I was hoping that this could be a way of learning about some rare Mercedes and it pretty much has been. Please keep to the topic of discussion rather than expressing your views on whether or not a car is worth the asking price (see Ashman's thread "Attention All" regarding cars advertised for sale). Presumably the concours judges (who got a better look at it than you can from the pics here) decided it was worthy of the awards it received. I very much doubt that a concours award winner would have a bent bumper. I have no problem with it being here in the context of a rare car.

Manya, your 108 looks very tidy from the pic. Are you a member of the Victorian MB club?

In my first posting in this thread I mentioned a 300TE-24 Sportline on another forum. There is now a second one there and the owner of this one is contemplating replacing the Sportline suspension with standard bits. With the replies he is getting I think he is now becoming aware of just how rare his car is. The question was also raised as to the availability of a manual transmission in the 300TE-24 (or 300E-24 or CE-24) Sportline. I have seen the manual transmission option shown in a sales brochure (including the close ratio box with dogleg first and with second through fifth in the H pattern as in the 190E 2.3-16). Has anyone seen this option in real life, or for that matter anything other than a 190E 2.3-16 or 2.5-16 with the close ratio box?

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107.023: 350SLC, 3-speed auto, icon gold, parchment MBtex (sold 2012 after 29 years ownership).
107.026: 500SLC, 4-speed auto, thistle green, green velour.
124.090: 300TE, 4-speed auto, arctic white, cream-beige MBtex.
201.028: 190E 2.3 Sportline, 5-speed manual, arctic white, blue leather.
201.028: 190E 2.3, 4-speed auto, blue-black, grey MBtex.
201.034: 190E 2.3-16, 5-speed manual, blue-black, black leather.