Harry's Thoughts
THE ESSENTIALS
1985 Mercedes 500SEC Cabriolet, CA Car, 1 of 10!
This very rare 1985 Mercedes Benz 500 SEC Cabriolet was built by R. Straman Company, a Richard Straman custom coach building company located in Costa Mesa, California. Between 1983 and 1990 he built 116 of these 500 SEC Cabriolet’s. Reportedly for this 1985 model only 10 were built.
As with most automobile manufacturers during the 1980’s, Mercedes Benz didn’t build a cabriolet. The last four seat cabriolet build by the Mercedes Benz factory was 1971.
The 500 SEC was the top of the line luxury sports coupe in 1985 with superior handling, great performance and a comfortable ride. The estimated cost of this Cabriolet new in 1985 was $100,000. Converting these very luxury sports coupes into cabriolet’s really made them unique and special. This is a collectible motorcar for a true connoisseur of elegant German motorcars.
This car has receipts for maintenance and repairs since it was new. The original owner lived in Los Angeles and all the factory maintenance work is recorded in the owner’s maintenance booklet performed at Beverly Hills Mercedes Benz. The last owner, a lady living in Hemet, California is a retired aerospace engineer who was very meticulous about keeping her “Baby” in perfect condition. She has kept a file of extensive maintenance records for all scheduled and non-scheduled maintenance, repairs and upgrades. Because of the care she has given this special automobile it drives and looks absolutely beautiful. Among her recent repairs are: New tires, battery, brakes, convertible top including new boot and cylinders, complete repaint, transmission rebuild, valve cover gaskets, rebuilt air conditioning, cylinder head and gaskets, power steering unit, alarm system, stereo with 10 CD player, front end, radiator, etc. This motorcar drives like it has very low mileage.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPiRgSgfQpw[/youtube]
Although these rare automobiles very seldom come up for sale, we have found four examples with prices as follows: $24,500, $24,900, $29,000 and $55,000. Each of these comparable motorcars are either from California or Nevada. We are only asking $18,800 because it has higher than average mileage with 202,000 miles from new. The lady aerospace engineer commuted on the California freeway system for many years.
This is a terrific opportunity to own this future classic for an affordable price.
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