The leader of the free world may ride in a Cadillac, but presidents of other countries have long preferred the Mercedes Pullman. Case in point: this 1995 Mercedes-Benz S600 Pullman Guard posted for sale on Germany’s Mobile.
The stretched and armored limousine was ostensibly the first official state vehicle used by Vladimir Putin. That was long before he commissioned his own custom Porsche-powered limo, or the BMW 7 Series that so dramatically crashed in Moscow recently.
Given that Putin ascended to the premiership in 1999, shortly before claiming the presidency, it seems likely that it may have been used by other state officials before him – possibly including his predecessor Boris Yeltsin, which really puts the length of Putin’s grip on power into chronological perspective.
The limo is armored to B6/B7 levels of ballistic protection, features three rows of seating, and a 6.0-liter V12 rated in its day at 394 horsepower. These days, by comparison, Mercedes manages to extract nearly that much power from a 2.0-liter turbo four, while today’s S600 churns out considerably more at 523 horsepower, and the AMG S65 generates 621.
Given its age and the 25,000 kilometers on the clock, you might think that this aging Benz would be priced to sell. But evidently given its provenance, the seller – one Segei Urov in Moscow – is asking a massive €1.3 million.
Photo Gallery
