Desciption:
 
For Sale is a friend's 1978 450SL Convertible. It is a 2 owner car and a California from Day 1. It still displays the original license plates issued when new. It is a clean, straight and rust-free example of the W107 Mercedes roadster with documented owner history from new. It does have both tops: The Original Hard Top that came with the car from factory as well as a soft top in like new condition that was very rarely used since replacing the original one about 15 years ago.
It runs great and drives fine, shifting through all the gears.
The car was partially restored approximately 15 years ago.
Current mileage: 156,140.

Exterior:
The exterior in silver is very good, shiny and fresh but the Re-paint does now showing signs of it's age (15 years): some small chips on door corners but no major dents, dings or scratches.
The chrome is excellent in and out as well as are all lights; lenses are excellent (no cracks or scratches) and all lights are in working order.
Interior:
The interior is in an amazing condition, it's almost like new:
The seats were re-upholstered in the correct original red vinyl and are in excellent condition: No rips or tears, no wear and padding feels fresh and plush. The Original carpets, door panels and headliner and the dash are in flawless condition - no cracks, scratches or fading as the car has been well cared for and always garaged when not driven (only approx. 3000 miles/year).
A modern Sony de-tacheable face CD with 2 x 3 way Pioneer Speakers has been installed a while back to give the car a better sound system.
As a safety measure the 3rd brake light was added on the trunk lid as this year's model did not originally come with it.

Mechanical:
Car is mostly original having been regularly maintained over the years.
Engine is strong, transmission was services but need work. During fast acceleration, it does slip between gears.

Everything else works as it should and has been checked and serviced.
All repair, service and maintenance & repair receipt for the last 20+ years have been kept.
Just recently the car received a major service: $8000 worth of work and parts were used to freshen up the car and give it renewed life as a very usable "daily driver" classic or weekend car, whatever the next owner's choice.
MANY MORE PHOTOS AND A SLIDESHOW ARE AVAILABLE.
Asking $5,500 obo.
Email me for more details and please be specific with questions and leave a direct email AND contact phone number.
Thanks.

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REDUCED TO $5,500

I've been going through a fleet rationalization for the past few months and one of the cars I'm not keeping is my 280SL.

I was very surprised at how the market for R107 cars has dropped.
Not flattened, not dipped, but dropped as in the bottom dropped out.

Unless the car is very low mileage, in completely original spec (paint, radio, wheels), and no rust, you can forget about getting anything near the "book" on one of these cars.
There are enough of these out there in pristine, garage queen condition, that any R107 that has high mileage (and that can be >50-60K) or is needy is just going to be viwed as another gas slurping old car.
Maybe things will change in time, but right now it's a very bad time to sell a decent but not top tier R107.

I offered mine to a friend at a fire sale price and he took the bait, so I'm done, but I'm taking a greater than 50% loss on the car since I bought it in 2007. And it's in much, much better mechanical condition now than when I bought it.

Decent looking, running R107s seem to cap out at 5K. That slipping transmission is going to scare a lot of people away from the car once they realize they might need to almost double their investment to fix it. Do it yourselfers can replace it for less, but that type of buyer is also looking for a real bottom feeder price when they buy. The market is what it is, and right now it's not too hot on R107s.

Good luck,

Jim

__________________
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