2000 Mercedes-Benz R129 SL280

First registered in April 2000, this SL 280 has covered 2,472 miles since, or around 100 miles annually over 24 years. Unsurprisingly, then, this Azurite Blue Metallic and Grey Nappa Leather interior SL 280 is, short of working out time travel, about the only way you’ll get a new car experience in a R129 SL. It presents as new, which presents an interesting opportunity for its next owner, that is, buy it and drive it and maintain it as a new car, or hide it away and keep it in its time-warp condition. We’d go for the former…

First registered in April 2000, this SL 280 has covered 2,472 miles since, or around 100 miles annually over 24 years. Unsurprisingly, then, this Azurite Blue Metallic and Grey Nappa Leather interior SL 280 is, short of working out time travel, about the only way you’ll get a new car experience in a R129 SL. It presents as new, which presents an interesting opportunity for its next owner, that is, buy it and drive it and maintain it as a new car, or hide it away and keep it in its time-warp condition. We’d go for the former…   Immaculate, as you’d anticipate for a car that’s barely turned a wheel in its 24 years of existence. This really is an SL as it would have been at the start of this century, which means you’re essentially buying a new old car. The only negatives are a set of tyres that are over ten years old, so if you are intent on driving it – they’ll need immediate replacement. There’s also some age-related deterioration to the header rail light surround and sun visors inside. Fix all that and SL is as it would have been rolling out of the factory – with even the wind-deflector in the boot still in its wrapping. Coming with its hardtop, the blue fabric hood material is in fantastic condition, but the plastic windows are cloudy. That’s unlikely to be an issue, as this SL’s unlikely ever to be outside with that hood up, it almost certainly a dry-weather only driver, if indeed its next owner ever puts miles on it.  

A car this age, with such a low mileage could be forgiven for having very little paperwork with it, but this SL 280 does come with a file containing not just plenty of MOTs – which verify that mileage – but some old tax discs and paperwork covering maintenance. There’s the original radio code card in the files – for the still fitted original stereo. We’d add a receipt for a new set of tyres and some fuel and drive it out of the showroom here and use it.

Cars like this SL 280 rarely come up, and when they do, they do cause a bit of a dilemma. Use it and enjoy it as it should be, or keep it in wrapped in cotton wool as, essentially, a museum piece? In this instance we’d lean heavily to the use it case, because you could comfortably add a few thousand miles a year to this car and do little to its ‘value’, while benefitting from actually using it as intended. It wouldn’t be difficult to keep in such fine condition, either. A chance to buy a new old car, which is hugely appealing, at a price which you’d struggle to buy anything new of note in a Mercedes-Benz dealership today…