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SL Registry, Belmont, CA (2026)

02/13/2023

We really do like the looks of the SLC in Euro form. A late 4.5L euro is probably the second most desirable SLC after the 5.0 versions. Though some might consider a 3.5L manual above the 4.5L auto? But few will disagree that 1979 450SLC VIN #10702412025954 looks to be a nice euro 4.5L with blue cloth interior for a very attractive price of $10,500. Currently on FB marketplace in Framingham, MA, mileage is shown to be 49K. #25954 is in our Registry db from back in 2018 when it was on ebay for $29K in Florida. The car is lightly optioned with all windows being manual, no AC and a cloth interior. (Are we ‘soft’ if we admit we find the manual windows on our ’72 annoying?) The eBay listing from 2018 says ‘new AC’ so maybe it has an aftermarket unit in it as our ’79 350SL does. The ebay listing also says 46K miles so you know the odometer is working. The Florida listing says no rust and we’d doubt 3K miles in the last 4 years would change that. The interior looks pretty clean though the driver seat cloth is worn and the 70s style blue cloth has been unavailable for years. The FB add says priced for quick sale and with this condition, we think it’s a $15-17K car. We hope a SL enthusiast will snap it up but this feels like a soon to be dealer flip. With good prep and photos, a BAT price would certainly be in the high teens.

# mercedes500SL # mercedes500SLC

12/27/2022

The least interesting (and maybe the worst) SL the Registry has owned must be 1973 450SL VIN #10704412009028. We found it locally for sale on CL in San Francisco in January of 2017. It was in a big dark SF waterfront warehouse (wish we could find the photos!) and we had to make a decision when we saw it. Multiple people coming to take a look we were told… It was $3250 and had euro headlights. This was when we thought used euro headlights were worth big money rather than knowing they were a pain in the butt. Seller offered to deliver the car for $50. It was only three grand so why not get it? When it was delivered, we found it had a lot of rust all around the windshield, in the trunk and a leaky firewall. The paint was super thick and it drove just so/so. Odometer showed 295K miles. Looking at the pics now, we thought it had had the side strips removed for the ‘modern look mod’ but now realize they were just missing! Some people think taking the side strips off makes the car more modern and sleeker but we think it just makes the car look odd. Realizing it was not a car we’d want to keep, we swapped the euro headlights to US and polished/waxed it and put it back up on CL for $4K. With hindsight, we wish we’d swapped the piano key wheel with a spare as it looks to be in nice shape. We did see the car is missing the solid metal grill star so maybe it had been in an accident at some point. (Anyone know the serial number of the switch to the plastic backed star?) It sat on CL for a week and then we lowered it to $3250 and then sold it for $2750. So we paid about $500 for some old rusty euro headlights. About four months later we saw it on CL for $4500. Wonder what happened to 9028 and if its still on the road? First 9 pics are form our records and last one is as the ‘new’ owner drove it away in May of ’17. (Often the best photo of a car you’ve owned!)

# mercedes500SL # mercedes500SLC

12/01/2022

Another one will come along soon enough! There were enough R107s made of every type that if you miss out on one, don’t stress, another one will come along soon enough. This goes even for one of the rare versions: the 5.0L SLC. Another two 5.0s just came up this week. Silver 1978 VIN #10702612000472 is on eBay for $25K. Its being sold by the usual suspect in Punta Gorda Florida with whom the Registry staff had an unpleasant experience. #472 looks like its OK but that sill joint looks sketchy and 25K seems pretty steep for a condition 3 example. Call us crazy but we’re not fans of the big lip Lorinsers. Blue 1981 500SLC WDB10702612002457 was just posted to the 5.0 group on FB in the last couple of days. According to the post, the owner just picked it up from the original owner but he’s a Mopar guy and the car has rust and needs restoration. No price was given as he’s in the fact-finding stage. We featured early 026 VIN #0524 a few weeks ago and its still for sale at an ask (almost beg) of $8500. So 2457 should be less than $8500 once it comes to market we’d think. Though maybe the blue is enough to bring a small premium? These cheap SLCs make us wonder if the current economic climate plus the strength of the USD is taking its toll on R107 prices? Or maybe our opinion of the 5.0SLC eventually being the most collectable R107 is wrong? Or is it just a needy version of any classic car, coup especially, is a hard sell? What is your opinion? On another note, a few years ago, we did get an excel spreadsheet of the contents of the defunct 026 registry. There’s only VINs, last reported location and a simple condition column. Both 472 and 2457 were on the list. We’d back burnered entering the data into the Registry DB since there were no pics and not very much info. But with these two being on the list, its probably time to figure out a way to put it in.

# mercedes500SL # mercedes500SLC

11/21/2022

Watch this space! 1983 500SL VIN # WDB1070461A010861 is on FB marketplace in Hampstead, NC for $4500. Like Streisand who only wants to be photographed from one side, #10861 looks nice when photo’d from the passenger side. But then from every other angle its….ummm… busted. Damaged hood, rusty driver fender(s), beat to crap interior. Evidence of a repaint at some point (look at import sticker photo). And a salvage title to boot. Hampstead is right on the Atlantic so plenty of salt air as well. But its only $4500 so the seller is realistic. And it also comes with a 380 parts car. The reason we decided to feature it is not because of the cheap price or the be**er-porn aspect, but because its condition, combined with the price and location means to us, it will wind up being hoovered up by one of the Florida sellers who will tart up a rough euro car and then try to flog it to overseas (European) R107 buyers. So we wanted to document 10861 here its previous condition before a little Bondo, a little paint, a dash cap, some spare seats (and a vacuum) and some nicely staged pics sucker someone in. The FB ad says it runs well and only has 114K miles… so for someone looks for a restoration project… maybe… just be aware of what you are getting. One other reason we did decide to feature it because we like the setting. What’s cooler than a SL be**er in a rural Carolina east coast boat yard?

10/31/2022

Odometer Alert – Our Chicago KM cluster ‘friend’ is back again with his latest offering, 1985 500SL WDB1070461A017299. For sale in Chicago, CL ad claims 47K miles since the odometer says 71678KM. As usual, the cluster has been ‘swapped’ to KM from miles. Also as usual, the cluster has a weird color to it which makes us think that some sort of mask has been laid over it rather than a swap to an actual KM cluster dial. And no way the car has only 71K miles anyway. No photos of the passenger compartment are shown. But overall, looks like a Midwest car that has been sitting for a while. Asking price is $11500. Frankly, seems reasonable regardless of the miles. We like the Diamond Blue Metallic which was offered from 1984 to 1989. It just always strikes us as weird that this seller has a passion for finding Euro cars but then tries to goose the price by a little with the KM scam. He’s sold so many, how come he’s not had legal problems? Even the recent sale of the 280 manual that had been through his hands did well. Very, very odd. But it he does give us a steady stream of cars to write up.

10/26/2022

Of course flooded ‘toy’ cars are the least important impact of the recent hurricanes slamming the Caribbean and Florida. Much suffering by many people has resulted from the strong storms. In our small SL world though, the storms and the resultant flooding have led to quite a few R107s being written off. In fact, today (Oct 26 2022) there are 30+ R107 on Copart in Florida due to flooding. This goes from the earliest 72s to the last of the 89s. We used to say that once a SL was sent to Copart (salvage sales, not the off-site sale side) it was very rare to see them emerge other than as going to be parted out. But recently we have seen a few more being sold and then remarketed. What will happen with flood cars remains to be seen. Maybe the market value of some of the 560s would support being dried out and fixed and resold? But most others certainly will be parted out. An example of this recent flood of SLs, is 1989 560SL VIN # WDBBA48DXKA092248. It sold on BAT in July of 2022 for $65K due to its nice condition, low miles and well known seller. 3 months later, it is now at the Florida Gulf Coast Copart having been flooded. It does not look too bad in the photos though the airbag has deployed and the wheel angle looks odd (maybe the camera lens). It still only has 35K miles on it (34912 to be exact) . Could it be fixed and sold? Considering there are still plenty of SLs out there, we’d probably not be a buyer. Would you? We have no idea what it will sell for on Copart and then what a market value for it would be. The lesson is for normal buyers, as you hunt for a SL (or any car), be sure to keep an eye out on those titles, carfaxes and of course the SL Registry database. Photos roughly alternate between BAT and Copart.

# mercedes500SL # mercedes500SLC

10/21/2022

When you see photos like this, it does seem surprising that the SLC is not worth more. With the small euro or ‘73 US bumpers the lines are very attractive. Only the slightly too-tall rear edge of the roof and the slope of the rear window/deck keeps it from being a true classic. To our eyes, that is why the 5.0 spoiler looks so good on the SLC, it gives a visual uplift at the rear that the SL doesn’t need as much. (Our opinion of course and we’re not stylists!) 1973 450SLC VIN #10702412000861 is for sale on CL north of Sacramento, California with 101K miles and a $13,500 asking price. It was for sale previously by the same seller in 2019 with 95K and $10K ask. We’d like to think the SLC market has moved enough to support the seller’s new valuation. Overall, it looks to be in good condition with just a refresh on the front seats needed. Color wise it looks to be Metallic Blue (code 387) since that is the only shade of blue available in 1973 that seems to match. For us VIN geeks, 861 seems low but is not that early for a SLC. Many have come up for sale in the 100-300 range. Overall, we think it would be a cool SLC to get. Just need to fix the radio antenna.

# mercedes500SL # mercedes500SLC

10/10/2022

One of our Chicago KM scam cars has finally made its way to BAT and is closing today in 4 hours. We featured ‘85 280SL 5-speed manual VIN back on Aug 3 2020 when our favorite odometer scammer had it listed. The car showed 139,000 KM on the dial (so 87K miles) but since the seller always swapped clusters, its safe to assume it was 139K miles. Now on BAT, the Carfax was posted and the only entry with mileage is one from 2002 where it says 136K miles. So knowing our guy, he almost certainly rolled it back to around the 136 and then swapped in the KM cluster. Either that or the car was sitting from 2002 to 2019. Either way, it makes it a car you’d want to inspect in person. To add to the fun, the BAT auction is a bit odd to say the least. At the moment, the car is at $26K. The odometer issue was raised by both us and other BAT users. The selling dealer has not addressed the issue at all. There are claims of a repaint but the only difference we see between now and the ad in 2020 are Gullis to Bundts, the seats have been dyed (560 seats btw) and the console wood (but not dash strip) refinished. Almost all bidders have no history (no bids, no comments) driving up the price though the current high bidder is legit and has a purchase history that makes the Registry staff envious! (manual 350SL ( #10704310007720), Nice SVO, Alpine GTA, sweet Starion). Really, really odd. Maybe the 5 speed 280 needs to be moved up behind low-mile 560s, 5.0SLCs, late 500s and manual 300s in the collectability rank? First 8 photos from today’s BAT auction. Last 2 from October ‘20.

# mercedes500SL # mercedes500SLC

10/04/2022

Is the R107 market softening? A long time ‘structural support’ of the SL market has been demand from Europe. Dealers there would take anything if it was cheap enough and not too much rust. But high inflation, the energy crunch for the Ukraine War, and the extremely strong USD surely have tamped down demand from the mid-level buyers on the Continent that SLs appeal to. Add in high gas prices in the US and near-term economic concerns, and it would have been very surprising if the SL market had continued its buoyancy. Two 5.0 SLCs have gone up for sale at attractive prices but their low asks may be more related to condition (and location) than market conditions. (Yes, we talk about market conditions then pick two be**ers (no offense!) to profile!) ’79 450 5.0 10702612001382 is black on tan leather, listed on Benzworld for sale in Alaska for $8K. ’78 450 5.0 10702612000524 is silver over blue velour and is for sale on CL in Niceville, Florida for $8500. Now #1382 is in Alaska which means it takes a hit since its going to be hard to transport. Plus the photos show that its certainly been used up there. On the positive side, it’s an ex-California car. #524 seems to be in much better condition but also has rust, needs paint and the interior needs freshening. $8500 seems like an ok price for it but it was on FB marketplace, then the FB groups and now on CL. The photos supplied so far are pretty poor. But about a year ago, we covered ’78 5.0 #713 which was a total restoration project with lots of rust and it sold for $8500. Considering in the last year, the economic macro-environment has declined with the stock market suffering and the crypto melt-down, its natural that SL prices (at least for project carts) would also suffer. If the Registry staff didn’t have a few hard-to-sell project cars ourselves, we’d be looking to upgrade our fleet during these times!

# mercedes500SL # mercedes500SLC

09/16/2022

1974 450SL Vin # 10704412018250 is for sale in Augusta, Kansas with an asking price is $5995. Miles are 160K. Why feature the car? Well, you’d have to be blind not to know why! These have to be the craziest wheels we’ve ever seen on a SL. Yes, crazy ugly! It’s a good reminder that tastes have a way of changing over time. We also got a laugh out of the giant dice shift k**b. Reminds us of a glorious night at the Desert Inn, all dressed up, where the Registry Staff’s future spouse hit 12 points in a row and it was 3 deep at the craps table. Thirty years later, the Desert Inn, the Staff’s love of craps and these wheel’s cool factor are long, long gone. Is there any stopping 18250’s slow implosion (DI reference!) into lawn ornament or parts car? Its hard to tell the true state of the paint but its possible the hood could be cut and buffed. A paintless dent repair will be needed there as well. A used set of bundts can be found for $325 including the rattle can of silver paint. Maybe just some rubber plugs could fill the spoiler holes in the deck lid. The seats are collapsed but some seat covers and a dash cap would make the interior presentable. All that makes it tolerable but not a fun weekend driver SL. Its in Kansas so any buyer needs to transport it – somewhere. As (almost) always, it comes down to rust and how well its running to know what will ultimately happen. Will the next owner hit the point (a 4 or 10, certainly not the easier 6 or 8!) or crap out? We don’t know but we’d probably bet the Don’t Come on #18250.

# mercedes500SL # mercedes500SLC

09/06/2022

Hiding in plain sight! 1978 350SL Euro VIN # 10704312013407 is on FB marketplace in Winthrop, Massachusetts for a (possibly) good price of $5950. Its badged as a 450 and on import gained the US bumpers. The only indication it’s a euro is that it still has its headlights and one photo in the listing shows a grey market import sticker with the VIN. The 350 euro is our favorite R107 version as it has more power than a 280 but is light on its feet and not as ‘heavy’ driving as the 450 or even the later 500s and 560s. (We’ve not owned a 300 or 380 euro which should have the same characteristics but better. We really want to drive and own a 380 euro.) Miles are shown to be 74K. Interior looks pretty nice but the paint has a few bad areas including the hood and something with the lower passenger door. Ad says no rot though it has fender trim and our own experience has shown us that screwed on fender trim in humid or salt areas produces rust. And how could a SL live in the Northeast for almost 40 years and not have rust? But we can hope! However, the big question mark is the ad says its been off the road since 2003 and runs but needs a service. This could be as simple as a fuel filter (might as well do a new pump) to the other end of needing a new fuel tank and a rebuilt fuel distributor. Or more. Our own ’73 350 needs something like that – which is why it sitting and we’ve driven it only 1 mile in 2 years. And our ’86 500 sat for a year and now won’t start… so fuel system problems can be a real nightmare to rectify. So… doing the R107 ‘fun driver restoration’ math… car $5K, paint improvements $1200, transportation to California $1200, euro bumper reversion with sponsor $4K. We’re at $11.4 and we’ve not done anything with the fuel system or brakes yet…. So we’re not buying it! We swear! Which is the real reason we wrote this post despite the bad photos… hopefully an SL enthusiast (but not our favorite fraudsters in Chicago or Florida) will pick it up soon and get it back to its glory. If its there in a few weeks and the seller dropped the price we might be tempted to call to ask for some more photos… once an addict…

08/29/2022

Check those fuel lines! Other than accidents, engine fires are the largest threat to our ‘nice’ SLs. We monitor Copart, the car ‘disposal’ company where damaged cars are auctioned to either die (parted out or crushed) or perhaps (if they are lucky) get resurrected. We’d say 40% of R107s we find there have had some sort of accident. Another 40% are SLs that have fallen on hard times and have been donated or are simply being disposed of. Ten percent are probably flood cars. But the final 10% often have had engine fires. And the engine fire cars are often nice SLs that look like they were well cared for. A good example is 1973 450SL VIN # 10704412011612. It was on eBay in April of 2022. It looked very photogenic and the Buy-It-Now was $29K. That’s a very aggressive dealer retail price considering the state of the interior (those seats!) but in re-sale red with cute red hubcaps, it had eyeball appeal and we could see someone plunking down a decent chunk of change to get it. Fast forward 4 months later and 11612 is on Copart with a burned up engine bay and SLC Rally Car-esque black hood. There is no saving 11612 and it will be a parts car if its lucky. It was originally for sale in Kansas City and it is now on the Kansas City Copart lot. So either it was sold locally or it never got out of the dealer’s possession (our guess). Over the years, the Registry staff has had four SLs with engine bay fuel leaks. Two have been from the fuel hose near at the front of the engine near the distributor and the other two from the lines running from the fuel rail to the injectors. Luckily, none have resulted in fires. But that was down to luck. So.. if you have not checked your lines recently, pull off that air cleaner cover and examine each bit of rubber. Its for your own safety and your car’s. A SL engine fire is unlikely to hurt you but it’s a death sentence for the car. Now we have to follow our own advice and find time to check our fleet!

# mercedes500SL

SL Registry

02/13/2023

12/27/2022

12/01/2022

11/21/2022

10/31/2022

10/26/2022

10/21/2022

10/10/2022

10/04/2022

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08/29/2022

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