A must read for SL owners and buyers!

[Ultra Slow]

Back in the late 70's early 80's, I remember older people buying different models of Mercedes cars that were of that era. The two main reasons they gave for their reasons for buying a Mercedes were “quality and resale value”. These two things are a lot to do with giving MB cars the name they have today in the US. These people would keep a car for 4-5 years and sell it for a loss of course, but it was not a major loss like many other cars including American cars were at the time. In fact many of the Mercedes cars retained about 80% of their value over 4-5 years and a good many miles.

Today is another story, and one that I think Mercedes should be embarrassed over. I guess it’s largely due to the image conscience crowd the car has captured over the more conservative crowd in the late 70's, but the car, dealers and especially the owners are all to blame. Take for example a 99 SL600. I use this because I have one and love it. The 99 SL600 stickered for up to $138,000.00. Today that same car with fewer than 30K miles, in absolute show room perfect condition is worth about 36,000.00. I am sure I don’t need to do the math for you, but for my post this is a net loss of $102,000.00. 102K gave you the right to “own” a car for 4.5 years, keep it up for the next guy while only putting 28,000 miles on it. This does not even include maintenance, taxes, etc. I don’t see the value here for the first owner.

As an analogy, I cannot think of ANYWHERE else you could lose so much money in such a short period of time. You could go to Vegas and have better odds. Playing risky in the stock market may even give you a positive return when you are not expecting it. In fact, you could take 138,000.00 and throw it off the roof of an office building in 1.00 bills. You could then go down to the street and claim you lost your money and you got to get it back. I almost bet you could recover more of it from the honest population that would help you pick it up and hand it back to you than you would on reselling a Mercedes, especially a high end SL.

I could go on all night with comparisons as above, but at some point people are going to have to wake up and expect a little more from their investment. I can probably hear it now……03 and up SL owners will say "it’s due to the body style change, and the Mercedes crowd must be seen in the latest and greatest car." Well you hit it..............
I think there is a word for this. I think the dictionary uses the word “fool” to best define it. The 03+ SL will probably retain even less of its value than the R129 body style as every year Mercedes resale just gets worse percentage wise. The big problem is that this mentioned crowd is willing to "give" their trade in at the dealer to get into the newest ride. This is what is driving the resale of Mercedes to the worst ever. It’s a shame for others who can afford the cars new, but expect a little more return from the trade. It’s also a shame for those persons buying a Mercedes for quality reasons over wanting to maintain some self image.

Now, if the Mercedes were a lemon, I could understand these resale values being so terrible. Many Jag's went this route and they should have as they were some of the worst high end cars ever built. The SL is another story. Although the largely anal crowd that really has no automotive technical knowledge seems to nitpick the car to extremes, as a whole the car is very reliable and a quality built machine. You get what you pay for and these are some very good cars. Being that, they should at least have some resale as they have so much going for them. It’s sad when a 1990 jaguar XJS V12 has a better percentage value resale, much less a Yugo. Both the mentioned cars are lemons, the Mercedes is not.

For the "smart" people, this low resale value is a blessing. You can buy a 96-01 low mile high end PERFECT SL600 for under 40,000, making this car the best buy on the market, possibly in the history of automobiles. Some readers of this post may say. "He's just mad as he can't afford to lose that much on a car, and what does he expect". Well, no one likes to lose 100K on a car. I did buy mine in the middle of these frenzy-fest give away deals. I am glad I bought it. I am a 25 year avid collector that has more general knowledge of cars than I can ever use and more opinions than knowledge, so take this for what its worth. The subject of the poor resale of SL's really has no logic to my eyes and this is my reason for this post. This is not a complaint or an insult to those that buy the cars then give them away, it’s just an observation that may enlighten some future owners.

Being that I have two points to make........

To the current owners and new car buyers of SL's; When you got to have the latest and greatest new body style car, at least have a little more stand up when these con artist dealers try and low ball your car on a trade.... Make them pay you top dollar and especially don't roll any negative equity in the new one that you have created for yourself. If you can’t afford it to pay down on it, don’t get it! This hurts EVERYONE and it is showing now in the values of these cars. I would not think less of you if you did not have the latest car the week it came out, and most real people are of this mind. The image of Mercedes has been hurt by this, not helped.

To the future owners of the SL's......... I cannot stress what an INCREADIBLE buy the previous crowd has made for you on these SL's. You cannot buy a better car for the money than a 96-01 SL500 and especially 600. If you are thinking about a 500, just step up to the 600, you will be glad you did as it is quite a bit more car for just a little more. The V12s are good cars that will offer you incredible fun, style, ride and power and are very reliable too. I have owned 8 V12 Benz/BMW to date and have had NO major issues with them. There simple is no better bang for the buck on the market today than an SL600. When you do buy an SL, be sure to constantly thank the current body style owners for making it able for you to get such a great car for pennies on the dollar.......


Thank you previous SL owners for making this all possible!!!

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