[v12]

The good part about buying an Embassy car (Various Embassy & Consulate Vehicles!) is that they are well maintained and have all the legal documents. The bad part is you pay almost twice the price of the car since you have to pay the customs duty before transferring ownership. And the hassles of converting an embassy car into a private one is too time and money consuming. This one seems to have been transferred going by the regular plates.

[agspins]

Originally Posted by GTO

Big thanks to Saurabh Saini for sharing!



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Aaah I remember this car very well, back in 2007-08, then car used to be parked inside the garage. This Place somewhere near Star Mall and IBM Building. Also there is Abandoned Airfield and hangers of Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari, it had couple of Junked Aircrafts (Cessna Skymaster and one more) also there were couple of Vans/Buses.

[v12]

Originally Posted by agspins

Aaah I remember this car very well, back in 2007-08, then car used to be parked inside the garage. This Place somewhere near Star Mall and IBM Building. Also there is Abandoned Airfield and hangers of Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari, it had couple of Junked Aircrafts (Cessna Skymaster and one more) also there were couple of Vans/Buses.

Found some pics here

Can see the Matador van in the background.

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by dipen

Many of the cars are during the import era when cars were not sold through official showrooms. The 4 Bangles were not fancied by buyers compared to the Blue-white and tri-star and hence hardly anyone bought and hence hardly any made it here.

True - Audi's were damn rare in India. Heck, the brand was nearly unheard of in the sea of BMWs and Mercs.

Some 20+ years ago we had a red Audi 100 import that we picked up pre-owned. Cost of maintenance was horrendous as people didn't have the expertise and parts were a pain to organize.
Towards the end of the ownership period, the car spent way more time in the garage than on the roads. Power Windows were packed up and had to be replaced with manual knobs, etc. Tail lamp got broken, getting it replaced took a long long time!

Eventually sold it, and got a 2001 Accord VTi.

Ever since then - we've just stuck to what was available in India.
Even if the buyer is willing to pay for maintenance as we did, it's just difficult to live with these cars before the officially set up shop.

IIRC - there was a silver Audi 80 that I used to see near Atria Mall a while back, but even that seems to have disappeared just like our Audi 100.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by lamborghini

Cost of maintenance was horrendous as people didn't have the expertise and parts were a pain to organize. Towards the end of the ownership period, the car spent way more time in the garage than on the roads. Power Windows were packed up and had to be replaced with manual knobs, etc. Tail lamp got broken, getting it replaced took a long long time!

So true. In the olden days, imports were just impossible to maintain. Dad's W111 spent a lot of time off the road because of lack of parts, hard-to-find labour expertise & the time required to keep it running. He used to ask my uncle to get wiper blades from Germany! Eventually, he got busy in business, gave up on the car and she sat in our garage for years before collapsing & being given off to a junkyard.

Ever since then - we've just stuck to what was available in India.

Absolutely no point buying any import now, considering the options available through official channels. You can even buy a muscle car (i.e. Mustang) with warranty & after-sales support.

[Fullrevs]

Originally Posted by GTO

So true. In the olden days, imports were just impossible to maintain. Dad's W111 spent a lot of time off the road because of lack of parts, hard-to-find labour expertise & the time required to keep it running. He used to ask my uncle to get wiper blades from Germany! Eventually, he got busy in business, gave up on the car and she sat in our garage for years before collapsing & being given off to a junkyard.

Same story with our LHD W123. One minor accident was the final nail in the coffin. My dad called his brother in Oman to get parts and got one famous mechanic in Coimbatore to get it all fixed. We got the car fixed after the accident and sold it off to a famous candy manufacturer back in the early 90s in chennai.

[SwapnilNalavade]

Found this Volvo V70 (Second Generation - I guess) gathering dust at Thakur Village, Kandivali East, Mumbai.

[v12]

Estate / Station-wagons (Suzuki Baleno Altura & the Indian "Real Estate" Market) are quite rare in India. There are a handful of the V70 Volvo Estates in India - they look good - very angular and very straightlined (not this one though).

If I am not wrong, the Embassy V70 (Various Embassy & Consulate Vehicles!) seems to have changed its color to white. It has a 740 GL Limo as company and just sitting gatheting dust.

[SwapnilNalavade]

Originally Posted by v12

... If I am not wrong, the Embassy V70 (Various Embassy & Consulate Vehicles!) seems to have changed its color to white. It has a 740 GL Limo as company and just sitting gatheting dust.

Seems highly unlikely, in all probability the Blue one is a First Generation V70.





Additional Info : The White One is wearing Delhi Plates (Blurred Out in my pic) & Missing the Front Grill (Not visible in my pic)

[v12]

Sorry I meant the 1st gen V70 could probably have had a white paint job now. Seen a white V70 with part of the roof still showing the dark blue paint.

The white one you have spotted could be this car.

[SwapnilNalavade]

Originally Posted by v12

..The white one you have spotted could be this car.

This does look like the same vehicle. Seems like a classic case of the below

Originally Posted by GTO

Owner with more money than time = abandoned car.
Owner with more time than money = abandoned car.

Few people have both (time + money).

[ajmat]

Saw this on Facebook

Mercedes Benz SEL380 1985 model for sale
V8 petrol engine
Not in running condition
All documents clear 1st owner

[v12]

Sad to see a W126 on this thread. It's surprising that a single owner car landed up in such a state. I would expect the owner would be passionate about cars / Mercs of this generation to keep it until such a long time. But probably he went for a newer Merc and kept neglecting the 126.

Sad indeed! R.I.P car!

[ajmat]

True

It is beyond hope. It has sunk into the ground. At the most, it is a parts car

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by ajmat

True

It is beyond hope. It has sunk into the ground. At the most, it is a parts car

Indeed. It has to be dug out from its grave and rebuilt almost from scratch like a new car. Hardly anything can be salvaged from that heap.