According to the most commonly understood history, Mercedes-Benz did not produce an estate car until the 1978 W123, of which the 280TE version remains a personal favourite of mine. Certainly, that’s what I thought. But, then I saw this – a 1966 Mercedes-Benz 230S Universal estate car, based on the W110 Fintail (or Heckflosse) saloon – surely the earliest Mercedes-Benz estate in the UK?
The Fintail was introduced in 1961, as the 190c and 190Dc with a 1.9 litre petrol or 2.0 litre diesel engines and were essentially W111 Fintail saloons with a 6” shorter nose to take the four cylinder engine and with a simpler, less luxurious interior. A key visual indicator of the W110 was the simple single headlamp front, rather than the distinctive twin stacked headlamp of the W111.
There were revisions in 1965, to offer the 200 and 200D with a 2.0 litre petrol and modified 2.0 litre diesel engines, and also to offer a 230 with a 2.3 litre six cylinder petrol engine
The estate car, known as the Universal or Kombi, was converted by the Belgian company IMA (Société Anonyme pour l’Importation de Moteurs et d’Automobiles, the Company for Importing Engines and Automobiles), who were an established assembler of Mercedes saloons for the European market. As the European Common Market (now European Union) grew and tariffs came down, such assembly became an unnecessary complication for Daimler-Benz.
IMA built a significant number of cars for Mercedes-Benz, assembling over 75000 cars in the 1960s, including long wheelbase limousine, ambulance and hearse conversions.
Photo from www.heckflosse.nl
Mercedes shipped a stripped saloon to Belgium, without a roof, but with self leveling suspension and larger 15” wheels. IMA then build up the estate bodywork on this base. The resulting car was the same length as the saloon, though a little taller and 200lb heavier. The rear lights were trimmed to an almost petite and delicate shape as well. The characterful and really rather wonderful dash was retained in full, even if the vertical speedometer was not a great success.
From 1965, the car adopted the revised front styling of the second series of Heckflosse with repositioned indicators.
Such a process for creating an estate car was not unusual in Europe at this time – both Ford and Vauxhall worked in very similar ways on cars like the Zephyr/Zodiac, Cresta and early Victors for example. Of course, by 1968, the Volvo 145 and Peugeot 504 estates had taken the art to the next level, although Citroen had been there for some time, with the immortal DS Safari.
Photo from www.heckflosse.nl
IMA also produced a Heckflosse Benelux – effectively a van version of the Universal – and also a few examples as pickups, possibly for the Australian market.
Roger,
A neat find…I think most of these earlier Mercedes wagons/estates are beat or rusted to nothingness.
As to earliest wagon, Binz states that they converted the earlier ponton-series cars. There is a picture on their Web site: http://www.binz.com/en/infos/history.html
I can’t tell whether the ponton in that picture is to be classified as “wagon” or “ambulance.” Either way, it doesn’t affect the probability that the one you’ve shown us is the earliest MB estate in the UK.
Also, I can’t believe this…the Adenauer wagon is absurd, in a good kind of way. No, I’m not getting much done today…
That…is amazing. Reminds me of a steel version of some of the classic woody wagons, but also with that unmistakable 300 style.
mercedes themselves used a similar car to carry test equipment in Stuttgart.
The German Buick Roadmaster estate. Very impressive.
Well, it seems more interesting than my Friday in the office…..
Yes, I’m aware of the Mercedes-Binz pontoon conversions. I assume that their target market was ambulances, as there really wasn’t any market for expensive estate/wagons at the time. Wagons were seen as vehicles for tradesmen, and the Mercedes-Binz was too expensive.
Theoretically, a few could have gone to very wealthy folks as an oddity…for their estate.
Never seen that Adenauer…wild.
Some years back I saw, for a couple of years, a pontoon-generation station wagon in San Diego. I think it was either a 190b or a 190Db, but it was that generation, and it was left-hand drive. Quite a startling thing to see, and it was in rather nice condition, I recall. Too bad I never got a picture of it.
Before the Range Rover, the Citroen DS Safari (English assembled DS Break) become “the” car to have on the large estates of the landed gentry. There simply wasn’t a more stylish vehicle to ferry the guests around, a station wagon in its truest sense, to and from the manor house.
I’ve always been intrigued by an establishing shot of the Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Bond is in Switzerland, and in a brief establishing shot of Bern, there’s a 230S station wagon seen. It’s not an IMA, as the rake of the C-pillar is much faster on this one. Banking, Switzerland, and a Mercedes wagon.
Sorry but that picture was taken in Portugal….You see the black and green cab on the left and the licence plate from the w111 is Portuguese!
Miguel,
Yes, this is a wagon probably made in Portugal. Any idea who the coachbuilder is?
Anyone?
I have a 1963 190b Binz Station Wagon, A 1965 Binz 1965 190c Binz Station Wagon with Right Drive, and a 1967 230S Universal that has been rebodied on to a 1961 220Seb chassis.
Bob G.
Reminds my of my beloved Peugeot 404 wagon. The wood floor with vinyl rub strips in the back is identical to the one the Peugeot.
Certainly Citroen, Peugeot and France set European estate car standards for many years, and as Paul implies, the Universal could be seen as Mercedes’s attempt to keep up with the French
There’s no way I could express how much I want this car, apart from that one.
I wonder why IMA chose to rebuild the C-pillar – do the sedan ones taper inward more than is apparent in the photo of the stripped car?
IMA went very thorough, I don’t know how many of those pillars were original. There’s always problems with wagon conversions of sedans, as there are so many curvatures. If you look at the chassis, you can see that there’s a double curvature to the roof section. And if you don’t want the roof to dip or made as an extension with seams and with a different curvature, you really need a whole new roof all the way from front to rear. As you would need to cut into it in the middle of the roof where the curvature begins anyway.
So, they did a whole new roof. And as the C-pillars tapered in more than one direction, I just think it was simpler for them to redo it from the ground up and make it look right. It also makes for those slim pillars with much glass area. All in all, a very good conversion, in my eyes. I don’t know if MB had done it any better if they had done it themselves.
Also, I think it’s cute they did a special rear light just for that model. That should’ve cost, in those days. On the other hand, the rear light was shared with their ambulance conversions, so the cost should’ve been amortized on a slightly larger scale. I still think it’s highly unusual for a third party converter to make their own rear lights.
I just loved this generation of Mercedes-Benz. The cars were just so well made, with beautiful materials used everywhere. Even after many years of use, the interiors of these cars would look good. The bodies were built very robustly, too. Having an estate version makes it even better!
A couple years ago I found a Ponton Binz ‘Benz near me when of course , i was leaving town the exact moment I found it .
I would have bought it regardless as it was affordable (under $4K) but it was gone by the time I returned in two weeks =8-( .
FWIW , the ” Benelux ” isn’t a Van , it’s a Sedan Delivery , Vans are light truck based .
This ’66 230 looks _FABULOUS_ ! did if come from Africa or the U.K. ? .
Pops bought a Peugeot 404 Family Salon (with the rear facing seat) in France in 1967 , what a splendid car it was too .
-Nate
The Universal was British registered in 1966.
Confusingly, an estate car based “van” is known as a van in the e UK. A light truck based van, such as a larger Transit or Sprinter, is known as a “van” also 😉
I can’t help but think that, in the first photo, this wagon looks right at home doing what it was meant to do.
I enjoy seeing old things, including old buildings, used as they were originally intended.
Great find Roger! One thing that always impressed me about these is that the rear taillights are unique to the model, but still look ‘factory’.
A quick search threw up some 170 vans and wagons, and this delicious artwork.
That is a great find. The conversion looks looks like it rolled off the regular production Mercedes assembly line. The fin cars sure made a great looking wagon. And the 404 Wagon Paul had is another model that sure looks good.
The “stripped” saloon isn’t so much stripped, as it isn’t yet assembled. It’s Mercedes own version of the commercial chassis, like Cadillac used for their third party converters, making limousines, ambulances and hearses of them. It’s essentially a body-in-white with wheels fitted.
I don’t know if any electrics were fitted, they were probably sent along in crates. With any other sort of extra body stampings sent with it on special order. I guess a converter could special order any bits and pieces they wanted from the bodyshop. And if IMA even assembled cars from CKD:s, it’s probable the chassis came from their own assembly line. The point is, it isn’t stripped so much as it is a chassis taken from the assembly line before being further assembled. And then refitted with other parts.
I only have the numbers in my head, but I remember about 2000 of those wagons were made. And they were made quite late in production, ’66 and ’67. Just a couple of years before the fintail was replaced by the stricht acht. After the mid-cycle refresh of the fintail, and with the new S-class W108, those upper market cars were really in between. The 230 with the shorter front and the 230S with the longer front could be seen as a precursor to the later E-class. And the 230S was decontended vis a vis the 220SE. No fuel injection, less trim, and less prestige. A curious middle child indeed…
And the holy grail of those IMA:s is of course (at least to me) the 230S Universal, with the longer front. I always thought the longer front was more good looking, it’s simply more estethically pleasing. The shorter front looks truncated, like the car just suddenly hit a wall. IMA started the production of the lesser models to be converted, and only in the end made those 230:s, just in time for the model to be replaced. The IMA 230S Universal is just one of those unicorns and holy grails for me.
Barnfind, ratrod 230S. Notice the longer front end, this even with US-spec headlights.
I think we’re in the realm of definitions here because I think the statement that the W123 wagons were the first wagons “produced by Mercedes” is technically correct if by “produced by Mercedes” you mean built entirely in a Daimler Benz factory without the assistance of an outside coachbuilder.
It’s funny that you should mention the 280 TE because buying an ’85 280 TE led to the worst and most immediate case of buyer’s remorse I have ever had. This was a grey market vehicle as gasser W123 wagons were never officially sold in the US — but that was not in and of itself the issue. I was excited to get a unique vehicle for seemingly little money but it turned out to have been horribly misrepresented by a 100% feedback eBay seller whose previous feedback almost all said his cars were better than expected. All of the expensive stuff was broken — the rear suspension, the cruise control, the climate control, you name it. And the mileage was misrepresented because he failed to mention the odometer worked only about every third day. I thought about fixing it up, got a complete estimate, but then I realized that even with all systems in perfect working order I wasn’t going to enjoy driving it as much as the alleged;y unsophisticated ’93 Olds Cutlass Cruiser wagon I owned at the same time. The Olds was quieter, roomier, easier to get in and out of, more comfortable, carried more cargo and got MUCH better gas mileage. Maybe the M-B would have had the handling advantage wirh the rear suspension fixed but this was a daily driver not a race car!
The story of the Mercedes commercial chassis is interesting enough to reward its own article. I just don’t know enough to write anything about them. And I don’t know if there’s even much written out there? Is there anybody that could shed a light on this?
But this is how the commercial chassis looked like in the 80’s, based on the W124. There were several different versions, longer, shorter, and they also differed if they were going to a limousine converter or an ambulance converter.
This is the chassis for making ambulances. The curious rear door is there to give the converter different options on side doors. The door as is, is mounted to the b-pillar. It could also be shifted rearward with that cutout, if they wanted it further back. Probably necessitating a new pillar to hold it in its new position. Most versions I saw used an elongated door filling the entire space. I don’t know if they had separate stampings for that, or if it was up to the converter to cut and paste.
And the finished result usually looked something like this:
So this is the basis for the Popemobile-like Mercedes ambulances that I saw in Sweden. I spent quite a bit of time looking at them in the streets in Stockholm wondering how they were constructed. People probably were wondering why I was staring so closely at a vehicle that is as common to them as a Ford van-based ambulance is to an American.
Yes, as they look exactly the same as the German ambulances, I would say they were probably imported to Sweden from Germany. Which company makes those, I don’t know.
The Swedish ambulances based on Volvos are mostly (all of them?) made locally by Swedish contractors. Mostly, if not all of them, made by Nilsson Special Vehicles, formerly Yngve Nilsson Karosseri, that I have written about in earlier posts.
You can do it, Ingvar. There’s plenty of pics online and I imagine much info as well. Its just a matter of piecing it all together. You might also find MB Heritage and Binz themselves could supply info.
You could start at Binz.com
Thanks for the confidence! Now, there’s a warm thought. I’ll see what I can dig up on it…
I suspect quite a few of the CC crew owned, perhaps still own, a Fintail Binz wagon. I’m speaking of the Matchbox ambulance, though I couldn’t find mine in my box of 50 year old toy cars. As a kid I never quite understood why that Benz was called a Binz. Now I get it. And Paul, I also have a dark blue Dinky 404 “Break”.
In Argentina we had a station wagon based on the 170 SD that was assembled from SKD kits in the González Catán plant. This, by the way, was Mercedes Benz first plant outside of Germany.
From 1951 to 1956 sedans, station wagons, and pick ups left the plant to modernize the aging fleet of cars in Argentina. And they were very appreciated by their owners.
Since most of them were painted black, they were labeled “hormiga negra” (black ant) due to their reliability and economy since they were diesel.
My favourite Mercedes-Benz are the Heckflosse, the Stroke 8, and the W123. It’s too bad that Mercedes-Benz didn’t offer an estate here in the USA.
Nice estate wagon, was for sale on ebay UK a while back.
@ Jason:
Not entirely true.
Even though just built under license, the Universal was offered by US dealers in 1967. The /8 was only converted by Miesen and Binz, so you had to buy a car and then send it to them for conversion. The 123 was offered starting in 1977 as a wagon.
I have 4 of these Universals and I am in the process of restoring them all.
Anyone need help?
Get in contact with me.
Chris
mbz600@yahoo.de
Hi Chris,
What could be a fair price to buy one that needs to be restored. We are talking of a W111 220seb Petrol injection six cilindre year 1966?
Br,
Jo
This is my Universal 190D -65
I use the car almost every day.
Oooohhhhhh .
AHhhhhhh.
Stop that , I can’t afford one if I could find a decent one to buy .
-Nate
(on a Road Trip in my European Spec. 1984 Mercedes 300TD 7 passenger wagon , fully optioned right now)
I have a Fintail Universal to sell. Portuguese plates. If interess, please email me: pmpe@portugalmail.pt
Hallo, Kent,
Your Universal 190 D from 1965 is wonderful – and the first one I saw with sliding sunroof! Is ist original or transformed?
I am asking because I am restoring a W110 Universal and I am thinking about replacing the (totally rusted) roof by a new one – with sunroof…
Best regards
Harald – from Bavaria (sorry for my little english…)
where in Kent. Wouldnt mind a quick glance. See my comment about my Binz 190-b just posted.
Good luck with your restoration Harold! I am currently restoring a RHD 1966 230 Universal Auto- when it’s finished it will be resprayed to the original titanium grey. I know the owner of the green Universal, incidentally I like the colour but it was originally dark blue. So far I’ve established there could be around four 230 Universals, and perhaps the same number of 230s in the UK- but if anyone knows more please get in touch!
@ Martin,
I have a list of cars I “discovered” over the years and there definitely more 230 and 230S RHD estates left in the UK than what you stated.
I have one each and so does my brother, but we are both in the US – California.
Thanks for the message Chris. I’d be really interested in knowing more about the list, as I’m planning to create a Universal website to document these car’s history and allow owners to keep in touch. I’d love to see some pics of your cars, funnily enough my brother has just found a very original 67′ 230s 7-seater Universal here in Cornwall, so who knows we may soon have two in the family like you!
You can email me direct at contact@nixondesign.com
@ Martin,
I just sent you a private email.
Chris
Hello all,
I am trying to find out more information about this subject since i i trying to buy a Mercedes W111 seb 220 se , Petrol six cilinders with injection pump, and i can not find any info on it. Most of people talk about the 230 Wagon. the car is from 1966?
Is there many of them available for sale? what kind of price? the one i am looking at needs to be restored?
BR,
Jo
I have a Fintail Universal to sell. PORTUGUESE plates. If interess, please email me: pmpe@portugalmail.pt
Was once the proud owner of a 1962 Binz estate 190-b high roof line version, and 19″ wheels. Being one of just nine imported into the UK. Very similar style to the ambulance version as in a James Bond movie. After 200,000 miles I entrusted its full overhaul to an ‘expert’ in Knightsbridge who bodged it causing me to sell it to my greatest regrets. Would be most interested in rare possibility of a replacement
Here’s an update on my ’66 RHD 230 Universal. The body is completed- just need to tackle the wiring, engine and running gear, and finally refit the original interior…
Does anybody have precise working drawings for the Mercedes Fintail Universal?