Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
Fresh off the craziest Porsche 911 color combo I’ve ever seen, today we have a Mercedes-Benz that is ready to join the party. This 1993 600SL looks innocent enough on the outside, but once you open those doors, the 1990s slap you right in the face. The dealer in Germany is claiming this is a one-off pre-merger AMG and while I’m normally skeptical of any dealer claim, I think I am buying this story. Although that is the only thing I’m buying once you see the asking price. Hold on.
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.
Today I wanted to look at a 2016 Mercedes-Benz … SL400? Yes, that is a thing. Back in 2015, Mercedes-Benz introduced the SL400 with a 329 horsepower 3.0L twin-turbo V6 paired with a the 722.9 seven-speed automatic. The whole reason for this is that the base price was $85,000, which meant it was $23,000 less than the SL550. For legacy SL buyers, that is a big deal. You still get your SL with all the toys, but save a bunch of money if you don’t ever use 430 horsepower. This was true in a lot of households as these cars are used as Sunday cruisers and rarely get full throttle. A win-win for both Mercedes and buyers as more cars were sold and buyers save a little bit of coin. Now five years later, these could be a bargain, right?
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.
