Mercedes-Benz 280 SL Pagoda Dealer Refused To Sell Under Market Price

A gorgeous 1969 Mercedes-Benz 280 SL “Pagoda” failed to sell at an online auction where the highest bid was way under the market average. Lost online, in a sea of Corollas and Fords, if this Pagoda could speak, it would tell a story about timeless design and about how its designers used just the right pencils for it. Yes, there was a time when designers drew cars with pencils.
 

Mercedes-Benz unveiled the W 113 coupe and roadster at the 1963 Geneva Motor Show. Yes, there was a time when car shows were all the rage and the most exciting manner of officially unveiling a model. Car magazines and newspapers were the other two, as there were no online presentations back in the 1960s.
 
The model came to replace the head-turning W 198, known as the 300 SL Gullwing and Roadster, and the W 121. It had really big shoes to fill, but it somehow nailed it, despite the tame design compared to that of its predecessors.
 
Mercedes built 49,912 examples between 1963 and 1971, and 19,440 of them set wheels on US soil. Huge automotive names were involved in the development of the W 113. Genius designers Paul Bracq and Bela Berenyi, as well as Chief Engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut were on the team.
 
If Uhlenhaut’s name sounds familiar, then you must know that it is tightly linked to the mind-blowing Mercedes 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe. An example sold for nearly $143,000,000 in May 2022, at an auction which took place at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Those figures made the 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe the world’s most expensive car.
 
Recently included in the FIVA (the Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens) Hall of Fame, Paul Bracq was the man held accountable for the model’s distinctive, patented, slightly concave hard top, which inspired the automotive world to affectionately call it the Pagoda, a name that stayed with it over the years.
 

Quite rare and holding the world of elegance and exclusivity on their shoulders, rarely do such models show up on the market. However, this Mercedes-Benz SL “Pagoda” was one of the few, but the result of the online auction proved that not many understand the value of a classic Benz.
 
The stunning piece of art you are looking at is a 280 SL, which rolled off the production line in 1969. The 280 SL is still powered by its original engine, which is a 2.8-liter inline-six, which produces 168 horsepower (170 metric horsepower) and 177 pound-feet (240 Newton meters) of torque.
 
A four-speed automatic transmission spins the rear wheels. The 280 SL took forever (a ten-second-long forever, actually) to reach 60 mph (97 kph) from a standstill and maxed out at 120 mph (193 kph).
 
Of course, it lagged behind the spectacular 300 SL Gullwing and Roadster, but look at it. It is not about speed in a straight line; it is about cruising down the coast with the wind in your hair on a Friday afternoon, watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. You wouldn’t want that to pass you by at high speed.
 
The model is finished in Papyrus White, one of the 44 paint options offered by Mercedes-Benz for the model, over a contrasting red leather interior. It rides on 14-inch steel wheels with hub caps and comes with both a manual soft top and a removable hard top.
 

Air conditioning will make cruising down the coast comfortable during the California summer. However, the handsome classic Benz is far from perfect. Some paint chips and a fuel gauge operating intermittently are two of its imperfections.
 
Over the years, the owners got rid of a rusty rocker panel, removed a dent, reupholstered the interior, and recharged the AC. The timing chain has been replaced recently. The car’s odometer reads 37,000 miles. The Benz has zero rust at the moment, no leaks, and no smoke on cold start.
 
Someone offered $72,000 to go home with the beautiful “Pagoda.” “This bid was fairly under what we were expecting,” the selling dealer wrote in the comments section, and had every right to hope for more. Well-maintained, low-mileage Mercedes-Benz 280 SLs go for an average price of $98,085.
 
The most expensive 1969 280 SL sold for 184,800 pounds, the equivalent of $255,206, in April 2021, which is lightyears away from what this car got on the auction. The firm selling this car is a concours-level restoration facility from Fairfield County, Connecticut.
 
The seller says the car “may visit this site again in the coming months.” However, cars are not allowed to have a reserve on a second listing, which means that the “Pagoda” should be sold to the highest bidder regardless of the amount of money offered. We would hate to see it go for even less than the highest bid at the first auction.