Mercedes spent $3 million and nearly a decade restoring this limo and now nobody wants it
- Mercedes invested $3.2 million and seven years in a restoration
- It breathed life into a 1975 600 Pullman limo
- Sadly, it remains unsold since it was first listed in 2020
Published on Oct 29, 2024 at 8:28 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Oct 30, 2024 at 4:13 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Mercedes invested $3.2 million and seven years in the restoration of a 1975 600 Pullman limo.
It was to breathe life into an outdated limo.
The brand also wanted to bring the classic up to contemporary standards.
Sadly, however, now nobody seems to want it.
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The Mercedes-Benz limo
The restoration aimed to make the limo look like a classic from the outside but perform like a modern Maybach.
The Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman was a favorite of the wealthy of the mid-1970s.
This anthracite gray metallic and blue leather example was made on the German production line.
It boasted self-leveling suspension and hydraulic windows and was delivered to Lebanon in 1975.
It was in Malaga, Spain, that Mercedes-Benz Classic bought it in 2007 repainted in ‘Mother of Pearl White’.
Mercedes built just 2,677 units of the 600 luxury sedan – internally known as the W100 – with a short or long wheelbase and four or six doors.
Only 304 of them were hand-built Pullmans and 59 had the ‘Landaulet’ tag.
The restoration project
Daimler AG shipped to Mercedes-Benz Classic in Fellbach, Germany.
There the seemingly classic luxury sedan was donated some unexpected and expensive contemporary features.
It’s not cheap to procure parts for a car that’s so rare and has been out of production for decades.
The owner’s brief was comfort using what the modern stretched Maybach 62 offers.
The car now features an electro-transparent panoramic glass roof, shifting from clear to opaque at the touch of a button.
Plus Maybach analog gauges from the 62 sedan provide speed, time, and exterior temperature info.
In the cabin, a button controls a power glass partition for privacy en route.
The red-garnet leather seats are also borrowed from a 62 complete with electric adjustment, heating, and cooling with automatic and ambient lighting.
While spacious, it’s nowhere near the size of this 10-seater V8 Dodge Viper limo.
To raise the comfort to private-jet heights, a refrigerator accompany folding tables, and built-in nav on a sliding LCD TV screen integrated into the center wall.
A Dolby surround audio system with Bluetooth connectivity means you won’t skip a beat.
The pleated-linen curtains, white-rimmed steering wheel, instrument panel, and the Becker Grand Prix AM/FM radio in the dashboard, remain – in addition to intercom.
The owner also resisted the urge to soup up the engine too much.
Instead, the original 6.3-liter single-overhead cam V8 engine was rebuilt, with its four-speed automatic transmission sending 247HP through the rear wheels.
At the time of the listing in 2020, post-engine rebuild, the car came with only 691 miles (1,112 kilometers) on the clock.
In a less elegant conversion, this Learjet was converted into a limo that cost $1m to build.
This car just can’t seem to sell
What’s not to love? Well despite entering the luxury used car market at well below its remake cost at $2.32 million, it never sold.
The dealership from Alkmaar, Amsterdam, can arrange shipping worldwide.
The car went unsold in 2020 when it was originally listed – and has been relisted several times.
It was previously offered for roughly $2 million (€1,844,500).
That’s been cut to $1.6 million (€1.5 million), which doesn’t cover half the cost of the restoration cost.
Even though it’s a bargain, it looks like the 1975 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman is going to just sit there, on the website of the German dealer for a while.
In an example that didn’t fare as well, these YouTubers had to get a rare 1963 Chrysler New Yorker limousine running in a matter of days.
All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
