This 1991 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL was first owned out of Skokie, Illinois and shows registration in the Midwest until 2014 when it moved to Florida and was then purchased by the current owner in 2021 out of Atlanta, Georgia where it currently resides. Finished in Arctic White (147) over Gray Leather (268), power is provided by a 5.5-liter M117 V8 engine mated to a four-speed automatic transmission driving the rear wheels. Equipment includes heated and memory front seats, rear heated seats with a reclining back, a power sunroof, and the original Becker Mexico Grand Prix head unit. Also noted by the seller is mostly original paint per the paint meter readings with the lower half of the rear passenger door having been repaired before. In preparation for the sale, a service was performed including rear sway bar end links, differential mount, A/C recharge, engine oil service, SLS pump reseal with new fluid, all new drive belts, engine air filter, Mercedes-Benz battery, secondary air filter, transmission oil cooler hoses, and a complete paint correction with a ceramic top coat. The current owner installed H&R lowering springs including an alignment, so the car is set up for the simple installation of pre-merge AMG wheels to complete the look. A top end rebuild was done at 43k miles including timing chain, chain guides, valve guides, and head gasket. The odometer currently reads 92k original miles. This 560SEL is now offered for sale by the seller on behalf of the current owner with recent service records, a clean Carfax showing regular service intervals, tool kit, original jack, first aid kit, stamped Mercedes-Benz service booklet, VMI report, service records going back to the early ‘90s, manufacturer’s literature, one key, and a clean Georgia title.
The exterior is finished in Arctic White (147) with gray lower body cladding and chrome trim on the bumpers, window frames and side mirror covers. Exterior equipment includes a fully operational power tilt/slide glass sunroof, an electrically heated rear window, and a power antenna. The seller shows the car has mostly original paint with only the lower half of the rear passenger door having been repaired at some point and has provided paint meter readings for every panel. Factory heat rejecting glass was optioned on this 560SEL and shows no aftermarket tint on the original glass.
The factory 15” Gullideckel wheels come wrapped in Michelin Premier A/S tires measuring 205/65 on all four corners with 2019 date codes mounted/balanced by Autohaus of Naples at 91k miles. The spare tire is an older Michelin MXV4 Plus that still holds air on a factory Gullideckel. ATE disc brakes are behind all four wheels with factory ABS. The wheels have recently been refinished in original Astral Silver and show no wear with new center caps. Recent drivetrain, suspension, and brake services include:
The interior is upholstered in Gray Leather (268) with matching gray carpets, original Mercedes-Benz floor mats, and a black upper dashboard while Burl Walnut wood trim lines the center console, dashboard and door panels. The wood trim presents well with a new small hairline cracks in the veneer which the seller photographed in the gallery. The front seats are heated with two position memory. Additional interior features include heated rear seats with reclining backs, a power sunroof, factory rear foot rests, automatic climate control, cruise control which is shown to be intermittent, and more. A two-tone town and country horn is fitted on this 560SEL and is shown to work in the provided driving video. An original floor jack and a tool kit are included in the sale with a first aid kit installed in the rear parcel shelf. The original Becker Mexico Grand Prix head unit is shown and functions as intended. A new rear view mirror was replaced with a NOS unit in 2020 along with the in-dash headlight switch and new window regulators. The A/C system underwent a full refresh in 2017 including a new A/C compressor and a recharge.
The leather-wrapped steering wheel frames a 160-mph speedometer along with a 7k-rpm tachometer, an analog clock and gauges for fuel level, economy, coolant temperature and oil pressure. The odometer indicates an original 92k miles.
This W126 is powered by a 5.5-liter M117 V8 engine which outputs 238 horsepower and 287 lb-ft of torque. Power is sent to the rear wheels through a four-speed 722.3 automatic transmission. Recent services performed in preparation for the sale are as follows:
A top end rebuild was done at 43k miles including timing chain, chain guides, valve guides, and head gasket. The provided service records dating back to the early ‘90s shows the car was serviced with an open wallet and had continual fluid changes its entire life.
This 560SEL is now offered for sale by the seller on behalf of the current owner with recent service records, a clean Carfax showing regular service intervals, tool kit, original jack, first aid kit, VMI report, service records going back to the early ‘90s, manufacturer’s literature, and a clean Georgia title.
The seller has included the following video featuring a walkaround, POV driving segment, cold-start, and full pre-purchase inspection.
If you're fortunate enough to be around classic Mercedes-Benzs, we want you to try something: go interact with a W201 and/or a W124. Open the doors, feel the seat leather, and drive them on the highway – then go interact with a late model W126 and prepare to have your mind blown at the solidity of these cars. While the W201 and W124 are excellent, world beating cars, the flagship S-Class is just vibrating on a different playing field. These truly were the best in the world. We’ve had a lot of seat time in Bentley and Rolls-Royce SZ platform cars, which directly compete with the W126, and the S-Class feels like it comes from an entirely different decade. They have the added benefit of tougher interiors, more reliable and robust engines, high interior build quality, and superior engineering. In short, these were the best saloons humanity had to offer in the ‘80s. We’ve had some driving time in this 560SEL and it’s a very tight and original driving example. As W126 aficionados at The MB Market, we were impressed. So many of these cars don’t get the maintenance and cosmetic attention they deserve, so most W126s are rolling around with half of their systems inoperable creating a miserable driving experience. Dialed in examples are a dream to pilot. With original paint, up to date services, and strong original features, this is a car you can buy and daily drive. With the H&R lowering springs and dialed-in alignment, it’s ripe for some AMG Aero 1 wheels that’ll bolt on and give it a sinister, pre-merger look.
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Enclosed Transit:
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27 Comments
Good luck everyone as we come into the final moments! I'm really happy and proud to represent this one. I'm a huge W126 fan and this is a good example. If anyone is buying the car sight unseen, you're more than welcome to fly in and take delivery of it and drive it back. Good luck!$11,000 bid placed by @TheGoogleGrad
$10,750 bid placed by @ProdigalPetrolHead
$10,500 bid placed by @Javierbu
$10,250 bid placed by @TheGoogleGrad
$10,000 bid placed by @ProdigalPetrolHead
$9,500 bid placed by @Javierbu
@omarshareef happy to see you in here.$9,250 bid placed by @omarshareef
@nobrakes I love the name. Two hours remaining! Let’s go over a few of the highlights -recent service to get the car ready for sale done by DC Motorwerks and myself -147 Arctic White is a super tough color. You don’t get clear coat issues like you do with the metallic paints of this era. -timing chains, guides, head gasket, valve guides, etc done already. It should be good for another 100k+ miles. -lots of service records and a healthy Carfax report -very original on the outside and inside. The interior is gorgeous and you can tell this was a garage kept car -It has Michelins that have about 1k miles on them with a fresh alignment. It’s super unapologetic and a very straight example of a car that’s getting harder and harder to find. Good luck everyone! I’m available for last minute phones calls if need be. Just PM me.$9,000 bid placed by @nobrakes
$8,750 bid placed by @Javierbu
$8,500 bid placed by @ProdigalPetrolHead
As we come into the final day, I just wanted to commend the commenters for asking the hard hitting questions. I loved interacting with you guys and attending to all your questions! I feel like we covered everything there is to this car, but if we missed something, please drop a comment below and I'll get to you! Thanks to all of the interactions thus far!@mikelaca Front bumper clearance is 7 inches Rocker panel clearance at the front is 8 inches Rocker panel clearance at the rear is 11 inches Hope that helps! Let me know if you need anything else. I have a pretty gnarly driveway and I can get in and out without scrubbing.$7,810 bid placed by @Javierbu
@mikelaca Absolutely. I'll grab a measurement when I'm near the car again later today. Give me a few.@seller are you able to measure the clearance between the front bottom of the front fender and the ground? Since it's lowered I'm curious how much clearance there is for parking curbs etc.$7,560 bid placed by @Mavteam
@rideair The general consensus on the top end work is every 130/150k miles if the original head gaskets hold up. Brass valve guides round out and the links in the chain tend to get smaller in diameter because of use / improper oil weight creating slack. I asked my uncle who has been servicing only Mercedes since 1971 about why a M117 would pop a head gasket that early and he said the original gaskets just kind of sucked. That was a pretty regular occurrence when these weren't that old. We're assuming that's what happened as the dealer said pitting on the head. I inspected the rear passenger side of the block (where the gaskets leak) and see no oil. The other W126 that's live right now I'm hosting had a top end rebuild and it had the original chain at 180K and it was perfectly fine. It was replaced of course but technically didn't need it. Another sign of wear are the rocker arms flat spotting creating a tick. This car doesn't tick. Also oil use from the valve guide seals with blue smoke exiting the exhaust pipe. This car doesn't do that. If the tensioner fails, it's a slow failure as they're oil pressure driven and you get chain slap on start up. This car is quiet on start up. I even pulled the coil plug to crank the car without ignition to build oil pressure right after I did the oil service last week just to be safe as is OE procedure. This car is exhibiting none of those issues. Timing chain guides are plastic and degrade with heat cycles -- they get dark red and brittle. If anyone wants to worry about something, that would be the area of concern since they're plastic. But again, these last 150K typically so they should be fine. Oilers are like $8 and is a 1 hour job if you've never done it before. I looked inside and they looked nice with proper oil dispensing when the engine was idling. If anyone wants a video or pictures let me know. I see no signs of it requiring a top end refresh. These cars WILL alert you over a long period of time if it needs top end work and you can drive them for thousands and thousands of miles while these systems begin to degrade -- failure is not whiplash fast which is nice. I honestly think it's a redundant service at this stage of the car's life in my professional opinion or I would have done the job myself.$6,555 bid placed by @mdrei
$5,560 bid placed by @Mavteam
Haven't seen to many needing a top-end rebuild at 43K, which is interesting. Since that was 50K ago along with many years passing, the new owner should check the chain/tensioner/guides, etc.. along with the cam oilers, since you're already there. Like I say: "Buy It, Sort It, Drive It".$1,560 bid placed by @mdrei
$1,310 bid placed by @Javierbu
@Stuttgart_Steel thank you for clarifications, now its much clearer where care spent its days.@antonvt Thanks for the comment! There's a lot to tackle here, so I'll start at the top: The Carfax report paints a pretty good picture from 2004 to current day. I'm not sure what warrants the "abandonment and barn find" rhetoric, but this car looking at its history, that's not a picture I'd paint for this example, so let's break that down to not spook potential bidders with speculation. In 2004 it looks the the car moved from Ohio to Indianapolis after passing state emissions for Ohio. The story picks back up in 2007 when the car was brought into Mercedes-Benz of Indianapolis for a service and work. We then see regular registration updates in in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and then it seems to have been sold and purchased in Ohio in 2012 where it remained until moving to Florida in 2013 and was serviced by MB Experts LLC out of Naples which is a reputable indy shop. Milage updates begin in 2016 as it got annual services and was driven sparingly. Registration shows Ohio still, but the service pings on the Carfax show Naples, Florida which tells me a wealthy individual owned the car and had it registered at their main house in Ohio, but parked it at their beach house in Florida. I've seen this happen on about 1/10 of the cars I sold at the high end dealer I used to work at -- totally normal behavior. That's going to be the reason why it didn't get a lot of miles put on it as it was a secondary use car at a secondary house. It looks like it was then traded on a new Mercedes through Mercedes-Benz of Naples who then listed the car for sale under their dealership. If a Mercedes-Benz dealer lists a classic in inventory, it will be a nice example as they usually send older cars like this to auction. This also explains the clean underside. Yes some of the bolts have corrosion on them. They were protected by the gold cadmium plating from the factory which will wear off with use. If you look closely at my video and undersides, the car is totally free from any sort of rust. Floor pans are good, the differential isn't fuzzy, and the differential mount I replaced, which looked very old (maybe original) lacked rust, which is just painted metal which always rusts on cars driven regularly in salt. I've lived in Ohio before and for enthusiasts, it was regular to have a winter beater to drive through the salty cold months -- we always had one as we didn't want to ruin our own classic Mercedes and Porsches. Those winters would destroy cars. By looking at this car, it was not driven in salty conditions for years on end. The car was listed for sale in 2021 at Merlin Auto Group here in Atlanta, Georgia where the current owner bought it from. I know that shop's owner and the crew there and they do not touch bad cars -- they sell only the best. Here's their website: https://www.merlinautogroup.com/ The current owner is a local collector who owns probably about 50 cars. When you own that many, you don't put a lot of miles on your cars. That explains why this one wasn't driven much. It has been kept inside at a collector car storage facility since 2021 that is climate controlled. This is also why I serviced the car to prepare it for sale. We do not know who the previous owners are nor have pictures of the car under their ownership. But it's assumed the car looked the same (other than siting higher) since the car is very original. Here's the old listing: https://www.merlinautogroup.com/product/1991-mercedes-benz-560-sel-560-sel-c-930/ I hope that helps ease your stress about the back story! There's really no stories with this example. It's unapologetic, quite original, and a very nice example. Please look through the gallery and you will see the car lived a pampered life. Please PM me if you want to come see and drive it. Thanks!Greetings to all. From the selling date in Dec 1991 till 2004 (=for a total of 13 years) the car drove 73 k miles, as can be seen from the papers. Now the odometer shows 91 k miles, meaning that car covered 18 k miles from 2004 till 2025 - for a period of 22 years. What happened to the car during last 21 years? Did it sit in a barn? Well, the underneath of the car is clean, but I see that all exposed metal bolts are covered in rust, was the car abandoned in a moisturized place / left after driving in salt? Do you have any pics of the car from say 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020? Current owner from 2021 how many miles did he drive? When he acquired it, there definitely should be pics of the car… Thanks Antony@sgrotegut When the current owner lowered it on the H&R springs, they didn’t use a thicker spring pad on the front to level it out. I’d recommend using a four nub pad to even it out with the rear. You’ll need two of them. Part number is 1263211084 I think they’re about $15 from the dealer.$1,060 bid placed by @mdrei
Why is the front end so low?$810 bid placed by @sschwen68
@AndikaJafar “thoughtful ownership” is a perfect catch-phrase for this example. Appreciate the kind words.This particular example, with its 92000 miles and obsessive maintenance history, feels like a time capsule of thoughtful ownership.@CraigSu You're all good! Please feel free to ask more questions or PM me if you want to have a phone call. I've owned a ton of these and can walk you through what to expect.@Stuttgart_Steel Not having owned a W126 (yet) I'm still getting my feet wet with their technical details. With the stories of how troublesome the HPF III system was it appears to be a good thing it doesn't have it. Thank you for the clarification as I still have so much to learn. Thanks also for the tip re: deleting the headlamp wipers. Much simpler than what I was envisioning.@CraigSu This car is not optioned with HPF. I've never seen a US W126 with full Hydropneumatische Federung. This is static suspension front and SLS rear, which lowering does not effect that system. As for the headlight wipers, I'd find plates that sit under the headlights on eBay without the holes, from a Euro 280/300 or something similar and install those while also deleting the system. That piece snaps right in and painting it in 147 is simple.A couple of other things crossed my mind. Does the lowered stance and rake affect the 24 mm lowering operation of the HPF III at 75 mph? More generically, is there a “delete kit” for lack of a better term for the headlamp wipers that would include plugs to hide the holes? I prefer the Series 1 W126 because they don’t have the wipers but this one is definitely appealing.@CraigSu I appreciate the comment! I really do try. It's not rust -- just old adhesive used to glue down the vapor barrier behind the door panel and cosmoline coming out of the drain holes from when Mercedes-Benz treated inside the door skin during production. The cruiser control amplifier has some bad capacitors. Pretty much all of these cars at this age have that issue. It will hold and then accelerate and then let off. You won't really be able to use it, but it doesn't effect the drivability in normal use case. I have fixed over a dozen of the amps using Kris Rose's services here: https://www.cruisecontrolrepair.com/ He's about $125 to repair the amp. It is above the kick panel on the driver side held onto a bracket with 2x 10mm bolts. Takes about 15 minutes to remove. Other than that, the car is absolutely ready to fly in and drive back home. After a few hundred miles of torture testing it at high speeds and also crawling in 100 degree Atlanta traffic, I feel confident in this W126.Well presented! Thanks for such a detailed photo gallery. In gallery photo #119 is that rust on the underside of the drivers door or just some old protective sealer? If rust, what do you think it would take to remedy it? Also, how intermittent is the cruise control in case the buyer wanted to drive it several hundred miles home rather than have it shipped?$560 bid placed by @ChompSticks
@Manskraft Taste is so subjective and everyone sees cars through a different lenses. Appreciate the comment and some good ol’ discourse on this 560! Hit me up if you have any other questions. Thanks for reaching out!Well said, the beautiful part of Car Culture is everyone has an opinion and everyone is right. Super nice W126 though.@Manskraft The rake is aggressive. Luckily you can even it out using a three or four nub spring pad (part No. 1263211084 for those interested) and it’ll line the front up with the rear for those wanting to retain the lowered look without rake. For those wanting to return it to stock, OE parts are still available. We’ve had experience with most of these at this age having the rear springs tire out and they get that frontal lift look as the springs age out. I’ve installed new OE springs on these cars and it always fixes that issue. I had a conversation with the owner previous to listing and we decided to leave the suspension alone and put that money towards mechanical fixes rather than cosmetic since I knew a comment likes yours would appear. I’ve had so many instances in the day job of either pulling tint or taking off an aftermarket modification and then whoever buys it asks if we can tint the windows for them or modify the car. Sometimes it’s best to leave things alone since it’s hard to have a crystal ball on what the buyer is going to do to it. I aready had a PM ask if their West German BBS wheels would fit, so there’s absolutely two sides of the coin. But I am sympathetic to your concerns! I totally get it. You’re part of the Pierre Hedary camp of originality and I love it. It’s a wonderful candidate to return the ride to stock since the rest of the car is beautiful and original.Great Seller, Great Car but putting lowering springs on a 560 SEL and putting a rake on it is IMHO distasteful. It is not some Buick Regal or '64 Impala going down Van Nuys or Whittier Blvd. Super nice car, just not with a rake on it....It is NOT an AMG, leave it original, might bid but will have to restore to original.Hey everyone! I'm amped about this car. Welcome to the auction of this lovely late model 560SEL. I'm a huge fan of the W126 and it's arguably my favorite platform as I daily drove a 560SEC throughout college for five years and have owned about 7 others since then which included restoring a few. This car comes from a MB collector I'm friends with and he's making room for some more Mercedes he wants to experience, so I helped him get this dialed in for the next owner and find it a new home. I've been living with this for the past month or so and logging some miles on the car to try and find weaknesses I needed to take care of. The car is incredibly solid and very clean underneath. I fixed a few things pointed out in the copy above. I drove it some more and gave it the green light to finally list on here. While these aren't complicated cars, a lot of them have been neglected, so I didn't want to pass any issues to the next owner which is why I included a thorough inspection video above. This car has been in a climate controlled collector car storage facility and driven sparingly for the past four or so years, so I tended to things like the A/C system, some rubber hoses, a new OEM battery, fluids, mounts, etc to get it really happy again. The big thing with this car is the timing chains and top end service that was done at about 50k miles. All of these cars with the M117 need it and I was happy to have discovered that invoice with the manuals. I'm open to show the car and if you need any other pictures or videos, please comment or PM me. I'm also available for phone calls if need be. Thanks everyone!