Junkyard Find: 1980 Mercedes-Benz 450SL

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

The Mercedes-Benz R107 is one of those cars that often has a vast difference between the typical perceived value and the typical price you can get when you try to sell one. I’ve seen plenty of these things in running condition for three-figure prices, and I’ve seen them fetch big bucks when they’re extremely nice. Once an R107 gets some blemishes and/or doesn’t run right, its value usually drops down to the scrap range, and that’s why they often show up in wrecking yards and even in 24 Hours of LeMons races. Here’s a Malaise Era 450SL that was an emblem of conspicuous consumption when new and still shows some signs of its former glory as it awaits The Crusher in a Denver wrecking yard.

I might need to go back and disassemble this HVAC control unit, just to see how its analog heart works. Probably a lot to go wrong inside, but odds are that it worked for at least a couple of decades.

Power came from a 180-horsepower, 4.5 liter SOHC V8 engine, which wasn’t bad for the darkest days of the Malaise Era. This car was a bit pokey, given that it scaled in at 3,595 pounds (!), but the luxury was 100% real.








Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

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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  • Maz357t Maz357t on Feb 24, 2013

    Dear Murilee, Help finding a Rallycross (Lemons level) car! I'm from England and this is my first proper holiday since making it back from a deployment to Afghanistan as a Royal Marine. And I made myself some promises when I was out there... One of them was to finally take-part in a Rallycross event. Another was to see Colorado again. Well... I'm on a flight to Denver next Thursday 28th February 2013, and a Rallycross event on the Saturday and Sunday, and it's my birthday!! Only remaining challenge - no car! So I'm looking to buy something, and any ideas/help/advice would be much appreciated! I think your articles are great - and you're clearly a bonafide expert! So... The following list gives a better steer on the kind of car that I need: • Under $200 ideally (could stretch a little for something that would survive until my next visit to the US...) • This beauty must run - or it's condition must give me a fighting chance of getting it running in a day - because I land on Thursday, have only Friday to prep, and race Saturday! • A stick-shift would be best • Rear-wheel drive • Brakes that work (or again brakes that I can fix in a day) • Must be heavily Pre-loved ;) Dream buys: •Running with brakes 2-door, 4-speed, rear wheel drive Chevette •First generation MR2 with body gone to pasture but sound enough mechanicals •A Fiero as above •Anything running, stick shift, rear wheel drive...?! Ok - I'm a fan of your articles, and of Colorado - and I know that you must have the most encyclopaedic knowledge of these kind of cars in that territory than anyone else!... ...there's gotta be a car out there! Any help/advice gratefully received. Thanks for reading, and here's hoping... The very Best to you, Maz

  • Ron B. Ron B. on Feb 25, 2013

    These are known in Germany as the panzer,because they used the running gear from the larger ,heavier sedans . The front end is from the W114 sedan and the rear was used right up to the mid 1980's in the W126. This means that everything is very much unstressed. The interior looked boring compared with similalry priced Aston Martins etc but how many of those were still running when the SL/SLC were still giving trouble free service? The ideal one to buy is the R107 300SL with the M104 engine. These hold their values and you will still pay a premium for one. One of the other posters says his was unreliable and everything broke...mmm, maintenance is cheap maintenance if you do it. And often these cars could have 500,000 on the clock which was not reflected in the condition of the cars. So when owner number 3 or 4 turns up,and no service history is found,the car would let them down so therefore all SL's were unreliable. It's a story I have heard so often it has hair on it.And it can be applied to almost all the pre 1992 mercedes cars. The biggest R107 problem so far is Rust. If buying one,always remove that cover over the air plenum in the engine compartment. if any rust is visible,the body is shot. Once rust is visible here,it means the firewall square section tubes are rusting inside and it's not economical to repair them.

  • Varezhka Of all the countries to complain about WTO rules violation, especially that related to battery business…
  • Carson D At 1:24 AM, the voyage data recorder (VDR) stopped recording the vessel’s system data, but it was able to continue taping audio. At 1:26 AM, the VDR resumed recording vessel system data. Three minutes later, the Dali collided with the bridge. Nothing suspicious at all. Let's go get some booster shots!
  • Darren Mertz Where's the heater control? Where's the Radio control? Where the bloody speedometer?? In a menu I suppose. How safe is that??? Volvo....
  • Lorenzo Are they calling it a K4? That's a mountain in the Himalayas! Stick with names!
  • MaintenanceCosts It's going to have to go downmarket a bit not to step on the Land Cruiser's toes.
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