“Our (230) test car, like all petrol-engined Mercedes models we have tried recently, was fitted with the excellent Daimler-Benz 4-speed automatic transmission, which operates without a torque converter and gives the driver much more opportunity to think for himself than does practically any other system.” Autocar, 11th March 1966.
Successor to the 220, the Mercedes-Benz 230 saloon debuted at the Frankfurt Show in 1965. The six-cylinder 230 shared its heckflosse (fintail) body style with the four-cylinder 200 range, but its seven-bearing power unit was entirely new and more powerful than the superseded 2.2-litre. Secondary safety was beginning to be of major concern to the engineers in Stuttgart, and the 230 incorporated a strengthened central passenger cell, increased interior padding and front/rear crumple zones.
This 230 Automatic was sold new to gentleman farmer Captain R J Foljambe and chauffeur driven until 1980 when it was purchased by the current owner. The latter’s father drove and looked after the car until his death, and we are advised that registration documentation has been brought up to date. The total mileage recorded from new stands at circa 71,000, and the accompanying service invoices record the total expenditure on maintenance over the years as £5,964. Finished in maroon with brown leather interior, the vehicle is presented in generally good condition and offered with current road fund licence/MoT and Swansea V5.