Sometime in mid 2022,
Aakash8300 and I began the hunt to find him his next car.
The requirements & conditions, while not too many, were as follows -
- A V8 with no constraints on body-style.
OR - A V6/i6, but only in a coupe or convertible guise.
OR - A 4-pot convertible.
Cars in immediate contention, fitting into the aforementioned categories were the Lexus LS400, the Lexus SC430, Mazda Miata, R170/R171 SLK, C207/A207 E350, A209 CLK350, E36/8 Z3 etc.
A few others which did not really fit the above categories, but were considered due to sentimental value, like the W210 for example, which Aakash8300's grandfather owned back in the day.
One of the first cars which Aakash8300 went into advanced stages of negotiation was a lovely bottle green Lexus LS400. He flew down to Jaipur with another friend to go see the car, negotiated the price and delivery terms. But like is the case with a lot of imports from the era, paperwork turned out to be somewhat dodgy and that proved to be a deal-breaker.
Amongst all the cars that came by, this is probably the one that Aakash8300 regrets letting go off, the most.
The famous Lexus LS400 cluster was working almost flawlessly too!
We looked at a bunch of other prospects, but none really materialized.
A few weeks passed by, we had spread the word around to the dealers around and rightly so, one of them reached out with a seemingly clean R171 SLK200 Kompressor. The pricing for this one, however, was a bit on the higher side than the budget on hand. Nevertheless, with hope of haggling down on the price et al, we took the SLK for a check-up and took a few test drives as well. Alas, the seller did not budge on the price as much as we'd hoped for and this SLK had to be passed up as well.
It seemed we had hit a roadblock, with no decent car coming up our way. Just then a friend from Pune put up his beautiful, immaculate BMW F13 650i for sale. We called him up and expressed our interest in the car. Even before we could plan to drive down to Pune to see the car, it was snapped up, all in under 24 hours of being posted online.
We had looked at a couple of C207 E350s which were offered by a few dealers but the ratio of asking pricing vs condition/work required on the car did not really seem sensible. At the same time, a friend here in Bombay put up his C207 E350 on the block.
Aakash8300 to have a look at this one as well. The car, albeit a high run one, had been in long term ownership and most issues on the car were known. Like they say, a known devil is better than the unknown!
Since we already knew the owner well, he offered that Aakash8300 keep the car for a few days, experience the car properly, before he could close in on the deal.
The butter smooth V6 motor coupled with the sleek body of the C207 seemed like a match made in heaven - and it looked like we had finally found the car we were looking for!
The C207 stayed with us for quite a while, and we drove it to car meets, drives and even took some pictures with its grandad - the C124 300CE!
As luck would have it, Aakash8300 and the owner could not conclude on pricing and payment terms and thus, the beautiful C207 too was returned to our friend, who continued to use it as his daily.
We kept the hunt alive, widening our horizons a bit more, geographically atleast.
One day, I chanced upon a sale post of a black R170 SLK230 Kompressor on Facebook Marketplace and shared it with Aakash8300. He had simultaneously received the TeamBHP Classifieds link to the same car from another friend. We contacted the seller, based in Ahmedabad, who immediately sent us pictures and other details.
Aakash8300 then discussed the specifics with him. Meanwhile, I got in touch with my mechanic, who had worked on my Toyota TownAce, soon after I had purchased it in Ahmedabad. In a rather lovely turn of events, he told us he had worked on the SLK in the recent past and shared many details pertaining the car and its history. With the car vetted by someone known, knowledgeable and trustworthy, it helped us gain some more confidence in the car.
A couple of weeks passed after the initial conversation with the seller, when we finally decided to head to Ahmedabad to check the car out in person.
We initially planned to drive down in Aakash8300's W204 C200 Kompressor but then realized we would end up driving back in two separate cars, should we end up buying the SLK. So, we decided to look at other options to head to Ahmedabad.
Akasa Air fares on the BOM-AMD route made it pointless to check any other means of transport - we got 2 tickets with a meal included - all for Rs. 3000! While the flight experience was very sub-par, the flight fare does not really leave any scope for complaints.
After months of hunting for the right car, on the 12th of March 2023, Aakash8300 and I took a 5:40 AM flight out to Ahmedabad to see the SLK230 Kompressor.
![The Kompressor Konnoisseur | Getting home the Mercedes SLK!-whatsapp-image-20230329-18.28.00.jpeg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/super-cars-imports-india/2434850d1687234153t-kompressor-konnoisseur-getting-home-mercedes-slk-whatsapp-image-20230329-18.28.00.jpeg)