I’m not exactly breaking any news here, but if you want an R129 Mercedes-Benz 600SL/SL600 at somewhat of a reasonable price, don’t sit around too much longer. The cream of the crop is already selling for a ton of money, and the very nice examples have quickly risen to a level where you really have to love these cars to spend the amount of money they are demanding. Thankfully there still are some not-so expensive ones out there on the market, but I think it is very clearly becoming a “you get what you pay” situation on them. Today’s example, a 2000 SL600 up for sale outside of Boston, sure seems to be one of those cases.
Category: Mercedes Benz
If you say “aging twin-turbocharged V12 engine” to any sane car person, they’ll probably reply along the lines of “You couldn’t give it to me for free.” They probably wouldn’t be too far off, but it all comes down to expectations going into something like that. Is it going to be cheap and easy? Probably not. Is it going to be a total disaster of Maserati Biturbo proportions? Hopefully not. In all seriousness, the Mercedes-AMG M275 engine is about the best you can ask for in terms of what they made and how much reward you get from it, which is 604 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque. Much to everyone’s surprise and now delight, these engines have been proven to be anything but a rolling disaster. However, does that mean it is worth rolling the dice on one when the price becomes attractive enough? Let’s take a look with this 2008 with an impressive 80,000 miles on the odometer.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2008 Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG on eBay
3 CommentsJust when I thought I’ve seen it all! What we are looking at is a 1977 Mercedes-Benz 300D that somehow was transformed into a strangely proportioned coupe. According to the seller, the body was modified by removing the rear doors, moving fuel tank and fuel door two feet forward, and extended the trunk lid two feet. Try to wrap your head around that. On top of that, this car already exists and Mercedes made of ton of them! Unless this car was modified right in 1977 when it came out, it made no sense why someone would do this. But here it is, in all its mis-proportioned glory. Just to make it even stranger, it is powered by a 1983 OM617 Turbodiesel engine. Let’s take a look:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1977 Mercedes-Benz 300D ‘Coupe’ on eBay
3 CommentsIn my modest collection, my oldest car is 1980 Mercedes-Benz S-Class. I don’t drive it much at all, a few hundred miles a year at most, but I can’t seem to let it go. Just this past Sunday I gave it a really deep wash and applied a coat of wax on it for the upcoming winter, and then thought there is no way I am selling this car after I was all done with it. It is literally the definition of “They don’t make them like they used to” in terms of Mercedes-Benz products. The car will be 40 years old soon, but it still drives and functions like a 4 year-old car despite over 225,000 miles on it. The flaws of the chassis are few, with the biggest one being a climate system they outsourced from Chrysler, of all brands, which turned out to be total garbage. Imagine that!
Today’s car, 1980 405SEL up for sale in California, seems to have a bit of an identity crisis. At first I thought it was a Euro car as it has the Euro headlights, bumpers, and plate holders, but peeking inside I’m seeing a speedometer in MPH and the aforementioned garbage automatic climate control. What is going on here?