1936 Mercedes could break record at Pebble Beach auction | Auto news | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

I hope it has a clean title and they never take it anywhere near Germany.

Jay may not like them, but Bing Crosby did.

Crosby owned all the cars used in the TV show 'Hogan's Heros'. He also had a Gullwing and a G-car, one of the six wheel monsters that Hitler was such a fan of.

After the war Crosby went to Germany to pick up his 300S and on the way to a golf tournament with some GI's he wrecked it. So he called Mercedes and ordered up another one. They were around $8,500 each, but Clark Gable told him he had to have one. After driving Gable's he agreed.

I talked to Crosby about this in Austin, Texas, in the early 70's while we both stopped in at the 7-11 on the north end of Guadalupe Street. He didn't want to talk about show-biz, but he had just driven to Austin from Palm Springs in a new 450 SL and he loved to talk about Mercedes.

He said he would rather drive across the US in a Mercedes than fly in anything.

Having driven across the US in a 300D, a 240D, a Lincoln Town Car, and a Cadillac Brougham, as well as having made the same trip by air multiple times, I have to agree. The 300D was the most comfortable for the trip, though the others cars (even my dad's POS Cadillac) still beat taking the plane.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

Some folks wondered why I would rather drive than fly if the trip was less than 600 miles.

The main reason was that 600 miles in a 300D are easier miles than 200 miles in a 737.

I hope Jay picks it up, but he is a big Duesenberg fan so I don't think its really his kind of collector car.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

"He said the von Krieger Mercedes represents the “best of the best,” but he won’t bid on Nazi-era German cars."

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

Perhaps he can't afford it any more. He just reduced is salary by $5M, to $20M.

Cool fact, I didn't know that! There were a few period Mercedes used in the show.

General Burkhalter could just barely squeeze out of the G4 staff car's back door on his surprise visits to see Klink! YouTube llink

For a time that G-4 was 'lost'. It was known in the collector's world only as 'being in California and owned by a Hollywood production company'.

It may still be 'lost'. I don't really know. It could just be in storage somewhere, broken down and too expensive to repair.

He owns a Tatra which was probably a German staff car during the war.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I'm sure a 300D would be much more comfortable than my 560SL is on a long trip...then again, most of my long trips are non stops other than for gas and bathroom breaks. The trips from UT to OH and back were better in the Lincoln MK VII, as the seat could be positioned in many different ways to make the long trips more bearable.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

If a car is rare enough and has enough provenance, it's never too exspensive to repair. The actual car from the TV show, a rare german car probably used during the war, the best of their engineering from that time period - yeah, it would be worth a lot today.