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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.
In a sea of seemingly never ending R129 Mercedes-Benz SLs for sale, every once in a while a rare model will pop up that offers a nice change of pace. One of them is the 1997 SL320 40th Anniversary Edition. As just a reminder, Mercedes decided to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the SL with a special edition SL320 and SL500. All painted in Quartz Blue Metallic, the 6-cylinder SL320 is more rare with only 250 examples produced while the SL500, those all painted in Crimson Metallic, had twice as many built at 500 units.
Today, we have this example with 50,000 miles up for sale Central Pennsylvania that looks the part, but I think maybe this is a case of the seller not knowing what they have.
It is very clear to me that the death of the V12 is near. It was certainly inevitable, as outside of a few very select manufacturers it just isn’t in the cards anymore. What does that mean? Go buy a V12, of course! I guess I’m not alone in thinking this as prices of the somewhat more common V12 cars have started to creep up. A prime example is the R129. For a long time, these hovered in the teens, but now the very best ones are selling for strong money and the pack of average ones is starting to catch up.
This 1997 up for sale in Florida has an interesting story. It was not only offered once, but twice, and ended at a reasonable value. However, this seller seems to have other ideas.
In terms of the R129 Mercedes-Benz, it doesn’t get better than this. This is the SL73 AMG. Just 85 were made and they are the only SL fitted with M297 V12, which is a variant of the M120 that was tuned by AMG. This is the same 7.3 V12 that powered the early Zonda cars and, of course, the CLK GTR Straßenversion. It is basically the cream of the crop when it comes to the naturally aspirated Mercedes V12 engines and threw down an impressive output of 561 horsepower and 575 lb-ft of torque. Even looking at it is worth the price of admission. But to have the engine and all the car wrapped around it? Bring a very large check.
Hey there. This is something different. What we have today in a 1994 Mercedes-Benz SL280 up for sale in the heart of London. If the car being a 5-speed manual didn’t raise your eyebrows, how about I tell you it is actually left-hand drive as well? According to this dealer, the car was originally delivered to Monaco, which probably explains why it only has 35,000 miles. However, a quick check of the UK MOT shows consistent tests starting in 2005, so this one was booted from the beautiful ̶t̶a̶x̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶n̶ vacation spot long ago, probably for being far too plebeian. Naturally, my gear were immediately turning seeing how this would be an ideal import to the US. However, once I saw the price, I threw in the towel rather quickly.
