BaT Auction Success Story: RandyV’s 40-Year Wait is Over: A Practical Look
This Success Story comes to us from BaT member RandyV, who won this 1986 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16 from ShawnAlpina in a September 2025 BaT auction:
I was 22 when I first learned about the 190E 2.3-16 on the pages of Road & Track. On Thanksgiving Day in 1985, I saw my first one in person at Mercedes-Benz of Hunt Valley. It was love at first sight. The car was finished in Smoke Silver over a black leather interior and had a five-speed dogleg gearbox. There was another young man at the dealership lot that morning eyeing a different car, and we struck up a conversation about the Mercedes with the wing. I remember telling him I was anxious for the car to turn 10 years old so I could (hopefully) afford it. I had been driving a 15-year-old BMW 2002 at the time and was longing for something more mature-looking that would likely still offer a similar driving experience.
I went back to the dealership the next week with a cover story that I was a design student studying ergonomics. I asked if I could have any documents on the Mercedes lineup that they would be willing to give me. I left with a stack of promotional booklets, including the big 1986 centennial marketing catalogue. I pored over them all and cut up the 190e 2.3-16 booklet in order to frame two of the pages. Though I’ve lost all of the literature over the years, I still keep the two framed pages hanging in my office.
Fast-forward 40 years. By this time I had made several unsuccessful bidding attempts across multiple auction sites, including Bring a Trailer, when I came across this 190E 2.3-16 listed by @ShawnAlpina. I was surprised when the other competing bidder stopped one bid short of where I was going to say, once again, “maybe next time.” Through the magic of the Internet, I booked a flight from Atlanta to Dulles and an Uber from Dulles to the car’s location in Leesburg, Virginia, all within 30 minutes of winning the auction. Two days later, I was staring down my dream car in person while my Uber driver snapped numerous photos of it, saying how much he’s always loved these cars, too. I couldn’t believe that it took me 40 years to actually own one.
To me, there is no better feeling than getting in a car to kick off a several-hundred-mile road trip, but this was an extra special good feeling because I was behind the wheel of a car I had longed for since I first saw it in person on Thanksgiving Day 1985.
Here is a photo taken at my first gas stop, right before getting on the I-95 toward home. I texted it to my wife and son, and to a friend who is an avid auto enthusiast and daily drives an E30 BMW, letting them know how happy I was to be driving this car at last.
If you have a Success Story about a car you’ve bought or sold on BaT, please send a few lines and pictures (or a video) to community.content@bringatrailer.com, and we’ll send you a $50 credit to the BaT Gear Store when your story posts to the site.
We love to hear from satisfied BaT buyers and sellers, and a Success Story feature is a great addition to any car’s history when you’re ready to sell.
