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That's right. The thing to look at is what "regular" cars cost in 1956. I don't know what a Chevy 210 sedan ran in 1956, but it wasn't $4000.
Look what that $26K buys today. A Honda Accord or Toyota Camry is light-years ahead of that old SL.
In terms of purchasing parity, the new SL is very expensive when compared to it's 1956 cousin. A family earning $45,000 today would have earned about $6,800 in 1956. That puts an SL at about 2/3 of a family's income. Today, you need a higher relative income to buy an SL.
Why?
Well, in 1956 the SL Mercedes was not regarded as the pinnacle of automotive status symbols. MB is cashing on on the status factor in 2003, without a doubt. There are enormous technical differences as pointed out. The 1956 SL was technically ahead of many cars, but the gap was pretty small considering the huge gap the SL has today over a "regular" car.
Mercedes was a premier automaker in Europe, but considered a little quirky "over here." These were not mainstram purchases, and they needed to get a better foothold. That might account for the relatively low price as well.
This has happened with many German products (1956 was not too long post WWII) in the last few decades. Remember when a Porsche 911 was "expensive" but within reach of many people? Most people weren't interested in a funny little German car with an air-cooled engine and a funny front end. That changed! The 911 is REALLY expensive today, and carries enormous recognition and prestige. Those things, combined with the leaps in technology, have caused the 911, the SL, and so on to become more expensive in terms of income levels.
Now Mercedes offers products close to that $26K USD price. Just not the SL. Can you imagine what would happen to MB if they offered the R230 SL500 for $26,000? They would sell so fast that dealers would add HUGE mark-ups. MB would lose big time on each one. Eventually either MB would go broke or be forced to raise the price substantially to ensure that they made a profit on each car. (They would raise the price to a level where marginal profit equaled marginal cost)
There are makers that currently are in the same type of position that Mb was post WWII. They are hoping to make a dent in the US market, and their products are priced low in their segment. Unfortunately for us, none of these cars even remotely has the appeal of ANY SL.
It's not a great time to be a budget enthusiast, as the quirky interesting cars have pretty much been forced out of the market. But, the age-of-automotive-reliability (pretty much post 1988) has brought us many other interesting cars.
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