Tiki and I went to Pak Lok (our Mercedes specialist) Garage around 11am to look at the Mercedes C36. Boy, it was dirty after sitting for six months in a resident at Shek O. It had no license nor insurance. At our own risk, we took it out for a brief test drive and fueled it with $200 worth of Caltex Gold. The fuel level was extreme low.
The C36 actually felt fine and didn't feel like a 11-year old grandpa. It was more like a 8-year old uncle. The engine idled smoothly and had plenty of low-rev grunt. Gear change at sports mode was very snappy and reasonably smooth in econ mode. Ride quality was much higher than I expected. Pak Lok told me that the shocks and the suspension bushes were recently replaced. Engine temperature was stabilized at 90 degree Celsius which was a sweet surprise even though the ambient temperature was about 20 degree Celsius. The air conditioner worked very well.
Aside from the sagging roof lining, all the interior and the leather were in good condition showing negligible sign of wear. Tiki said the interior in general was better than that of the 2-year younger C200. Personally I like the light grey/wood insert color scheme in the C200 than the all black interior in C36. But there was no choice. All C36s came in with black interior, as far as I knew.
The ambient temperature display inside the dashboard was not working. The front lamp height adjustment did not work either and also pointed at the lowest angle.
The decision was made, after searching for more than six months. I wish I could find myself a late model C36 with 5-speed transmission, which was available in UK and USA, but not in Hong Kong. There were two 1997 C36 but I was told they had only 4-speed transmission. So I decided that I should go with the best C36 I could find, rather than one that meet all my requirements.
And in the afternoon I confirmed to Pak Lok for the trade-in of my C200 with the C36. Within a week after Pak Lok had performed the interior treatment I would be the proud owner of this silver C36.
