Car vendor descriptions also provide limitless opportunities for mangling the language. "Drives excellent" is one that really annoys me. OK, "drives excellently" may not be a particularly graceful phrase, but at least its a tad more grammatically correct.

I remember going to look at a Chevette which had been described as "drives well"--no problem with that description, if accurate. When I got there and took it out, yes, it drove well, but it also had a puddle in the drivers footwell that sloshed about as I drove along. So deep, in fact that I half expected to look down and see a goldfish looking up at me.

Indoor ponds have their place but that place isn't in a car, so I handed to keys back with good grace and went and bought a money pit of a Rover 800 instead. One which was advertised as being in "excellent condition", but was in fact covered in barely concealed rust which I managed to ignore because I'd set my heart on the model.

Edited by argybargy on 09/12/2017 at 08:51

Most of the guff one can see through, especially dealer speak, if someone who actually maintained their own car writes an ad you can usually tell what the person is like, and 10 minutes on the phone confirms either way.

The Merc estate for sale will be in good condition as a grey from Japan, helped by the usually more sensible Japanese ideas of reasonable care.

As said though it has potential for huge bills and endless trouble, we owned one such model for a brief troublesome 2 years, the first owner had kept the service records in a file and they made sobering reading, the car cost £50k new (invoice present) and i bet it cost near enough the same again over 10 years of servicing and the ridiculous amount of repairs it needed, i still have a E320 coupe and the parts uniqueness to that model makes maintaining one a labour of love...how's about getting on for £400 a side for front wishbones due to welded in bottom ball joint, where the smaller engined range is a replacabel joint @ £15, many other difference apply too.

As for LHD being prestigious in Japan (stated in the ad), well the reason so many LHD W124's went to Japan was because they bought a good few facelift versions of the E500 (as opposed to the more regular euro-sales of 500E pre facelift), you simply couldn't get a RHD V8 W124, you don't see many (any?) LHD Toyota Century's for sale, if any car was about prestige (in its home country) that's the one, oh and wool the mus have for upholstery, being more pleasant and quieter than leather.

Edited by gordonbennet on 10/12/2017 at 08:35