Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
Last weekend, we featured a pair of clean 1986 Mercedes-Benz 560SELs that were an instant turn on for any fan of the 1980s and the peak of Mercedes-Benz engineering prowess. If you don’t need the V8 power but want the extra length of the long wheelbase W126, here is a very low mileage 1989 300SEL for sale in New Jersey that is bound to channel your inner executive.
With the fear of dwindling energy supplies and the race to make our vehicles cleaner, there are some things that are seemingly disappearing from the automotive landscape. There are still a few holdouts in the market, but the manual transmission has been disappearing even in exotic sports cars such as Lamborghini and Porsche as faster, more economical automated manuals and automatic gearboxes have emerged. Engines with more than eight cylinders seem to be a dying breed and small vehicles seem to be rather popular, even in a country like the US where bigger is often better. What then, to make of this Mercedes-Benz CL600 in an era of rightsizing? Even though it isn’t terribly vintage, this large coupe powered by six liters and twelve cylinders seems an anachronism in today’s motoring world.
The Signal Red Mercedes-Benz 560SEC that we featured twice last month is back up for sale at a lower Buy It Now Price of $11,000.
No matter how many successive generations of S classes pass us by, I always look back to the W126 as the gold standard of executive transport. The W116 of the 1970s was a thoroughly capable car if a bit unloved. The W140 that succeeded the W126 was a technological tour de force but was a bit brutish in terms of its size and complexity. The W220 that came after that was derided as a bit unreliable during the dark days of Mercedes-Benz products in the early part of the 21st century. The last and current generations of S classes have moved the luxury sedan game very much forward, but the technology is a bit over the top for me, which has me going back to the W126 for simpler, albeit capable performance and motoring pleasure.
The two following 560SELs represent the flagship of the lineup for the period between 1986 and 1991. The first one we will look at is a very low mileage example for sale in Arizona in a classic combination of black over parchment leather.
Survivor is a term bandied about in the automotive enthusiast communities but it’s not always the case that a car will live up to the hype. Head west to California, however, and the state offers a treasure trove of all sorts of classic iron, from muscle cars to classic luxury, such as this one-owner 1971 Mercedes-Benz 280SE with 80,000 original miles. It’s rather remarkable that a car over 40 years old hasn’t cracked six figures in the mileage department yet, as you could consider my mom’s 2000 C280 sedan with 115,000 miles as a little on the low side for the year. But this car, sold via the European Delivery program and having lived its life in California, has escaped the ravages of the years.
