Something big happened in October: I started driving Persian Kitty to pick up my kids from school, it definitely worth celebrating and a post. Why? I will save this story for later, before that I would review all my experience with Persian Kitty in the last two years.
First I should talk about how Persian Kitty came to my home. I remember very clearly that on Christmas Eve 2018, I was lying in bed in Kansas and checking Chinese used car websites as usual. Midnight I saw an exotic example with grey velor interior, steel wheels, and hole on the right fender for flagpole. All options above are almost unavailable in China, so I immediately relized this is probably a diplomatic vehicle that brought from overseas.
It didn’t take long for me to pinpoint its identity, it’s not hard to find a car with so few options. It’s a 1998 S 280 in 366 Azurite Blue, and the order information shows it was ordered in Iran, so I’m guessing it came from Iran’s diplomatic mission in China. I’ve always loved velor upholstery, which is in nearly unavailable in both US and China. Although the US and China are the 140’s largest and fourth-largest markets respectively, customers have few options to choose from, dealers order all cars and decide on their options to ensure they sell out as quickly as possible. So as usual I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up this exotic car for its modest asking price.
But I won’t and can’t. Just a few days ago I paid full price for a 1999 CL 600 from Florida, also in Azurite Blue. I can’t imagine owning two cars of the same color, it would defeat my principles. If I could only choose one, that CL 600 has Designo’s blue interior, I would rather keep the V12 sports car. S 280 and CL 600 are almost two extremes, many people will agree with my choice.
I had to let it go and pray it goes to the right hands. I gave it a name: Persian Kitty. In China, 140 is called “tiger” for its existance, I’m not cult about this animal name, but I think Kitty make it cuter, so the tiger from Iran is called Persian Kitty by me. In China, the Iranian Air Force’s F-14 Tomcat is also known as “Persian Cat” among enthusiasts, which is a nickname. Of course, Persian cats are not actually from Persia. It was listed a few more times over the course of time and the value kept rising. During this period, I returned to China from the United States, married my wife, and gave birth to two children. Everything went very quickly. Thank God we have twins, but it also keeps me very busy and I barely have any time to touch cars, let alone buy or work on new project. I also stopped following listings around the world, and that project has not been restored to this day. Frankly, it’s torture for me every time I see it for sale, and it’s a testament to how right I was about discover it, and how wrong I was to miss it. In the end I didn’t stay in the US to complete the CL 600’s restoration, and maybe never will.
The switch happened in January 2021 and I once again saw Persian Kitty listed. Its price is significantly lower than before, even lower than it was in 2018, maybe because COVID scared people. It had been a while since I’d seen a good deal and this really tempted me. My baby was now 6 months old and I was starting to settle in with the help of two nannies. I first asked my wife, there is a good deal, could I take it? My wife has put a lot into this home and she understands that the car will pull me away from home, and I don’t want her to feel that way, so I just ask. If she’s uncomfortable, I don’t have to keep thinking about it.
It wasn’t just the price that tempted me, but also its deteriorating condition. Things didn’t turn out the way I prayed for, compared to the 2018 status I saw the Persian Kitty being fitted with cheap AMG wheels, aftermarket walnut shifter and steering wheel, a reverse camera and some modern driver aids, even the key remote shell has also become an aftermarket product. I somewhat blame myself for the fact that buying the 1999 CL 600 proved unnecessary, I missed Persin Kitty because of that, which kept its health declining.
It was a winter evening, we driving home from outside with the kids. I told my wife this proposal in our Tesla, she didn’t say no. This is an indirect approval, meaning I can confirm with the seller whether the listing is still valid — and if so, I can confirm with my wife again. It was a good deal after all, I wasn’t sure it would wait for me. I called the seller the next morning and he confirmed the car and offered some discounts and a free set of AMG wheels — thank goodness he still kept the original steel wheels. I took it upon myself to agree to him, but I wasn’t sure about the purchase because the whole China was in the ongoing COVID lockdown and even the DMV had stopped operations, all transactions had to be made later. I just need some time to convince myself and pray that I don’t change my commitment when COVID is over.
I described the car to my wife: it was owned by a diplomatic agency, which means better condition than regular cars, it doesn’t require much investment of time or money. It has bulletproof velor seats, so we could put it actully in use without age the interior. The Persian Kitty has almost no luxury options, no sunroof, no power seats, no door assist, no problem. My fantasy is to travel with the kids in this car that has great fuel economy and we can go places together, it would be much more expensive with a V12. We were pretty sure we wanted this car, but the COVID lockdown dampened even my enthusiasm. Two months later, I still couldn’t board a flight to southern China. At this time, the seller called me and asked, “Is the situation better over there?”. Thank goodness he still kept the car for me, his city has restored order and he could have sold it to someone else. If the lockdown continues, I’m not sure I’ll still want a car, because the oppression of the authorities has affected all aspects of life, and hobbies are just the tip of the iceberg. Thank God, a few days later we were free too and we agreed on a time.
I invited a local friend, an automotive historian to accompany me — so I had a ride. After meeting at the airport, we went directly to the seller’s factory. He is a young entrepreneur engaged in the manufacturing of aluminum alloy doors and windows. We chatted for a while, he said that he had hoarded aluminum materials whose prices were at the bottom some time ago and now made some profit, but the factory lockdown was a huge blow, he volunteered to sell all the toys and give the money to his wife. He paid me some money up front and asked me to transfer that money, plus the car payment, to his wife’s account, so she wouldn’t know they were losing a lot of money on the car. I was lucky to get this deal, he, like many entrepreneurs, doesn’t know the ropes of these little deals – the Persian Kitty listing was even missing “Mercedes Benz”, I was the first to spot it, Maybe the only one.
While I don’t approve of his car modifications, he’s a good man. I saw the car in his parking lot, the steel wheels have been swapped back and I was pleasantly to find that the 2018 made tires are unused, he literly swapped them with AMG wheels right after the Acquisition. And interestingly, I discovered that he drives a blue Tesla Model X on a daily basis. Well, he had the blue 140 and Model X, and I had the white 140 and Model X, it was really fate.
First I checked the VIN, which confirmed how efficient my retrieval system was, and certainly matched all my guesses – this was the car I found in the database. I took a brief test drive and the car drove well and the gearbox was silky smooth, but the cold start idle was a bit rough and you could see the needle shaking. The seller says the car has reached technical perfection and he has driven it 5,000 kilometers since acquiring it without encountering any mechanical problems. Mileage is an interesting topic, in China, mileage tampering is as common as 711, and almost no 140 has actual mileage. Since the car probably just went to designated diplomatic vehicle service center rather than a Mercedes dealer, I didn’t find any service history. When I saw the odometer in person, it had less than 99,000 km on it, which of course is not true. I found the first car dealer who took over the Persian Kitty from the Iranian Consulate in Shanghai, who also dealt with me. He reluctantly squeezed out a number, “I can’t remember, maybe 140,000.” He didn’t want to offend his peers. Depend on my eyes, I judge the mileage of engine is over 250,000 at first sight.
I don’t have a lot of early information on this car. The data card shows it was ordered from Iran in 1997 and arrived in March 1998. As a diploma you can either bring your car into China or you can buy cars in China, Persian Kitty was brought from Iran. What is certain is that this vehicle last served the Iranian consulate in Shanghai, at least until 2016. As for before, I have an earlier photo of the 140 belonging to the Iranian ambassador in Beijing, can’t be sure they are the same one. The Iranian ambassador’s car had been switched to W 221 in 2006, so it may have been in Beijing from 1998 to 2006, and then went to Shanghai. By the way, in 1991-1998 Iran ordered a total of 190 S-classes, 88 of them had flagpoles, which means that many cars were used as diplomatic cars. There are a total of 40 cars with the same color and upholstery as the Persian Kitty, they are the S 280 and S 320 (140.033). I found one each in Ukraine and Hungary.
Before boarding I packed one part into my pocket: a flagpole cover, which Persian Kitty missing from its first listing on Christmas Eve 2018. I took this one from the 1997 S 280 of the Ethiopian Ambassador in Beijing. I saw it driving gracefully in 2015, unfortunately the second time I saw it was at a scrapyard. But I didn’t install it because the Persian Kitty wasn’t mine yet, something went wrong with the transaction. Buying an aging car in China is very complicated, I can’t register the car in the city where I live and almost all big cities don’t like to accept old cars. In order to register in the seller’s city, I had to obtain a temporary residence certificate by obtaining a work certificate, and the kind seller ordered his HR director to take me to the dorm to take pictures so that I could prove that I was working in this town. Then we went to take photos and obtain a temporary residence certificate, but the careless HR director ignored one fact: it takes 15 days from applying for the certificate to getting the certificate.
This meant that it would be 15 days before the transaction could continue and I had to do it all over again, which was a 3 hour flight one way. The seller was very apologetic and arranged a luxury hotel for me, but I decided to buy a return ticket immediately. I suddenly realized that I had never left my kids at night and I wanted to go home before they fell asleep. My wife ordered an exclusive E-class limousine to pick me up at the airport in order to get me home quickly, but to my annoyance the driver not only showed up on the wrong floor, but the first thing he did when he picked me up was refuel, come on, he’s been at work all day. It cost me twice the price and twice the time to get home, and by the time I got home the kids were already asleep.
Two weeks later I came to Foshan again, this ancient southern town famous for its martial arts. The transfer was scheduled for the next day, so I picked up the car at the seller’s factory and decided to drive it in the town — this town is really far away from us and I wasn’t sure when the next Persian Kitty would come. In the evening I went for a walk to look for some backgrounds to shoot with. I loved this old city’s novel neighborhoods and original features.
I remembered asking the seller about the original steering wheel and shifter, he said he didn’t trash them and would try to find in his office, also told me not to get my hopes up as they might have become moldy since it is very humid here. After a while he took the steering wheel downstairs, but couldn’t find the shifter, which was still better than nothing. I checked the condition of the steering wheel and it can continue to use, at least much better than an aftermarket steering wheel with incorrect shade. I declined the free AMG wheels offer, it is not 140 item thus I could never use it. If I shipped it back, the shipping cost wouldn’t be much less than what it’s worth, and I’m not willing to give it any storage space.
We checked out early the next morning from the hotel provided by the seller — as an apology, he paid for the hotel and gave another discount on the car price, but it couldn’t actually make up for my extra travel expenses. The costly same-day return ticket last time was my decision. There were three hiccups in the transfer. The first time, the DMV employee copied the wrong VIN, wasted some time. The second time, when they removed the license plate, they directly removed a piece of sheet metal from the trunk lid together with the plate rivet. The third time, half an hour before the lunch break, the public official responsible for issuing license number had already gone to rest. I was the only one left undecided and had to wait for two hours for her lunch break to end. She actually came back another 15 minutes late, you can’t complain about a public official. During the long wait I was wandering around the DMV and found an abandoned RHD Nissan President. Many elements of this car reminded me of a Jaguar XJ.
When it was all over, we had no time to celebrate. I installed the flag pole cover, drove rapidly to the location I selected yesterday to take some photos, and notified the tow truck to meet directly next to the shooting location. It’s also a ritual to document what it looked like when I first got it, you can see the S 55 AMG badge on the trunk lid, combined with the AMG wheels from before, which is obviously a vanity thing. The original S 280 badge has been lost which is a great shame, it has been on it for 23 years without being moved and would have been a great reference.
After nervously snapping a few photos, I threw away all the remaining belongings in the car next to a trash can, put the Persian Kitty in the trailer, and dashed to the airport to go home — I’d already been away from home for the day yesterday. I want to see the children soon.
Persian Kitty arrived a few days later. By coincidence, I had just put a restored blue W 123 on the trailer, and the blue W 140 arrived.