Tuesday 6th December 2016

Mercedes-Benz 500SL: Spotted

Old enough for classic insurance, modern enough still to be used and it's only £10K...

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It could be argued that Christmas time is not the best time of the year to be buying any car, leave alone a cabriolet. The weather is miserable, the days are dark and the money should most likely be spent on other things; December is not the month for indulgent drop-top purchases.

And this is a car from 1991!

Or is it? The seller will surely want to get the car gone given the time of the year, meaning you as the buyer are in a stronger negotiating position. And being purely rational for a sec, you're perhaps less likely to accept flaws on a cabrio buying it in the winter than seeing it top down on a summer's day.

That being said, to find any flaws on this Mercedes SL would be very surprising indeed. It's worth reading the whole advert to understand why (as it's very entertaining) but, essentially, this car has had a decent chunk of money spent on it very recently at the SL Shop and is looking fantastic for it. The work has included a lot of freshening up underneath, all detailed and of course saving the next owner the hassle.

Moreover, it was a very desirable specification of R129-generation Mercedes SL already. As one of the earlier cars - this very one is a quarter of a century old now - it's a 500SL and not a SL500, but also has the orange indicators, the two-tone paint and the earlier design of alloy wheel. For a car designed in the mid-1980s it still looks remarkably good, and this particular example wears its 135,000 miles very well.

There are many reasons why you might want this generation of SL, not least its design, the famed build quality and a very nice V8 engine too. Conveniently enough a detailed ownership thread has been written by PHer Adam917K on a very similar car - see here and prepare to want an SL quite a lot!

Sit and admire that build quality

Interestingly though SLs don't yet appear to have reached the heady heights of other classic German metal, although they do seem to be going in that direction. When we last wrote about the SL (nearly three years ago now, in fact), decent V8 cars could be had for around £5,000. That isn't possible now, but £10,995 for this car with thousands recently spent still looks good value; you can pay a bit less for a V8, and a fair bit more too. Think of where similar cars of this era - Porsche 928 and BMW E24 6 Series, for example - have now reached and it would seem there's plenty of potential for SL values to climb, particularly as the car becomes older and rarer.

Why wouldn't you want this SL? Erm... Well it is one of the highest mileage cars available, and newer alternatives are available for similar money: think Jaguar XK, the later BMW 6 Series and even the R230 SL also. But if you do want a classic drop-top that still looks the part and could well have some investment potential, it's hard to think of much better than an SL.

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MERCEDES 500SL
Engine: 4,973cc V8
Transmission: 4-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 320@5,600rpm
Torque (lb ft): 346@3,900rpm
MPG: 23 (est.)
CO2: 289g/km (est.)
First registered: 1991
Recorded mileage: 135,000
Price new: N/A
Yours for: £10,995

See the original advert here.

[Simon12c]

Ohhhhhh - WANT IT!
Fabulous motor...

[MJK 24]

Lots of people in the barge thread own and speak highly of these cars.

[Turbobanana]

Lovely car, and I do like these a lot, but I'm not sure finding one for sale at £10995 is worthy of a "Spotted".

If it was a really low mileage minter, then yes. Likewise if it was this car at £6000, then yes. But to me it's just another classified ad. Not saying the price is wrong, just not newsworthy.

[J4CKO]

The W124 is often Eulogised over its quality, I think it was these that were actually the pinnacle, they are maturing into a proper classic, still plenty of cheaper ones with smaller engines if you just want a cruiser.

[RoadRunner220]

That is a very well written advert.

[Leins]

J4CKO said:

The W124 is often Eulogised over its quality, I think it was these that were actually the pinnacle, they are maturing into a proper classic, still plenty of cheaper ones with smaller engines if you just want a cruiser.

Ever seen Midnight Sting? "I think you'll find mine is a 500"

[anonymous-user]

I actually like the facelifted later R129s - I may be in the minority there. Give me a lovely Designo or Limited Edition model.

Prices have been creeping up though - they hit bottom a couple of years ago, I know, I nearly bought a '92 300SL for £5k. It's seems like the Pagoda values dragged up the R107, the R107 is dragging up R129 - not bad considering the numbers made and high survival rate.

The roof can be a bit complex - compare that to the 'fold back' R107 roof!

I think we need to mention the A124 E-Class Cab here too - a similar car but with 4 seats and same sort of money, albeit it without a 5.0 V8!

[anonymous-user]

Why did they replaces all the fuses in engine and boot?

Unless I'm missing something thats a good money generator.

[daveco]

0-60 5.9 sec
1/4 mile 14 sec
60-0 in 107 feet

And that was all recorded in 1990 so probably stops and goes better on newer rubber, and it was $83,500 sold new!

Proably Mercedes' greatest ever engine.

[lostkiwi]

I have a 1993 version of the 500SL. Its covered 130k miles and last year went on extended runs to France twice with only a noisy wheel bearing to sort on the end of the last trip (130k for 6 hours in 36 degree heat might have been asking a bit much for 23 year old bearings!).

I only paid £4k for mine last year (has a few minor faults - the biggest of which is the soft top rear section is needing replacing) but even so its slowly rising in value and you can rarely find a decent one for under £6k now.

Other half loves it - even more than her own 14 plate MINI.

[j_s14a]

I love these, but I think a lot of people wold be disappointed by the driving experience. They aren't sporty in the slightest, the steering lacks any feel, and the wheel could have come straight from a ship it's so big. The suspension is wallowy, and body roll in corners is pretty bad. The gearbox really isn't sporty in the slightest either, and unfortunately it takes the edge off what is undoubtedly a great engine. Unless it's the 'chiselled from granite' build quality you're looking for, I would probably recommend an XJS over an R129 as it is more fun.

Would love to try one of the properly 'breathed on' ones like the monstrous SL73 (although the £200k price tag makes this an unlikely prospect)

[J4CKO]

j_s14a said:

I love these, but I think a lot of people wold be disappointed by the driving experience. They aren't sporty in the slightest, the steering lacks any feel, and the wheel could have come straight from a ship it's so big. The suspension is wallowy

Proper Mercedes hallmarks those, you either get it, or you dont, best teamed with an engine with more than 7 cylinders but perfectly acceptable with less, even a W124 230 CE manages it, it just cant manage the impressive, surging acceleration with the prow rising that the bigger engines do.

[j_s14a]

J4CKO said:

Proper Mercedes hallmarks those, you either get it, or you dont, best teamed with an engine with more than 7 cylinders but perfectly acceptable with less, even a W124 230 CE manages it, it just cant manage the impressive, surging acceleration with the prow rising that the bigger engines do.

Absolutely, I have access to an immaculte, 30k miles R107 280SL, and it isn't a sporty car at all. But on a sunny day, it is just a beautiful thing to cruise around in



But a lot of people I know would hate driving it because they just don't get it

[Ocho]

"Moreover, it was a very desirable specification of R129-generation Mercedes SL already. As one of the earlier cars - this very one is a quarter of a century old now - it's a 500SL and not a SL500"

Anyone tell me why the 500SL is better than the SL500 (or what the difference is even?) I thought the SL500 came later and would expect later to mean improved... I know that's not always the case though, but would be interested to know why not in this case???

[Arsecati]

135,000 miles??? Sure it's barely broken in!

[hoppo4.2]

This was my summer ride last year. You can't beat that red trim!

All for the sum of 1650. With no mot. Unseen not been on a road in years.

It was a bit rough and needed lots of love. And the hood was blue!!!?

[Guy456]

I've owned a final facelift SL500 for nearly five years and done nearly 40,000 miles in it as my daily driver. It's now done nearly 120,000 miles. Nothing serious has gone wrong with it and it's been an utter joy - comfortable and fast and drives very much in a contemporary fashion. I'd happily jump in it now and drive anywhere in Europe. It's not a real sports car I agree but I think it would give my old Boxster S a run for its money in most real life situations - the Mercedes is absurdly quick when you want it to be. And the quality of the car is breathtaking - there is a lot to go wrong but not much does - engineering from a different age and puts my Ferrari to shame. Buy, use, enjoy.

[mcbook]

[quote=hoppo4.2

This was my summer ride last year. You can't beat that red trim!

All for the sum of 1650. With no mot. Unseen not been on a road in years.

It was a bit rough and needed lots of love. And the hood was blue!!!?
[/quote]

That interior is great but, oh my, those wheels...

[lostkiwi]

Ocho said:

"Moreover, it was a very desirable specification of R129-generation Mercedes SL already. As one of the earlier cars - this very one is a quarter of a century old now - it's a 500SL and not a SL500"

Anyone tell me why the 500SL is better than the SL500 (or what the difference is even?) I thought the SL500 came later and would expect later to mean improved... I know that's not always the case though, but would be interested to know why not in this case???

The original r129 was badged 500SL-32 but in 1993 Mercedes had a name change to SL500.

Thats all there was to it.

Sometime around 1998 they changed the M119 engine for the (later 24v) M113 engine (as carried through into the R230 SL models). Power went down but max torque was much more accessible.
Max torque on the M119 is at 4500rpm - which makes it deliciously linear at high RPM - it starts pulling and just keeps on going and going and going to redline (and sounds glorious). The later M113 has max torque at a lowly 2900rpm which makes for a much more relaxed drive when pressing on.
The M119 was the basis for the Sauber C9 and fabulous C11 race car engines.

Handling does have some body roll - even more if the front anti-roll bar supports are broken (very common so 129 owners - get out there and check them!). After mine were replaced the handling became significantly more taut and flatter. It'll never be a 'B' road blaster but on sweeping A roads its just sublime.

Edited by lostkiwi on Tuesday 6th December 15:19

[PositronicRay]

Learn2MergeInTurn said:

Why did they replaces all the fuses in engine and boot?

Unless I'm missing something thats a good money generator.

The original fuses corrode causing all sorts of electrical glitches.