Idea of value for 1970 280SE? LOW miles

[Motorhead]

I have an older gentleman that has a 1970 280SE with the 2.8 mechanical pumped 6 cyl engine. Engine is smooth and solid. The car is a clean rust free Calif car with nice interior, working A/C and sunroof. It has 83,000 origional miles on it. He has had it for 12 years. All of the bumpers are straight, rear axel has no leaks(boot good). It is a RADIO DELETE car. Still has the block off plate on the dash. Dash wood is in good shape. It has been repainted what seems close to the origional color but the detail such as the door weather strips, front A/C cooling fan weren't masked off. NICE solid car. Anyway, He wants to sell it and I was trying to get a fair value. It is a 108 body
Any one out there give me a value??? Chris

[Skippy]

Well, when I was working at PNP, we had an older gentleman sell us one for something like a hundred bucks. It was in similar shape to the one you described. Had I not lost my job before the paperwork cleared DMV, I would have been happy to buy it with the legally required salvage title for the $700 or so I'd have had to pay for it. I'm thinking with a clean title it you could be looking at anything from $1000-2000 dollars.

Make sure the tranny works correctly before you buy. That seems to be a weak point on the mid-70's and earlier Benzes, and I've been having a lousy time trying to source correct parts to rebuild the tranny for my '71.

[Tomguy]

nowhere near enough details. Besides, a cheap respray kills the value. off of what you describe, it sounds like a driver/beater for $800-$1000

[Motorhead]

Here is a picture.
This car is NOT a $800-$1000 driver beater.

[tonkovich]

no. it looks pretty good, even the paint.

$2500 check craigslist. here in l.a. they seem to be about that.

p.s. more pics of interior would be helpful.

(i might even make an offer?)

(that looks like l.a. / valley?)

[ctaylor738]

You hit the nail on the head when you asked about "fair price." What does that mean, other than what some other gearhead would pay? The car has little serious collector value even if it was a pristine original. The off-color repaint and tinted windows aren't helping. There will be other needs, I assure you. I would say anything over $1500 is charity. Wish it were otherwise, since this is probably a nice car.

[tonkovich]

Originally Posted by ctaylor738

You hit the nail on the head when you asked about "fair price." What does that mean, other than what some other gearhead would pay? The car has little serious collector value even if it was a pristine original. The off-color repaint and tinted windows aren't helping. There will be other needs, I assure you. I would say anything over $1500 is charity. Wish it were otherwise, since this is probably a nice car.

agreed; paint, windows - not good. but its probably rust free. as to collector value, what would be the best - "s" ? 3.5 ? 4.5. ? (i 'd take any of those three with a stick, but that's me)

[thebenzbar]

Originally Posted by tonkovich

agreed; paint, windows - not good. but its probably rust free. as to collector value, what would be the best - "s" ? 3.5 ? 4.5. ? (i 'd take any of those three with a stick, but that's me)

Serious collecting... then a W109 6.3
But then again that will require serious collection of dollars to obtain, restore, own & maintain.

[Tomguy]

Originally Posted by Motorhead

Here is a picture.
This car is NOT a $800-$1000 driver beater.

I'd never buy a car over the internet. All I can speak about is what you describe and what I can (or can't) see. I assume all window trim is in need of replacement, subframe and engine mounts shot with age, brake hoses in need of replacement as they're original, etc; unless you state they were replaced recently then I factor all that into what current value would be, and subtract $500 for either cleaning the trim as long as what's under the overspray is still good, or replacing the trim.

Buying a car over the internet, sight unseen, for anything more than $500 is a gamble to me I'd never take. Unless I can see it, touch it, inspect it, and drive it myself, I cannot place any value on any internet car over $1000.

[JiveTurkey]

Being a brave soul who has bought an old Mercedes sight unseen over the internet, here's my input.

To us Merc nuts, any old Mercedes is priceless, to everyone else it's just another old car. The price that someone will pay for this car will vary greatly depending on whether or not someone happens to be a Mercedes fanatic. To a Mercedes nut, the only value this 280SE will have lies in it's mechanical condition as others have stated. Most of us really couldn't care less about the mileage (not trying to be offensive, just stating a fact) since 40 years can be brutal on a car regardless of how often it was driven. Trust me, my 40 year old Merc took a beating from it's last owner.

A mercedes nut will probably pay around 1500 bucks, add more for each repair that has been done. Someone who isn't as knowledgeable about old Mercedes-Benzes will pay 2000 - 3000 dollars.

[ctaylor738]

My view of the market is that the real money goes to the cabriolets and coupes. The sedans are just not seen as valuable by the market unless they are very low mileage or were celebrity-owned or have an interesting and verifiable story. The reason, I think, is that it is seen as more painful to put $2500 into a $4000 sedan than a $15000 coupe.

I guess that the sedan hierarchy for these goes 6.3, 3.5, 4.5, with the sixes bringing up the rear. But the air suspension seems to scare off buyers and evens out the prices.

[Tomguy]

Originally Posted by JiveTurkey

A mercedes nut will probably pay around 1500 bucks, add more for each repair that has been done. Someone who isn't as knowledgeable about old Mercedes-Benzes will pay 2000 - 3000 dollars.

This is what I did on my estimate: $1500 starting point. Bad paint job, take off $500. If the rubber bits were done, add a few hundred, maybe a grand if it's all new (Everything from door seals, window seals, trunk seals to mounts, bushings etc). Mileage on a 40 y/o car built to withstand miles isn't as critical as dryrotted rubber bits causing a system to fail and wreck the car!

Nobody can give you a value off of one small-res pic showing a matte-like finish (resizing might have blurred it, or it might just not be that glossy). Hence why eBay auctions for serious dollar value cars have dozens, if not hundreds of high-res pics.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mercedes-Benz-280-SE-3-5-1-OWNER-1971-MERCEDES-BENZ-280SE-3-5-CONV-ONLY-1-OWNER-FROM-NEW_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem5d26628d63QQitemZ400075951459QQptZUSQ5fCarsQ5fTrucks

A 280SE in that condition MIGHT fetch $7500-$8500 in this current market if the stars all align JUST RIGHT with a buyer who will settle for the 6-cyl to get a pristine condition car.

Edit: And to emphasize my point of pic importance, that car won't sell for a penny over $80k without detailed pics of it on a lift.

[meltedpanda]

getting it in front of the right viewers is key, 40 year old car , is well a 40 year old car. All point made are good. Get it in front of MB folks and they will pick it apart, and KNOW what to pay. General public - $1000 -$1500

[Motorhead]

Thanks guys for the opinion. I am mostly a 123 diesel guy and he brought the car to me to look at. I figured the 6 cyl was a better deal than the 4.5 but that shows what I know. It looks to be the same engine that was used in the 280SL's. Figured the engine alone would be worth $1500. Yes I agree about 40 year old cars, wrenching on German cars for the last 40 years myself, I know that there is normal deterioration of parts.

[white280SE]

I am abit shocked here, this is the first forum I have seen that reduces the value of a W108 to bargain basment prices and one of deflated prices from a year ago.

I bought a stunning W108 with only 62,000 miles and it's a turn key car. for $5000. I looked at other cars all about $3500-4000 and even $6500

The $3500 was complete but lacking any real quality about it. Showing way too many bodge jobs. Too many to do for what I was looking for a tidy turn key car.

The ones in the $4000 mark where higher miles and not complete, parts damamged bits missing and cheap drive though paint jobs and signs of hidden rust under that cheap paint job.

The $6500 car was very nice but it was at a dealer and really it was a tidy $4500 car to start with and still was a $4500 car.

I found a car up for $6900 with a dealer and bought it from the son in the end for $5000 with out the dealer. He was rubbish anyway.

As for the car it certainly was not the cheapest, but what I got was a turn key car that was very orginal, showing some signs of ware and had the makings of a good car. I bought it 2 years ago left it out in Ca with a mate and then flew out to Ca and took a look over the car. It needed minor stuff doing to get it to my standard to drive it about. I did the fluid and hoses to make it stop on a dime which it did.. ( BTW this was a serviced car from a Non Main Dealer MBZ agent who said he did it all ..B*LL Sh*** did he.. )
Then I noticed the track control arm on it's last legs so I did all this. Serviced it with filters and oil.

Then drove it 800 miles round Ca as my hire car, shipped her home to the UK where all good W108's are rotted out to death.

I now have a stunning W108 that turns heads every where I go it's smooth , quite and sits nicely at 75 + mph on the motorway ) freeway to over the pond people. All I want to do is do the tappets as it's on my list

The car was sensible priced at what I had seen about the area's and sure I had seen other cars about but I wouldn't value that gold car at $1000

This surely is at least $3500 car with some tidy up work if not $4000. I fear some people would like this for $1000 so they can flip it for profit at $4000 later..

I paid the right money for a car I didn't need to weld, didn't need to paint, didn't need to have an endless money pit in mechinical parts and all I had to do was improve and look after..





No rust, no horid bodge jobs. I will later be re painting the lower half due to some car park dents and some T*&(*#$ scratching a 8" key on the door ( before I bought it ). But that's one of my hobbies painting anyway so it will look sweet once done.

Here it is looking very nice at Goodwood Festival of speed getting some remarks. As I said UK ones are normal very rotten and mainly junk..



if there all $1000 each then i will order 10 right now, who do I sent the payment off to ??