All posts in Famous Owner

Ex John Lennon Mercedes 230SL for nearly half a million $

by Evan on September 24, 2012 in Famous Owner, Mercedes Benz with 4 Comments

I’ve never been a fan of celebrity cars, with the exception of race cars. You spend gobs of money on them and then park them in a museum or they turn into a Jon Voight’s LeBaron situation.

John Lennon’s 1965 Mercedes 230SL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There seems to always be a John Lennon car for sale somewhere. A few year’s ago his Mercedes 600 Pullman didn’t sell when it reached £190,000 (at the time $273,600) at an auction where it had a £200,000 ($287,600) reserve, tell me if that situation doesn’t sound like some bidding shenanigans. It later appeared for sale with an ask of £320,000.

Now we have an arguably much more mundane Lennon car in this 1965 230SL pagoda that has an ask price of a quite ridiculous $465,000, down from $495,000. The price discrepancy is from varying sites listing the car, the dealership page still has the higher price. The dealer lists the odometer as reading 19,127.

I’m not going to speak about the marketplace for Beatle’s collectibles, but these W113 Benzs continue to rise in value. The Pagodas so called because of their distinctive hardtops are quality cars that garnered a high end clientele when new.

The 230SL was the smallest, in terms of engine options, of the W113 SL. The 2.3 liter inline six puts out 150 horsepower. Ideally you want to find one with the 5 speed manual, but this one was special ordered by John with an automatic.

These are fine cars and in good shape can be seen as investment grade vehicles, particularly the later 280SL. However at this price you could literally corner the market on good driver 230SLs or buy 10 very top tier Pagodas.

Knowing our typical reader on this site, I suspect most of you will turn up your nose at this one, but don’t take it out on the Merc. These were some very quality cars that make for fun drivers. They also aren’t very complicated to work on and are light on a lot of the gadgetry that came in later Benzs. They also are significantly lighter than the R107 SL that replaced them and turned the SL into more of a boulevard cruiser than a twisty road driving car. Just save your money and find a non-celebrity owned one. As with any convertible keep an eye out for water leakage. The Euro models look a lot better with their headlights to me, but eitherway these cars have a great, unmistakably German and Mercedes look.

~Evan

John Lennon’s 1965 Mercedes 230SL

Prince of Monaco’s 1983 Mercedes 500SEC with 5000 miles

by Evan on July 1, 2012 in AMG, Famous Owner, Mercedes Benz with 6 Comments

This is what has to be one of the lowest mile, best maintained W126 left in the world.

Perhaps economic hard times are hitting the royalty of the tiny principality, doubtful, but the Prince is selling off a number of cars from his deceased father’s royal collection. The no reserve auction set to take place on July 26 include this beautiful Mercedes 500 SEC.

More and more we see commentary in print and online about the W126 Benzs recognizing them as one of the greatest modern German icons. A recent Jalopnik article had a wonderful line about the W126 that really sums up these cars, “Just stick an old S-class sedan or SEC coupe in a Benz showroom today, and it will look like the proudest car there.” Well said indeed.

The Prince’s 500SEC with AMG accessories doesn’t represent the pinnacle of the W126 in terms of performance or rarity, but the famous ownership and ridiculously low mileage more than make up for that.

This car just looks perfect, the deep dark blue color covers the entire car. The paint has been extended with the standard AMG treatment to cover all the chrome, the grille, the wheels, etc. An AMG steering wheel is inside and an uninstalled set of expensive Recaro buckets is included with the car.

The Prince apparently bought the car new from the Monaco Mercedes dealership and put the limited miles on the car himself.

The sales estimate on the car is listed between $20,000 and $30,000. For the money one can expect a driving experience as if the car was new and certainly, if driven, 100s of thousands of miles of drivability on the reliable V8. The car comes with the original manuals and documentation.

Quite a unique opportunity for this special one owner car.

Be sure to check out the rest of the auction catalog, which includes a nice looking Porsche 928S in German flag colors.

Prince Rainier’s 500SEC AMG

~Evan

George Foreman’s 2005 BMW 760Li Hits The Market

by Aaron on February 9, 2012 in BMW, Famous Owner with 1 Comment

Boy oh boy, you have to sell a lot of grills to afford a car like this.

The 7 Series cars have never been my bag, too big and too soft for my liking.  But, after driving a ’10 750Li X Drive this week I am starting to appreciate them more.  It may be that I am getting older with my creaking bones appreciating the plush ride the 7 Series provides.  While that may be I am certain I would run into something, or worse yet someone while I fuss with the plethora of gadgets laid out in the most un-ergonomic of ways.

Here we have the biggest of the lot driven by the big man himself for a scant 12k miles.

2005 BMW 760Li:

From the seller -

“Your looking at a vehicle previously owned by the professional boxer George Foreman. This 2005 BMW 760Li is extremely clean inside and out and was rarely driven and always kept in an air conditioned warehouse. On a scale from 1-10 I give this bad boy a 9.8!! Not only does it look great it’s loaded out with Navigation, Rear-Entertainment, Comfort Access, heated & cooled seats, Park distance control, Soft-Close doors, 19 wheels, heated steering wheel and a ton of more upgrades.”

Great looking car, if you are looking for a newer 7 Series but don’t want to fork over $100k for a new one this could be a nice option.  I prefer the 12cyl car to the twin turbo charged 8cyl cars but you really can’t go wrong with either.

The previous ownership does not really do much for the value for this BMW, unless you are a boxing buff.  In which case I have a used ’85 Eldorado that was once owned by Buster Douglas that I can sell you.

With that the $42k buy it now is ambitious, but I have to think a price in the $37k range would be more than fair.  Currently bidding is up to $25.6k with four days left in the auction.

~Aaron.

Tiger Blood: Charlie Sheen’s 1989 Porsche 928 For Sale

by Aaron on January 26, 2012 in Famous Owner, Porsche with 3 Comments

As luck or happenstance would have it this is the second former 928 of Mr. Sheen that we have featured.  The first was a 1994 GTS with crazy low miles that was in exceptional condition.  This one is a little more road worn, the Sheen factor does not do much for the value but it sure makes for an interesting story.

1989 Porsche 928 S4 For Sale:

From the seller -

“This was originally purchased by Charlie Sheen in 1989.This car is in very good shape. Great shape for the year and miles. Do not let the miles scare you. I drive this on the freeway at 80 mph and it runs straight and strong. No leaks or problems, not one rattle or issue that I know of this amazing sports car is road ready. This Porshe had over $7000 in maintnance performed less than 4 k miles ago. The tires are in great shape. A/C blows cold , all power options work, both power seats, power sun roof. The stereo in this beautiful car is incredible. Charlie spent big bucks on the system. This car needs nothing but a new home. All my friends love this car and thought I called it the Chalie Sheen car to be funny. I have to show them the copy of registration for CS.

The car does have scratches on the rear quarters, I tried to show them in the pictures but they didn’t show up. They have been touched up but not to great standards.

Ebay did not let me select automatic transmission but it is not a manual.  A lot of fun. A great driver and a piece of celebrity memorabilia.”

I am torn, the car has seen some wear, the weird angles that it is shot does not do anything to increase my confidence.  But it has had $7k of recent work, that should stand for something, right?  No, of course you are right.  Cars like this eat wallets, what was I thinking.  Nothing to see here, move along, move along.

Depending on which side of the fence you are on I cannot find a good reason to spend more than $10k on this car.  Drive it, drive it hard until it breaks and buy the next 928 castoff from Mr. Sheen.

Now that is what I call WINNING!

~Aaron.

Set Phasers To Stun, Captain Kirk’s Mercedes 500E For Sale

by Aaron on October 26, 2011 in Famous Owner, Mercedes Benz with 3 Comments

Celebrity owned cars are a funny thing.  Other than being an interesting conversation piece their ownership does not add any inherent value to a vehicle.  That said, these cars are often advertised at astronomical prices.

That said, one of the largest car buying mistakes I have ever made involves a celebrity owned vehicle I did not purchase.  Some time ago David Lee Roth’s Porsche 964 came up for sale, it was silver with this special order red leather interior.  It had lead a pampered life, well as pampered as a life with Diamond Dave can be.  The difference here was the car was not marked up at all due to its affiliation with the Van Halen lead singer.

Which leads us to William Shatner’s 500E.

William Shatner’s 1992 Mercedes 500E for Sale:

From the seller -

“Up for sale is my 1992 Mercedes 500E. I will spare you the details of what this model is all about and the Porsche connection as you probably are aware of what this car is. I am the second owner having purchased it from William Shatner in 2003 with 66,000 miles. Yes that William Shatner of star trek fame and who sold his kidney stone for $75,000! I had Mr. Shatner sign the underside of the arm rest before the car was shipped. The photo of Shatner with the car was shot outside his LA house on the day he autographed the car. Car color is Black Pearl Metallic with a grey leather interior. BergWerks in LA before the car was shipped to me installed a first gear start, keyless entry, and stainless brake lines. I have installed Hella european head lights, removed the front head light wipers, and put on Evo 17″ wheels. I have the original wheels and all of the other parts. The car is in excellent condition and has been stored in a climate controlled garage and has been driven on  mostly sunny days. It is what I consider the last of the Mercedes cars that was designed by engineers and way over built. It is an incredible machine. I have all of the service records dating back to 1992. This car has has an open check book as far as service history and is in excellent condition. In 11/2008 I had the car repainted with the correct oil based Glasurit paint, new rubber and new MB windshield by Stewart’s paint and body shop www.stewartspnb.com at a cost of $14,000. Recent new parts are brake rotors/pads ,Behr radiator, Michelin Pilot Sport tires, and new oem headliner. Car runs very cool, has no dings ,scratches, or suprises. This one will put a smile on your face everytime you drive it!”

First off I had no idea that someone paid $75k for William Shatner’s kidney stone.  I was going to say this car is priced outside the reasonable market but this tells me there may be a Trekkie somewhere who finds the $35k price tag for this car reasonable.

Outside of this the car is too rich for the rest of us who do not feel as strongly about its celebrity status.  All cache aside, it is just a well kept example with a very nice repaint.  Which is not a bad thing, just don’t expect it to achieve warp speed or beam you anywhere.

~Aaron

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