Is this the car?
Posted on 07/09/2012 1:55:34 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
(CBS News) EDGEWATER, N.J. - An auto repair shop owner was shocked to find out that a Mercedez-Benz he purchased for a customer used to belong to Adolf Hitler.
"He was surprised," Zenop Tuncer, owner of Euro Tech Motors, told CBS News. "We were all surprised!"
Tuncer, whose shop specializes in classic cars, got a request from real estate developer Fred Daibes that he wanted a Mercedes-Benz 540K. However Tuncer could only procure a 1942 Mercedes 320 Cabriolet D convertible, which Daibes agreed to buy.
Tuncer said he should have been tipped off because the car looked like a military car.
"The color is a flat black, and there are patches covering what would have been a place for the flag post and the siren," he explained. It's definitely for a general."
The car needed some parts, so Tuncer contacted Mercedes-Benz with the serial number. He was surprised when the company told him to look at the serial number again and see if there was an eagle with a swastika next to it. Tuncer found the swastika, which he said was so small he missed it at first. Then, Mercedes-Benz confirmed that the car belonged to the Nazi leader.
According to CBS station WCBS in New York, Mercedes-Benz custom made eight of the vehicles for the Nazis.
The original owner did not know the car's history. and said that his grandfather brought the vehicle to the United States from Germany after the war, WCBS reported. Daibes said he paid $175,000 for the car a year ago, and has recently turned down an offer of $1.5 million.
"It's Hitler's car, he's a devil, but you know, he's still part of history," Daibes said to WCBS. "From a financial point of view the car is worth more money than when I paid for it so that's the only way I look at it."
Tuncer agreed, adding that he would keep the car as well.
"I would not touch the car," Tuncer stated. "I would keep it the original way. It has a story on it."
Is this the car?
This Wikipedia page shows one:
The page also reports:
"In 2009 in the U.S., a classic car collector offered three W31s for sale for $9 million. With unproven claims of use by Adolf Hitler, they included a blue convertible and a grey Wehrmacht W 31 with a closed cab. A special feature of the convertible was that the front passenger seat could be folded up, so it was possible to stand upright in the car."
The fact that the blue convertible had a front seat that folded up for standing may be proof that it was a car actually used by Hitler.
Ever been there?
Reinhard Heydrich was in one of these cars when he
was attacked and later died
Good riddance for a not very nice guy
I seem to recall that some of Hitler’s family were living in New Jersey. They were children of Alois Hitler’s (Adolf’s half brother) son William Patrick, who came to the US before the war started.
LOL, or have it surrender to the citroen before the race starts.
“On this episode of Pawn Stars...”
Very funny. Great that we can laugh and make fun of things that might have ended entirely differently, isn’t it?
Doesn’t look like a car Hitler would ride in public with that flat black paint job. You want to look glitzy in parades. Definitely more like one used in military functions. From online photos, Hitler seemed to have several parade cars.
Wait’ll Hitler finds out ...
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