The dark side of the High Mileage Club

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All of a sudden they were there, as out of nowhere: a quartet of Mercedeses, looking really sorry for themselves behind a fence in the far south-west of Holland, on a stone’s throw from the Belgian border. And so we chose reverse and drove back to make a little snap shot. For you, dear reader.

But why were these cars abandoned? Legislation may well have to do something with it. Until not too long ago any 25-year old car was considered to be a classic in this part of the world, which gave classic car owners the necessary insurance and road tax benefits. But it wasn’t until long that people started taking advantage of just that. And especially the older Mercedeses proved highly popular with people who were driving these cars for the gains rather than for the enthusiasm. These were strong cars after all, and they have a tremendous reputation to keep on going endlessly. 

In the 1960s Mercedes-Benz even introduced their ‘High Mileage Award’ to recognize the many Mercedes-Benz vehicles that travel hundreds of thousands of miles — some even eclipsing the million-mile mark. You may have heard of Gregorios Sachinidis, a Greek taxi driver who held the official record of more than 4.6 million miles in his 1976 Mercedes-Benz 240D. But we also found a film about a Gran Canaria taxi-driver who claims to have lapsed even 5 million miles on his Benz’ odometer…

You can be sure, however, that these chaps gave their Mercedeses the necessary tender loving care. We don’t think the ones seen here got much of that in their later lives, which is kind of sad. And like many others they may well have been discarded as soon as the rules changed. So.. are the ones spotted here any special? We noticed one of them being a (six-cylinder?) coupe, while the green/red car appears to have had a landaulet-style roof conversion at one stage. Let us know!

(Words and pictures Jeroen Booij   

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