Frugal Swabians
11/06/2018
One wonders today. Anyone who bought a Mercedes-Benz 500 SEC a good 30 years ago, the most expensive model in the range at CHF 89,280 or DM 85,386, received it with steel wheels and wheel covers.
The proud owner even had to adjust the left-hand rear-view mirror by hand without electrical assistance, while the seat could be adjusted without muscle power.
However, the buyer was probably even more surprised when he dug out the car manual. Not only had the thrifty Swabians managed to print a common booklet for all top-of-the-range models, whether saloon, long version or coupé, i.e. 380 SE/SEL/SEC and 500 SE/SEL/SEC, they were actually content with just over 100 pages to explain all the functions of these eight-cylinder models. The instructions for the telephone connection alone are much more comprehensive today!
What could have been criticized at the time is something that many owners of today would appreciate. The manual mirror adjustment should hardly ever cause any trouble, steel wheels and hubcaps can be replaced cheaply and you can usually do without studying the instructions, because driving the 500 SEC rarely presents you with unsolvable tasks, as we found out during our test drive .
