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About two weeks ago I looked at a really nice Mercedes-Benz 400SEL up for sale in Canada that I felt was just a sublime car. Nothing was crazy or ostentatious, it was just a beautifully built car. Today, I wanted to look at another 1993 V8 Mercedes up for sale in Canada but this time it is the slightly smaller 400E. I’ve gone on before about how the W124 400E/420E is often lost in the crowd thanks to the legendary 500E and always in-demand E320 Cabriolet, but it seems like the really nice examples of these cars are starting to pop up more often. This one painted in Dark Grey Metallic with black leather interior is not a perfect car by any means, but is just as functional and probably a lot more fun than the 400SEL from a few weeks ago. My advice? Snag one of these now if you want one because they aren’t getting any cheaper.
Update: This car is back up for sale from a new owner with a nice detail and a laundry list of maintenance completed. Almost no miles were added but the price has been raised to $11,500. Check it out here.Â
It is all about the details for me. I have seen enough of the same cars day after day that all look they pretty much look the same to me. Unless of course a car sticks out for one reason or two. It could be a unique color, it could be a rare-spec with interesting options or it could be the entire car is something I haven’t seen pop up for sale. Today’s car, a European-spec 1983 Mercedes-Benz 500SE for sale in California, has the entire package of coolness that I just have to take a close look at it. Judging by the photo above, you can tell this one is going to be good.
Another Mercedes-Benz, another reported former owner who was a leader of a country. According to the seller, this 1966 250SE Coupe was owned Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos. I thought it would be neat to maybe find a photo of him with this car because presidents seem to have their photo taken a lot. (Speaking of, this is a really iconic photo of Mateos riding in an Adenauer cabriolet with JFK.) During my quick research of Mateos, I noticed he died in September of 1969. The seller mentioned that he owned this car in the 1980s. This is why I always say ”According to the seller”. I nicely presented these findings to the seller and he urged me to see if I could find any more information since I was already three pages deep in my Google searching. Turns out, a Mexican website is representing another 250SE, a white 1965, as Mateos car as well. Clearly it is not the same car. This is why it is always a good idea to do your own research before spending a bunch of money on a car or writing about it on the internet. Anyway, this W111 is a European-spec car mated to a 4-speed manual gearbox that needs a whole lot of help. Much to my surprise, it seems like there are plenty of people out there willing to give it such help based on the bidding.
Probably one of the most overlooked or even forgotten supercars of the last decade is the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss. Lots of people thought it was only a concept car or maybe didn’t even know this car exists. That is totally understandable because only 75 of these cars exist and its lack of a windshield doesn’t scream factory production car. The quick backstory on the SLR McLaren Stirling Moss is that it is obviously based off the SLR but with totally radical styling done by Korean designer Yoon Il-hun. This car still has a bite to back up its bark with a 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 220 mph. The only way to obtain one of these cars was to be a current SLR owner and write a check for an even $1,000,000. If you are wondering why you’ve never seen one of these cruising around Beverly Hills or South Beach, Miami, it’s because they were never sold in America so a trip to Monaco is in order if you want to see one of these trying to squeeze into a parking spot surrounded by a crowd of people filming it. The good news is that if you were thinking about importing one to the United States, it is possible with the proper paperwork and even more money. Want to import this example for sale in Germany? Bring a pen with a fine tip on it so you can fit all the zeros inside the little box on the check.
I feature famous owner Mercedes-Benz from time to time with the scale of their ”famousness” ranging from Rowan Atkinson, Clark Gable, Bono and even Elvis. Personally, I just don’t believe that these names do a lot, or anything, for the values of the cars outside of it being just a cool side note. Maybe with some of the Elvis cars it might move the needle at little, but his star is fading as the years go by and the people who truly remember him are also fading away. Today, I have a car that you could argue is on the A-list when it comes to celebrity cars. This is John Lennon’s 1979 300TD. You might remember him as the co-founder of the The Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music. His fame was tremendous until the day of his murder on December 8, 1980 and judging by how much media attention he and his family still gets just by throwing his name into Google, is still quite relevant. You would guess that maybe this car, a car that he owned until his death, is probably going to bring big money, right?
