250SL - Value with bad auto trans?

[Cowichan]

I'm thinking of putting my car on ebay and seeing what
happens. Nice looking car but the transmission slips intermitantly.
Shop says get a rebuild for $3000. A car salesman I know said to
get an estimate from his shop as a trade in. They offered me
$4000 saying that it wasn't a collectible car.

I would appreciate any opinions about whether to fix the tranny myself or let it go on ebay with full disclosure.


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[Mike Hughes]

Find a different salesman and dealer with some knowledge of older vehicles.

[waqas]

Your car is almost certainly worth more. There are a few members in BC, so look them up and they might be able to point you to a competent mechanic for a more accurate assessment of the transmission.

[seattle_Jerry]

Car dealers are the descendants of horse traders 99% of them are untrustworthy. The deal will always go in their favor. Your grill is worth almost that much. Your car would be on the lot the next week for $25K or more waiting for the impulse buyer.

Is there any 1960's convertible that isn't collectible?

From watching Ebay even sl's with problems go for 10,000. I bought mine non-running for $11,000 and there were a lot of bidders

[Cowichan]

I don't know why the photo link didn't work.
Perhaps my photobucket link will work.
http://photobucket.com/willerton
_______________

Moderator here: The original photo link has a forbidden character in it...the parentheses (  ) are causing a link problem.

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[Paddy_Crow]

Dealers are in  business to make money. They have to buy cheap and sell high. There is no way they can offer market value for a car, to get that you have to sell it yourself.

[waqas]

quote:Originally posted by Cowichan

I don't know why the photo link didn't work.
Perhaps my photobucket link will work.
http://photobucket.com/willerton

Your car is beautiful!   I'd pay $4k without looking underneath.  It's worth at least thrice that...

[seattle_Jerry]

I don't have issue with dealers paying fair deal trade-in prices for a vehicle. Generously offering someone $4000 because it isn't collectible when it clearly is both collectible and easily worth triple is sleazy.

A typical dealer would buy a car for a few thousand below retail and sell it for a few over what the individual would sell it for.
That car is easily a $15,000 car on ebay or more.

I'm not saying that there aren't reputable dealers out there, but there are many that are not...

Just yesterday I was in line at the grocery listening to the kid behind the counter talking about how he had bought a car through the local Chevy dealership and had it for a week but they just called back and the financing had fell through. They wanted him to come in and sign some papers for new financing.

The finiancing scam is tried and true. He had financing and was approved or they wouldn't have left him leave with a new truck for a week. Their goal was to get the kid to sign off on their higher interest financing to make them more money on the deal.

The funny thing is the kid said he couldn't afford it and returned the truck and they couldn't say "oh wait...you really are qualified" Unfortunately some dealership employees had been joyriding his tradein and destroyed the transmission and suspension. So they got to buy him an overhaul.

My only experience with a dealer was him selling me a car that was damaged in shipment from the factory (which they failed to disclose) it didn't show up til the paint faded abnormally on one side several years later

For a fun read look up car selling scams on the internet

[seattle_Jerry]

I forgot about the transmission...but you could still easily get 10K even with the bad tranny maybe more like 12K Plus you have the cool euro lights.

[jcjblo]

If your transmission is just slipping and not totally shot, you should contact Paul of APS Transmission (604-879-5741) and discuss with him. He is very familiar with Pagodas (he owns one himself) and I am sure he can fix it for much less. It worth a phonecall to find out.

[Longtooth]

1st, if you're thinking about selling becasue the tranny slips a little, and you don't want to spend $$ to get it fixed, check Oursl.com's web-site and call web-site's owner to get a fair estimated value for the car.  Assuming it's got some body/under paint rust here & there, but not so much hidden rust that it's prohibitively expensive to restore, it's worth at least $12-$18... as is.  Interior wear/tear looks to be minimal even... has it been refurbished or is it the original interior? How many miles on the odometer?

Sounds like the dealers you've talked to are either totally ignorant, or the preverbial "used car salesmen" types... I'd guess the latter.

[merrill]

I had the auto tranny on my 66 230 sl rebuilt for about $1300 from
mercedesdismantlers.com

of course I pulled and shipped the tranny to them.

sounds like you are quoted a lot for r/r.

[bsimaz]

I'm in agreement with everyone else who posted here.  Don't even think of letting it go for $4000.  It's worth much more.  In the 'grand scheme' of things a transmission is an easy fix and well worth the cost on a car like this.

I'd say get it fixed and enjoy it.