Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
As cars grow more complex each year, old iron like this late model Mercedes-Benz 300CD grow more and more appealing. This example for sale in California has lived on the west coast its whole life and its looks are deceptive, as it has 183,000 miles on its odometer. A testament, then, to how timeless and durable these diesel Benzes really are.
For those of us in the Northeast US who don’t enjoy warm weather year round, the question begins to be thrown about as we approach the Memorial Day holiday: “where do you summer?†Well, for me, it would be less of a question of where rather than what do I do it in. If I had my way, it would be in one of these classics, the Mercedes-Benz 280SE Cabriolet. These grand touring machines have skyrocketed in value over the past few years, and it’s no surprise, as they are some of the last truly hand-built Mercedes-Benzes, from a bygone era. This 1970 example for sale in New York is convenient for those about to hit the Hamptons this coming weekend.
I’ve alluded to my annoyance at the ubiquity of the AMG Geländewagens around Silicon Valley, as growing up there was a mystique to insane breathed-on monster SUVs. The German marques have seemed to erase all mystique in their performance brands by expanding them to every model and selling as many as possible. Today’s G-Wagen would turn some heads and probably elicit some envy from G55 owners, intrigued by this short wheelbase convertible that will seem to the rich but ignorant to be a very expensive and unique car when it was in fact a more base version in other parts of the world. Living in Canada but with a US title, this would be an extremely capable off-roader with diesel efficiency and Jeep-like convertibility. The importation and rarity doesn’t make it cheap though, with an asking price that could easily get you a very nice, newer G55.
We featured a 1969 300SEL 6.3 back in March, and here comes another mint example for sale in California for the discerning enthusiast. This car has covered just over 50,000 miles from new and has been treated to a recent service. These were luxury saloons ahead of their time in terms of performance and set the tone for generations of performance Mercedes-Benzes to come. This, then, is an Mercedes icon of epic proportions.
At the other end of the gray market scale from the 500SL we featured a few days ago sits this car, the 280SL. For most of its lifespan, European customers were able to specify a six cylinder variant of the popular R107 roadster, the first examples having the engine we see here, the twin cam M110 inline-6. This example for sale in Wisconsin has remarkably low mileage and features a few nice options like alloy wheels, heated seats and the rear “kinder†seat.