Grandma’s: 62 Mercedes-Benz 190SL
You have to love stories like this and hope, of course, they are true. Allegedly, Grandma drove it back and forth to work 2 miles in each direction. But we have a good feeling about this listing. Remember the stunning black Porsche 356B with 31,000 miles? Well, this is the Mercedes-Benz equivalent. It looks like Grandma may be long gone sadly because this car isn’t as detailed and sharp as the Porsche. But that doesn’t matter. The 190SL is nowhere near as sporting as the Porsche. This is a relatively mild-mannered touring car in the Mercedes tradition. The build quality is exceptional and the design mimics the 300SL to a small degree. Of course, the chassis and mechanicals are light years apart. We like this car and hope that it check out. There is no mention of recent work although it is stated to be totally roadworthy by the seller. The starting bid is a whopping $80,000 and it could be spot on. It will never (never say never) be a #1 car but it could be better than that – an original car. And then you get into the same conundrum we had with the 356B. It’s value is based on originality and low mileage. There are few cars like that so the valuation will be set by more than one person wanting to own the same car. If you aren’t a serious collector you can find nice cars for less. But if you want the one with a story at the next concours or club event, click here and start bidding.
This is another instance of someone abusing the term “survivor”. The seat and door panel upholstery are clearly recent (just look at the leather soft top boot in the trunk – original seat leather should match that – it doesn’t).
30,000 miles? Then why has the seat upholstery been replaced? The square weave carpet is recently new as well. The binding which comes on new carpet kits today is wider than what came on the 190’s back in the day – dead give away (besides this carpet looks brand new with no patina whatsoever.
This does not mean that it is not a very nice car, it might be but buyers should know what they are bidding on. A survivor with 5500 miles sold for $165,000 seven years ago. If this was a true, low mileage survivor it could do $200k in a heartbeat.
I believe the person listing the car is a dealer since he had a Pagoda that he was trying to move on eBay for about 6 months for big money. Nothing wrong with being a dealer but the grandmother story sort of implies otherwise. Below is a link to the Pagoda he was marketing.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1969-Mercedes-280SL-auto-A-C-One-Owner-34K-Mi-NO-RUST-Black-Plate-California-Car-/310671934198?_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&forcev4exp=true
Item # 310671934198 (in case the above link is dead)
Amazingly another 30k mile car with new carpeting in the foot wells. Again, maybe a very nice car but I would want to see air-tight service records to verify the incredibly low miles if I were paying for them.