A website I’ve used in the past to buy touch-up paint (paintscratch.com) lists 47 different colors available for the 1972 Mercedes-Benz SL. Holy smokes. It’s not clear from the list if some were special-order, region-specific or otherwise not generally available. But still, they list five different versions of “white” alone. Seems like these days, manufacturers limit people to just a handful of colors – and many are in fact grayscale – not colorful at all.
Anyway, the reason I went down this rabbit hole was because I liked the color of this SL:
The Pick of the Day is a 1972 Mercedes-Benz 350SL roadster listed for sale on ClassicCars.com by a private seller in Anaheim, California.
As it turns out, a resource called the “SL Registry” came to my aid when looking for R107 SL information. The page has a VIN decoder utility, so all I had to do was type in the details from the data tag that the seller provided in the listing. The color was code 542, otherwise known as “Dark Red,” with a matching hardtop. There were seven options listed on the tag, so I looked those up too. Here’s what the decoder gave me:
- 585: Behr air conditioner and electric windows
- 593: Green heat insulated glass, heated rear window
- 467: Central locking and English lettering instrumentation
- 491: U.S. version specification
- 502: Passenger side mirror
- 515: Becker Europa radio
- 531: Power antenna
The more you know!
Back to the car in question: “Purchased from son of the original owner, who bought new at Mercedes of Beverly Hills,” the listing says. “Car was stored in a warehouse for 15+ years prior to my purchase.”
The Dark Red paint job is reportedly original and is “not perfect,” but it looks nice in the pictures (which is of course why I was drawn to the listing in the first place). The soft-top is also original and well-preserved, since the original owner primarily used the hardtop. The seller has owned the car for 14 years and has driven it fewer than 2,000 miles.
Moving to the interior, things have been refurbished quite a bit. Some upholstery work was done with the Bamboo and Mahogany MB-Tex seating, and the carpet was replaced with new (but “original equipment”) material. The center console is crack-free.
Most importantly, the car is said to run and drive well. Power comes from a 3.5-liter M116 V8 mated to a three-speed automatic transmission. The seller says that work was performed between 2011 and 2018 involving the fuel system, brakes, battery, and tires. The only issues noted are an inoperative HVAC blower and inoperative power antenna.
So, what’s your favorite color on the SL? The asking price for this Dark Read beauty is a fair $15,000, which includes the removable hardtop and accompanying stand.
Click here to view this Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com
