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Are 300SL Roadsters “finally” eclipsing Gullwing Prices
By John | February 7, 2008
Question: Sportscar Market Magazine's 2008 Price Guide is putting 300SL Roadster values higher then the Mercedes-Benz Gullwings. Can this be true?
Olson Replies: The SL Market Letter has been charting this relationship since these models were new. The 300SL "Gullwing" Coupe is one the few great cars where a closed body-type has commanded higher prices than its convertible counterpart. This has prompted decades of prognostication that Roadsters would eventually eclipse Gullwings. Besides, 300SL Roadsters do contain more parts than Gullwings…. full restorations can involve 20% more labor on parts to be rescued or replaced. Roadster reupholstering takes five hides of leather. Even when new, Roadsters cost 25% more. And enthusiasts know that Roadsters had dozens of refinements. All reasons for them to be higher priced today. The following chart shows that after recovering from a low of 56%, Roadsters took 17 years to claw their way to 85% of Gullwings (using averaged prices). During the last ten years they have more-or-less hit a plateau between 80% and 85% of Gullwing values.
The 2007 auction scene has seen several surprises. Not only several 300SL Roadster sales passed $700,000, but they were early production, iron block cars, not late, alloy engine, disc brake models. At the same time there have been fewer spectacular Gullwing sales. If we go solely by these high-profile Roadster sales, sure, we could say, heads up… something special MAY BE happened. As a 300SL Roadster owner myself I should be delighted but I have to say the evidence is thin. I know a lot of these owners. The reason we've seen less Gullwing sales: less owners are sellin'! They're sitting on their hands! Those willing to sell are very coy/reluctant about putting prices in their ads. We're preparing our next 300SL Price Trends report for the SL Market Letter now, for late February or March release.
Model 300SL 300SL Ratio
Year Coupé Roadster Rdstr to Cpe
1980 $56,700 $32,000 56%
2006 $384,110 $326,490 85%
Topics: SL Market News |
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