Ever since I bought The Shark (a 2003 SL55) I’ve had a notification set up to let me know when any R230 Mercedes cars are put up for auction on BaT. I was in LA for a work assignment when I happened to look at my phone to see “Original-Owner 2005 Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG” as the subject in the e-mail.
This was a little newer than The Shark but still a year too early for that sweet spot of the post-facelift 2006-2007 SL55. Anyway, since I block remote images in my e-mails I hit “load images” to check it out, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
A yellow SL55.
I love yellow on a sports car, even more than red. To my knowledge they didn’t make a yellow SL55, but apparently there is at least one.
Reading more about the car, it started to tick even more boxes.
One owner? Check.
All options? Check.
Performance upgrades? Check.
Like The Shark, this SL was fully loaded with features like the Panoramic Roof and Distronic. Unlike The Shark, it had 52,000 miles on it versus 18,000, so I would expect more paint chips and more wear. Still, 52k miles over 17 years is just a little over 3000 miles per year, and that isn’t bad. With cars like this it is probably best to have one that has been more routinely driven.
The other issues with the car included an accident in 2021, but from the pictures it looks like that has been repaired. From the auction comments there have been around four R230s in Yellowstone, but that includes the SL65 versions as well. I was only able to find one SL55 referenced on the internet, a yellow over red version that doesn’t work as well for me as the yellow over black.
The commenters also seemed divided on the SLR-style hood. I think it looks pretty cool, but many said it made the SL55 look more like an SLK, and there is some validity to that argument. Still for pretty much a one-off car I was very interested in it, and since I was in LA (where the car was located) I reached out to the seller to see about an in-person visit. Unfortunately, I only had Sunday afternoon available and they weren’t going to be around then.
I figured that this car would go for the $60K to $70K range. The most expensive SL55 I’d seen sell on BaT was a 2005 red over red with 25k miles, and I thought because of this car’s uniqueness it would trade in that range, and that was more than I wanted to pay for it.
As you might guess, that didn’t happen. (grin)