigger and purchase the Pagoda I found in March 2013 to the date I purchased her (after in detail inspection) May 2013 would be approximately 8 weeks. 

Last I drove one was in Montreal around 1970, at that time it was impossible for me to own  one o those fine cars I was simply too young and too poor 

I became a car nut (mainly for German cars) in 1954 when as a student my part time employer allowed me to wash his MB 600 every weekend (driving her out and back into the garage).

You could always come and drive the 600 I have here and find out what you've been missing. 

[iftykhan]

Wallace and Dr B, how about a photo or two.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

You could always come and drive the 600 I have here and find out what you've been missing. 

Thanks Dan, I sat in it when we saw it at St Johns in August it is a very nice car. I think I made an error the 1954 car I was referring to was a MB 180 and not a 600 … I think Paul Bracq was only 21 in 1954 and still in University My bad. Next time I'm out your way you can take me for a spin in the 600 if you have not sold it by then

Photo below of the 180, the way I recall it looked when I washed my then bosses car every weekend. I'm sure you have some parts for it in your Spare Parts Barn

[Benz Dr.]

Wallace and Dr B, how about a photo or two.

Go to  conceptcarz.com and have a look for '69 600.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Great stories here fellows!

Challenging everyone else in our fine forum to add there story here below ... So take a few moments and do tell, whatever you write it sure will be a nice read

On the other hand there are great stories also to be read (as long as the winter of 2014 plans to stick around) in the "New Members Interdiction Thread" 

[JamesL]

Go to  conceptcarz.com and have a look for '69 600.

I've not noticed the air ducts above the rear arches on a 600 before. Is this a Landaulet specific thing or.....?

[BaronYoungman]

Thinking about it I guess 21years. In high school at 15 1/2  I had with my father fixed a Jensen - Healy  traded it in on a 1974 corvette, fixed traded for 1970 corvette, sold that one and used the proceeds to get 1968 basket case big block corvette convertible, eventually sold that because was unstreetable, then senior year scraped together enough cash for a 1980 928 Porsche.  All the while students with nice cars parked next to each other in the lot ( I know unrealistic upbringing... I once asked my friend  "your dad is president of which Burger King?"  his answer" no you don't understand ALL OF THEM") .  Anyway, Mary M. had, I think it was a 250sl, white and tan, I know it was stick, I remember car was not a barn burner but I remember thinking that is a nice car, too bad you can't get it with a big block.  She would sometimes drive her fathers I think 250se convertible, cream colored , also nice, both were not perfect , but every party I attended that car would jump out at me and I knew Mary was there.  She let me drive it once I thought it was a spirited drive though a twisty road by her house.  Never took a second look at her, but that car always stuck with me, even today I can see it so clearly.  Out of blue got bug to get a Pagoda in 2008 and each one I looked at I compared to my memory of Mary M's.

[ejboyd5]

Each morning checked the want adds for San Fran, San Jose, and even LA looking for a a 280 stick for about 4K.  It took about 2 weeks and a 250 stick in for 43200 in SF WED. morning.  I drove like crazy the one hour to get there to be first. It was funny, I tried to bargain down below 4K and the guy looked at me and said, you hear that phone ringing?    It was a hot car even then.  I couldn't afford it and that was the right decison.  Still no regrets 40 years later, except for one.  The same morning there was a 300SL for 5k... if I had only known it had a full race tubular aluminum welded fram under those beautiful lines... I woulda, shoulda, coulda!

1970, wanted a new car, went to M-B to look at 280 SLs, but couldn't strike a deal.  Saw an ad in the New York Times for a '56 300 SL at less than 1/3 the dealer's price.  Still have it.