German Car Zone

I love these stories in MB Classic Magazin. Just brings a tear to my eye everytime.


"Grandpa is back!"

This is the wonderful story of a man who is reunited with the exact same car his grandfather owned 27 years ago: a 1972 Mercedes-Benz 250CE Coupe.



It was in 1974 when Carsten Pätzold's grandfather, Joachim Hopp, bought a second hand 1972 Mercedes 250CE which had previously belonged to the major of Calw.

The car was used to travel all over Europe and young Carsten was generally seated in the spacious rear compartment enjoying the ride. Young Carsten named the car "Opa", after his grandfather (Opa in German means grandfather). As a young man, Carsten became car-crazy but had his sights set on older Borgward's. His grandfather complained telling him to buy a "real car" and not some old junk. Carsten then became interested in the 250CE Coupe, but before he could get his hands on it, the car suffered through an accident in the summer of 1989. The damage was extensive and located mostly behind the driver's door. For a measly DM 2,500, his grandfather sold the Mercedes to a gas station owner. But Carsten could not forget the car. "I really thought about saving it, restoring it and using it", he says. Eventually in early 2001 he decided to find his grandfathers 250CE. A pretty insane idea since the car had probably been taken apart and used as a donor car. Carsten still had the address of the gas station, but the next generation running it had no idea what had happened to the car. The good news was, however, that the car had indeed been fixed.

Carsten then became obsessed with finding the car. He attended classic car shows in his region whenever he could. He even joined various W114/W115 Mercedes Clubs in the hope of finding his childhood car. Then one day, in 2001 it happened. Carsten was attending a classic car show in Cloppenburg when out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a familiar light blue metallic roof which clearly belonged to a W114 Coupe. The owner was about to leave and Carsten passionately stopped the car in order to verify if it truly was his grandfathers Mercedes. It was. The light scratches on the roof (from car washes) and the good-luck bug sticker on the lid of the glove compartment confirmed it. This was "Opa", his grandfathers 250CE. And to be completely sure, serial numbers were compared. There was no doubt. This was Opa, this was the car he had grown up in and toured Europe with.

And the good news? The current owner wanted to sell the car. For € 4,500 Carsten bought back the machine which meant so much to him. As he drove home many memories came back to him. The car was, however, far from the condition it had originally been in when Carsten's grandfather had owned it. A few rust spots had formed which Carsten had immediately treated. The A/C had to be repaired and so did the radiator cables.

When the car had been sold to the gas station owner it had had 197,000 km on the odometer. Now, the Mercedes had over 250,000 km on it. In the meantime Carsten has also bought himself a second classic Mercedes: a 280SE W108 S-Class and now has a garage of two Mercedes' surrounded by a few Borgward's, a passion which remained in him.

In 2004 Carsten did a "memory trip" by taking his 250CE on a drive across Europe to the places his grandfather had taken him to when he was a young boy nearly 30 years ago. It would be a memorable trip.


The Scans