Well I've been eying a mercedes 450slc 5.0 for awhile now and finally went over and talked to the shop where the car is. Well apparently the owner bought the shop from a former german auto repair shop and the car came with it. The car is ratty tatty but I have stupid ideas if I were to get it cheap. The shop owner wants it gone, but he doesn't own it either.
Now the owner of the shop said he has had around 20 inquires to which he gives the car owners phone number. Apparently she has issues with a face twitch which makes her speech hard to understand. The car has sat 5-6 years and shows it, but if it were cheap enough that wouldn't matter.
I need to find a way to talk to and make clear that I want to buy the car and succeed where 20 others have failed. It might be an impossible task but wanted to see if any of you have any advice to crack the shell of a stubborn seller. The car has maybe a couple years left before it is beyond repair.
Write her a letter and deliver it to her in person.
benzbaron wrote:
I need to find a way to talk to and make clear that I want to buy the car and succeed where 20 others have failed. It might be an impossible task but wanted to see if any of you have any advice to crack the shell of a stubborn seller.
Write her a letter and include a SASE for her to respond.
if it has been sitting.. the shop can issue a lean against it for storage
benzbaron wrote:
The car has maybe a couple years left before it is beyond repair.
Considering that everyone here, including me, is an incurable optimist when it comes to the condition of a car, I'll save you some money and headache now.
It's already beyond repair.
If you think it's only got a couple years to go, we both know, deep down that it's worse than that.
Shawn
Raze
HalfDork
3/25/10 3:49 p.m.
Too bad you weren't in GA, on a car that old you only need the BOS, a title by a PO doesn't mean anything 
I don't care if it is beyond repair because if the engine is still in one piece and the boot and bonnet are aluminum I could part it for twice what I'd pay. The door skins are also aluminum. The car has the 5.0l all aluminum V8 also. Mercedes only made 2500 of these cars and they were rally raced. I guess when the quattro came out it put mercedes out of the rally business.
The problem is these car rust like crazy and all mercedes 107 have leaky trunks, everyone of them., This would mean at the least the trunk and spare tire area are gone. I didn't see rust along the bottom of the panels which is good.
So I'll write a letter and give this lady a call, but I figure there is no rush. It isn't going anywhere fast. I could also talk to the shop owner and tell him to put a lien on the car, but my Mom always said you get more with sugar than salt so I'll have to see what happens.
Man i hate sweets. Give me more bacon.
Ahhh.. I stand corrected.
Parts cars are a different beast altogether.
Until you start thinking "It's really too nice to cut up" 
Shawn
John Brown wrote:
Write her a letter and deliver it to her in person.
Plus explain to her what you want, have a bill of sale ready for her to sign, and cash on hand.
Thats actually a pretty cool car, the normal ones are worth like $2k for a driver, but that might actually be worth trying to get running again if its not way too trashed.
My dad had one of those back in the very early 80s ... I was probably 5 or so but I still remember riding in it.
http://www.amg-classics.de/mediac/400_0/media/450slc-renn2.jpg
http://www.allsportauto.com/photoautre/mercedes/350_slc/1976_mercedes_350_slc_18_m.jpg
such a nice car.Sorry about the links, but I am not sure how to post pics.
J
This is kind of what I was thinking for the car.
http://www.slcracing.eu/en/
The only issue is I'd hate to ruin a fixable car but with the cost of smog/registration I think the cars street days are numbered. That and my 280slc is too nice to turn into a race car and too damn slow also. If I could buy this car and strip it of the extra weight and just get it going it would be a bitchin awesome car. It needs to go on a 500lb diet, if I could get it below 3000lbs it would be really cool.
