1993 was a huge year for the Mercedes-Benz SL in North America. For the first time in its 39 year history, the Sportlich-Leicht was being produced with…
4 CommentsTag: SL600
There exists a divided community of R129 Mercedes-Benz owners. On one hand there are those who feel that the V12 is necessary to make the car feel special and unique enough to be maximally enjoyable on rare driving occasions. On the other are more sensibly minded owners who prefer the cost-effectiveness and balance of the V8. I won’t interject my $0.02 into that discourse, but I will say that few R129 owners will disagree that a Silver Arrow SL600 is a very rare and desirable machine.
The Silver Arrow was a special edition of the R129 SL offered only in 2002, the final year of production. Only available in North America, Mercedes sold 1,550 Silver Arrow R129’s. Of these 1,550, only 100 were SL600’s. Featured here is one of those very few 600’s. I cannot recall the last time that one was publicly listed for sale, but having followed the R129 market closely since 2009, I can only recall ever seeing maybe one or two listed in online marketplaces.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 Mercedes-Benz SL600 Silver Arrow on eBay
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Back in 1993, if you hopped down to the local Mercedes-Benz dealer and asked for a 600SL, they’d gladly give to you — in exchange of giving them almost $130,000. If you somehow were dissatisfied with the car in terms of performance, you called up Mercedes super-tuner RENNtech and told them to do their thing with it — in exchange of another $60,000. Now doing some quick math here, we are at a grand total of around $190,000. Keep in mind we are still talking in terms of 1993 money. To put that in perspective, that’s over $316,000 in 2016 dollars. And you thought a drug addiction was expensive! So what did this insane amount of money buy you?
CLICK FOR DETAILS:Â 1993 Mercedes-Benz SL700 RENNtech on eBay
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Anyone looking for a brand new 15 year old car? Here’s your chance to buy what must be the lowest mileage R129 generation SL600 in the country. With 172 original miles, this car is probably as close to new as you can find. The R129 began production in 1989 as a 1990 model, and lasted until 2002; a pretty typical production life for an SL. To celebrate the final year of production, and to pay homage to the brand’s racing heritage, Mercedes released the Silver Arrow spec SL. Available as an SL500 and an SL600, 1,500 cars were produced in total, only 100 of which were 600’s.
While this car isn’t a Silver Arrow, it is a second-to-last model year R129, and is fitted in a very desirable color combo of black on light grey. I spoke with a salesman at Mercedes of Cherry Hill who informed me that the car was purchased new there, and the owner stored the car with the hopes of it climbing in value and turning a profit down the road. Needless to say, that dude bought the wrong car. He probably paid in the vicinity of $140,000 for it, and I don’t even want to know what he sold it back to the dealer for. The good news is that we have the opportunity to buy the car, in virtually new condition, for around $90K off the original price.
Click for details:Â 2001 Mercedes-Benz SL600 at Cherry Hill Mercedes-Benz
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The Mercedes-Benz R129 SL is on the cusp of collector status. Fellow GCFSB contributor Andy McCulley was in Washington, DC this week for a conference and we hung out a bit during the weekend, with much car talk on the agenda. After passing an SL500 Silver Arrow parked on the street, he opined that that is one R129 that will be worth money in the near future. I don’t doubt it. Few of them were built, with only 100 SL600s receiving the Silver Arrow trim. This SL600 for sale in Massachusetts might not be a Silver Arrow, but the V12 models are certainly more exclusive than their V8 siblings, with this car’s Designo trim adding on an extra serving of exclusivity.