Rowan atkinson to sell his mercedes 500e – again

Telegraph Reporters 19 April 2019 5:02pm BST It turns out Rowan Atkinson’s classic Mercedes 500E is so good he’s selling it twice. The actor and supercar aficionado is putting the silver

saloon car up for auction, having already sold it and bought it back once before. Atkinson originally bought the four-door from new in 1991 - a year after the launch of his enduring comic

character Mr Bean - and kept it for just three years before selling it to its second owner. The car remained with the enthusiast for more than 20 years before Atkinson bought it back in July

2017. Less than two years on he has again listed it for sale at auction next month. The car is being offered without reserve, although other 500 Es have sold for as much as £50,000. Gary

Dunne, auction manager at Classic Car Auctions, said: "We are delighted to be offering a car direct from Rowan Atkinson. It has such an unusual story in that he has owned it twice.

"We often have unusual stories and this one is one of those, especially for a celebrity to repurchase his car after such a long period. We generally do well with celebrity cars and this

car is going to generate a lot of interest." The Mercedes has a top speed of 161mph, a five litre V8 engine and can do 0 to 62 mph in just 5.5 seconds. Atkinson sold his McLaren F1

supercar for £8 million in 2015, the same year he divorced from Sunetra, his wife of 24 years, at a cost of £5m. The sale came four years after he crashed it into a hedge in Oxfordshire. The

crash, his second in the McLaren in 17 years of ownership, landed his insurer with a £910,000 repair bill, thought then to be the biggest-ever single car insurance claim. He said at the

time of the sale: “It was never bought as an investment. I bought it for the quality of the thinking that went into its design, and now it has become a thing of value, it is time for it to

be enjoyed by someone else.” Atkinson, the star of Blackadder, Not the Nine O’ Clock News and Johnny English, is also a former leader of the Top Gear lap time board as part of the

show's 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car' segment.