right hand drive production figures

[Sirasila]

Can anyone here tell me how many right hand drive 230SL were made? What about 250 and 280?

[Richard Madison]

Don't know where RHD production figures can be found.

Not sure it helps but the Car Registry on this website has about 550 cars and only about 20 are RHD cars...that's about 4%.

The Registry probably understates RHD cars as the website has a majority of USA members.

Just as a wild guess, I'd say maybe 10% of all Pagodas were RHD cars. If production was about 50,000 cars, maybe 5,000 RHD's were produced.

Another wild guess, maybe 50% have survived so there could be about 2,500 RHD Pagodas in the world (or not).

If we can find out how many Pagodas are registered in the UK, it would help pin down the RHD figures.

Richard M, NYC   

[mdsalemi]

John Olson (SL Market Letter) or the Classic Center might be able to answer this question.

[Sirasila]

It seems no matter where I look, no one can answer this at all.  I'm sure there must be some kind of archive on the exact number, but because the majority of them are left hand drives, there seem to be less interest, which is odd because right hand drive cars are quite unique even in the engine bay layouts.
My car in Thailand is a right hand drive, imported to Thailand in June 1964. A good number of them are here, so looking at the UK and Australian numbers are not enough. Please help.

[Jordan]

Don't forget South Africa.

[Garry]

My understanding was that the W113 was exported to the RHD countries of Australia, South Africa, Malaya, HK, UK that were mainly British or ex British colony's with one exception, Japan which is also RHD but I am not sure of the export to that country.

As far as numbers go, I guess Mercedes Benz will be the only one that can actually give the figures for production from the line rather than what went where, as and example, it would be near impossible to get those figures in Australia for Australia as each State had its own Dealer network and registration by type.

Garry

[Sirasila]

On my data plate in the engine bay, it listed the country code as 8 which I believe to be all of Asia.  Checking through the car's history, my dad ordered it 2 months after it was produced, yet no one can give any information about how many came to my shores.  Definitely not from a British Colony quota because Thailand wasn't a colony.  
I heard some stories about some Pagodas assembled in Australia and South Africa. Is this true?  
About Japan... Even though Japan is a RHD country, most foreign cars imported there are strangely enough, Left hand drives.  I asked a Japanese friend who said it was a status to drive a left hand drive car there in those days because it means a foreign car.  Japan market official imports of Mercedes, Porsche, and others like Ferrari and LAmborghini are mostly left hand drives even today.

[Garry]

Hi Sirasila,

There were not 'British 'colony' quotas as such but I was referring to the RHD driving that seemed to flow out from there.  I know our military would be able to order a Benz when posted to Malaysia in the 50's and 60' for shipment home Don't know if those Benz in Thailand were actually delivered to Malaysia then transported to Thailand. Maybe one of the old Dealers would be able to answer that.

Up until the Pagoda, MB did assemble some vehicles in Australia. They were some of the sedans and trucks but no Pagodas were assembled here, and it was around the same time as the Pagoda introduction that Mercedes withdraw from assembly and started fully importing them due to some changes in tariff concessions.

[jacovdw]

...I heard some stories about some Pagodas assembled in Australia and South Africa. Is this true?  

Unfortunately that is not true.

Even though we have a Mercedes-Benz assembly plant in East London (south eastern part of South Africa), the more luxury models like the SL's and W109's were not assembled here. Instead, they were imported complete from Germany.

However, certain W107 SL's were assembled in the 1970's from knock down kits and hence carry an extra (apart from the official VIN plate) and unique to South Africa plate with a CDA number.

Other models that were assembled here in the 60's and 70's include the fintails (W110 and W111), W108, W114, W115, W123 and W116.

We still assemble MB passenger cars (C-class mainly) to this day and export to the US and Asia. Your more luxury models still have to be ordered from Germany though.

Don't forget South Africa.

I have asked that question to quite a few club members here and no-one seems to know the answer. To compound the matter even further, you can't even get any information from our e-Natis vehicle registration system.

Most pagodas in South Africa are RHD vehicles, but there is also a fair percentage that are LHD (brought in privately by their respective owners from Germany mainly) and the fact that they are LHD does not decrease their value either.
Very few US spec cars here.