Factory Yellow E500 w/Paint Code 216

[gerryvz]

In the course of creating the table of global 500E / E500 exterior and interior color combos over the weekend, I came across one car that was an anomaly from an exterior paint perspective.

It was specified with paint code 216, which didn’t have a name in the Wiki table, but the wiki did confirm my VIN Database data that there was one car with this color.

For reference, the FIN / VIN number of this cars is: WDB1240361C116692

Deeper research showed the color to be an ambiguous MB color called “Verkehrsweiß” or “traffic white.” What is ambiguous is that in some instances this color is indeed white, but in other instances it is a light to medium yellow color — MB called “Sulfur Yellow.” That is what this car is.

There was some discussion about it being color code 691U as well.

Even more research brought up the car at hand — a European owner, back in 2006, had a discussion on the PeachParts forum about this very car, which was indeed yellow. He was asking for more information at that time about the color code, as there was basically no information on it.

It was an interesting thread that some early members here, such as myself and @2phast, participated in.

In any case, it is interesting to close the loop on this semi mystery some 20 years later.

Data card is attached.

Here’s the PeachParts thread on the car:

Color for 500E - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Yes....that color is called mother of pearl gray metallic and it is a fairly common color, just not for US cars. Bornite, blue and almandine red (the

www.peachparts.com

Our members @036, @2phast @Taxi Driver and @Dollar also discussed this car about a year ago, interestingly, here: OWNER - 500E Avantgarde Blue Azzuro | Owners and Their Cars

Evidently during its life the car was shipped from its original home of Germany, to Sweden, and then back to Germany some years later where it was restored and painted BLACK !!

(Custom smiley from many years ago made for @Taxi Driver)

 

[195910]

The car was in Sweden in the 2000s, said to have been bought and shipped to Germany where it was repainted .... Black !

 

[gsxr]

Unbelievable that some muppet repainted the rarest of the rare Colors with the most commonest of all Colors.

 

[szvook]

 

[gerryvz]

It's interesting that there were three different shades of yellow that E500Es were produced in. Two of them, the Sulphur Yellow and Light Yellow, are "one of one" cars, color-wise.

The other "1 of 1" exterior cars produced are Bison Brown, Racing Green, Avantgarde Red and Pine Green.

So you Spruce Mafia folks, there are numerous shades of green that are much much rarer than yours.
In fact, Spruce/Malachite is the 9th most common color globally (2.01% of all E500Es), out of well over 40 colors produced (counting special/custom colors). And #4 in the lineup of US colors, with 4.5% of US imports.

And also interesting, but Bornite ("Black Cherry" in North America) was the overall #4 color produced, with 3.5+% of production. Only 0.5% of US imports, though. Much more common globally than in the US, but we already knew that. Just not how much.

 

[hAMGurger]

I wonder if this subject car was ordered by Kurt Barnekow, a German businessman who ordered numerous special yellow cars from MB. Don't know when he stopped buying cars but an interesting thought nonetheless...
He would have been 84 when this car was built, so probably not him.
Also weird that they only made one car in this color but the EPC says nothing about special paintwork!

 

[gerryvz]

It's not special paintwork. It's a standard MB color. That's why there is nothing about special paintwork.

That said, the original owner did order a very "odd" color, but it was not custom.

The PeachParts thread says, per the previous Swedish owner, that it was a German bigwig who ordered the car from MB. Check out his posts in that thread for some tidbits of information.

As I mentioned in another post (and is clearly shown in the Global VIN database tab, that breaks down the number of cars ordered by color), there are SEVERAL different MB colors that only had a single E500E produced. Not just this yellow. So, it's not really an anomaly.

In addition to this car (Sulphur Yellow), other colors with only one car ordered include Bison Brown, Racing Green, Light Yellow, Pine Green, and Avantgarde Red.

 

[2phast]

 

[gerryvz]

View attachment 231811

Yes, this is the data card for the “other” 1 of 1 car, the “Light Yellow” one. It’s detailed in the VIN Database.