7K mile 280sl coming up for auction

[ctaylor738]

Broadarrow will be offering this car without reserve at their Monterrey auction next month.  Enjoy!

https://www.broadarrowauctions.com/vehicles/jc24_r015/1969-mercedes-benz-280-sl-pagoda

Cheers,

CT

[Pinder]

thats some seriously low miles.

[mdsalemi]

https://www.broadarrowauctions.com/vehicles/jc24_r015/1969-mercedes-benz-280-sl-pagoda

My car, -7262 was January 1969 production. This a little bit older.

Seems we don’t have to wait long before another “unicorn” of some kind shows up!

[kampala]

for a car thats been stored for decades with only this many miles -- I am a little surprised to see:


-What looks like AJ headlights (late 280) which were only introduced after vin 11000, so these have been changed
-Carpet looks changed (based on trim around gearshift) - yet driver floor mat has significant wear for this low miles
-Exhaust tips are rounded edges - based on what I have read, all w113's came with square edge  (I might be wrong)
-Door pockets seem substantially stretched out for this low miles
-Rubber hood bumpers ( all 3 of them) missing - commonly only removed during a repaint



I think this is a very very nice car -- just not buying the story - maybe she was rode hard and put away wet - my 2¢

[dirkbalter]

Aside from above mentioned,
I would be concerned that the soft top in all the pics was actually never closed properly.
The gas cap does not look original either.

Nice car.

[Cees Klumper]

From the description "A paint meter inspection revealed a car that appears to wear much of its original factory paint". It does look like it's been repainted. I don't get the attraction of 'low miles', I would not pay much extra for it. "First class condition" is more important to me, whether it has 100K miles or a million miles.

[Jonny B]

These are the AN style. If you look at the head-on shots, you can see the separate fog light and bottom light sections.

It would be really cool to see this "in the wild" as it were. Some of the gaps do not appear to be in shape - look at the back of the car towards the trunk.

Good notice of the hood bumpers, worn out heel pad, carpet cut out with vinyl edging not molded, and non-square tips.

Glovebox fit is also pretty poor.

[49er]

 Looks pretty good to me. The license plate sequence looks right for when it was sold but looks like '73 registration sticker was placed incorrectly over the month sold sticker. Since here are no stickers since It had to be registered "None Operational" for the years since which would have made the car illegal to drive on California roads.  The door pouches look OK (mine sagged too as the elastic just gave out on its own over the years). My drivers side floor mat suffered the same end as the Bakelite like material just became brittle and disintegrated. My glove box never fit that well either but not as bad as this car. Perhaps some work was done on the radio and things not put back together properly. Hard to tell from the photos but it does look like the hood might have been repainted as the underside looks "too nice".

John

[neelyrc]

Lose your original gas filler cap in 7k miles? Maybe. A very nice example indeed but some suspicious items as already pointed out.  For a (mostly) stored car the soft top fabric appears particularly poor to me, proper stowage point aside. My - -7749, 56,000 miles, has seen a lot of garage time over the years but the condition of the original soft top material is substantially better than these pictures demonstrate. I also suspect a repaint.

[Duncan200]

Also says seating capacity of 3, but no kinder seat?

[49er]

My SL’s data plate also shows 3 passengers which was incorrect. A few months after i took delivery I received a registered letter from MBUSA that stated the data plate was in error and my car was definitely a 2 seater.

John

[ja17]

Very nice car, some nit pics, wrong brake fluid reservoir, ugly US screw hose clamp on radiator hose. Some seldom seen nice original features are the "red inspection dot" on the top of the intake manifold (in the circle) and the very difficult to find, two original hose clamps on the hose between the thermostat housing and water pump.

[stickandrudderman]

Something smells.

[mdsalemi]

Something smells.

Like maybe the odometer turned over…

[mclewis]

What is going on toward the right center of picture 113?

[mdsalemi]

What is going on toward the right center of picture 113?

Something looks a bit mangled there, but the brilliant programmers at Broadarrow don’t let you enlarge the photo.

This car is not something driven a few miles a year as part of a collection. It would be essentially untouched. Nothing wears out with such little use.

It may very well be a great car, but it isn’t as presented.

[bogeyman]

I understand some dealers are known for stretching the truth such as this. But a major auction house?

[Tom]

Many will pay extra for the truly, documented low miles and this may be the one.  But in preparing for the sale, mistakes were made.  Joe pointed out the replacement of the brake fluid reservoir.  These age well when not driven and will be the original white color.  These age to yellow with heat from the engine and would denote lots of miles.  The other mistake is the replacement of the vinyl liner inside the soft top cover.  These will shrink and wrinkle just by sitting and would not be this pristine.  Still, overall a nice car.  With no reserve, a discerning buyer might get a reasonably good buy.

[lreppond]

I have no idea if this car has the mileage as stated but I seriously doubt that a well known and respected auction house would intentionally misrepresent one of their consignments.  Regardless of the mileage it is a very well preserved car as evidenced by any number of elements.  When I got my dads car about 6 years ago it had 60,000+ known miles.  The rubber heal pad was disintegrating.  The carpets were badly faded. Dirt had accumulated in every available crevice or fold: the engine bay, trunk, soft top storage well, interior. Parts were missing from the tool kit. All the engine stickers were also disintegrating.  Original paint had chips and dings, etc.  This for a car that had been garaged its entire life and saw regular maintenance.  Regardless of the mileage, things disintegrate.  Aging happens no matter what steps we take.  In the antiques world, it’s called patina.  My dads car had it and so does this car. 

Overall my dads car was well preserved.  It was not showroom fresh and I think we delude ourselves into thinking this is remotely possible despite the mileage a car may have been driven.

[ctaylor738]

Hammer price was 210K.

CT

[AdelaidePagoda]

At that price, someone must have determined they were 7000 original miles. Or just liked it that much they bought it anyway.

Anyone attend the auction, or do an inspection, and see if it was original?

[Garry]

I see the new ownr/buyer has posted on facebook that they now have some doubts on what they have purchased vs what was advertised prior to auction.