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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.
I still think the C140 Mercedes-Benz hasn’t had its day yet. They are coming around for sure, but full blown “collector cars” they are not. I also think their time is coming and this example up for sale in The Netherlands is a good reason why. This 1997 CL420, an engine combo we didn’t get in the US, wears the rare Ruby Metallic paint job and the always cool 18″ Eltanin wheels that we also didn’t get. Inside, black leather with burl wood everywhere. Despite looking so good, this one has a surprising 92,000 miles on it. Doesn’t mean it is going to be cheap however.
One of the more interesting subsects of the automotive world are cars that seemingly are common, but in reality extremely rare. If you see a Ferrari F40 driving down the street or parked on a lawn somewhere, you have a pretty good idea that is a rare car. A 1999 Mercedes-Benz S600 parked at the grocery store? You can find those anywhere, right? That would be wrong. Very wrong.
The W140 chassis was wrapping up in 1999 as Mercedes already launched their new flagship W220 all over Europe. So whatever leftover cars they had came to the US to sell off. Turns out they didn’t have many of the M120 V12s to offer up. Just 14 S600 sedans and 15 CL600 coupes were produced for the 1999 model year. That is it! A generation that saw 432,732 examples built came down to a final 29 cars. Guess what we have today?
As the years go on, the W140 Mercedes-Benz coupe is looking more and more appealing to me. The European version, at least. I say that half joking, but it is true. Why? Some very small changes that seem to make all the difference to me. Slightly shorter bumpers and different 18″ wheels as we see here, along with amazing colors like Viola Metallic. As luck would have it, that is what we have with this 1997 CL600 for sale up in Stuttgart, Germany.
Earlier this spring, ESPN released a six-part documentary about the life and legacy of basketball player Michael Jordan that showcased him like we’ve never seen before. Even as someone who is only mildly interested in NBA, it was a fascinating watch. I wasn’t alone in this, as the ratings were off the charts for all six episodes. As a result, anything Michael Jordan related was now on fire in terms of value and people were eating it up. Even the most mundane things were suddenly as hot as can be and everyone was back on Jordan mania. Well, wouldn’t you have it, that includes cars. Even ones h̶e̶ his wife owned over 20 years ago and now are all beat up with a ton of miles on.
I actually looked at another one of his cars a few years ago in the ultra-rare SLR McLaren 722 Edition, which as the time wasn’t a big deal at all. This isn’t an SLR today, this is just an C140 S600 Coupe with some Lorinser bits bolted on and a bunch of miles. The current bid? Well, this is why eBay doesn’t work for cars like these.
