Sixties SL 5 speed

[SPDMETL]

When these things do come up for sale, people want twice what the equivalent 4 speed costs. Is it that significant ?

[deanyel]

Is what that significant to who?

[SPDMETL]

Is the 5 speed significant to double the price ? Is it an overdrive ?

[David Langsam]

I think the 5-speeds are manual transmissions.

[London380sl]

The 5-speed is a rare and hard to find model with only 800-900 cars being produced with this option between 1965-1971. You can probably add $5,000 to the price of a similarly equipped non-5-speed. The down side to owning one is that, in the unlikely event that something in the gearbox breaks, you are likely to be without wheels for quite awhile as parts are impossible to find.

[deanyel]

It's such a narrow market - hard to really tell exactly what the premium is, but I think it's pretty significant for an original car, no where near 100 percent or even half that though. But so many cars are not original, but conversions, which typically wouldn't add even the cost of the conversion given the loss of originality. The factory ZF 5 speed was available to U.S. buyers only through the 1967 model year, then in Europe through May 69 production. So if it's a 68+ U.S. car it's a conversion. Option code on the data card is 230. It was an overdrive, .85, but rear axle ratios were short at 4.08 so it's not really that tall for cruising.

[kip Foss]

It is called capitalism. They've got it and someone else wants it.