Since it had such a short run most people forget about this generation of the GS. I think the Mercedes E-Class was the last car with the separation of the low and high beams.
I remember you posted the Calty Design files and the SC had headlights that looked similar to the Honda prelude, I am so glad that they decided to separate them even though it was because of fitment issues. For most people it's a love or hate thing with the high and low beams separated, leaning towards the latter that I've seen.

 

It was a short run, wasn't it? I actually had forgotten that two generations of the GS/Aristo had separate high and low beams. The model I usually think of is the 1997-2004 version:




With the SC, yes I recall the history being that the headlights were originally intended as larger pieces with both high and low beams. The change to separate beams had something to do with either the front nose or to keep the low hoodline that they wanted to achieve. The design choice may divide people but for years people do remember the car for those inboard high beams, don't they?

I didn't know that the E-Class (W202?) was the last to have separate high and low beams. I really like that chassis in the same way I like the early W123's with the highs and lows technically separated but within enclosed housings. I'd like to see some car design teams do this again with the right look.

 

From what I've seen, prices remain low on the early years, with lots of them floating around and most being in awful condition. '97 body kit drops the availability quite a bit, but '98-00 really increases rarity.

As a point of reference, I had an older gentleman looking at one of my cars awhile back, but he fell in love with my '98 SC400 which wasn't for sale. He turned his attention to finding a '98+ (within a day's drive) and kept asking if I would sell mine. He eventually rephrased the question: "If you did sell it, how much would you want for it?" I told him I couldn't imagine letting it go for less than $10k. He nodded in agreement. He never did find one for himself and ended up buying an AMG for $13k. I think he would have offered $12k if I were open to it. That's a lot for a 20 year old car with nearly 200k miles on it, but I have had multiple people tell me it's the cleanest SC they've seen in the state. So, yeah, rarity and condition matter a lot in SC pricing.