Financial crime specialist and his 30-year-old Mercedes-Benz S-class

SINGAPORE – For the 1990s head of state, corporate chieftain or triad boss, the W140-series Mercedes S-class was the obligatory carriage. Its slab-sided looks earned it the nickname “the Tank”, but under that imposing bulk lurked some then-revolutionary luxury innovations.

These included double-glazed windows and vacuum-assisted soft-close doors, as well as quirkier ones like parking-assist rods that emerged from the upper corners of the car’s back when reversing to help the driver gauge the big car’s extremities.

The W140 later gained notoriety as Lady Diana’s final ride, but since then, history has been kind to it and it is now viewed as one of the landmark models in the storied history of Mercedes-Benz’s flagship S-class.

Justin Lui was a schoolboy during the W140’s heyday, but the 40-year-old is now reliving the car’s glory days in his immaculate 1996 Mercedes-Benz S280.

Lui, a financial crime specialist with a bank who is married with a five-year-old son, relocated to Singapore for work reasons from his native Hong Kong about 2½ years ago.

He is no stranger to interesting cars, having owned a 1972 Maserati Indy, a 1976 Alfa Romeo Junior and a 1987 Ferrari 328 GTS, among others, while he was living in Hong Kong.

In Singapore, apart from the S280, Lui’s stable includes a 1989 Mercedes-Benz W124 200E and a 1965 Triumph Spitfire MkII.

Given his penchant for anything old and four-wheeled, it is unsurprising that Lui is extremely active in motoring circles, having been chairman of the Classic Car Club of Hong Kong from 2023 to 2024 and a founding committee member of the Official Ferrari Owners’ Club of Hong Kong and Macau. Locally, he is a member of the Malaysia Singapore Vintage Car Register.

He also maintains a YouTube channel where he reviews classic cars and events in Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as an Instagram page devoted to all things automotive.

He says he has “been into cars since I can remember” and credits his father for engendering this lifelong passion.

As for why he chose his S280, Lui says that “I tend to like cars that I admired when I was a kid” and that “I always found its shape iconic and the car has lots of presence”.

Lui had owned another W140 (an S320) about 15 years ago in Hong Kong. However, he adds that he was not specifically looking for one here, but came across it while browsing online car classifieds Sgcarmart.

“I thought I would check it out for fun, expecting it to be in bad condition,” he says. The car had two owners and had covered about 300,000km in its 28-year life.

But Lui says the car, despite its age and mileage, was in surprisingly good condition, and he just knew he had to buy it.

He paid just under $20,000 for the car as it had under two years left on its certificate of entitlement (COE).

Since then, he has renewed its COE and given the car a new coat of paint in 2026, retaining its original deep blue colour.

The only “mod” he has made is its registration number, which he bid for to match the car’s W140 model designation.

Lui says the big Mercedes is not cheap to run, although costs are still manageable. Finding spare parts is always a challenge though, and he and his mechanic usually resort to sourcing them from Malaysia, Hong Kong or the UK.

He typically drives his W124 200E during the week and mostly uses the S280 on weekends with his family.

Lui loves how comfortable the car is, but adds that “my only dislike is that it is really underpowered”.

Hardly surprising, considering the 193hp output from the car’s 2.8-litre inline-6 engine has to haul close to two tonnes of German steel around.

He has even done a few drives across the border in it, with one of those trips providing the most memorable anecdote.

“I was in Desaru with my family and on our last evening, the driver’s door wouldn’t close. The door mechanism was broken. Fortunately, after fiddling with it for half an hour, I was able to close it by hand,” he says.

“If not, I would have had to hold the door shut for the entire journey from Desaru back to Singapore. Needless to say, I never opened the driver’s door again on the return trip and exited from the passenger side for bathroom breaks and petrol stops.”

What’s in the boot?