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A.J. Baime

Jan. 23, 2018 9:30 a.m. ET



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Matías Bombal, a movie critic and documentary filmmaker, leans on his 1959 Mercedes-Benz 220 S outside the Tower Theatre in Sacramento, Calif.

Matías Bombal, a movie critic and documentary filmmaker, leans on his 1959 Mercedes-Benz 220 S outside the Tower Theatre in Sacramento, Calif.


Photo:

Max Whittaker for The Wall Street Journal

Matías Bombal, 50, a movie critic and documentary filmmaker from Sacramento, Calif., on his 1959 Mercedes-Benz 220 S, as told to A.J. Baime.

In 1959, my father was studying romanticism in literature in Germany. He wanted to buy a car and decided that if he got together all his money, he could buy one that would last him forever. He chose a Mercedes-Benz and drove it all over Europe. The quality of the car felt very German to him, and he was enchanted by it.

The car crossed the Atlantic aboard an Italian ocean liner to his home country of Chile in 1960. Then in 1969, he took it to California, where he became a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Life and Times of a 1959 Mercedes-Benz 220 S

A California movie critic and documentary filmmaker details the car he grew up in.

 
 
Matías Bombal, 50, a movie critic, poses with his 1959 Mercedes-Benz 220 S in Sacramento, Calif. ‘For my entire life, this has been our family car,’ he says. ‘I grew up in it.’
Max Whittaker for The Wall Street Journal
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For my entire life, this has been our family car. I grew up in it. I went on my first date in it, to “The Nutcracker.”

When my father passed in 2009, I inherited the car. And while he was rather private about it, I have chosen to give it a more public life.

Due to my profession, I have, on occasion, the chance to squire famous people from show business around. The car has been used in a couple independent films.

I named it “Eva,” due to the first digits in its California license plate—the original plate it got in 1969 when my father came to this country—and I created a

Facebook

page called “Mercedes Eva Bombal.” As of now, exactly 611 follow the car’s adventures.

There are photos on the Facebook page that cover the whole life of the vehicle, and you can see pictures of me at 4 years old, sticking my head through the sliding steel sunroof—which was an interesting add-on my father originally ordered, very rare for this model.

The car has no computer components. Everything in that 2.2-liter, six-cylinder engine can be disassembled and repaired, and to Mercedes-Benz’s credit, the company still makes parts for 60-year-old cars. This one can do 110 mph, but I do not push it for obvious reasons.

The most wonderful, intangible element is the smell of the interior. It has its original tan leather, wooden dashboard and ivory steering wheel. It smells exactly as it did when I was 2 years old.

People ask me if it is a period piece, since so much of my life is about classic cinema. To me, it is the opposite of a period piece. It is timeless.

Mr. Bombal named the car ‘Eva,’ after the first digits of the original 1969 California license plate.

Mr. Bombal named the car ‘Eva,’ after the first digits of the original 1969 California license plate.


Photo:

Max Whittaker for The Wall Street Journal

—Contact A.J. Baime at Facebook.com/ajbaime

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