This 1977 Mercedes-Benz 280SE was initially built for the U.S. market and has spent the majority of its life in the Pacific Northwest until moving to Florida in the 2000’s. The current owner acquired the car in early 2023 and has added approximately 2k miles. The odometer shows 107k miles currently and is believed to be original. Finished in Colorado Beige (470) over Bamboo Leather (204), power comes from a DOHC 2.8L inline-six paired with a four-speed automatic transmission. Equipment includes automatic climate control, a power antenna, power windows, and an aftermarket head unit featuring bluetooth and auxiliary inputs. Some service records are included in the sale and recent services include new upper control arms, an oil and filter change, a turn signal stalk rebuild, new brake lines, and a new OEM windshield w/gasket. Additionally a list of previous services in the last several years has been included in the gallery showing regular and comprehensive maintenance. This 280SE shows 107k original miles and is offered by the current owner at No Reserve and seller with factory literature, various vintage sales literature, two keys, one data card plate, partial records, and a clean Georgia title in the current owner’s name.
The exterior is finished in Colorado Beige (470) paint with original brightwork around the windows, at the beltline, and on the bumpers. Exterior features include European bumpers and headlamps in addition to a power antenna and slick top roof. The paint is noted to be all original with various imperfections shown in the gallery including scratches, chips, fading, and touch up marks. The driver side fender and door show thin paint along the upper beltline and the passenger side fender shows the most wear on the body. A paint correction has been performed and a ceramic coating for protection. Detailed photos of the exterior can be seen the gallery and in videos.
Original 14” steel wheels are mounted with original paint-matched hubcaps shown in Colorado Beige (470) paint. Kumho tires are mounted and measure 195/70 at all four corners. The hubcaps show general wear and fading in the paint with detailed photos available in the gallery. The tires show 2015 date codes but were only recently mounted.
The interior is trimmed in Bamboo Leather (204) across the seats, headrests, door cards, and armrest. Zebrano veneer accents the dashboard and center console with very little fading noted. Interior equipment includes power windows, automatic climate control, and an aftermarket head unit. Original Bamboo carpets and mats are shown with little wear or discoloration. The seller rebuilt the turn signal stalk recently for the self-hold feature. The leather seating surfaces show wear, creasing, and discoloration on the front seats while the rear seats show light wear. The armrest also shows some cracking and wear. Detailed photos of the cabin, carpet, and perforated headliner can be seen in the gallery.
The original steering wheel frames factory instrumentation including a 160-mph speedometer, a 7k-rpm tachometer, and an analog odometer showing 107k miles. Additional gauges include coolant temperature, oil level, and fuel level. An analog clock is set within the tachometer and is functional.
The original 2.8-liter M110 inline-six is paired with a four-speed automatic transmission and rated at 142 horsepower and 149 lb-ft of torque when new. With the “E” designation, this example features electronic fuel injection. Some service records are included in the sale and recent services include new upper control arms, an oil and filter change, a turn signal stalk rebuild, new brake lines, and a new OEM windshield w/gasket. Additionally a list of previous services in the last several years has been included in the gallery showing regular and comprehensive maintenance.
This 280SE shows 107k original miles and is offered at No Reserve with factory literature, various vintage sales literature, two keys, one data card plate, partial records. and a clean Georgia title in the current owner’s name.
The seller has provided walk around and driving videos.
Open Transit:
Enclosed Transit:
The winning bidder will receive an email with the quote and option to proceed with shipping.
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30 Comments
I had pegged this for a sale at $7K. Boy, would I have liked to have had this one. To the Seller, before you make a sale on your next one, contact me first.Thanks very much. I'm super excited to get the win. Very cool car. Can't wait to see it in person!@f51468 Congrats! We will chat soon.$7,000 bid placed by @f51468
@cmscollect You sold my dad's old 300CE a while back on here. How odd you're bidding on car from my family again. Super small world.$6,250 bid placed by @cmscollect
$5,225 bid placed by @ariotofmyown
$6,000 bid placed by @f51468
$4,975 bid placed by @cmscollect
$4,725 bid placed by @ariotofmyown
@ferrari1971 Sahara Yellow is one of my favorites. The '70s pastels that bled over into the early '80s Sacco cars is such a good period. In the final moments of the auction, if you aren't in the know, W116 Euro headlights and bumpers are drying up and are becoming increasingly expensive and hard to find. That was one of the big draws when I bought the car. The hardware alone is probably worth close to $3000 at this point and worth a MB Market auction alone for the parts if they weren't attached to my Colorado Beige car.$4,475 bid placed by @cmscollect
I have a very similar car , 1977 Sahara yellow , bamboo. The cars look great in these period colors.$4,225 bid placed by @JMeathe81
As the auction comes to a close, I’ll be on standby for any existing, last minute questions. I wish all the bidders good luck. Keep an eye out on the articles section on The MB Market in the coming days as there will be a story published on this 280SE since this car is such an anomaly and deserves to be written about and documented.@JMeathe81 Considering I’ve been putting roughly 55 miles on it per day I’d honestly say you’re safe. I’ve done a few day trips totaling over a hundred miles each. Car is rock solid. I wouldn’t list anything that would break on a few hundred mile road trip. I take a lot of pride in my classics. I’ve owned a ton of these pre-merge Mercedes (about 25 at this point) and I drive them all. 1000+ miles road trips, daily commutes, regional MBCA drives, etc. Maintenance is like a religion to me and I’m a zealot. My uncle is a 50 year classic MB tech, my brother is a AMG specialty technician, and I service all my own cars per the manufacturer intervals no matter the year and have restored a few cars you’ve probably seen go up for auction on this site, several breaking records. I love these and it’s important to keep them as they should be maintained. There’s a few quirks listed in my first comment I’m more than happy to tell you, or anyone else who wins the car, through!Such a happy color combination. @2nd_chance_steel would you have any hesitation driving this several hundred miles (asking because I'd likely fly in). thx@equinepeddler Thanks, that's appreciated. @NYCdriver watch the driving video- we definitely played up the city driving here in Atlanta, GA. For all wondering, the car has handled summer temps beautifully with A/C on and no hiccups.$3,975 bid placed by @Awismot
Truly appreciate when sellers take pride in their videos- well done sir.REALLY wish I was in the w116 market- this is super cool and funky. Having visions of driving this through modern city traffic and getting emotional. GLWTA!$3,675 bid placed by @MBMitch
The MB Market got around to uploading walk around and driving videos.$3,425 bid placed by @Awismot
$3,000 bid placed by @MBMitch
@Ilovebigtoys those mufflers with two tips, either straight or angled down, as this car would have had, have been NLA for a while now. If you look, you'll see more and more have been replaced with the single outlet more like a 4cyl 123 would have had. I'm hoarding a NOS one for whenever my muffler shop in Piedmont opens back up. I'm in Atlanta, and have a silver 79 Euro, I've never seen this car around. Color is great.@2nd_Chance_Steel - thanks, appreciate it!@hobbsm3 Appreciate the positive comment! If I didn't already have a spare set of Euro W116 bumpers and headlights in my garage, I would've taken the ones off of this car to squirrel them away. Good luck with your Euro W126. Really unique car as well! As a reminder to all interested parties, feel free to PM me if you want to have a casual conversation over the phone with me about my W116 -- I'm more than happy to chat about it. The MB Market will be uploading a walkaround and driving video hopefully tonight going into great detail of the car.Very cool car. Love the colors and the Euro bumpers. GLWTA @2nd_chance_Steel@Ilovebigtoys The repair was done previous to my ownership. I wish I knew the story on why it was chosen, but I don't know why. It's just lost in time. Your guess is as good as mine.O see the cat back exhaust has ben replaced recently. This car had a dual tip exhaust when new I recall. I wonder why a different look cat back exhaust was chosen when everything else seem to be as much stock as possible, as this changes the “look” of the car? This obviously was not chosen for enhancing performance. Was this chosen to save money?@ProdigalPetrolHead I've Googled "Colorado Beige W116" during my research and found a few photos of one in Poland and then a bunch of photos from this shoot populating the search engine. After a lot of research, I can't find production numbers per color from Mercedes-Benz. I'd be curious to reach out to the classic center to see if they could help out of genuine curiosity or if anyone in the comments knows of a resource.Lovely carBeen racking my brain and can't actually recall ever seeing this color on a 116 previously. All the charm and road presence!@CarCrazy24 That’s a good question. I don’t know much about CA Smog regulations, but what I can tell you is there is a smog pump attached to the engine without a belt connected. There’s also a charcoal canister pictured too in the engine bay. The car is completely stock with all cats present. I hope that helps.Got it so this will pass CA smog?@Peabo No worries! Let me know if you need anything else answered in the meantime.2nd_chance_steel. Thank you for the reply. I read through the listing and missed the date code statement. Thanks again@Peabo 1) Per the description in the listing, 2015 date codes. 2) I've been driving with the untinted windows up around Atlanta and not sweating. Definitely keeps up with summer heat. Appreciate the comments! @elie7elie Per the description, yes, all the North American parts were replaced with Euro a few years ago.So was the bumpers and lights modified from US to Euro? I assume this originally was built with US lights and bumpers?2nd_Chance_Steel, 1) you mentioned that the tires are older. Please list the date codes. 2) Does the AC keep up with the hot summer weather? Thank you$2,750 bid placed by @Awismot
$1,500 bid placed by @TheLimited
$1,250 bid placed by @Awismot
Morning everyone! I'm super happy and proud to showcase my personal daily driver on The MB Market. It's a super original car that I've been using to do my 54 mile work commute for a while now and have decided to sell no reserve. I'm fascinated by the weird colors Mercedes-Benz used during this era and have always wanted a Colorado Beige car. I haven't found any other in this paint color that have hit auctions (someone feel free to prove me wrong). It's a really rare, weird color that doesn't fit into modern traffic which I love. Slick top, leather, M110 inline six, in Colorado Beige makes it a curious spec. Feel free to ask any questions and I'm on standby if anyone needs supplementary photos. A lengthy driving and walk around video is on the way that'll get posted here soon. A few things to mention: I have the cruise control module removed from under the dash that I was going to get serviced since the capacitors are no longer working. I never got around to it but I have the two nuts and bolt in a labeled bag with the module. It's about $100 to get serviced. I can recommend the guy to do it who has serviced about 4 in the past for me. Tires are older but were in a climate controlled garage and were not mounted, so no flat spots. They perform well in the wet. A/C works! It just turns off at 42 MPG for about three seconds then kicks on again. One of the weird characters of these ACC II vacuum units. Car sometimes has a hard start when hot on occasion. Will take about 5 seconds to crank when it decides to act up but cranks 100% of the time. Just takes a little finesse. Car drives like a champ, even past three digit speeds. I really enjoyed this car and want it to go to a good home.$250 bid placed by @Ilovebigtoys