In 1975, it took a very unusual Mercedes-Benz buyer to choose the frivolous W114 coupe instead of the sensible sedan.
The Mercedes-Benz W114, manufactured for the 1968 through 1976 model years, sold very well in California and many are still driving every day in the San Francisco Bay Area. Most of those cars are sedans, of course, because these were sensible, nearly stodgy machines — coupes have an air of impracticality that seemed a bit incongruous on such a car.
That makes this coupe, which I spotted in a Bay Area self-service yard a few weeks ago, a fairly unusual find. It’s in very good condition, but the cost of a serious W114 restoration is such that one is better off just finding a near-perfect one than fixing up a decent one.
Looks like this car has forklift marks on the right side.
In 1975, the list price for a new 280C was $13,520, equivalent to about $60,000 in inflation-adjusted 2016 dollars. Meanwhile, a 1975 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado coupe had an MSRP of just $9,935 and an 8.3-liter V8 engine, versus the 280C’s 2.8-liter straight-six. Most buyers who recognized that the Benz was a million-mile car and a good value for the money were also the sort who would value the practicality of four doors; spendthrift German-car buyers would head across the street to the BMW dealership and get a new 3.0CSi coupe. That makes these W114 coupes especially cool.
The sight of this car’s maintenance coupons on the floor is saddening.
This car was well cared-for during its long life. Why did it end up here, among all the disposable Daewoo Nubiras and VW Passats in the Imports section of this big self-service wrecking yard? It’s not cheap fixing an old Mercedes-Benz when something breaks, and you can buy pretty solid W114s for less than the cost of, say, a transmission rebuild.
Junkyard Treasure: 1975 Mercedes-Benz 280C Coupe
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