In 1972, my physician purchased a 350SL 4.5 which was $10,500 MSRP. In 1976, I spotted a new 1976 450SL on the showroom floor, essentially the same vehicle, for $16,500. In 1973 the w116 450SE and 450SEL made their North American debut at $13,500 and $14,500 respectively. By decade's end, these were $30,000 cars. Carry on through the 1980's when a w126 560SEC was a $60,000 prospect. The steeply climbing MSRP's throughout this era did wonders for buoying used Mercedes resale value. Fast forward to the mid 1990's when MB was under sales pressure from Lexus to start leveling off this price escalation. The resale of w140's and w220's were particularly hard hit by this situation.

Look at Ted! $6,995 for a perfectly good '03 S600! As Jeff Spicoli once said, "Righteous bucks!"