What do the sale prices for W107 SL's Suck?

[Graham]

Originally Posted by rowdie

How did a simple question about 107 prices devolve into a discussion about diesels?
If you want a big old boat family car or a butt ugly little runabout go ahead.
If you want style and fun buy a 107. The 107 gets more smiles per mile.

Hey Rowdie - That little (Butt-Ugly????) little runabout, presumably refers to the smart I posted!

Next time you visit a dealer for service , ask if you can take one for a ride. You will find them great fun!

The smart and our old SL get about equal attention and comments from bystanders. But more females comment on the smart - maybe another reason for you to get one

[meltedpanda]

Originally Posted by TylerH860

The 500SL has been a non-stop trouble since my grandmother gave it to me 8 years ago at 111k. It was dealer maintained, and I recall making many trips to Randy Hershorn's European auto as a child.

8 years with the SL I'd imagine I've put 15-20k into repairs. This including a timing chain, valve job, suspension, fuel injection, and a thousand other little things. The R107 suspension does not hold up as well as the W123/W126 in my opinion. The engines need timing chains every 100k, and often don't make it past 150k without needing a valve job. The transmissions also don't seem to last much past 150k either.

there are bad cars in all makes I'd say , recently saw a brand new Lambo blow an engine on "battle of the supercars" had less than a 1000 miles on it. Perhaps yours was built on a Friday , and the workers were tired

[meltedpanda]

Originally Posted by alabbasi

While I know you to be very knowledgeable and hands on with your cars, there is no question in my mind that you manicure

True Al, he was there when I was getting mine done, right after you left (lol)

[rowdie]

What is wrong with getting a mani and pedi once a month?

[abiby]

Originally Posted by Graham

But more females comment on the smart - maybe another reason for you to get one

OMG... Rowdie will have one in the driveway by next weekend.

[rowdie]

Graham. If I lived in a city I would consider one. I first saw them up close in Rome in '07. They were very practical there. The butt ugly was my first impression. They have grown on me since. Someday the US will come around to clean burn diesels. Then maybe the price of diesel for my truck and farm equipment will come down a little.

I don't have a daily driver as I don't go anywhere on a daily basis. My '08 Ford Edge just turned 15K and I have had it since Feb. '08.

[alabbasi]

Originally Posted by meltedpanda

True Al, he was there when I was getting mine done, right after you left (lol)

Now that's funny

I'm hearing a few horror stories which surprises me. I got a number of SL's and SLC's that were non running and turned them into daily drivers. It did not take much effort at all as I did most of the work myself, with the exception of the timing chain, but even that did not cost me more then $600 parts and labor including all the upper rails, banana rail, oilers and gaskets.

You can get the front shocks, sub frame mounts and sway bar bushings in one foul swoop and it should take only 2-3 hours.

Not only is the SL a very robust car with most suspension bits are common to the W114 and W124 and the drive train common with the W126's, everything is pretty much tried and tested in other vehicles that would be used as Taxi's.

The earlier ones can be a little more expensive to run as D-Jet components can be expensive these days, but that said, I ran a W108 4.5 for about 3 years with very little trouble once I got through the initial pain of getting the EFI running right.

I'm not sure if I believe that there any lemon R107 SL's out of the factory. For them to cost a lot of money to keep running, either the car has to have been neglected, or you have an incompetent or very expensive mechanic working on it.

[Skid Row Joe]

I've learned the hard way at times the past 40 years - to not love things that don't love you back. This can be said of cars and real estate in addition to people in your life.

There has to be, or shall I say should be a tipping point in time, when considering cash time value on owning a used car or new car for that matter. The addage; "cut your losses comes to mind."

When I was pondering the above, in my mid-20s with my almost new, top-shelf 1977 L82 Chevrolet Corvette that was just over two years of age, with less than 10K miles on the clock, I decided to sell it and turn it back into cash. It's window sticker was $10,950.00 - I paid cash on-the-spot price of $9,500 to a Chevy dealer in 1976. In May of 1979 I sold it for $9,300 to a Corvette used specialist dealer in Omaha, NE. I re-invested the cash back into the markets I was by that time comfortably moving money around in. I estimate conservatively, that just the $9,300 portion of my investment portfolio has grown to several hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past 31 years. I could virtually buy a car transport full of 8 - 10 new 2011 Corvettes with the cumulative returns of that Corvette's seed money I turned back into cash in 1979. Had I kept the Corvette, today it might be worth somewhere around $15K in today's dollars. If I had put few miles on it. Not a very good investment over 30 years.

Sometimes it's wise to cut your ongoing losses in items that clearly, "don't love you back."

Originally Posted by TylerH860

The 500SL has been a non-stop trouble since my grandmother gave it to me 8 years ago at 111k. It was dealer maintained, and I recall making many trips to Randy Hershorn's European auto as a child.

8 years with the SL I'd imagine I've put 15-20k into repairs. This including a timing chain, valve job, suspension, fuel injection, and a thousand other little things. The R107 suspension does not hold up as well as the W123/W126 in my opinion. The engines need timing chains every 100k, and often don't make it past 150k without needing a valve job. The transmissions also don't seem to last much past 150k either.

[alabbasi]

Has anyone experienced the rusty sub frame issue on the R107's? I parted out two cars and kept the sub frames just in case.

I suspect that it wont be an issue on my car as it's lived in Texas all it's life but I do have a 280CE that is quite rusty.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by rowdie

Graham. If I lived in a city I would consider one. I first saw them up close in Rome in '07. They were very practical there. The butt ugly was my first impression. They have grown on me since. Someday the US will come around to clean burn diesels. Then maybe the price of diesel for my truck and farm equipment will come down a little.

I don't have a daily driver as I don't go anywhere on a daily basis. My '08 Ford Edge just turned 15K and I have had it since Feb. '08.

Just having a little fun Rowdie

The smart has such a lot crammed into the small engine space in the rear, that you can't get at much of it without dismantling part of car or dropping entire engine. Parts are expensive and in some cases not even available - They seem to consider the engine a throw away part!

I had a negative impression when I first saw them back when they first came to Canada, but they do grow on you, especially when you drive them. Some buy them as economical daily drivers, but actually, I think more do so as a sort of lifestyle thing. My wife likes hers, because her "green" architect daughter has instilled energy conservation into her thinking. It is suitable for her numerous short trips to shops or golf course.

Many of the owners have scangauges installed that read out fuel economy continually. My view is that if I drive the smart instead of the SL, I KNOW I am saving fuel

I find that I am now driving the 300D and the SL is sitting unused - But it deserves a rest - I used it almost every day this summer.

What I would like, is one of those 2006 E320 diesels in my SL. Probably give better performance all round than the old V-8s.

[dseretakis]

107 SLs are not of weak overall quality. On the contrary they are pretty tough cars. The V8 engines in those cars are capable of MB diesel mileage.

[meltedpanda]

My Sl's floors pans are new, but the sub frame, rails were fine, this was a northern car and had a lot of salt exposure sometime in its life.
Speaking of cash in and cash out , the majority of the restoration of my car was done by a meticulous body shop owner over 2-3 years. He bought all MB original stuff , even imported from Germany some of the items he could not get stateside. The work shows. I have his journal , well over $10,000 in parts alone! Count in his time, effort and non recorded costs and he was way in over his head. He knew it when I bought it , still not finished, I paid much less than he predicted he could get when he was in the rebuild process. Problem ,prices went down , but he kept "investing" when he probably shoulda quit. I can see how that happens. I have looked at cars and said - I can fix that one up - and then realize - who would buy it . Sometimes that does not stop me and I still buy it , fix it and sell it , recouping the part $, but nothing for time , blood sweat tears.

[alabbasi]

Originally Posted by meltedpanda

I have looked at cars and said - I can fix that one up - and then realize - who would buy it . Sometimes that does not stop me and I still buy it , fix it and sell it , recouping the part $, but nothing for time , blood sweat tears.

Yep, here's one in the pipeline



It can't all be about money, you have to have a little bit of fun sometimes and tinkering with my cars on the weekend is my idea of it.

[Skid Row Joe]

Originally Posted by dseretakis

The V8 engines in those cars are capable of MB diesel mileage.

Then why is it that they don't?

[alabbasi]

Originally Posted by Skid Row Joe

Then why is it that they don't?

How are you qualifying that they don't? I have 240+k on my 560SEL and have had a couple of 4.5 v8's with close to 300K miles and ran perfectly.

If you're implying this because there are not as many, then the simple reason for this is that the buyer of a mid size oil burner is more then likely the traveling sales man and the buyer of the V8 will be the CEO.