Always up for a bargain his ears pricked up when the local main dealer Rose and Young in Caterham called up to say that they had a cancelled order for 6 cars originally destined for Kenya
They were all 280S cars, pretty basic spec, vinyl interior,manual transmission no electric windows but fitted with air con and stronger suspension.
Dad chose the smartest one a dark blue model and arrived home with it to much excitement.
I was 13 at the time.
Dads first outing was eventful as trying to fill it up at the petrol station he couldn't locate the fuel filler.
Everyone he asked couldn't find it either and it was only a chance passing taxi driver who said that the filler was behind the rear number plate.
The car went on to take us on several European road trip holidays and family trips away at weekends.
I got to drive it when I was older and as a special treat take girlfriends out in it but by 1987 with about 45000 miles on the clock dad decided to sell to make way for a smaller more economical car
Some 25 years later I was able to track the car down by a chance posting on a Mercedes forum to the person who had bought the car from dad all those years ago.
Derek Wells is an independent Mercedes specialist, he had sold and bought back Otto ( as he had christened her/ him) several times but now she was sat in a barn looking rather sorry.
Derek wasn't a seller normally but agreed to sell her back to us and also gave us a fixed price deal on the refurbishment and restoration necessary.
That took 18 months or so and we finally got Otto back in January.
It's great to relive the memories, see dads name and signatures in the log book and take him out for the odd spin.
My parents will be using the car over the summer, it was always mums favorite car.
Today just after washing Otto:
The drivers view:
.
