I once saw a comment on Instagram like this: “cars like mercedes shouldn’t ever be made, they are too over-engineered and will only cause unnecessary trouble.” As a Mercedes patron, after thinking about it for a moment, I was surprised to find that he was right. Mercedes is good, especially the S-Klasse. But do we really need everything about it?
My cars have a way of living: being completely restored, then used in limited ways, and kept in an environment that does not cause aging. In short, longer than my life. For me personally, driving is not the part I enjoy the most. But a car is a way of getting around, it is designed to be driven. We have also seen that all cars have problems, especially the S-Klasse. If you don’t take care of it, it loses all its functions, the “over-engineered” functions. So I often worry, how much people will worry about the problems of the S-Klasse and abandon them? Two months ago, this website celebrated its 2nd anniversary. Every anniversary, I would like to share something that cars bring to me, not just the car itself. I believe the greatest value of a car is the change it brings to its users, especially for me.
Products change users, which may sound sensational. Usually we think that users are above the products they can consume – since you can afford it, it can just be your toy. But, at least for me, this can be the other way around on the S-Klasse. Because the Mercedes S-Klasse is almost the finest product in its class (if modesty is unnecessary, then remove the almost), and its users are not necessarily the finest people in its class, I think maybe people will agree with this. So, I have never been disenchanted with the S-Klasse or any excellent product, there is a kind of industrial worship here. I am just an individual, and I can enjoy the products that so many excellent people have spent 10 years to create. What an honor it is.
During the anniversary month, I can’t help but think about what these cars have done for me. I always go back to the beginning and think about how it all came about and what we have done together. In particular, I want to talk about how the W140 has changed me over the years and what I have gained. As it happens, I am doing something related to Bianca this month, and I haven’t written anything about Bianca before, so this is a good opportunity to combine Bianca with my thoughts. Bianca is a Chinese-spec 1998 S 320, which I restored from 2019 to 2021 and is also my first complete restoration project. There is nothing really special about the car itself, but some seemingly ordinary specifications can also mean something special.
I grew up in a typical Chinese family. In childhood, I was no different from other children except for my crazy love for cars (specifically, the lack of opportunities to touch actual cars, only symbols such as toys and books). My parents got the first car in our family’s history in 2003, which was a success in our city at that time. I was very happy that my family had a car, although it was not what I longed for, a FAW-made Volkswagen Bora. At that time, we still lived in the old factory dormitory area, with thousands of households in the whole area, but only 5 permanent cars. Except for my family’s brand new private car, other families’ cars either belonged to their bosses, or were vans or small trucks used to make living. The bumpy roads in that community were full of sewage and garbage, and my parents had to park very carefully to avoid being scratched by jealous people with bicycles. I would say that at that time, a German family’s compact car was above all of us in civilization.
That was my earliest thought about the product overwhelm the environment. Imported products were not unfamiliar to us, since the 90s every family had Japanese color TVs and air conditioners, but their mediocre black or white shells did not seem to conflict with the run-down apartment. Until that silver compact Volkswagen appeared, I found that it seemed more refined than everything in our life. That headlight reflector, it looked more shiny than my grandmother’s most precious jewelry. And the birlliant silver paint, did we have any property with varnish in our home? Soon, a year later we moved, a new apartment. There, there were cars better than VW everywhere, as well as gardens, fountains, elevators, and security guards. My father is an architect, he finally designed his ideal home.
But soon, after 3 years, this VW was considered to be unable to keep up with our development. My parents were busy with business, and there was only one Volkswagen dealer in the whole city to provide service, and they often neglected maintenance. Gradually, cold starts began to become difficult. Its weak 1.6-liter engine and 5MT also did not like the steep ramp of the underground garage, where my mother was always trapped. So when Bora was 4 years old, my parents got Audi A4. A year later, BMW 5 Series. Fortunately, all the replacements after VW were replaced by newer cars, but my parents kept it until today. What I want to say is that I grew up in an era of rapid urban development in China. Not only me, but many of my classmates also entered private cars from the back seat of bicycles. After the restrictions on passport application were lifted in 2002, private travel abroad was no longer a dream. In this process, our living standards were “raised”. For the first time, we witnessed the transformation from chaos and dirtiness to order and neatness.
But at the same time, I also witnessed the difficulty of maintaining such “raise”. My parents’ cars always aged quickly, and after 3-4 years they looked like a car ready to be scrapped. Their mobile phones were replaced even faster, and they were updated at least once a year. Many things that were sought after not long ago are aging rapidly. After a period of time, the once brand new apartment is no longer the top community in the city. The security guards were young veterans who had turned into retired seniors, the fountains were no longer spraying water, the lawns were no longer being tended, and the flowers my grandma had placed on the balcony were stolen. I found that if people cannot keep rising, they will gradually fall along with their former heights. I don’t like this. My parents told me since I was a child that I should have an investment perspective and use money to buy things that maintain or increase their value. I bought many matchbox toy cars and maintained them properly, and some of them have appreciated hundreds of times. But I can’t stop everything around me from losing its class.
There are many reasons for this, and I will just explain it from the point I want to talk about today, which is standards. When something is new, it is easy to be considered nice because it is clean and tidy, even if it is just a cheap thing. It is designed and manufactured with such standard. But after a period of use, these things become worn and dirty, and are no longer related to nice. When it comes to cars, it may be just a consumer product in layman’s terms, and most cars are destined to be eliminated soon. But what about our real estate? It is regarded as an investment. But some apartments used to be the best, and then due to negligence in maintenance, they became almost the worst. This is not caused by changes in the structure or materials of the building itself, but people did not use them as they should. In these cases, users have a great responsibility, and people should maintain their own lifestyle instead of playing innocent.
Before I was 18 years old, in other words, before I met my first car Octavius, there was no word “standard” in my values. We are not only accustomed to positive changes, but also to negative side. I found that despite the rapid economic development, most beautiful cars were still parked on the dusty streets – some people proudly claimed that the always dirty streets were a source of solid asset investment and economic development. These cars were also added some disgusting aftermarket decoration by their owners. When I graduated from high school and started looking for W140 in the used car market, there were only tattered examples. People there looked at me like an old soldier teasing a virgin: “You want a trouble free 20-year-old car…what world are you living in?” Apparently, people believe that even the best cars are destined to become tattered, and this is not a problem for them. I often lamented how extravagant the people who buy these cars are, they can continue to destroy new cars after destroying some good ones.
I originally planned to get a cheap V12 like a ricer and transform it into a hot rod. But after getting the Octavius, I started a series of thoughts and finally decided to go against the trend of the majority – if people believe there is only one way, I will prove another. I started restoring and studying these underrated cars, and I wanted to prove that used cars can be very decent. Since then, the W140 has become a prominent part of my life, like that little silver Volkswagen, and has become the standard starting point for everything I do. There is no doubt that the S-Klasse crushes a teenager in all aspects. At first, we were incompatible. Can you imagine an 18-year-old standing next to a W140 and pretending that it was his car? The change started little by little, first restoring and correcting the car that was wrongly preserved. It took me a long time to properly understand this car and everything related to it, which took at least 4 years.
Then I started driving. To drive these once best cars is to put the product into the environment. Well, I soon found that most environments are not worthy of these cars. I have a clean car, but there is always dirt and sand on the road, it will make us dirty. Even when the car is stationary in the underground garage, the water vapor exhaled by the concrete floor will rust the new ball joint. So, how should we position ourselves? In my opinion, in order to keep this car in its inherent way, we must make changes. No more appearances on dirty roads, and by the way I bid farewell to food stalls and nightlife, all lifestyles that have nothing to do with what I think is an S-Klasse owner. Note that I think this car is designed by engineers for themselves, which sounds like a communist story. But if you know the history of W140, you will agree with this. So I will constrain myself with the lifestyle of an engineer who pursues beauty rather than a politician or businessman.
I don’t like any non-factory SA elements on the car, and my car friends are getting fewer and fewer due to pickyness. In the entire city of 15 million people, I am the only one who has a W140 for a long time and drives it daily. So if someone asks the image of W140 users here, it is our image. With this in mind, I will be more cautious – never allow any dirt to appear in the car while it is running, never allow any factors that harm the car to appear in the storage facility. Of course, never allow any traffic violations or morally inappropriate driving behavior. Since the W140 is my favorite, I have an obligation to defend its value. Even if, reaching the S-Klasse can only be an ideal, because we can’t do S-Klasse in everything. But it is a good goal, more worth striving for than anything I know.
I have no religious beliefs, but if you ask me where the Lord, the Bible and the church are, then they are in these cars. These cars remind me all the time what it means to be exquisite and the possibility of perfection, and I must improve myself for the sake of cars. It is a standard, a belief, and a constraint. This ever-present standard and discipline has become the foundation of my life today. At least when I am with these cars, I think twice before I act. As I spend more and more time with cars, I change more and more. I think my dressing style is influenced by these cars, simple but not arrogant. When I redecorate my apartment, I also personally design it in a style that I think suits these cars. Many times, I don’t need to look for answers from other people or things, just look at the car.
Speaking of Bianca, driving the Octavius ​​in the city made me realize that the shiny black paint didn’t like the messy reflections, and I wanted something that looked cleaner. I was looking for a white 1999 S 320 in the United States, but missed several good cars due to schedule. Finally, I found Bianca in my hometown and asked my friend to hand it over, and she became my first 6-cylinder W140. At that time, I was studying in the Automotive Restoration program of McPherson College and participated in the 7-year Pebble Beach project of the 1953 W188. Working on that 6-cylinder made me want to rebuild a 6-cylinder car. I made a restoration plan completely according to the methodology of restoring the W188 and purchased a lot of small parts.
However, I couldn’t do the restoration myself, it was placed in my workshop in China. I found that even if the answers were placed on the table, novices could not fill them in the right place because we didn’t have a standard yet. The employees fixed the new bolts randomly everywhere, and I always found and reworked them. In the end, the project took 2 years to complete, and there were regrets in places that were not easy to rework. Today, if you are a W140 expert, you will find our problems when you open the hood. Today, I still need to correct some details from time to time. I find it difficult to get the standard to penetrate people, which is understandable. The S-Klasse is too much for all of us, let alone the employees with less education. Therefore, we can only achieve S-Klasse when I work in the workshop frequently. I stopped working on cars for a while, and it should be said that the failure of Bianca’s restoration brought me back to cars.
Is there anything cleaner than white? When I wanted a white car, my idea was that it would be very white in the winter sun. Of course, if it is just aesthetics, then I admit that the S-Klasse does not suit white. So, although white still has a certain sales volume, the press photo does not even have a picture. After I have more colorful W140s, white has become a little dull, but I don’t regret it. I always keep Bianca clean, because only in white can you see absolute cleanliness. This cleanliness includes every screw on the fenders and suspension. Last month, Bianca had been parked in the garage for 10 months. I took the opportunity of renovating the garage to bring her to the workshop for inspection. The employees saw her and took photos and praised her. We also have a pearl black S 320 with 9966 kilometers in our workshop, but it does not have the charm of white.
My employees and I are like regular men. We like to compare cars to some women, and sometimes our conversations become pornographic. When they see Bianca, they will take back some pornographic and vulgar words in the past. I told them that this car, even if it is not a graceful girl of noble birth, at least a charming girl of humble birth. This car is so clean that she is like a pure and excellent woman, which will make the most playboy scumbag or rapist lose his evil thoughts and cry. “If I hadn’t fallen, maybe I would have a chance to marry such a girl.” My wife often says jealously that my car is cleaner than my face. But for Bianca, I tell her that this car is cleaner than my soul. She is so clean that even if she cannot cleanse other people’s souls, she can at least make others pale in comparison.
So when decorating the garage, or in my words, the bedroom of the cars, I always used Bianca as a model in my mind to see what style she would fit. I designed a simple and warm color scheme myself. Warm walls, wooden floors, plus some necessary decorations, it is actually similar to my bedroom. I set up a reception area at the edge of the garage, and Bianca was parked next to our table. I hope that when we sit on the chairs, our eyes will be attracted by Bianca’s absolutely clean fenders. Cleanliness is an invisible wealth. There are many good cars, but few are clean. This is a fairly clean and absolutely car-friendly environment. Gradually, the monetary value of the car and the surrounding atmosphere seem to be inverted. These spaces and scenes are also worthy of more valuable cars. After all, the square value of the W140 is only half of its parking space. However, its standard value is eternal. As long as you stick to it, this value will always exist.
“Cars like mercedes shouldn’t ever be made, they are too over-engineered and will only cause unnecessary trouble.” . After a moment of contemplation, I found that he was right. If we only immerse ourselves in textbooks, our worldview will be full of truth, and then we will cry when we face many mistakes in real life. However, no one says that we must follow the textbook or the Bible, or that the truth is right. Nobody is saint, only God knows how many mistakes we have made. So, people are free to choose the standards that suit them. I am just glad that I found mine by luck, and I constrained myself based on it, and gradually built everything around me. This is the most valuable part of these cars that have brought me.