December 31, 2021 Update – We were unable to find a buyer willing to pay the original owner’s reserve price of $15,000. 

August 2, 2021 Update – The high bid in the auction for this 1981 Mercedes-Benz 380SL did not meet the seller’s reserve price of $15,000. We’ve moved this 380SL to our “Rides Still Available” page where the seller remains firm on his reserve price of $15,000.  If you are serious about buying this Mercedes-Benz at this price, you can select the green “Buy Now” button below to agree to the $15,000 price.

The Guys With Rides team is pleased to offer at auction this 70K original mile, Light Ivory over brown leather, 1981 Mercedes-Benz 380SL being offered by the original owner! The auction started Monday, July 12 at Noon, and continues through Monday, August 2 2021 at 6:00 PM Eastern time.

To inspect all of the pictures provided, click on the photograph below to enlarge it and then click on the gray “<” and “>” icons to navigate through all of the other stills in this carousel:

Mercedes-Benz replaced its “Pagoda” roofed 280SL with the new R107-based 450SL in 1971. Throughout the 1970s, Mercedes engineers did what they could to keep the SL’s 4.5 V8 emissions compliant, however, by 1980 the company realized a modern engine featuring electronically controlled fuel injection was in order.  The result was Mercedes updated the U.S. market R107 with the 380SL which featured a new modern 3.8L V8 engine with 155 horsepower.  This mill was a smaller version of the 231-horsepower 5.0L V8 available in the rest of the world as it was a slightly more fuel-efficient version.  Despite its two-seat convertible aspirations, 380SLs are far from being sports cars.  If however, you prefer a luxury car with room for a weekend’s worth of luggage for two that happens to offer a convertible top, then a 380SL might be the car for you.

The original owner of this Light Ivory over Brown leather 1981 Mercedes-Benz 380SL bought this car brand new through his business originally.  After deciding to sell his business years later, he elected to keep the car for him and his wife to use on nice days. As expected, this 380SL has never seen winter and only has just under 70K original miles to prove it. These days, they find themselves using their 380SL very little and as a result, have decided to put it up for auction here on GuysWithRides.

While the original owner does not have a copy of the original window sticker, he does have several documents from when he originally purchased the car, including the bill of sale from his local Mercedes-Benz dealership at the time. The original price with options totaled $44,096 in April 1981, which in today’s dollars is $130,588.

The image below provides the link to the complimentary CarFax.  The original owner confirmed the two accidents listed were minor events requiring cosmetic repairs of the bumpers following minor parking incidents. Further backing up that claim is the fact the LemonSquad.com pre-purchase inspection (see further down) did not find any structural damage.  The original owner notes that the title change corresponds to when he transferred ownership of the 380SL from his business to his personal holdings.

Click on the picture below to review the CarFax

The picture below provides the link to the complimentary LemonSquad.com Pre-Purchase Inspection (“PPI”) completed in July 2021 for this auction. The seller and the inspector note, the Climate Control is currently not working properly in this car. Besides the windshield washers not operating properly during the inspection, the mechanic did not find any other major issues.

Click on the picture below to review the complete Pre-Purchase Inspection (“PPI”)

Based upon the pictures provided and the complimentary LemonSquad.com pre-purchase inspections, we rate this car a solid #3 “Good Condition” example and with a professional-level detail and resolved A/C system could easily become a #2 “Excellent” candidate.

With that in mind and to help you make informed bids, we’re providing a link to Classic.com, the analytics and search engine for the Classic Car market, that provides an interactive graph of recent comparable sales in the past two years. By clicking on the green dots, you can navigate to each comparable car sold as a way to help you make an educated bid on the car we are featuring for auction.

If you have any questions about this 1981 Mercedes-Benz 380SL, please leave a comment below or feel free to call Rudy directly at 877-468-6497.  Thank you for looking and happy bidding!