[W126 Coupe] M1991 560 SEC value chart

[Coen Gonsalves]

Hello Ronny
To my opinion are the SEC's cheaper in the U.S. than in Europe. At least if you want to buy a decent one.
If you consider the type off European first owners (criminals, pimps etc) this model had in the beginning you begin to understand the terrible state most of those cheap SEC's are in.
I have not seen a cheap one without an ashtray smell. 
I wanted one with leather interior and that's also something which is not always the case.
Most off European SEC's were used to race on the Autobahn and were driven for hours on top speed. I know that they were made to do so but not for me.
To find a low milage here is difficult. 
My US 560 has more power than I will ever use in this car unfriendly little country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u96UorO--5w

The only thing I was really disappointed about was that my US 560 did not have rear fog lights. Unbelievable for such an expensive car pretending to be so save.

Coen

--- On Sun, 11/27/11, Ronny 560sec <ronny.geenen at verizon.net> wrote:

From: Ronny 560sec <ronny.geenen at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [W126 Coupe] M1991 560 SEC value chart
To: "Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists" <mbcoupes at mbcoupes.com>
Date: Sunday, November 27, 2011, 12:13 AM





Coen,iv>
I am Dutch too and I wonder why a person wants to import a US car to the 
Netherlands.
They might be a lot cheaper locally and/or Germany. Also the Euro sec do 
have more powerful engines than the ones here in the US.
 
Ronny


 

From: Coen Gonsalves 
Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2011 12:01 PM
To: Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists 
Subject: Re: [W126 Coupe] M1991 560 SEC value 
chart
 


  
  
    
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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