Tag: S class

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2008 Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG

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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

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1980 Mercedes-Benz 450SEL

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In 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?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1980 Mercedes-Benz 450SEL on eBay

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1992 Mercedes-Benz 500SEL

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This W140 sold for $13,600 on November 17, 2021.

I still think the W140 Mercedes-Benz S-Class is occupying that no man’s land area where it isn’t old enough to be a full on classic, but certainly not new enough where original owner’s still are using them. When you look up 1990s styling, this is very much it, and maybe this isn’t a good thing. On the other hand, if you wanted to daily drive one, you certainly could as long as your wiring harness hasn’t turned to dust on the pre-facelift models. We are seeing the really nice Grand Edition and V12 cars sell for serious money, but the rest of the model line up seems to lag behind significantly.

Today’s example, a 1992 500SEL up for sale in Chicago looks like your typical early build, but shows an impressively low 25,000 miles. Even better? It’s Malachite Green Metallic.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1992 Mercedes-Benz 500SEL on eBay

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1995 Mercedes-Benz S500 6.0 AMG

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Some cars are all bark and no bite, while some are both, and very few are the opposite. If you were Mercedes-Benz in the 1990s, you weren’t concerned about being flashy and letting the world know what you were packing. Even more so when it came to then-small tuning arm AMG and their subsidies around the globe. Sure, you could order some different body work from them, but looking back now, it is extremely constrained compared to what we are used to as normal now. Today, we have a seemingly innocent S500 up for sale in Japan, although the multi-piece wheels and tiny little trunk badge is a little bit of a giveaway that this isn’t a normal S500.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1995 Mercedes-Benz S500 6.0 AMG at Goo-Net Japan

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1993 Mercedes-Benz 300SE

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We’ve come a long way in the past 30 years when it comes to cars. Arguably the best car in the world at the time, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, offered everything in terms of quality and functionality – but you had to pay dearly for it. Now almost 30 years later, you get all that plus a host of autonomous-like driving features in a basic family sedan. Such is the march of time and progress, but we still like to take a look at the cars that created the trend – and this W140 is the perfect candidate.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1993 Mercedes-Benz 300SE on eBay

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1994 Mercedes-Benz S320 Hearse

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Some days you just don’t know what you are going to stumble across. This is one of those days. What we are looking at is a 1994 Mercedes-Benz S320 that has been converted to a hearse. Now believe it or not, this is not the first time I’ve looked at an S-Class hearse, as there was a 560SEL I checked out way back in 2018. That one was setup for Japanese Buddhists, while this W140 seems to be more of a traditional hearse without the scaled down Temple constructed on it. However, judging by the decor and stickers on the car, this most certainly also came from Japan where it saw some use. Cool! But what would you even do with it?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1994 Mercedes-Benz S320 Hearse on eBay

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1995 Mercedes-Benz S500

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I don’t think anyone has ever really slept on the W140 Mercedes-Benz S-Class, but it certainly seems in the past 18 months or so that people are getting wise to their collectability. We’ve seen some really nice S600 examples sell for big money and then even bigger money given low miles and outstanding condition. However, they made a ton of W140s and I’m willing to bet they’ll be way more on the market than the demand will command. This isn’t a 500E or 2.3-16v, then was the very mass produced range topper.

Naturally, when I see what looks like a clean W140, I have to take a look not only to see the condition, but what the owner is thinking of in terms of value. Unfortunately this owner is slightly overestimating the current value. More like slightly.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1995 Mercedes-Benz S500 on eBay

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1977 Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9 Euro-Spec

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While the M5 may have the notoriety of being the first serious super performance sedan, it’s easy to forget that Mercedes-Benz really started the trend. As early as the 1930s, Mercedes-Benz was building some of the fastest large cars in the marketplace. They were expensive, complicated, and beautiful works of engineering. It took a while post-war for both the marketplace and the company to come back to full strength, but two cars created in the midst of an international oil crisis I really think point towards the character of their respective companies. First was BMW’s hard-edged, barely disguised racer for the road, the 3.0CSL – which we sort of just looked at. It was expensive, relatively lightweight, stunning to look at and pretty quick to boot – a sporting nature that would carry through to the current generation of BMWs, still considered the benchmark in sporting sedans. On the other side of the fence was the 450SEL 6.9; who else but Mercedes-Benz would put the largest production V8 into a sedan when there was a gas crisis? If the 3.0 shouted about it’s racing prowess, the Mercedes was subtle and understated. Indeed, option number 261 even removed the displacement badge on the rear, and outside of that you’d only see hints of the car’s performance by the bulging tires and slightly more showy exhaust. But stomp on the loud pedal and the best part of 290 horsepower was on tap for you – and this was 1975. Remember 1975? It was when the base Corvette had 165 horsepower and if you wanted to just break 200, the L-82 was your only option at 205 horsepower. A full 40% more powerful, the Benz was the match for sports cars of the day in a straight line but offered extreme luxury at the same time:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1977 Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9 on eBay

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2000 Mercedes-Benz S500

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I harp a lot about the W220 Mercedes-Benz S-Class and how it might be the most disappointing flagship the team Stuttgart has ever launched. It was the year 2000 and this car fit in quite well for the time, just like oversized baggy suits and trucker hats. Well, all those were donated to the Goodwill during spring cleaning 2005, but the early W220s lived on and still roam the earth to this date. A lot of these are now on their 12th owner and look like this, but some of these survived, and this is what we have today.

This 2000 is finished in Bordeaux Red Metallic, which is not to be confused with Titanite Red Metallic from a few weeks ago, and inside with find a Java leather interior. It is quintessential early-W220 with the blobby 17″ wheels to match the body. Inside, much of the same with a two-tone dash and that very tiny COMAND navigation system that was a slight upgrade from the maps in The Legend of Zelda. So if no one wants it, is it actually worth anything? Seems to be.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2000 Mercedes-Benz S500 on eBay

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1991 Mercedes-Benz 420SEL

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Fresh off the 1988 Mercedes-Benz 300SEL from a few weeks ago, luck would have it that another nice W126 comes up in a less than common color of Pearl Blue Metallic. This one is in V8 guise with the 4.2-liter of the aptly named 420SEL. Much like the 300SEL, it is a whole lot of everything you need and really nothing you don’t. One of the things that bugged me about the W126 is that heated seats was only offered on the top of the range 560SEL, but seems a little petty for Mercedes to do considering what the S-Class was at the time, but I guess that was the reality of fancy options in the late 1980s. This example from California checks in with a fair 142,000 miles, so not exactly a low mileage example that will burn a bunch of value if you drive it. What’s not to like?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1991 Mercedes-Benz 420SEL on eBay

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