1995 Mercedes-Benz SL60 AMG

As if being one of less than 50 cars ever made wasn’t enough to lure you in the direction of this autobahn behemoth, this one’s covered just 43k miles in its 26-year history. The good news keeps coming as one of the car’s three previous keepers was internationally renowned, open-top Mercedes-Benz specialists, the SL Shop.

It’s also a well-known car in Mercedes-Benz SL circles, having appeared in the official Mercedes-Benz Owners’ Club magazine Gazette on two separate occasions. The same publication also reported on the car winning two best in show awards from events held in 2017 and 2019. Copies of which are included with the history.

The car was sold by the SL Shop to the vendor in 2018 for £50,000, which is still less than half the price it would have cost its first owner in 1996 (£110k new). There are few machines from this era that could have matched the performance and prestige of this sledgehammer SL.

Azurite Blue has to be one of the greatest hues in Mercedes-Benz history. The amount of said shade applied to the panels of this SL give it a finish deep enough to swim in. This is the era however, when Mercedes-Benz was transitioning to water-based paints – something it wouldn’t fully master until the turn of the millennium – so there is some orange-peel here and there. Though it’s not clear if this is original or not.

With so few owners and miles on this SL, it probably won’t come as a huge surprise to learn that its bodywork shows remarkably few imperfections. There’s been a very slight knock to the nearside rear wing, just where it meets the tail light. There’s also a scratch in between the SL 60 badge that was likely inflicted at the same time. A further scratch to the leading offside edge of the front bumper is about all we could find.

Though you could easily mistake this R129 for any factory model from the front or the back, taking a glance at its silhouette will leave you in little doubt it’s something special. The 17”-inch AMG split-rims see to that. These staggered stunners are shod in Bridgestone Potenza tyres (235/45 front, 255/40 rear) with plenty of life left. There is a very small amount of oxidisation to the rims and a tiny amount of corrosion to the bolt heads, if you’re looking very closely, but at normal range they still look fresh.

The last word in sumptuous soft-top luxury circa 1995, the cabin in this SL60 remains a lush place to be – even after more than a quarter of a century. It’s a delicious mixture of deep-pile carpet, wood and mushroom leather. There are plenty of toys too. Electric windows, powered memory seats, premium four-speaker stereo, twin-zone climate control, electrically powered hood and ASR (Acceleration Slip Reduction to those in the know), traction control to the rest of us.

The condition is on a par, if not even better than, the excellent exterior. There’s very little to complain about. The only damage we saw was a mild ‘bleed’ to the temperature display LCD in the centre console heater controller.

There’s the usual wear to the driver’s seat bolster from getting in and out, the extent of which are a few small cracks in the leather. The soft-top hood remains looking tidy and fits neat and flush with the body, though the plastic rear window has a few light scuffs to it. Really the rest of the cabin, boot and rear seats appear to be in exceptional condition for a car of this age. There’s even the tool roll, first-aid kit and fire extinguisher all in place and seemingly unused.

It’s apparent from a brief glance under this SL that it is highly unlikely to have been used in bad weather. Judging this car’s age from the underside alone, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a five-year-old machine. The brake and fuel lines look like new and the factory weather-proof covering seems to be utterly intact.

It’s a similar story under that long bonnet but a great big plastic cover hinders a truly thorough inspection of the engine. What we could see looked dry and leak-free and that big 32-valve 5956cc quad-cam V8 certainly sounds sweet.

Underneath the front end there’s another large plastic cover invariably halting yet further inspection but the bits we could see, suspension uprights and wishbones, look very tidy. These bits usually suffer the worst of the road salt and grime yet even surface corrosion is tough to find. There’s a little breaking through the paint on the nearside of the front anti-roll bar and some more dotted here and there but nothing at all that’s even slightly concerning.

Supplied new by Greenoaks Mercedes-Benz in Maidenhead this SL60 returned here for everything from a basic service to warranty work and even some wheel refurbishment. The history file is bulging with receipts all the way up to 2012. After this there’s one invoice from M-B Tamworth for a B service (pollen filter) with a brake fluid change at the same time before M-B Basingstoke took over care. This dealership was trusted with servicing and minor work from 2014 up until 2016 when some more extensive work was carried out. A poor running fault was traced to the distributors, both of which were replaced (one per bank) at a cost of nearly £700.

The SL Shop took over care in 2019 with an oil service carried out using Mobil Super 2000 10w/40. The car returned the following year for the same, even though it had only covered 1200 miles in 12 months. It’s also worth mentioning this car’s MoT history as it illuminates the level of care that it’s received. In the past five MoTs there’s not been a single advisory notice. The last service has only just been carried out by the SL Shop in December 2020. The car also comes with all the manuals and service documents, receipts to back them up and a spare set of keys.

It’s not every day a car as special as an SL60 AMG comes up for sale. In that instance you normally have to settle for whatever condition is available, so it’s doubly fortunate that there’s no settling needed in this instance. This car is a multiple award-winning Mercedes-Benz Owners’ Club known car and its last previous owner was the world’s foremost SL specialist.

Heap on top of that a very near complete main dealer service history and you’ll be hard pressed to put a foot wrong. It’s not perfect – there’s the minor marks to the paint mentioned above – but what 26-year old car is? This one has the history the rarity and the outright brutal performance for it to rightly be considered one of the most collectible Mercedes-Benz models of the past 30 years. That’s why we’re confident in setting an estimate range of £39,000 to £49,000.

Inspection is always encouraged (within Govt. guidelines of course), and this particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; 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’.