It might be a bit of a surprise to readers from the USA and other parts of the world, but sleepy little Vancouver, B.C. has become one the wealthiest cities on the planet. It’s like a five star resort that hardly anyone knows about, and is full of the Rich and Famous hiding out. What better symbol of Vancouver than a Mercedes-Benz SL beater being used to haul furniture?
CC Outake: A Vancouver Beater
– Posted on May 18, 2014
That Merc’s trunk lid liner looks like a piece of cardboard. The slip sheet on the roof is a clever idea, but a blanket would offer more protection. Where I grew up in Central New York luxury cars were somewhat commonly seen as everyday cargo haulers. Several 80s-90s Mercs were seen towing a trailer, hauling farm supplies, or whatever random items the owner could think of. 80s-90s BMWs were less commonly seen hauling cargo, but I did see a circa 2000 3-Series with a homemade roof rack the length of the car and a few 318TIs hauling veggies, feed, or lumber. A 5-Series with a roof rack full of Jerry Cans is a sight to see. Eventually Caddies and Chryslers just become Chevies and Plymouths with more electrical issues so seeing them as a work vehicle was also fairly common. Maybe I will buy an Escalade ESV or EXT someday and use it like a truck.
I wonder what is happening to the poor and middle class with Vancouver becoming so expensive? I hear it is one of the few places in Canada where the weather is not so hard on the homeless.
The middle class has been run out of Vancouver. There is no way a mere mortal could pay the prices for housing that exist in Vancouver. The entire real estate bubble here is caused by Mainland Chinese money. All the politicians, especially our “socialist” city government, are cleaning up and there are no limits to campaign spending in Vancouver. Once the bubble pops in Beijing, so will the one in Vancouver, regardless of what the pols say.
Pols? As in Polish Folk? Or polls?
Thanks for the info. I have never experienced being priced out of where I grew up that would be an alien feeling for me.
I’m pretty sure Canucknucklehead meant politicians. We have some pretty loopy folks running things here, but that’s far from unique.
This change started when the ex-pat Hong Kong residents began to purchase safe haven citizenship in late 1996. It surprises no Canadian.
It has become enormously worse since 2008, when Vancouver’s “socialist” ruling party got into power. They are now in the process of running all the working people out so they can sell condos to rich foreigners. Ka-Ching! Another $500 a plate lunch, sold out 2000 seats and they do FOUR a year! Invitation only!
Don’t forget converting city streets into bike only lanes, brought to you by Mayor Moonbeam!
He is beholden to the Tides Foundation for a chunk of his war chest, so we get bike lanes in a really hilly city where it rains half the year. Totally screwed the traffic flow downtown, so I don’t go there much anymore.
That thing looks like a prop in the latest Allstate “mayhem” commercial.
Vancouver has changed a lot since I lived there in the mid’ 80s. It’s an international city now, and I guess that’s a good thing, but I do miss the Vancouver of my youth. The person who drives this car may well make a couple hundred grand a year and this is all they can afford after mortgage payments on a 50 year old bungalow!
I don’t think it’s accurate to say Vancouver is one of the wealthiest cities in Canada, let alone the planet.
There are a lot of very-high-net-worth people who own property here (it’s a beautiful city with great public services and amenities) but the median family income is actually below the Canadian average ($69K vs $72K).
Because a large segment of the population does not work or declare income in Canada. It skews the average.
No normal person can afford top live there any more. A buddy has just paid £750000CAN for a 2 bed, 2 bath room condo over looking Grouse Mont.
Perhaps, but TV sucks and I never watch it, nor do I have cable. My world is much improved by avoiding 24 hour “news” channels.
I have almost completely stopped watching the TV news, with the exception of the weather report every now and then. It’s made my daily life much more pleasant. I also have never had cable, but it hasn’t stopped the local provider from sending me junk mail come-ons for twelve years…
Isn’t Vancouver where all the pretentious cable television ‘style and consumption’ realestate shows come from? Makes sense now.
I think someone who was actually wealthy would be able to hire movers. Or at least to pay for a rental truck.
This screams of someone trying to “bawl on a budget”
And I like the two tone green color scheme – something from the ’90 to ’93 model years. The wheels are newer. About twelve years or so ago I saw this scheme on a ’90 300SL for sale at a dealer in Toronto that also had a green interior and on another 300SL at a dealer in eastern Iowa. Was close to buying the Iowa one – an estate car. Hope this one will be put out of its misery soon.
I think those “homeless” have moved to Seattle and Tacoma; there is plenty of accommodation for them there.
My guess – cheap Japanese import. Like 6,000 CAD CA numberplates included cheap. Been there, done that.
But eventually the poor sod discovered, that a whole bunch of fancy electronics do not work, odo is rolled back and he needs to sell his kidney to finance HVAC overhaul… And thus once glorious piece of MB history descends into the ugly world of “bangernomics”.
Have a look at Vancouver Craigslist. There are LOADS of luxury cars, especially German ones, cheap. A SL is dime-o-dozen in Vancouver and simply doesn’t do it here, where the Upper Crust must have Maserati’s and Ferrari’s. Mind you, that upper crust grew up on a farm in Guangzhou and most likely didn’t even go to school. It’s a strange world, isn’t it?
Suffice to say, there are plenty of people who could buy an SL of this vintage, myself included.
This is a later R129, 1996 onwards, it has the two slot fender vent. The profile of the tyres looks all wrong. The AMG rims were an option. Colour looks like Petrel Blue.
KJ
HGTV network does “Love it or List it Too” in Vancouver, and the home prices are sky high.
And the home buyers are like ‘oh that’s a good price’!
One car that I believe Merc never lost a bet on was the SL. This happens to be my favorite body style especially the late model cars with the AMG package. Fifteen to twenty years later and they still look great. Just beautiful GT cars. Their really is a lot of green in Vancouver.
What is so striking about Vancouver is that it seems like an “empty” city. There aren’t as many people on the streets as the density of housing would suggest. Many of the gleaming condo highrise units that line the waterfront are owned by absentee, offshore owners. They may visit a couple of times a year, and then the condo remains empty. It’s a weird sensation, to say the least.
With regards to the R129, it’s one of the more unloved Mercedes models. Kinda like a C4 Corvette…
Empty?? Have you ever been here? Tens of thousands of people live in the myriad of apartment towers downtown. The streets are busy with people almost 24 hours a day. People life, work, shop and play downtown.
I think the lower color might be Mineral Green, my favorite color on late ’90s Mercs (image from classiccarsforsale.co.uk).
Oh how I love my hometown. Everyone here is house poor. Though folks that have been in thier homes for a long time borrow out of them to buy nice cars. So BMW 3 series, and MB C Classes and Audi A4s are abound, amongst the sea of gold Corollas, White Civics and siver Mazda3s. We bought our house 10 years ago and we couldn’t afford to buy it a year later as the market value had increased. We are still stuck in our starter house in the working class east side.
And the towers keep being built, and the condos keep getting smaller. Vancouver is apparently a safe place to park offshore money, and all of us taxpayers that pay into the system can’t afford to live here due to the offshore money pricing us out.
As for the car, the R129 is awesome, and there are lots of JDM market R129s that have arrived over here with cloth seats, and little antennae so one can see the corners. They have side marker lights and no centre mount stop lights. There are a few E124 and T124 that come over too in 4 cylinder form too.
And it’s not bottomed out with all of the weight! I wonder if this one is equipped with the hydraulic self levelling suspension!?! Make that equipped with working hydraulic suspension!