1992 500 sl

I am considering the purchase of a 1992 500 sl with 75000 miles. I know the owner and he has been the only owner. He has kept it in excellent condition and fully maintained. I just wanted to know how reliable this car is as it ages. What kind of maintenance/problems can I expect to incur as mileage increases? How many miles is the engine good for? This would be my first Mercedes and I would like advice from owners of this year and model. thanks.

[speace]

I just bought my 92 500 SL last May. The real question is how many miles is the TRANSMISSION good for! Not to scare you, but mine needed a tranny at about 135k. So it was in the shop for a week and a half in June. My 92 400E gets one later this month at 181k miles...

If yours was a one owner (Mine was not) and he took care of it and didn't drive it extra hard you will get lots more miles out of it.

Curious, what price range he put on it? It sound like it's a sweetie!

He's asking $28k which seems a little high. I am going to look at the car next week and may offer $20-25k based on comparables.

[speace]

One can never really tell the value without a mechanic's full appraisal, but if it has been garaged and well cared for and only has 75k. I would say 28 is not bad and 25 is excellent.

The KBB web site will value it at less, but I'm not aware of people actually selling them that cheaply... Maybe when they calculate trade-in allowances... LOL

I have the window sticker for my 92 and it says it listed for 99,500 when it was new...

Now that I've had my tranny rebuilt I would say that I have invested something in that range in mine. But, I have around 145k miles on it now...

How is the back window on the soft top? Mine is slated for a new top next spring because I can't see out of the back plastic... Everything else on the car is like new...

What city are you in? You might want to add that to your profile.

[BobH]

I think if you search the threads you'll pick up some of the problems experienced with the early 129s. I have a 1990 300Sl which I purchased just about three years ago. I bought the car with a little over 25,000 miles and it now has 51,000 miles. These are some of the problems I've had, most of which took 2 years or longer to show up:

I had to replace 3 of the four top switches. I replaced the water pump. I replaced the expansion valve in the AC unit. I replaced the SRS control model and I'm now starting to experience some problems with my cruise control. You'll also probably want to replace the original Becker radio.

I hope this helps. Good Luck!!

[kip Foss]

Brixz,

Go to www.collectorcartraderonline.com. They have literally hundreds of sl/slc's listed. Might give you some comparison prices.