I never get tired of talking about the W126 Mercedes-Benz S class here on GCFSB, mainly because they are one of my favorite Teutonic cruisers from an era where engineering ruled the day at Mercedes-Benz. They were employed in a multitude of ways, from taxis to limousines to vehicles for heads of state. This short wheelbase 300SE for sale in Florida has 80,000 miles on the clock, which is just broken in for one of these beasts.
1990 Mercedes-Benz 300SE on eBay
This is a fantastic 1990 Mercedes-Benz 300SE which is incredibly hard to find this nice with only 79,904 original low miles that has been kept in above and beyond condition. Rarely will you see an older vehicle so nice with such low miles and one that drives so good. Everything works perfectly including the cold air conditioning, cruise control and vacuum systems. The exterior is gorgeous and aside from a couple of small chips on the rear bumper and some of the panels the exterior is awesome looking. The interior is even nicer showing a vehicle that belies its age. No cracks in the dash. Trim that looks amazing and overall incredible shape. There is one small tear on the door post (pic) but that’s it. The rear cap looks amazing and overall I do not think you will see many other vehicles of this age this nice. If your looking for that needle in the haystack then do yourself a favor and call me. Please note that the brake light is on and this is being caused by the emergency brake pedal needing adjustment and this has been taken care of by us and is now repaired.
For under $6,000, there are few cars out there which come to mind that would not only last the test of time like a W126 S class, but give the impression at first glance that you spent a lot more than you did. The W126 is one of my bucket list cars and unlike some, I’m more partial to the short wheelbase six cylidner variant. If I was in the market today, this particular car would be on my short list. Even factoring in maintenance and repairs over time, a car like this would be worth the investment. These are not just another luxury sedan. They are a durable good.
-Paul
My inner pessimist is screaming, “There must be something wrong with it!”
Nice car. Low mileage. Seems like a reasonable price. Stately but conservative color combo. Appears to be very good condition for 22 years old.
Only thing my inner pessimist can come up with is no CarFax or AutoCheck report provided. Leaves me wondering what’s on it.
Paul, great selection. I like that it’s the short wheelbase. Did this share the 6-cyl with the W124 300E?
I agree 100% about the price advantage. Although they can still command a premium, Mercedes made a ton of W126. You get so much car for the buck with these on the resale market today.
@Larry – I probably wouldn’t worry about this one at least. Immaculate low mileage Florida cars are sometimes just previously owned by elderly wealthy people, who, while perhaps never drove them much, did have the pockets and old-school common sense to maintain them as necessary, so there usually aren’t many gremlins hiding. In fact, my grandparents are 80-year olds and have a darnfangled W204 that they think is too small, I’d love to get a long wheelbase W126 and chauffeur them around when they decide to give up driving for good.
@Sam, yes, this was the same 6 cylinder that powered the 300E, the M103.980.
Beautiful car. I too am a 126 junkie and would like to own one, but my wife reminds me we already have more cars than drivers. These cars are solid, but I would want to have the front end checked, I would want to make sure the HVAC works and that the CIS system is OK. If those things are not in order, then at a good Mercedes shop one could easily be into this car for another $4k or so. But that aside, this car certainly looks promising. Maybe I too am an inner pessimist?
I’m actually pretty interested in this: my W124 wagon was rear-ended last month and was officially declared a total today, and this is roughly what I expect my settlement to be. I was looking at w140s but they’re awfully big, and this is almost exactly halfway in size between the w124 and the w140.
Is this car sitting too high, particularly in the rear, or have I simply forgotten what cars looked like before everyone was running 19 and 20 inch wheels?
Can anyone recommend a shop in Ft. Lauderdale to do a PPI?
The good news is that there is a carfax, although I haven’t seen it yet.
@OlyOop, the ride height seems to be correct from what I can tell.
I don’t know of any shops that could do a PPI in the Ft. Lauderdale area, as I am not from there. I will say, though, that a friend of mine just purchased a Maserati Quattroporte out of the area and used Carchex to have it inspected before purchase. You may give them a shot.
You can locate independent MB repair shops here: http://www.benzshops.com – there are 5 of them within 10 miles listed in the Lauderdale area. I’ll be that at least one of them does PPIs.