After that last Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, I thought I’d get back on the right track with another SLS that is much more special. This 2012 up for sale in Germany starts out tame enough in Obsidian Black Metallic, but when you open those doors you get hit with a color combo that I’ve never seen before and didn’t even think was possible. It is worth the click.
I did not expect to see this. In a world where all the 1990s Mercedes-Benz AMG cars were painted in some sort of black/white/silver/grey, seeing the rare one in red was a treat. However, I was not expecting a bright blue.
This is a 1999 Mercedes-Benz C43 AMG is Lapis Blue. Looking at the build sheet, this one was a Mercedes version of “paint to sample” judging by the ‘Z98 Painting outside the sample card’ entry on the decoder. This color is not to be confused with Porsche’s Lapis Blue which is clearly a much darker blue. Needless to say, a rare example. You know what that means.
Ever since about March or so when the American passport suddenly became worthless, people who usually travel by plane to vacation spots suddenly were packing up and driving to where ever wasn’t their house. That meant normally pleasant national parks and camping spots looked like Disney World in July. That’s not a good thing. Good luck even finding a parking spot at an outdoor venue and suddenly the sleepy little resort towns in the Midwest are overrun with tourists. To combat that, people had to go even further away into some true expedition exploring, but mom’s Honda Odyssey minivan wasn’t the ideal vehicle for the job. Enter the overland rig.
The overlanding community has always been strong, but never in your face about it. You could usually tell if you saw a roof-top tent or some serious suspension and wheel/tire combo, but that was about it. Jeeps and Land Cruisers are the preferred vehicle of choice, but you’d get your Tacoma and other trucks as well. What you usually don’t see, are $100,000+ luxury SUVs, even as capable as they might be. Taking a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen into the woods and putting trail damage on one is a bad idea unless you plan on being buried in it, but it looks like this 2013 up for sale in West Virginia of all places is exactly ready for that. Notice I said “ready” and didn’t used any past tense language on that one. Let me explain.
I think the days of V8s in mid-size sedans are numbered. With emissions regulations and fuel economy standards becoming more stringent as the years go on, you’ll be seeing smaller and smaller displacement engines along with hybrid systems becoming the norm in almost every car except the ultra-high performance models. Look right now, the current Mercedes-Benz E-Class lineup lacks a V8 until you get to the top of the range E63 AMG, which starts at $110,000. Even ten years ago, you could get your E500 with a 5.0 V8 and call it a day. Not anymore, two 2.0L inline-fours and an 3.0L inline-six are what awaits your down payment. Buyers don’t really care, as long as the car looks good and the lease numbers and performance are good, sign ’em up.
So rewind 20 years and head back to the new Millennium where the E-Class lineup was simple. There was the 3.2L V6 E320, 4.3L V8 E430, and 5.4L V8 E55 AMG. Done. The buyers for E320s and E55s were very different people, as the E320 was $47,000, while the E55 was a significant amount more at $72,000. Turns out its not cheap to pay a bunch of Germans in a small town to hand-assemble a car. So what about the E430? $53,000. Suddenly that extra six grand seems like a worthwhile upgrade over the E320. You had more than respectable numbers at the time with 275 horsepower and 295 lb.-ft of torque. Still, every time you saw an E55, which lets be honest probably never because of the extremely low production numbers, you wanted those 18″ Monoblocks and special body kit. Now that is 20 years later, does it still make sense to buy an E430? I think so, especially this one.
Your dollar doesn’t go very far if you want a Mercedes-Benz station wagon. I’ve expanded on the value of the wagons in the past, and that seems to be holding true in almost every example. However, if you really want a long body with a three-pointed star, you can find a good buy if you search hard enough or adjust your standards low enough. This 2006 E350 Wagon up for sale Tennessee is a little bit of both.
Just when you thought the Mercedes-Benz AMG GT R couldn’t get any bonkers, AMG turned it up to 11. Just to be clear here, the standard GT R, as if there is anything “standard” about it, was a car so bonkers and track focused that it held the Nürburgring production car lap record for a short time. So what did it need? More stuff! All that stuff seemed to pay off, as somehow they shaved another six seconds off that lap time without adding any more power at all. How is that possible? Lighter, stiffer, and more aero. That is what this boils down to. Production is limited to just 750 examples, and one happened to pop up in Florida with an impressive 5,000 miles on the odometer.
I don’t believe a lot of people necessarily think about the R230 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class generation. Outside of the SL55 AND SL65 AMG cars, they cars are rather forgettable in the world of modern convertibles. Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t anything particularly bad about them, but they were rather soft. The design was conservative with subdued lines and long curves, and the inside was much of the same. Mercedes isn’t dumb here, this is what their SL buyers want. Because of the long production run and a bunch of variants, there isn’t a giant demand for them over 10 years later. Whats that mean? Cheap cheap cheap.
Green is good, even in small doses. The Mercedes-Benz Pagoda series was all about utilizing two-tone color schemes beyond the normal silver over black or black over tan. They’d mix complementary colors together usually on the hard top, hub caps, and interior. They weren’t afraid to take chances, even with non-traditional colors. Case in point, this 250SL finished in white with a Dark Olive hard top and Green Parchment MB-Tex upholstery. Even better? It’s got a 4-speed manual too.
Earlier this spring, ESPN released a six-part documentary about the life and legacy of basketball player Michael Jordan that showcased him like we’ve never seen before. Even as someone who is only mildly interested in NBA, it was a fascinating watch. I wasn’t alone in this, as the ratings were off the charts for all six episodes. As a result, anything Michael Jordan related was now on fire in terms of value and people were eating it up. Even the most mundane things were suddenly as hot as can be and everyone was back on Jordan mania. Well, wouldn’t you have it, that includes cars. Even ones h̶e̶ his wife owned over 20 years ago and now are all beat up with a ton of miles on.
I actually looked at another one of his cars a few years ago in the ultra-rare SLR McLaren 722 Edition, which as the time wasn’t a big deal at all. This isn’t an SLR today, this is just an C140 S600 Coupe with some Lorinser bits bolted on and a bunch of miles. The current bid? Well, this is why eBay doesn’t work for cars like these.
Hard to believe we are in the middle of August, but we say that every year like its some kind of surprise that the calendar moves. Soon we’ll be heading into fall with cooler temperatures and, eventually the dreaded “W” word. What won’t be cooling off anytime soon is the demand for really nice R129 Mercedes-Benz models. I think the day is finally here for this generation of SL-Class and some recent results for nice examples only back that up. For now, it seems like its the second facelift cars with the SL1 and SL2 packages that are in most demand, and wouldn’t you know, that is exactly what we have up for sale today in Arizona. This one finished in the always fun Amber Red Metallic checks in with 65,000 miles and surely looks the part. The asking price of course reflects that too.
