Your favourite Mercedes-Benz SL?
By The Lenspeed Team
We at Lenspeed have been looking at Mercedes SLs a lot lately. We thought about which SL we’d pick for ourselves.
Without question, the Gullwing era SLs are already collectors’ items and out of reach of most of us here in Singapore. So that’s out of the question.
The Pagodas (W113) are probably the most beautiful of the lot that is still “attainable”, which means that if you’re a less sensible sort you could still buy one. But again, it’s well above S$240,000 in today’s market and that’s a mighty amount to pay. Plus these seem to be less reliable than the later SLs.
The W107 or Panzers spell of 80s excess and the ribbed bottom designs look pretty dated these days. But they can be had for reasonable money and even the basic 280SLs are pretty sprightly. For some reason however, the looks just aren’t as timeless as the W113s…
Which brings us to the R129. Funny model, this. I test drove one with my dad a couple of years ago, and absolutely loved the idea of a Mercedes roadster with an auto retractable roof. And it was cool then. But these days, 129s have found themselves in the hands of those who like the look of the car more than keeping them in good shape. So now we see many of these subject to distasteful mods and questionable rims. Not really one we’d pick, then, in 2014 at least.
What about the R230/R231? The exterior design by Bruno Sacco and Steve Mattin is pretty for sure, but I’ve never been a fan of the interior in the 230, although there was a big step up in the 231s. Still too early to say whether they are keepers or not at this stage.
So which would we pick? Our heart says Pagoda. That design will never age!
But our head goes for the W107. Let’s see whether all of those ideas in my head really comes to fruition. It’s always nice to dream.
What is your choice SL? We’ll leave you with an ad:
