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A few weeks ago I took a look at the former king of the Mercedes-Benz chauffer cars, the Maybach 62S. Back when it hit the scene in the early 2000s, it rivaled everything on the road of terms of executive ground transpiration and certainly had the price tag to match. However, now that 20 years have passed, it isn’t so impressive anymore other than it being a look back into the time and doing the math at how much value they have lost. When Mercedes brought back the Maybach name as a sub-brand in 2015, it certainly made more sense to have them positioned as a trim level of the S-Class, rather than trying to pitch them as an entirely new brand. Wouldn’t you know, it fared much better and certainly kept production costs down as the majority of the changes were just to the rear seating and some various trim pieces. In typical S-Class fashion, it followed a heavy depreciation after the first few years but still offers great value if you want to go that route. This 2019 up for sale in Texas offers you a $50,000 discount if you’d like roll around in a previous generation car. Would anyone even notice?
Color is everything on a vintage car for me, and some colors seem to work better than others on certain models. Today’s car, a 1980 Mercedes-Benz 500SEL, might be one of those “love it or hate it” examples.
This is a grey-market car that probably was imported when new judging by the door plaque, and it is finished in the very-rare shade of Signal Red. I don’t believe this color was ever offered on any US-market W126s because who wants a red S-Class? I know the 1980s were a wild time, but your SL was supposed to be red, not your very serious S-Class. However, now that this car is 40 years old, is it officially cool enough where the color doesn’t matter?
This is it. This is the big one – literally. The Maybach 62 rings in with a 150-inch wheelbase and a total length of over 242 inches. Single parking spaces need not apply. Starting price? Over $400,000. You can see where I am going with this one. This was a car bought by those who would never drive it. Still, today if you buy one of these to actually drive, you are out of your mind. However, now that these are old enough to legally buy cigarettes? It might not be a bad idea. Well, maybe it’s not a bad idea…
If you are feeling déjà vu, you are on to something. Last month I checked out a 1998 Mercedes-Benz S600 7.0 AMG and now a month later, we have the brother 1998 CL600 7.0 AMG. It is probably safe to assume these both came out of the same collection, and believe it or not, this one checks in with over 100,000 kilometers on the odometer. Long live the M120!
This might be as good as it gets. A 1991 Mercedes-Benz 300SE with a mere 8,500 miles. The color combo? Pearl Blue Metallic over blue leather. This is the type of car that was regularly used and excelled greatly at it, but this one was somehow put away and spared. Now over 30 years later, do you dare? If so, it isn’t going to come cheap. Not at all.
