A very special find! This is a rare Mercedes-Benz W124 E-Class stretched limousine, with six doors and painted in a wine red shade. The black 京·04405 license plate is very old and very rare.
I found this unique Mercedes-Benz at a car shop near the east section of the Fifth Ring Road in Beijing in 2019. I know the shop very well, have been there many times, but this was the fist time I saw the Mercedes. Staff told me they had bought it from a customer and that it was powered by a six-cylinder engine. He didn’t know much more.
The limousine appeared to be in a reasonable shape, but they shouldn’t leave such an old car outside. Beijing’s weather with cold winters, hot summers, and dust all year long is very dangerous for any vintage vehicle.
The Mercedes-Benz W124 E-Class was made from 1984 until 1995. The six-door stretched limousine was an official factory-built variant, aimed mainly at airport-taxi companies. Wheelbase was stretched by 800 mm to 3600 mm, bringing the total length of the vehicle to 5540 mm. The limousine featured a third row of seats in between the front seats and rear bench.
China imported a small number of the stretched W124 in the early 1990’s. The black license plate indicates that this particular example belonged to a foreign-owned company, so perhaps it was owned and used by a foreign-owned hotel. Back in 2014, I met another W124 six-door limousine on the airport expressway in Guangzhou, apparently still in use! And in that same year I saw yet another one at the Dalian Classic Car Museum.
Those other two were both 260E’s, powered by a 2.6 liter six-in-line with 170hp. Considering that I was told this was a six-cylinder car, I think it is safe to assume it is a 260E as well. Gearbox is a four-speed automatic.
The interior was in a fine shape for its age. The gray fabric seat looked neat and even the wood was still kind of good.
Six switches for six power windows! There is a text under the gear lever, I can’t fully read it but it is definitely in German.
Second row with three seats. The fabric is in such a good shape, I really hope they parked it inside the shop later on. The summer sun just kills this stuff.
Third row with 2.5 seats.
The only thing odd is the color. The other ones I saw were white, which is the standard color for this kind of cars. Why is this one wine-red…? It must have something to do with the first owner. I will try to find out more.
Black license plates were issued to foreign owned companies from the 1980’s to the mid 00’s. These companies could buy a car locally, or import one. There were no limits on the number of cars, or on price, or engine type. The numbering started at 京A·00001, and then up. So the lower the number the older the car. This 京·04405 is thus pretty old; license plate royalty!
I haven’t been back to the shop since. The area is under constant development there and I wouldn’t be surprised if the shop is gone now. May the Mercedes be safe.
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Number I want this car