Here be (R63)unicorns...

[Chrishazle]

Clown next door to me had an R class (L IIRC) a few years ago - it was enormous! I also had one overtake me one time, me in the S204, looked like a bloody coach going past. Imagine doing a supermarket run in one of those, their parking slots are small for a C or E class estate, you'd need 2x2 spaces for that monstrosity. Guess it's obvious I don't like them at all whatever guise they're in!

 

[BTB 500]

Clown next door to me had an R class (L IIRC) a few years ago - it was enormous! I also had one overtake me one time, me in the S204, looked like a bloody coach going past. Imagine doing a supermarket run in one of those,

My in-laws once got a parking ticket in Windsor for theirs as it didn't fit fully inside a car park space It was their daily driver (in Germany) for a good few years.

To be fair the long wheelbase one is only slightly bigger than a mid-size Vito / Viano / V Class. We regularly use our Vito for supermarket runs when it needs fuel, and have never had any problems with that.

 

[Will]

You get used to it (size wise/bigger cars). I drive the GL everywhere and never have any real issues parking or anything else - but it does fill a bay

I’m not sure of the dimensions of the X166 vs. LWB R-class but they must be pretty similar length wise?

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Not that I have a length fixation at the moment, but...

At 203 inches the LWB R is an inch shorter than the current S500L and five inches shorter than the W222 S500L

I'm told it's not the size that matters but what you do with it. (That large rear bay is useful to some but not many.)

A vehicle made in the States and destined for the US of A. Back in the day when Mercedes thought America was an important new market. Unlike today, when China rules the roost on design for ALL European car makers.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

For convenience

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-de...w&onesearchad=Used&radius=1500&sort=relevance

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

For convenience

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-de...w&onesearchad=Used&radius=1500&sort=relevance

View attachment 139434

Looks like the chap who owned a big proportion of the UK R 63 cars is now offloading them. First a couple went on Collecting Cars and now this one too.

Sensible price, states that it has full annual service history at the main dealer, and it’s just had the 15 year service done - I just had it on mine and it’s insanely expensive.

Top mention of any top end repairs or maintenance. At 161k miles it must have had at least some, it’s about to go pop, or it’s got the toughest top end ever.

If the service history is that good, then this might be a fair buy, even with the less than perfect respray.

 

[OnlyV8s]

Advert gone : (
Just got back from Easter hols with the family and I'm grumpy I've missed this one. Something like this always happens when I turn my back on Auto Trader for a week...
As said, for once a reasonable(ish) price. Still prob 4x the equivalent R500 though.
Confirms the black R63 which started this thread at £40k and 130k miles - still on AT with still one photo - is a crazy price.

 

[DavidL]

How much was it? I didn't see the original ad either.

 

[Skd884]

18k slim.

 

[Darrell]

I saw one of these as a taxi in Athens a few years ago.

 

[OnlyV8s]

I think I've cured myself of R class... I saw a bug-eyed mk1 R this morning for the first time in I don't know how long. Maybe years?
The mk2 facelift I see a few of, and OK I could live with it, but... this was something else.
Granted a 320 diesel and not an R63 but it almost got itself stuck at a mini roundabout.
From the side and rear you just think it's a hearse - no getting round that.
From the front, it's just weird. Like it's been cut and shut in multiple directions. A combination of a Fiat Multipla and a late 90's (mk2?) Ford Scorpio perhaps.

 

[BTB 500]

it almost got itself stuck at a mini roundabout.

It's an ML underneath - just drive straight over them

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I think I've cured myself of R class... I saw a bug-eyed mk1 R this morning for the first time in I don't know how long. Maybe years?
The mk2 facelift I see a few of, and OK I could live with it, but... this was something else.
Granted a 320 diesel and not an R63 but it almost got itself stuck at a mini roundabout.
From the side and rear you just think it's a hearse - no getting round that.
From the front, it's just weird. Like it's been cut and shut in multiple directions. A combination of a Fiat Multipla and a late 90's (mk2?) Ford Scorpio perhaps.

The strange styling - and relative failure in terms of sales volumes - is largely a function of the R-Class being an insurance policy. Growing environmental awareness, changing taxation strategies, and even environmental activist attacks on SUVs meant that there was real concern in the industry that the full-size SUV market would decline dramatically.

Mercedes therefore tried to hedge it’s bets with an SUV with less aggressive estate-like styling, and which had the same underpinnings as the contemporary ML/GL but with a much softer and potentially less controversial (at the time) aesthetic. Applying that type look to such a large platform would always result in odd styling.

At the time, Mercedes didn’t have softroad or small SUV platforms even if they would potentially eventually come in the long-term pipeline, and so building the R-Class on SUV underpinnings meant that it could still achieve relatively large platform volumes, and therefore share costs across the successful and unsuccessful formats.

History tells us that full-size ML/GL SUV volumes continued to grow and carried the cost of the R-Class failure. Had fortunes gone the other way, then the R-Class would have carried the second generation ML/GL. The market did turn but softroaders and small SUVs was the successful format, and ended up decimating the MPV market, and the full size SUV market continued to grow.

That’s why you don’t see many of them and why they have unresolved styling - some might say ugly!

 

[Will]

I think that’s a good summary above, and I feel it’s fair to say that most people would agree that the styling of the R-class is never going to be considered one of MBs finest designs. I mean, SUVs don’t generally win many beauty contests anyway, but I would argue the R was particularly notable in this regard.

 

[ALFAitalia]

It's hideous.......Id rather walk!

 

[DavidL]

18k slim.

Thanks

 

[OnlyV8s]

Thanks Bobby Dazzler - some really useful background.

I found out something else this last week I didn't know - that in Europe there was a SWB R63 too which is the size of the ML whereas UK (and perhaps US) only got LWB which is the size of a GL.

Looks like the private reg is now on retention as it's not recognised on any of the MOT checkers so guess it's definitely sold. Will be interesting to see if it's ever seen again - could well be a private collector or equally we'll see it back with a dealer at £25k in a month or so I guess.