Why the 230SL could be the most practical vintage 60's touring car ever

[perry113]

Having owned and experienced several different vintage cars including early Porsche 911's 356's MGA's Morgan's Ferrari 365 GT 2+2 & Dino and a Maserati Bora I am circling heavily on my 1965 230SL as being the one to own and use heavily long term.

I have known my particular SL since 1977 when I was roughly 8 years old. At that time my car was owned by a close family friend. I first experienced the car riding in the back kinder seat on my way from Albany to Lime Rock race track. Being influenced by my enthusiasm for cars and in particular this Mercedes my father snatched up the opportunity to own it when Benny decided to part with it in 1980.
I grew up with a my father having 3 specials cars in the garage at that time a 1964 Morgan 4/4 GT a 1975 Maserati Bora and the 1965 230SL. I was a lucky kid to have this kind of stuff available to fully experience.

I could write individual books on all 3 cars. The experience of maintaining the breeds and using each of them for thousands and thousands of miles. My passion and interest fueled me to learn how to work on them and preserve them. I inherited the SL after my father lost interest in it after spending over $25000 on restoration work to the body. The car had sat for roughly 15 years in my father's garage under cover all freshly painted and needing to be fully serviced and put back together. It took me just under 2 years and $13000 in parts to get her fully functional serviced and back on the road (2005).

Since then I have driven her just over 19000 miles and nearly worn out the 4 new tires.

Laura and I find ourselves most every weekend now using this car for weekend adventures. We our take our little Boston Terrier (Daisy) and put her in the back seat and cruise around the back country roads within the tri-state area. This car is so comfortable solid and reliable so much that I feel I must rave about it. The car is mechanically sound and performs as designed. We find it roomy enough to travel long distances and the outside visibility with the hardtop on is as good as it gets. It's performs well enough to cruise safely at speeds over 80mph when the circumstances are safe enough to be able to do so and the car just hugs the corners oh so nice.

The little SL also now seems to be performing quite well as a solid 401K investment holding. Because of the pricing comparable to lets say a 300SL or similar vintage Ferrari these cars can only go up from here. Yet they are not so crazy in price that your afraid to put miles on her.

I highly recommend the W113 230 250 280SL as the auyomobile for the collector and enthusiast to own that you can use and use often. You just can't beat its reliable underpinnings from its sister W110 W111 fintail family.
We are enjoying this car so much as a family that I wanted to reach out and share our enthusiasm and experience owning and using this wonderful automobile.

Cheers
Peter

[jameshoward]

Sounds like your tracking's out.

 

[stickandrudderman]

Nicely put. Thanks for sharing.

[vande17941]

Fully agreed.... I have a new SL and a '67...when I need to get somewhere far reliably, and I need to do it with luggage, we drive the 67.

[jpinet]

Totally agree with your opinion Peter. I have owned over 250 cars, many of them vintage Porsches, Volvos, Jaguars, Renaults, Austins, Triumphs and so on. My 230SL is a lovely car to drive. It feels modern and not only keeps up with traffic, but can precede it as well! And the combination of hard top/soft top/not top makes it like 3 different cars. Great luggage space also and extremely reliable. I've driven 1100 km in 2 days a few times with no issue whatsoever.

[thelews]

For me it's hard to decide, my Porsche 356 is a great car.  That said, I was out last night in the 250.  The car is such a pleasure to drive, so well built, so good-looking from the dash over the hood.  I can drive the car leisurely or spiritedly and the shift points (manual) are right there.  I can shift through the gears almost imperceptibly it's so easy to match engine revs with gear ratios, up or down.  And that engine, it just purrs whether cruising or idling.  It can also bring a smile past 4500 to redline.  And smoooooooth.  The 113 is an wonderful car for practicality, cruising and just plain old fun.  It's a car that attempts to do it all and does it all very well.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Nicely put Peter and thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. I am fortunate to own two of the stars made in my country of birth. I enjoy both of my stars equally and it never fails to put a smile on my face. I never ever thought I be this fortunate in my retirement. I washed them both a couple weeks ago and took a brief photo shoot I think of both as "Something New and Something Old" the 2012 star looks good and feels well on the road, however the 1969 star feels even better

There is something Special about the Pagoda be it a 230, 250 or 280 SL simply in one word "Timeless" or as my neighbor (drives a 1964 Jaguar) likes to put it. The old cars like yours and mine have distinct lines and make a statement, the new cars are like a bar of soap they all look alike.

Peter like all of us enjoy your car, I do, in a few days I will have driven this car 6000 miles since May 2013 what a pleasure to drive this car.

I attach a few shots of my photo shoot two weeks back after washing my cars.

[Panzer82]

Wow Peter... are you preaching to the choir, and so right you are!

When talking to people about collector cars, the various old cars different people choose to drive on the weekends, when talking about a Pagoda SL the sentence always ends with "AND it's a good car" - like it's some kind of luxury to have a car that works well... as so many other cars make their owners suffer to some degree (Morgan suspension or lack their of?, little cargo room in a 356, overheating of Jaguars... not that these can't be good, fun cars, they're certainly very cool... but nobody says those things about a Pagoda).

Pagodas are just so civilized and, to me, feel much more modern than their production years would have you believe.

[batman]

Yes I agree but there could be a rival...........

For 18 years until 2003 I owned (and loved) a BMW 2002 (although mine was a last production year of 1976 it was essentially a late 1960's sports/cruiser) and I would say that that car was pretty close to my Pagoda in many respects. Both 2 door cars were fun to drive, practical, reliable, pretty individualistic styling, quite sporty and reasonably quick but with some creature comforts (including young girls that were often attracted to it because of it's styling and being a slightly unusual sight in the early 1980's. The build quality and overall finish on Pagoda is of a higher standard than the BMW 2002, resulting in a more sophisticated car, but there are many similarities.

One thing I did not get when I had the BMW was the occasional friend asking whether my car was a bit of a "ladies car" - why have I been asked that question of my Pagoda a couple of times??

[RobSirg]

Hi Mark,

I think they were marketed that way at the time ( no offence to John ...aka 49er). Or maybe it was the car a wealthy guy bought his mistress ( I can only dream).

Don't feel bad Mark, back in the day the Mustang was considered a wife/ secretary car. Now it is probably the most popular classic muscle car..... by men!

Cheers

Rob

P.s : I always had a thing for the BMW2002's. I feel the same about my Alfa Spider - such a treat to drive......too bad about the build quality