1983 Mercedes-Benz 380SL

The 380SL you are looking at here is fitted with a 3.8-litre V8 petrol engine, which develops 215bhp and 221lb/ft of torque.

Any keen-eyed amateur sleuths among you will have read ‘380SL’ then looked at the attached photographs and quickly concluded that we are fools or liars or both.

Not so fast.

What we have here is a 380SL that a previous owner has chosen to rather fancifully embellish with a 500SL badge because it has many of the fixtures, fittings and bits and pieces from the 500SL’s superior specification. So, the mystery is solved and our honour remains intact.

This car presents very nicely. The Anthracite metallic paint and black leather upholstery complement each well and, from a few yards away, the finish and shine are generally impressive. It also drives as it should, although it’s possible that the tracking may need looking at as we thought we detected a slight tendency to wander.

Get a little closer and you’ll see that the car isn’t perfect and has the odd bit of bubbling here, some frayed fabric there, and various scuffs and blemishes elsewhere.

Overall, though, we’ve seen nothing that’s made us shake our heads, tut loudly or break into a nervous sweat. Far from it – we’re inclined to think that this is a decent, solid vehicle.

Broadly speaking, the paintwork and finish are in decent condition, as is most of the chrome work. The Lorinser alloy wheels, excellent period extras, are in fine fettle, with only the odd nick or scrape to speak of. All the tyres have plenty of life left in them.

The panels and shut lines are even and clean. There are some small areas of bubbling, most notably below the front indicator lens on the n/s, and on the top edge of both sills. There is also some rust dust around the hood anchoring points in the chrome strip across the top edge of the windscreen. The n/s front fog lamp is a bit askew and there is some paint flaking from the front valance.

The supplied hard top is pretty much unmarked and is in good order. Which is a bit more than can be said of the folding fabric hood. It might be that you’re the sort of convertible buyer who will only take the car out for a spin when the weather’s good enough to have the roof down. If so, you may be somewhat less concerned about the rather tired, frayed and worn condition of the (nearly 30 years old) hood. If it’s perfection you’re after, though, then you’ll need to think about a replacement. The current owner tells us that he’s seen replacement hoods available for around £800.

The black leather upholstery is generally good, although the driver’s seat shows some wear to the o/s bolster on the seat back and there is a small hole in the passenger’s seat.

The centre console, fascia and dashboard all appear fine, as do the door cards, although there is some scuffing at the usual points of egress and ingress.

The steering wheel is the higher spec sports version and is in good order. Another higher spec feature is cruise control (untested by us).

Both sun visors seem to have lost their oomph and look decidedly ‘deflated’, which may well indicate that the foam inside has deteriorated. The headlining inside the hardtop is in good nick, save for a small mark which would no doubt surrender if confronted by a sponge and some soapy water.

As far as we can tell, the AC isn’t currently working.

The hood mechanism works and the boot interior is clean and tidy with no rust to speak of under the carpet.

All in all, the interior is in pretty decent condition and has an authentic, unmolested 1980’s patina and feel – right down to the Chris de Burgh cassette in the glove compartment. No, really.

This car has spent quite a bit of its life in dry, hot countries (more of that later), and there’s evidence of that in the largely rust free undersides of this car, although there is some rust to the front o/s floor pan where it joins the sill.

There is a surface dusting of rust on some of the suspension components and inside the engine bay, but no more than that as far as we can see.

The undersides, reassuringly, still have a good coating of bitumen.

The inside surface of the bonnet looks a bit messy, but that’s simply residue from the long gone sound deadening material that would once have been in place.

The engine bay, though a little dusty, has everything in its right and proper place.

The car has an MoT until November 2021 and comes with two sets of keys.

The car only has 52,000 miles on the clock and was recently serviced and generally sorted out at 51,889 miles. It has also recently had £500 worth of cosmetic work to get it looking as good as it does. Given that it had covered 48,658 miles in 2006, it clearly hasn’t been over used in recent years.

The car has a variety of stamps in its incomplete service book. But what it lacks in formal service entries, bills and invoices, it more than makes up for in a more anecdotal, narrative history.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin.

Once upon a time (apparently), this car was bought and owned by some minor Princeling in the Saudi Royal family. So, it spent some time getting sand in its treads and frightening the camels. It is believed the ‘500SL’ mod’s were done at this time.

Then, naturally, it came to Dorset, where it became the property of a chap with deep pockets and big dreams. His biggest dream, it turned out, was to run a safari park in South Africa.

So, off it went to the Southern Hemisphere for a few years. Eventually, our chap retired from the safari business (perhaps a leopard making a small hole in the passenger seat was the final straw? Ok – we made that last bit up) and he went to live in Spain.

After that, at some point, the car came back to Britain, having seen more of the world than Michael Palin and spent more time on ships than Captain Cook.

Please visit the documents section of the gallery of this listing where you will find photos of this and other paperwork to support our claim that this car has been maintained to a good standard.

If you’d like to inspect the car prior to placing a bid – something we would encourage – then please use the Contact Seller button to arrange an appointment.

We think this is a good, solid example of the 380SL, even though it insists on telling everyone it’s a 500SL. Despite its delusions of grandeur, the car seems to be in good shape and there’s nothing to make us doubt its mechanical integrity.

And this is a car that gives you a choice. Its condition is more than good enough for you to drive and enjoy it as it is, or you could whip out your cheque book and set about tackling all the little things that are currently preventing it from reaching the loftier pinnacles of excellence. It’s very much up to you.

So, we think this car will sell for between £10,000 and £15,000, which is really very good value when you consider how much Benz you’re getting for your buck. The price of good Mercedes R107s has been steadily rising in recent years and we think they’re always going to provide a safe place to put your money.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with the seller in Bournemouth; to arrange an appointment please use the Contact Seller button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.

This vehicle is not with us at The Market’s HQ, which means we have had to rely on the owner’s description of it, in conjunction with the photographs you see here, to compile the listing.

With this in mind, we would encourage potential bidders to contact the owner themselves and arrange to view the car in person, or to arrange a dedicated video call in which they can view the car virtually and ask questions.