The Mercedes-Benz W140 Coupe is growing on me. Especially when they are done as well as today’s car. This 1997 S500 Coupe up for sale in Costa Mesa is painted in the ultra-bright Imperial Red and most importantly, the 18″ three-piece AMG wheels. The interior is take it or leave it beige leather, but it does make up for it having just a little over 25,000 miles. Time to buy in on the C140? Probably not this example given the asking price. Let me explain.
I hate to go on a run of W140 Mercedes-Benz Coupes, but I couldn’t pass this one up. This is a 1997 CL500 up for sale in Victoria, Australia is finished in the lovely shade of Aquamarine Blue. It surely isn’t the traditional black/white/gray, and in the grand scheme of things, I think that is a good thing. While I love my Brilliant Silver Metallic, sometimes you just need a little color. Aquamarine thankfully isn’t garish and is looks pretty good in my eyes on such a hefty car such as the C140. This car being in Australia also means a few things. One, it is a European-spec, which is a always a good thing. But that also means it is right-hand drive. So your options are limited in countries you’d want to own this car in unless you are a giant fan of blindly merging onto the highway because of this massive C-pillar on this car.
Last month I looked at a Mercedes-Benz W140 Coupe in a 1999 CL500 that not only looked great, but had a really reasonable asking price as well. Needless to say, it didn’t last all that long as someone else must of saw the value in it. Today, I wanted to go even further up market and check out a very low-mile 1996 S600 Coupe up for sale in New Jersey. Just as a refresher, Mercedes produced just over 8,500 of the V12-powered 600SEC/S600 Coupe/CL600 models for worldwide sale over an eight-year production period so they are relatively rare compared to the 36,000 examples of the V12 sedan. To find one with just 36,000 miles as this one has isn’t an easy task. However, that certainly means you are going to pay a premium. A big one.
A few weeks ago I took a look at a 1993 Mercedes-Benz 500SEC that needed some help to say the least. Thankfully it looks like it sold a few days ago for a low sum of $4,600 and maybe is on its way to a new life. Honestly, I wouldn’t bet on it given how expensive it would be to refurbish the car. Today, I’d thought I’d look at another C140 that looks like it doesn’t need much, if anything at all. This CL500 up for sale in the Los Angeles area is a rare 1999 model, the last year the C140 was in production. Mercedes really cut back on the C140 for the 1999 model year – production was just under 1,500 for the entire world. Word is, only around 125 of them made it to the U.S. in both CL500 and CL600 guise. Needless to say, a rare bird. The good news is this example has just over 100,000 miles on it and looks like it has about half of that. The better news, it isn’t as expensive as you might of thought.
Update 8/18/19 – this 500SEC sold for $4,600.
I still get wishy-washy on the Mercedes-Benz W140 Coupe. Sometimes I think it looks great, other times I think it looks very odd. Yes, a lot of that has to do with the wheel and tire combo, but maybe my argument is that it shouldn’t come down to what wheels and tires a car has to determine if it looks good or not. The reason this comes up is because I came across a very interesting 1993 500SEC up for sale in Florida for a couple of reasons. First, it is painted in the very rare Nautical Blue Metallic. Second, it only has 98k miles on the odometer. Lastly, it is relatively cheap. Although that is probably for a reason.
The Mercedes-Benz W140 Coupe, or C140, is one of those cars that you might have forgotten about until you see one in the wild or stumble across one for sale. There is good reason for that seeing that Mercedes made a little over 400,000 W140 sedans while only producing 26,000 coupes. You can see that is quite a difference in production numbers and now that the youngest W140 is almost 20 years-old, they are only are getting more rare. Today, I wanted to check out the rarest W140 ever produced, the CL420. Just 2,500 CL420/S420 Coupes were produced from 1994 to 1998 and exactly zero ever made it to America. These Coupes used the 4.2 liter M119 V8 borrowed from the sedan and was the smallest engine choice available in the C140. This 1996 up for sale in Spain is probably one of the most well-preserved CL420s out there despite its 112,000 miles. I just wish I could bring it to America.
People are usually pretty hot or cold on the Mercedes-Benz W140 Coupe. They followed up the massively successful and popular W126 Coupe and it’s not that these are bad cars at all, but it’s tough to follow-up something that was so great. I think lots of times people even forget about these cars because you don’t see them all that often. Mercedes made just over 8,500 of the V12-powered 600SEC/S600 Coupe/CL600 for worldwide sale over an eight-year production period so they are relatively rare compared to the V12 sedan that was produced to the tune of 36,000. Today’s car, a 1996 up for sale outside of Detroit, is one of the finest S600 Coupes I’ve seen come up for sale. The price? Well worth the asking in my eyes.
Last week I checked out a great SL73 AMG which the mad men at AMG took an already hearty 6.0 liter V12 and converted it to a 7.3 liter. Today we have another 7.3 liter 140 chassis, although this one was converted by another tuning house. This 1997 CL600 for sale in Hamburg, Germany was sent to well-known Brabus where it not only underwent the conversion to 7.3 liters, but gained some body work, wheels and giant brakes as well. Because of all this, the price tag steep. But you probably won’t believe how steep it really is.
In my opinion, the W140 coupe didn’t age particularity well. That isn’t a huge knock on it because not a lot of cars from the early to mid-90s did age all that well. I think in some angels the C140 looks very handsome, not very offensive. But from other views, mainly the front profile like you see in the photo above, it all looks very odd to me. I totally get why I think it looks this way, you have massive flared fenders up from and a giant rear quarter panel in the back. This is all very good except for the fact that the 16 inch wheels don’t fill out these spaces. The car looks almost top-heavy to me. This of course can be fixed with a proper set of wheels and some suspension modifications. (I still regret not buying that car.) Then again, the main reason you bought this massive coupe is to relax, not worry about bending a $2000 wheel on a minor pothole. You can see the how much I think about this stuff.
Year: 1995
Model: S500
Engine: 5.0 liter V8
Transmission: 4-speed automatic
Mileage: 76,500 mi
Price: No Reserve Auction
· Mileage: 76,500 Color: White over gray exterior/Grey leather interior Owners: 5 Clean title and Carfax
· W140 series (last of the “because they could” big cars built by MB). Classic design coupe; rare, less than 15,000 total production from 1992 – 1998. Car spent the first 18 years in California and Florida.
· Legendary 5 liter M119 V8 engine (last engine to win overall at Le Mans for MB): 315 hp at 5600 rpm and 347 ft/lbs of torque at 3900 rpm. 4-speed automatic transmission/no shift problems.
· California/Florida car. No rust!
· Mechanically very sound. Superb driver. All maintenance up to date. ETB and main engine wiring harnesses replaced. Trans fluid changed. Engine partially overhauled at 66,000 miles (due to engine overheating). Engine very strong. No oil usage. Brakes serviced. Many major components have been serviced or replaced. Underside very clean. Michelin tires w/10,000 miles. Oil/filter changed every year before going into storage. Exceptionally clean and well cared for automobile.
· Complete service records starting 2011
· Exterior and interior very clean. Smoke free. Leather in very good condition. No dents or body repair. Original paint very shiny with minimal scratches/nicks. Front fenders and hood repainted (Not due to any accident – Top quality repaint). Carpets in very good shape (minor stains on driver side floor and in trunk). Wood in excellent condition
· All gauges/systems function: windows, door soft close assist, seat belt presenters, rear window shade, rear headrests (beginning clutch grind), rear back up guides, sun roof, air conditioning, radio (serviced OEM), rear window defroster, electronic side and rear view mirrors, rear hydraulic suspension
· Additional areas needing attention: headliner over rear seat is loose (minor flap with windows open, not detached). Rear head rests raise/lower mechanisms will need to be replaced soon; still work but beginning to make gear grinding sounds indicating gears are slipping. Passenger seat head rest not working. Rough idle issue that is not permanent; quick acceleration corrects it. Everything else works! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need to know more. Shipping is buyer’s responsibly. Deposit of $500 dollars required within 24 hours of purchase.
Mileage: 76,500. Clean title and Carfax• 4-speed automatic transmission/no shift problems.• California/Florida car. No rust!• Mechanically very sound. All maintenance up to date. Exceptionally clean and well cared for automobile.• Complete service records starting 2011• Exterior and interior very clean. No dents or body repair. Front fenders and hood repainted (Not due to any accident – Top quality repaint). • All gauges/systems function – see exceptions below.• Additional areas needing attention: headliner over rear seat is loose (minor flap with windows open – headliner is not detached). Rear head rests raise/lower mechanisms beginning to grind – clutch slippage. Passenger seat head rest not working. Seat belt presenters not working. Occasional rough idle at startup after 5 – 10 minutes. Eventually stops after hard acceleration. Everything else works!!”
When I first glanced this 1995 S500 Coupe for sale in Illinois, I thought I had a real winner. Very clean both inside and out, lower mileage and coming from a seller who knows how to properly photograph a car when they are selling it. Then I started reading the fine print. Things like ”occasional rough idle at startup” and ”engine partially overhauled at 66,000 miles (due to engine overheating)” started giving me second thoughts. On the inside, more things like seat belt pretensioners not working, headrests either dead or on their way out and a sagging headliner give me pause. It’s not like all of these things are a major deal, but it just tells me maybe this car wasn’t a number one priority to try to keep in exceptional shape. I totally understand though because the majority of people live with issues on their cars and it doesn’t bother them. But to me, these cars are what I’m into and ”occasional rough idles” keep me up at night.
What I’m interested to see is where the bidding ends up. I have no doubt that someone is going to fall in love with this car based on the outstanding photos and start bidding away, issues be damned. Nice C140s are becoming rare very and clean ones like this aren’t popping up as much as they used to. If I had to guess, the $7,500 to 10,000 range wouldn’t shock me because a lot of people have no problem throwing caution to the wind. At the end of the day, I guess whatever kind of risk you can stomach all plays into older car purchases, but I like to play it a little more safe.
– Andrew
After a change in nomenclature in 1994, the Mercedes-Benz S-class coupe would again see a model name change in 1997. Renamed the CL class, this would be the moniker for the large coupe up until this current model year, when it would once again be known as the S-class coupe. Who knows what the rationale behind these name changes might be, but it’s rather remarkable this big two-door has survived throughout the years, facing economic downturns and energy crunches alike. This 1996 S600 Coupe is not for the faint of heart when it comes to running costs, as the brawny 6.0 liter V12 will certainly eat its fair share of gas and oil, along with the additional parts as compared to its lesser V8 sibling. With less than 50,000 miles on the clock, this S600 Coupe for sale in New Jersey would be great for collectors and those looking to impress at the country club forecourt alike.
