Mercedes-Benz 380SL (R107)

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If you were fortunate enough to have been travelling through Upstate New York in 1981 and had happened to travel along Route 5A, you might have seen this Mercedes 380SL for sale when it was new. The dealer’s window sticker would have told you that the car cost $40,632, which was a lot of money 38 years ago.

Of course, the price included Astral Silver metallic paint and blue leather upholstery as extras, but thrown-in, so to speak, was four-speed auto transmission, four wheel disc brakes, central locking system, soft top and hard top, light alloy wheels tinted glass, cruise control, climate control, breakerless transistorized ignition – a whole host of typical top class Mercedes features. And they are all still there, only now the car will only cost you £8,000 - £10,000. These are the good old days.

We do not know how long the car spent in New York, but it spent much of this century in the balmier climes of Clearwater, Florida, in the ownership of a lady who obviously loved it and lavished care and attention on it. There are quite a number of invoices on file to show this and they are worth reading.

The car made it to these shores in 2018 and spent much of that year being brought up to scratch, with work done to the lights, brakes, steering and suspension. Following a successful MOT (no advisories) in October of that year the car was registered and has covered only 300 miles since.

This SL is something of a bargain basement beauty but still has all the charms that made it quite a car 38 years ago. If the speedometer is correct the car has only done 83,616 miles (and, remember, these speedos go up to 999,999) which, for a 3.8 litre V8 automatic Mercedes, is barely run in. This is luxury you can afford…