1988 Mercedes 307

I was offered a Mercedes 307D for £500 from someone at the Marina. The van had been converted to a campervan and was a good runner. I did a quick search on a database in the UK and it only showed 7 on UK roads. It was hard to know the value. But, I decided to buy the van as I could always sell it easily for more.

The van has no power steering or disk brakes. Parking and reversing are hard and the brakes work well but, are not as effective as modern ones. The van looked like a pile of crap that would breakdown. Amazingly it has been the most reliable vechile I have ever owed. If when she was not started for over 6 months she started first time. But, with lots of smoke.

I decided to drive the van to Land End and back a total of 566 miles a round trip of about 10 hours in a modern vechile. The van is noisy to drive and very slow top speed of about 65 mph but, I would normally drive around 50mph. Going up hills I would often slow down to about 20mph. 

The fuel economy was not that bad for an old van about 22mpg. I stopped once for the night on the way to Lands End and once on the way back. I parked in front of the beach and it was quite comfortable.

I have since changed the oil cleaned the airfilter plus other jobs. I am still not sure what to do with her but, I am considering driving her to Morocco to find a new home.

When I drive it is very common for hippies and classic car owners to wave. It is certainly an experience.

I am currently sanding the wheel disks back to chrome.

The van is now black.