Mercedes-Benz 600 (1964)

Any car described as a ‘technical tour de force’ is likely to raise eyebrows when it comes to complexity and that’s just what the W100 series of Mercedes 600 did. It came with air suspension, twin heating systems and used vacuum-operation for the powered windows and central locking. On top of that, there was Bosch fuel injection at a time when carburettors were the norm.

From any other car makers, this lot would have sounded alarm bells, but the quality of construction for the W100 was immaculate. Little wonder it was the choice of car for world leaders until its demise in 1981.

However, all of that complexity means the 600 is fiendishly complicated to restore and maintain nowadays, though well cared for examples now command up to £80,000 for the standard saloon model, and rather more for the stretched dictator-spec Pullman model.