The '80's SEL's and SEC's can be problematic. Timing guide issues, '70's style fuel injection (yeah, yeah, I know you guys are all claiming the Bosch CIS is a "great" system when properly set up and maintained but quite frankly, once it's been neglected it's a piece of crap!), aluminum block and heads, low fuel mileage (compared to later FI cars) and simple age has driven the values of a great automobile down to almost nothing.

I had a non-running '85 500SEL delivered to my house for $300. Interior great, paint's faded (hey, welcome to the desert Southwest), new 15" tires on "disk" rims (all 5 of the original 14"X6.5" rims were in the trunk), service records dating back to 1992, 168K miles, even came with a half tank of the nasty old gas which was the reason why it was sitting since 2006.

Fuel distributor, injectors, pump, WUR and everything else fuel related was trashed. In order to get it back to stock running condition I'd be looking at over $1500 and I'd STILL be needing the chain guides, sub-frame bushings and who knows what else.

The car works for me because I was looking for a project car to Megasquirt. I have the time, knowledge, experience and the desire to play with it.

Somebody looking for a "driver" isn't going to value the car the way I look at it, hence the low resale values.

For about the 3K buying one of these "bargains" will cost you, you can get a much newer ride with all the added safety features and mileages.