The W202 (late ’90s) Mercedes C-Class is one of my favorite cars of all time. They’re not particularly rare or special, I just love the look and size. I could definitely afford one, but, despite my admiration of the design I probably won’t pick one up. Ever feel that way about a car?
This prompt is brought to you by the rabbit hole I went down looking at old C-Classes. The car in the picture above isn’t a regular one, which you could probably tell by looking at the steamroller wheels it’s sitting on. That’s a 1997 Mercedes-Benz S202 (W202 wagon) with a Wald Exclusive Line treatment hanging out with an A-Star helicopter.
Wald International was (and still is) a Japanese tuner known for doing exterior decorations on high-end European cars. The company’s catalog is pretty deep. The kit you’re looking at on this C is officially listed as discontinued but it looks like a German outfit called Goeckel sells something pretty damn similar if you’ve got one of these cars and are suddenly inspired to start modding it.
Whew, sorry for the tangent, back to the W202 and why I want one but not really – reality is, I could afford to buy one but to justify maintaining it I’d really need a job for it to do. Right now my 300ZX is my grand tourer, my Montero is my overlander, and my Scout is my beach cruiser… a C-Class of this vintage could make a nice daily driver if I needed one, but, I don’t. And even if I did, I’d probably be tempted by something with fresher safety and convenience features than something from two decades ago.
Maybe some day I’ll strike it so rich that I can spend $5,000 on a car just to park it and look at it. Until then, I’ll just collect nice pictures of W202s and admire them from a far. So with that I’ve actually got two prompts for you:
Anybody got a great W202 photo? And are there any cars you really like but won’t buy because reasons? Let’s chat in the comments!
