World's Finest Motor Car

[Ed Cave]

I was fortunate to receive good documentation with the 1971 280sl I purchased last summer, now experiencing a restoration.

One piece in particular that I've enjoyed dissecting is the original window sticker, a copy attached below.

The car was delivered by the dealer, Don Rasmussen Company of Portland, Oregon (the first Mercedes dealership in the US in 1957, according to the text I lifted off of their website - pasted in below) on December 28, 1970. Two days later 12/30/70, it received it's first service with 648 miles at Park Motors (I'm not sure exactly where that was) and on January 18, 1971 it received it's second service with 2,849 miles at Phoenix Motor Company in Phoenix, Arizona the city it called home for the next several years.

Back to the sticker - does anyone really understand the sequence here? Port of Importation (first stop) San Francisco, then I guess it went to Anchorage, Alaska (second stop) before being delivered to the dealer in Portland (third stop) where it was sold?

It's a hoot to look not only at the price of the car but those expensive options! Front & Rear bumper guards were outrageous at $28 ($7 each!) Anyway, you can see where someone wrote on the sticker with pencil that the car had clocked 38k miles by April of '78. Service documentation suggests the car moved to San Diego, CA sometime prior to 6/30/77 and has remained there ever since. Soon she will relocate to her new home in Atlanta.

The Don Rasmussen Company was born in 1950 with the Rasmussen Studebaker dealership on West Burnside in Portland, Oregon. As the popularity of Studebaker began to wane in the late 1950's, however, the senior Rasmussen demonstrated keen foresight and set a precedent in the American auto world by establishing the first Mercedes dealership in the U.S. in 1957.

Download Attachment: 71sticker.jpg
77.1 KB

Ed Cave
Atlanta, GA

1964 356C
1971 280SL
2002 SC430
2004 A4 3.0

[mdsalemi]

Ed,

Just a guess, but my bet would be it was POE (port of entry) at San Francisco on the way to a sales agent in Alaska.  It looks to me like the guy in Alaska may have just been an agent, and that as an agent he had to go to a dealer to get the car.  The dealer was in Portland.  Curious though...air conditioning in Anchorage?

Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored

[Kenneth Gear]

That's cool!

Thanks for sharing.

Ken G
1971 280 SL
Silver/red

[Malc]

Was that a lot of money in 1971??
I wonder
Malc

[gugel]

Using the Consumer Price index, $9532 in 1971 would have had the purchasing power of $43,340 in 2003.  The $7 for the bumper guard would have been worth $31.83 in 2003.  See for example http://www.eh.net/hmit/compare/

Chris

[Bob G ✝︎]

Ed;
You car is going to be something special when it is done. I feel in a small way a part of that restoration . Thanks for the copy of the window sticker its priceless.

Bob Geco

[J. Huber]

That's neat to have such a clear history. My car's early years are a huge mystery: from the time it was delivered to the Netherlands in 1963 to the time we got it in Los Angeles in late 1979. I believe the price was around 5000 in '79. Not sure what those dollars would be today but considering the car was around 6000 new I'd say it was a premium price. Even then it was obvious these cars were charming and desirable -- this is what led to the hunt for one for sale... 113s were not common then either. In fact, its only with technology that it seems like they are so plentiful these days...

James
63 230SL

[Ed Cave]

Something else I noticed on that window sticker.

I was under the assumption that the rear window defogger, (Option code 249 -  Electrically Heated Rear Window) was an uncommon option to see on these cars, yet on the sticker, just like the paint and tex upholstery, there is no charge for it.

Also, there is no charge for automatic transmission. This too, seems unusual as typically it seems manual shifts were standard and automatics were generally an up charge. Maybe my mind is too accoustomed to the GM's and Fords of that era, since that is basically what I knew back then, for the most part. Were auto and manual trannys the same cost? Surely manual was not an upcharge?

Can anyone elaborate on these observations?

Ed Cave
Atlanta, GA

1964 356C
1971 280SL
2002 SC430
2004 A4 3.0

[Ben]

The only explaination I can offer is that since auto's were more saleable/common/desirable the standard pricelist quoted figure included auto trans. This is the way they do it over here on the smaller Mercs which are avaialbel as manual yet they are always listed on the pricelists at a price which includes auto !

I dunno about the heated window though...seems odd !

Great document to have though !

Regards,
Ben in Ireland.
'64 230SL 4sp.