A 122-Mile Mercedes Pushes the Envelope on the Value of Low Mileage
It’s not unusual to see wrapper cars—those with ridiculously low mileage, often still in their delivery plastic—crossing an auction block for big money relative to more well-used examples. Still, when this 122-mile 1989 Mercedes-Benz 560SL with its window sticker still affixed to the glass brought $260,400 last week at Broad Arrow’s Monterey auction, our valuation team took notice.
The first thing that drew our eyes was that this, a car that spent its life in the hands of one family that formerly owned a Mercedes-Benz dealership, was the lowest-mileage example we’ve seen come to public sale. Of the 245 transactions on record for 560SLs, the next-lowest came in at 1900 miles. The median mileage is 62K—a number that makes sense for a mass-produced car that collectors appreciate but don’t revere quite as much as, say, the preceding W113 “Pagoda” generation.
From 1971-89, Mercedes-Benz churned out nearly a quarter-million examples of the R107 generation SL. As a consequence, it’s a popular and usually affordable means to get into the brand and enjoy period drop-top luxury. The 560SL arrived for the North American, Japanese, and Australian markets in 1986 and continued through the generation’s end in 1989. Though it was the top trim in these markets, Mercedes still produced nearly 50,000 560SLs, so it wasn’t exactly a rarity.
In part because there were so many of them, and also because they had a reputation for being reliable, people did what they were supposed to do with the 560SL—they drove it. There’s no shortage of cars from this generation that have clocked well over 100,000 miles.
In addition to the fact that it exists in the shadows of other generations of SL, high production volume and mileage have rendered the 560SL affordable. The median price is a reasonable $26K (just a few grand north of #3 condition value in the Hagerty Price Guide), and even cars with less than 50,000 miles still don’t clear 50 grand. As a result, a $260K sale, ten times the median price, is at face value completely baffling regardless of the odometer reading.
But it’s precisely production count and mileage that created this scenario. No one, well, almost no one, thought to park these cars, and the examples that have extremely low miles are now exceedingly rare. Add in the facts that restoration costs are driving up the differences between top-flight and driver-quality examples, and that the 560SL is enough of a collector car to have its own cadre of die-hard fans (and enough in the room to drive bidding sky-high), and you get the outcome you see here.
A 122 mile car of this age is slightly interesting. What IS interesting is the story behind why it has so few miles—and this article really missed the boat on what we all want to know. In fact, I don’t trust an odometer this low without the backstory.
I can’t believe a car that old is still viable as a running car. Did the owner start the car at least once a week to keep the cylinder walls oil and the coolant circulating? So many other questions when I see a car like this……..what about the tires, are they still usable? Was the car stored without moving it at all? Even if I had the money I’d never touch a 35 year old car with such low miles. I am guessing someone knows more about this car than I do.
The article stated “The first thing that drew our eyes was that this, a car that spent its life in the hands of one family that formerly owned a Mercedes-Benz dealership”, which explains it quite well.
Edit. The author edited his story to reflect the history after it was published.
This is an exception – Benz Dealer owned it…Otherwise you are 200% correct…
Agree. The story of this car I would think is a large percentage of the value. Need the history.
Thanks for the note. I have edited the story to reflect its history: It spent its life in the collection of one family that formerly owned a M-B dealership.
Meh
Why? I don’t get the appeal of super-low mileage cars. Sure, it looks nice, but all you’re doing is buying a museum piece. No car should suffer that fate.
If you would have invested $50k in the stock market in 1989, based on a 7% increase, it would be worth over $500k today. Plus you should have carried insurance on it all of those years. as it just sat….
A waste of a perfectly good 107 Mercedes. I wish someone would buy a car like this, have the service updated, and just drive it all the time.
It would be different if it was something destined to live in the shop, anyway, like an Italian exotic. But low mileage cars of those origins are far more common, although not with 122 miles on them.
122 what bits of rubber don’t need attention, what has corroded inside the engine that we can’t see. It was a museum piece I guess and it will likely stay that way.
$260K for a car for a dent in the chrome bumper? Really?