1996 SL500 Owner Loses Keys, Sells 20 Years Later With 80 Miles

For once, an SL500 at auction is truly “like new.”

Every so often, a classic car turns up that someone bought and stashed away immediately. These cars draw disbelieving looks, because someone had the foresight to know that, for example, a 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429 would be worth a small fortune with only a few hundred miles on the clock. However, sometimes the circumstances are a bit more… unique. This 1996 Mercedes-Benz SL500 recently sold at auction in the United Kingdom for £56,640, or about $73,000, with only 81 miles driven, because the original owner lost the keys.

It must have been a lucky person indeed who could have lost the keys to a brand-new car and just shrugged it off for 21 years. From the story in the Coys auction listing, the owner received it as a birthday gift, parked it in a remote garage, lost the keys, and then just left it there.

CHECK OUT: What Forum Members Are Saying About This Like-New SL

Perhaps it was a circumstantial moment that found the SL500 parked conveniently out of the way to allow the owner plenty of unfettered access to other transportation means. Or maybe it was just one of the most incredible cases of procrastination in human history: “Pay the electric bill, check. Take dog to vet, check. Plan vacation to Mallorca, check. Get new keys for the Mercedes… guess I’ll move that one to tomorrow again.”

However it happened, this R129-chassis 500SL looks very well-preserved. The all-aluminum 5.0-liter, 32-valve V8 certainly will have little wear and tear with less mileage on it than many people’s single-day commutes. These cars were every bit the sophisticated machines you’d expect from a tip-top Mercedes luxury convertible with an Adaptive Damping System (ADS) and a multilink rear suspension. As you’d expect, the interior is pristine and, hey, it’s essentially a brand-new car 21 years later. While you’re likely to find some pending issues with most R129s on the market today, this one affords you deferral of those maintenance items. Is that worth $73,000? To someone, that answer resounds as a “Yes.”