That wasn't at all what I meant lol

Bill from Curious Cars just did a video on the SEC:


That car looked pretty good to me, what was wrong with it? Not the most desirable year/refresh generation but I only see one little scuff on the leading edge of the bumper

This is true of any old car...nothing unique about it with an R129. People though want cars with low mileage and a lot of originality, for a car like that there are two different use cases. Yours is a driver so getting one without low mileage makes a lot of sense. If I were buying one to sit in my garage and drive to meets and Cars & Coffees etc I would want one with real low miles.

 

Thanks SW. I will take a look when I get a chance. IMO, the two door version looks better than the 4 door in this design style

 

The 2 door version does look really good, they're pretty rare. I also LOVE the S Class coupe from my generaton:







Damn kids lol.

 

Nice about that SEC, look forward to watching.

The bolded isn't entirely accurate. It has an incredibly complicated soft top that needs to be cycled regularly off season to keep those wheels greased so to speak. That's very important, most other cars don't have anything like that. One "pro" to not having a hard top (yet), If I did I would have to remove it several times during the winter to cycle the soft top.

I would park my LX or LS at the North Pole for 5 years, put a fresh battery in, oil, and heat the engine block and I bet they would start right up, literally.

I wouldn't try that with an old Mercedes haha. But drive 'em and drive 'em often, not necessarily tons of miles... just basic use.

As a fellow car enthusiast and Mercedes owner I can tell you you'd want one of these to drive and not sit, just fwiw.

I know what you mean but 64k miles is nothing for my 2002. And I plan for 4-6k a year.

Edit: Wasn't S-Class Convertible canceled?

 

You can cycle the top without driving it. Just because its been a garage queen doesn't mean it hasn't been maintained.

But they would suffer a lot of degradation, like any car. I also don't know that they would in fact start...

 

I wish someone could test it. I am very confident you could get both of those started after 5 years at the North Pole provided fresh gas, oil, battery, and one overnight of engine block heater.

In 17k miles or whatever, that R129... how much maintenance could have been done? Therein lies the problem. It's simply not been driven enough. But more power to people buying whatever they want and doing whatever they want with their cars.

This one just sold, I would be weary of the V12 but mileage wise the car is in the Goldilock's zone.. This looks up to the standards we were discussing and it still has 49k.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/20...ilver-arrow-9/

 

I honestly believe both the MB and the Lexus either would or wouldn’t start. I don’t see anything about the MB mechanically that would cause it not to start but allow the Lexus will start.

My question to you about a car with 17k miles “not being driven enough” how do you determine what is “enough”? If you’re going to buy it and only drive it sporadically and it’s doing to spend most of its time in your garage, why does that matter?

I agree if you buy a 25 year old car that has been driven 1,000 miles a year over those years and all of a sudden start driving it 1,000 miles a month you will have problems. But if you don’t drive it that much the problems aren’t going to pop up

 

I've used the LS430 as a jump vehicle so many times, it's been backwards connected... sparks have flown. People used it who didn't know what they were doing. One time the gauges stereo and climate and everything went haywire inside... restarted the car and it was fine. That was at least 5 years ago. Jump an R129 SL the wrong way or maybe even jump it at all and you'll electrically total the car. My battery got drained, I had it towed to the shop to have them recharge it. I would not personally get near that battery even lol.

In 17k miles, it has not been to the dealer nearly enough, not serviced enough, not driven enough. If the owner has taken it to Mercedes every single year (as they recommend) since new, it might have a shot... but I seriously doubt it has.

Not the same thing, but I've more than doubled the mileage per year that was being put on my car, no problems. I never thought it would be my DD, it's kinda funny. It just.....drives right along. I hope for less mileage next year, maybe 4k. It was taken to Chattanooga MB every year with less than 3k a year mileage.

 

that’s a very nice car too. in my opinion, I don’t think it would age as well compared to the Mercedes. I already posted that said, I remember reading in the Mercedes magazine they used to give out for free about a Michelin star restaurant critic who would drive all around Europe looking for restaurants and secretly testing them or reviewing them and she drove an S class coupe V12. What a life!
it is actually not that cold at the north pole right. -26c.
Santa actually lives at the North Pole so I can’t be that cold.

Some places in Russia, it is -70c. in fact right now at the Antarctica, it is -98°C. I don’t think any car could possibly operate in that temperature. I’m not even sure if a military vehicle could do it

I doubt it would start after five years.

low mileage car is perfectly fine. I’d actually prefer that. Highly likely somebody with a Mercedes V 12 coupe or convertible likely has many other other cars they drive as well. The front end is it’s weak per in my opinion,

 

There are CRAZY Youtube cold start videos in places that are just freezing like Russia. Also plenty here where it gets brutal. I find it all entertaining.

I'd take that bet with North Pole with the LX at least, remember how it was engineered....for the absolutttte worst stuff on the planet.

 

cool and cold weather can be enjoyable if you can embrace it.

 

Peak British car moment, I went up to a finfeatherfur with my dad in his L405 and a bunch of friends to since they had a sale on reloading supplies/equipment (small primers are $69.99 for 1000!).....when we got there my door handle was disabled from a glitching child safety system. I had to roll my freaking window down and reach outside to open the door, absolutely an embarrassment and so British! This thing has had so many stupid little issues now my sanity is being tested since I want everything to work correctly.

 

If I saw someone doing that I would just laugh, sorry. It’s so ridiculous that happened on a car at that price.

With that said, even though I like a more sporty ride in a SUV, since my X7 lease is coming up my wife was asking me about getting a Range Rover and I was thinking maybe we will look at one. Then a guy I work with told me about how long the wait lists are right now for one so that’s not happening.

 

Oh but they look so good.....

 

Thats a fun story, but you haven’t done the same things to your Mercedes so any comparison is just a fun mental exercise. These old Mercedes are also very robust, that’s why they are still around at all.

Do you think somebody who owns a garage queen show car cares how often it’s been to the dealer? They don’t. These low mileage cars will be just fine, sure they may require some money to get them into the condition where they can be driven a lot reliably, but that’s not what the owner is looking to do with the car.

”it doesn’t have a shot”. Do you honestly believe a 17k mile SL is going to be junked because it sat too long? Come on. Someone will invest the money necessary to keep it in good shape because that’s why they bought it.

It doesn’t surprise me at all, like I said they are very robust cars. I know a guy who owned W126 S Classes and he was selling real estate and put 400k miles on one and never had any problem.

The bottom line is, sitting isn’t good for any car, a Lexus is not in any way immune to the effects of sitting for a long time. If anything it’s harder for it because it has more plastic and rubber components that break down with age.