It is hard at times to get excited by the 107 model Mercedes Benz SL’s that were weighted down by the Federalized Bumpers, Ride Height and lighting apparatus. The SL line was a clean design that was adapted for US importation, rather than designed, and in the process took on a bit of a bloated appearance. The result is it has put off some collectors to other years due to it’s “Big Bumper” appearance.

When this 1983 Gray Market, European version car was offered for to us for sale, it was apparent just looking at the bumpers how wrong it went in conversion to our standards. Accompanying the car was a complete history including the Importation Documents showing Europe a la Carte as the importer, dated 12/03/1982. The car also came with copious service records including two Mercedes Benz service booklets detailing service events and details of work completed dating back to June of 1983, completed by Auto Brugger of Redwood City leading up to February of 2020 when service work was completed here by Star Imports of Grants Pass.

From these records it shows the car has spent all of it’s US life in the San Francisco Bay Area and here in Grants Pass. If anything, the exhaustive and well documented service receipts show the owners as consensious and attentive to the serious up keep of the car to this date, not neglecting needs or issues as they arose over the decades of use. Another benefit was the inline, Fuel Injected 6-Cylinder Engine instead of the troublesome V-8 in all Federalized SL’s.

A short drive around town showed the car to have the exact mechanical feel of the Mercedes I drove in the late 70’s and 80’s. The Transmissions in these cars were refereed to as the “Cigarette Transmission” back in the day due to the delay felt going between from Reverse and Drive. Word back then was you could light a cigarette and smoke it down during that delay interval. The automatic climate control worked well and the AC made a great effort to cool the car down the hot day I drove it.

The first thing that was done during my inspection was to view the car from underneath looking for signs of rust or damage, a common sore point on these cars. After a very careful examination, absolutely none that was seen which can be viewed in our images taken. There were two areas worth noting. The first is a small dent on the driver’s side above the rear wheel as I tried to show in the images. The other is the chrome plating coming loose on the left front wheel (probably from brake dust). The rest of the car appears to be all original paint and finishes. The added Air Pump to meet emissions in the day has no belt and is frozen.

The VIN# is WDB10704212014776 and miles are 88,736. The selling price is $19,995. For other interesting bikes and collectible vehicles, visit our web site http://www.automaniagp.com 541 479 8888 or come by and see us at Automania LLC, 895 SE Gladiola Drive, Grants Pass, Oregon, 97526. Oregon Dealer DA1287.

Automania LLC is a Consignment Oregon Dealer selling quality, privately owned vehicles including Aprilia, Buell, BMW, Citroen, Ducati, Harley Davidson, Honda, Hummer, Kawasaki, Moto Guzzi, MV Agusta, Nissan, Ossa, Piaggio, Suzuki, Triumph, Vespa, Classic Hot Rods, Buick, Dodge, Ford, Chevrolet, Lamborghini, MG, Packard, Porsche, Rover, Shelby, Toyota, Triumph, Volkswagen and any other vehicle of interest