Junkyard Find: 1996 Mercedes-Benz SL 320
Published: July 6th, 2021
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Mercedes-Benz built the R107 SL-class, in all its stodgy-yet-sporty glory, from the 1971 through 1989 model years. I have documented quite a few of those iconic SLs and SLCs in car graveyards over the years, but have not paid much attention to their successor: the R129, built from 1989 through 2001. Today, we fill in some junkyard-history blanks with a mid-production R129, found in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service yard last month.
In 1996, the US-market SL-Class hierarchy had three ranks: SL 320, SL 500, and SL 600, allowing buyers to choose between a straight-six engine (228 hp), a V8 engine (315 hp), and a V12 engine (389 hp). Today’s car is the sprightly six-cylinder machine, scaling in at a flyweight 4,010 pounds (versus 4,165 and 4,455 pounds for the V8 and V12 cars, respectively). Are there depleted-uranium ballast plates hidden somewhere in these cars?
The ’96 SL 320 listed at $78,300, or about $136,500 in 2021 dollars; its V8 and V12 brethren started at $89,900 and $120,100 ($156,740 and $209,390), respectively. At that time, my only car was a primer-gray 1965 Chevy Impala sedan, and I’m sure any R129 owner would have taken care to park all the way across any lot from my hooptie.
Europeans could get a new 1996 280 SL with a five-speed manual transmission, but all the American-market R129s had mandatory slushboxes by then.
Depreciation hits cars like this hard, particularly when they reach their third or fourth owners and don’t get the maintenance they demand. It appears that clean 500s and 600s go for decent money these days, but a six-cylinder R129 already has one wheel in the junkyard when it develops some expensive mechanical problem (i.e., any mechanical problem).
Someone with wrench-turning skills could put together a nice R129 by harvesting good trim and interior parts from discarded cars like this one and transplanting them into a semi-rough runner. There are no weak points in this plan, obviously.
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Here we’ve got fleet Mercury (no, not this kind of fleet Mercury) chasing a cannonball fired by the Lord Humungus through a mashup of ancient Greece and the Bonneville Salt Flats and pursued by an SL with an Instamatic-wielding passenger. Such is the life of an R129 owner.
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Such a futuristic machine!For links to more than 2,100 additional Junkyard Finds, visit the Junkyard Home of the Murilee Martin Lifestyle Brand™.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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That hard-top definitely is easy to remove and is worth something. I've been thinking about getting R129 as a project car, 320 would be enough for lazy driving. These were known as last proper MB-s during the dark period, 90's and beginning of 00's when all other MB models were complete crap and these still had proper old-school stone heavy glove box door. Not sure if 129 had low quality wiring just for couple of years like mentioned above, seems kinda strange.
I still favor the R107 over the R129 even though the R129 is more technically advanced. There is just something timeless in the R107 styling. Build quality is top notch too. I have a 74 450SL that has been under rolling restoration for 20 years now. Runs almost as good as new now after extensive engine work (mostly by me). When I drive around town in it, it gets a lot of attention from the younger crowd. For instance I drove to the local Honda dealer to buy a part for my Accord. When I came out, there were three young service guys giving it an inspection. Another time I was stopped at a light when a 30s something Hispanic guy offered to trade my his car and wife for it. She did not look very pleased with his offer. I just smiled and drove away when the light changed, Late run R107s are getting serious money now. Some have sold on BAT for over $100K. Mind you these are almost museum quality, but the trend is upward. I may just make a few bucks when I'm too old and decrepit to drive anymore and have to sell it.