I know the party is somewhat over on this thread, but I have to take sides with Stan's point of view. It seems Europe is about the only place in the world that tries to value a W126 triple to quadruple more that what the rest of the world feels they're worth.....and even I can't figure that out. I, too, realize that a lot of the European models met a rusty death, but there are also far too many still in existence that aren't rusty or are not too rusty. Two weeks ago my Father wrecked his W126 300sel. It spun around on a wet interstate and slammed into a concrete barrier wall. The whole rear of the car caved in. Obviously, it wasn't worth repairing. Two days later I inadvertently found a 420sel local to me for sale. Decent paint, really nice leather interior, no rust anywhere to be found. It even still has working air conditioning with the original R-12 still being used. The only thing I found not to be working was the tempomat. It has 101,000 miles on it, and I was able to buy it for $500. Though, it's color combination is probably the least attractive to most people, so that's probably partly why the inexpensive price. It's smoke silver metallic with Brazil leather......the equivalent of vomit tan metallic paint with poop brown interior. The 300sel that he wrecked was literally given to me, and he drove it as a daily driver for 8 years. So again, I don't understand the high prices exhibited in Europe. Granted, I'm excluding low mileage pristine examples. Those will always bring more regardless of the car's domicile. I'm more referring to average used examples that run and drive well that need very little work or none at all. I guess the value is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe 20 years from now they'll be more unusual to come across, but right now there are far too many still in existence to merit such debauchery in pricing.
