Buying an R129

[Deefor62]

PositronicRay said:

I found the base of the seat quite hard on a long trip, the foam was tired and flat. I've re stuffed it and fine now, okay for 6 hours before getting twitchy.

I think that must be a common trait. I found mine extremely uncomfortable on longer journeys. Fortunately, being an early version, I just swapped the seat bases over. As the vast majority of journeys are with just me in the car, I’m not going to get any complaints from passengers.

[f1ten]

Good to see an sl In the highlands! It’s been 4 years since I took my 500 up to durness. I swapped Loch Lomond for london which is my sin to live with.

Agree my sl60 needs the foam replaced on the base whereas my 500sl seat is still comfy

[harrykul]

I replaced mine with new pads from MB, made a huge difference.

[IanA2]

f1ten said:

Good to see an sl In the highlands! It’s been 4 years since I took my 500 up to durness. I swapped Loch Lomond for london which is my sin to live with.

Agree my sl60 needs the foam replaced on the base whereas my 500sl seat is still comfy

Former Loch Lomonder and SL60er too, I was east side...

[f1ten]

Hi Ian we chatted on the Merc forum and you had the lovey face lifted silver car. I was stirlingshire side.

[IanA2]

f1ten said:

Hi Ian we chatted on the Merc forum and you had the lovey face lifted silver car. I was stirlingshire side.

Memory fails me....did you go to Balfron?

[f1ten]

No I left in 2000 so other than twice annual visits that’s it for me up there.

[TR4man]

R129 is now touted in the Money Mail.

The Mercedes SL R129 and how to drive a car that pays for itself

https://mol.im/a/6449931

[IanA2]

f1ten said:

No I left in 2000 so other than twice annual visits that’s it for me up there.

I was a few decades before you..... :-)

[Deefor62]

TR4man said:

R129 is now touted in the Money Mail.

The Mercedes SL R129 and how to drive a car that pays for itself

https://mol.im/a/6449931

From experience, I fully agree with the comments to that article relating to eye watering maintenance costs. I’m going to have to keep mine for an awful long time to see any return. Having said that, I didn’t buy it as an investment, but would at least like to enjoy driving it without worrying about the next big bill to hit me.

[Zonergem]

What have been the big expenses? Roof-related?

[Deefor62]

Zonergem said:

What have been the big expenses? Roof-related?

We haven’t started on roof related issues yet. Had a quote of £3.5k to replace leaking cylinders and a complete new hood, so have parked that one for the time being. Big expenses have been on replacing compete cooling system, diagnosing and addressing numerous electrical glitches with various relays and removal of the troublesome alarm/immobiliser which was proving to be very effective at the immobilisation function.
Prices for parts vary from surprisingly cheap (those common to the 124) to rather expensive for those which are 129 specific.
What I have concluded is that lack of use results in high labour costs to track down cause of niggling electrical and running issues. I have been advised several times in the past by a local specialist to “use the damn thing”, and after the latest round of fettling, those words are resonating loudly with me.
Don’t get me wrong, when it’s all running as it should, it’s a wonderful car to drive and I fully intend on keeping it for as long as I can.

[Flip Martian]

Deefor62 said:

We haven’t started on roof related issues yet. Had a quote of £3.5k to replace leaking cylinders and a complete new hood, so have parked that one for the time being. Big expenses have been on replacing compete cooling system, diagnosing and addressing numerous electrical glitches with various relays and removal of the troublesome alarm/immobiliser which was proving to be very effective at the immobilisation function.
Prices for parts vary from surprisingly cheap (those common to the 124) to rather expensive for those which are 129 specific.
What I have concluded is that lack of use results in high labour costs to track down cause of niggling electrical and running issues. I have been advised several times in the past by a local specialist to “use the damn thing”, and after the latest round of fettling, those words are resonating loudly with me.
Don’t get me wrong, when it’s all running as it should, it’s a wonderful car to drive and I fully intend on keeping it for as long as I can.

WHen I was looking a year or 2 back, the 1 piece of advice that kept coming up was "cars that have been used are the ones to go for. That article can say what it likes about "low mileage being desirable" but that's exactly where I was reading that the problems were. A well used car was likely to be the one to go for and not to be scared of 100l+ mileage. Not driving them or only doing a couple of thousand miles a year and leaving them for weeks on end seemed to generate nothing but issues.

[Deefor62]

Flip Martian said:

WHen I was looking a year or 2 back, the 1 piece of advice that kept coming up was "cars that have been used are the ones to go for. That article can say what it likes about "low mileage being desirable" but that's exactly where I was reading that the problems were. A well used car was likely to be the one to go for and not to be scared of 100l+ mileage. Not driving them or only doing a couple of thousand miles a year and leaving them for weeks on end seemed to generate nothing but issues.

That does seem to be the general consensus now. I often wonder what unexpected issues are encountered by the low mileage examples when they are put into use.

[Flip Martian]

Deefor62 said:

That does seem to be the general consensus now. I often wonder what unexpected issues are encountered by the low mileage examples when they are put into use.

I remember the power roof was one potentially expensive issue - "use it or lose it" seemed to be the mantra.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Not a 129 but a 107.

This looks great and has a nice back-story with a famous owner. Sensibly-priced too, although the seller reveals he's selling for twice what he paid!

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1062292

[TR4man]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

Not a 129 but a 107.

This looks great and has a nice back-story with a famous owner. Sensibly-priced too, although the seller reveals he's selling for twice what he paid!

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1062292

That seems too cheap to me.

[Skyedriver]

Anyone know or seen this car please.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-SL500-Auto-Red...f:1&frcectupt=true

It's 550 miles from me, no idea how I'd get to see it but on the face of it, looks like a worthy car.

thanks

[CharlesdeGaulle]

I don't know it, but it looks a decent car and that is an excellent price.

[Skyedriver]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

I don't know it, but it looks a decent car and that is an excellent price.

It does but the fact that it's dropped in price twice suggests a problem and i'm too far away to go view