[W126 Coupe] M1991 560 SEC value chart

[Coen Gonsalves]

In this whole discussion I am missing one thing. How many where exported from the U.S.?At least one U.S.1986 560 SEC was exported to The Netherlands.(It's in my garage)I do not have figures but I am sure there must be many more. Once in a while I see one on the road here and there are quite some U.S. SEC's for sale here.It is not the place here but for the U.S. R107 type Mercedes the export to Europe is massive. That must be in the thousands.Coen Gonsalves  (The Netherlands)
--- On Sat, 11/26/11, Gerry Van Zandt <gerryvz at me.com> wrote:

From: Gerry Van Zandt <gerryvz at me.com>
Subject: Re: [W126 Coupe] M1991 560 SEC value chart
To: mbcoupes at mbcoupes.com
Date: Saturday, November 26, 2011, 6:44 PM

See conversation below….
Cheers,Gerry

On Nov 26, 2011, at 11:15 AM, J.Chip wrote:

I've often been somewhat confused by the production numbers I've seen
listed from various sources. While I'm fairly confident that the 2,138
figure for 1991 is accurate, I'm not sure if the number represents
worldwide production or just North American. If North American, how many
were built solely for the US market? And the number produced may not
accurately reflect the number sold. Your source seems to indicate 676 of
the 2,138 produced were sold in the US. A 2007 posting on Benzworld (
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w126-s-se-sec-sel-sd/1333987-production-numbers-560-sec.html)
contains a document which appears to indicate 1,806 model year 1991 SECs
were sold in the US market. I guess I remain confused.


It's definitive that 2,138 SECs were produced worldwide for 1991 and ~676 were US market imports.
The 1,806 US production number for 1991 models from Benzworld is definitely erroneous.  I can definitely tell you that MB would not have imported 84.45% of all SECs produced that year to the US market.  There was still quite a large market for other countries (Germany among them) that would have soaked up far more than 15% of that year's overall production.  The cars were somewhat in demand as it was the last year of the model, and you can see this in the figures I posted, whereby more than 500 SECs were actually sold in calendar year 1992 !!  
BTW the second set of data is from the SL Market Letter.  Generally John Olson does his homework and the figures are close enough to the first set I have (which were independently obtained) that I put good trust in Olson's data.
And this leads to another problem I have with Benzworld.org. Quite a bit of the "information" that is found there is false and/or erroneous. Often times it's someone talking out of their a$$ with no proof to back up their claims. Just sayin'.   IMHO that forum has very very little credibility these days, and over the past few years many of the more knowledgeable folks have either left on their own discretion or have been banned for calling out the BS posted by others.  [ As you can tell I have strong opinions about Benzworld and those who post crap information there as Gospel. ]


Back to my value question. Let's say only 676 WERE sold in the US in 1991.
I have documented 137 of those 676 by VIN # in my database. Let's also say
that the examples out there that have the best chance of reaching some
level of collector status would need to be low mileage cars in excellent,
original condition. Let's further say that such cars would need to have
100,000 miles or less since high mileage examples would be more likely to
need some work and these cars would be expensive to restore to
"collectible" condition.  Of the 137 currently in my database, only 40, or
29% have less than 100,000 miles. If my database is a fair representation,
that would mean that there are less that 200 1991 560 SECs remaining with
the potential to reach collectible status. Of course this is all very
unscientific but 200 is a small enough figure to drive prices up for
collectors seeking a prime example of the last and best model year for
these coupes.


No arguments in general with what you are saying. It's very similar to the type of reasoning have used for the 500E market.  In the absence of hard data you have to keep things general, but the data you have collected I think can definitely lead to some reasonable conclusions.  There is no question that prices for the best cars (Condition 1 and 2) are headed upward -- this has always been a prime tenet of John Olson with regard to his philosophy on collectables (i.e. only go for 1 and 2 cars, and forget the rest as it's prohibitive to restore them).
The only comment I'd have is that mileage is a general/directional indicator of condition, but not always true. We've all seen SECs with 75K miles on them that are in far worse condition than those with 200K on them.  That's certainly more the exception than the rule, so your assumptions are the correct path to proceed.
You can see a PDF copy of the SL Market Letter article on SECs (including price guide) here:  
http://www.500eboard.com/forums/showthread.php?787-SL-Market-Letter-article-on-C126-SECs

BTW...I believe it was last year sometime that the Mercedes Claasic Center
officially recognized the 126 coupe as a "young classic", a distinction
indicating future collectible status.

That is correct. I have posted MB's press documents pertaining to this in the SEC sub-board on my 500E site.  MB's "Young Classic" designation though is something they bestow on platforms in general once they reach a certain age.  I've also seen 126 sedan, 201, 123 and 124s designated "Young Classic" status, yet very very few models from those chassis are collectable.  
http://www.500eboard.com/forums/showthread.php?682-The-126-coupe

Here's an example where they designated the W124 chassis as a "Young Classic":
http://www.500eboard.com/forums/showthread.php?427-Daimler-declares-W124-an-official-quot-Young-Classic-quot





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