I bid on this B180 Mercedes from the barber’s chair, successfully winning after a short war. What attracted me to the Benz was its modest mileage of 78K that had only averaged around 2K miles yearly since 2013 when it had covered the bulk of its miles at 60K. An automatic CVT as well seemed reasonable at under £2K. After delivery, the pristine interior made up for dings on the outside – it must have been valeted regularly and receipts stated that the B Class had been in the Leicestershire area. Unfortunately, no service history found this time but engine fluids had their distinctive colours that showed it had been regularly serviced. A Car Supermarket sticker on the back provided one lead and an email stated that it had been sold in 2013 with four service stamps in the book.
As can be seen, there had been an impact on the front with a kink in the bumper bar with a bend in the bonnet edge although happily, the grille with cracked three pointed star were found within the car. Technically, this should have been classed as a Category S car because of said bumper bar but it was sold as Category N. Bonnet bashing with a piece of wood and hammer bend back the top edge of where the grille would go with some shaping with a small vice – it’s not perfect but doesn’t justify a visit to the body shop to relieve me of hundreds of pounds. The B-Class is a quality car that has a spare wheel whose well was literally that – I still have to sponge up water that has collected there – from where?
Drive-wise, I couldn’t fault it with slick gearchanges despite an industrial sounding diesel. There was a slow puncture to the front offside that had pre-warned me by pressure sensing monitors. The AMG sports wheels are fine on a smooth road but jarring on a rutted one despite being in Comfort mode. £150 replaced both front tyres which were the wrong size to match the rears in brand as well.
A trip to the Cotswolds showed that the B-Class gave at least 50mpg and won a fan of my partner who was impressed with its interior space and seat comfort that slid back far enough for her to stretch her long legs fully.
This is a rarity as the Ypsilon’s massive badge is no longer sold in the UK although the engine comes from Ford with its ubiquitous 1242cc unit combined with a Fiat platform. Luckily for us, the spare key fob with complete service history including cambelt change was placed neatly with the car. Its handbrake had no resistance and as you can see, the driver’s wing had been swiped from the rubber smears by someone’s tyre. It had also knocked the offside front bumper off its clips so gaffer tape was placed to drive it home. Prior to bidding, I was certain that all tyres had been replaced as there had been advisories on the previous MOT with none this year and I was right !
At home, the bumper was removed to reveal broken headlight lugs which was no surprise with an offside bumper clip that was also unsurprisingly snapped. The Ypsilon is a rare car as are parts so fabricating supports for the stricken headlight with a nut and bolt put through the bumper and slam panel provided some headway. In fact, the only part that needed total replacement was the offside door mirror that was cracked – its housing had taken a smack in the impact but some epoxy glue bonded broken supports inside. That handbrake was tackled by removing the plastic surround to reveal two cables for each rear wheel. The 10mm nut that tensions was tightened to provide handbrake bite which it did although latterly, the MOT inspector failed it on an offside snapped brake cable and offside headlight aim. You can’t fix them all !
Words and photos are copyright of Sotiris Vassiliou
December 2022
