I purchased mine 4 months ago when i was 29 for my 30th birthday present.

I got my 1995 SL500 last year when I was 46 yrs old. Its been a lot of fun.Modified the exhaust and put 18" Lorinser wheels on with 285 Nittos on the rear axle.
ray

How many women are present here?

C.

We now have a total of 31 people who own R129 SLs and are willing to admit their age.

The average age is still 35.3 years.

Over 1095 years of human experience represented by these people.

I would bet the best of those years being the years after they bought their SL !

To keep this thread alive ... I'll register Teal 92 500SL as an owner of 42 years age. I saw his post on the "Is SL500 for me" thread. Sounds like a satified owner.

I am new to the 129 area as I own a 124 and am looking to buy a 129. After reading this I have to ask because maybe I need to change professions.

How are those of you under 30 able to afford and justify having these cars? I know the 92's are probably in the mid teens to mid twenties as far as price, but even then a bank would only loan so much for so long on a car that old and then there is the insurance. Also, the 97s and up are still pricey. Did you buy them with money earned or given? If earned, what do you do so that I can get into it..... FOR REAL!!!

Don't get me wrong, I am not hating (read not jealous,) I am GLAD that you can do it, but seriously I need to be doing whatever it is that these really young SL drivers are doing to afford these cars provided they actually make the money themselves without overextending for a car. I am 34.

42...with 2 year old and 6 year old children. The R129 is tremendously affordable now and I agree with a previous poster...better quality (pre-Chrysler) and timeless styling. My 92 is immaculate (helped by the "brutal" San Diego climate! ) and most (non-MB officionados) are surprised to find out it is 14 years old.

So with the kids and wife unable to fit in the 500 we do our family travel in a van on weekends. So while some consider the 500 a "weekend toy" I use mine as my daily driver...and with the prices so low you can afford to do so.

Information Technology / Information Security. Bought mine cash so I was not concerned with loan value from the bank.

My grandma(of course,not a member of this forum) has a 2001 SL500 silver/ash, and she's 67....

Hi,
I'm relatively new to the forum and appreciate all the info. I'm 24 and love my r129. I bought it after the family 300TD finally died and I went for something a little quicker than the diesel. I found the market for buying one very good in SoCal.

22 yrs old and driving a SL500

31 years old and, like teal 92 I use my sl as my daily driver and normally use the people carrier on weekends.
However, I did get me (driver obviously), my wife (passenger seat) and Daniel (my 18 month old son in his baby seat behind the passenger seat) in the car for our day out in Regents Park (London) on Sunday (about a 30min journey from our house).

I also carried the following in the car:

pushchair, Daniel's tricycle, football, toys, picnic bag, 2 picnic rugs, baby changing bag

So who says my sl60 amg is not a practical family runabout!!!!!!!
(think I got about 12 mpg for that trip!!)

23 yrs old and driving an SL 600 . Behold the power of 12.

Up to and including Koru Kinshi ... and including akbro93704' grandma ... we are at 37 participants ... average age 35.2 years.

But i do drive a 1998 S600 as well

Touche...

But I have a deposit down on and am waiting to get an '05 SLK 55.



But this isn't a board about SLKs or Ss...is it? How about we just call it even since we both enjoy what we have, eh?

I considerate myself very fortunate to own these cars as most people are age cannot afford to keep let alone run these vehicles. The price of used Mercs in the UK are alot cheaper than the USA so buying these cars here is not hard. You won't be seeing me ordering anything new out of a MB showroom for a few years yet! Good luck mate.

No new replies. Will have to add another year to the average soon.

I was very happy to drive away from MB showroom the other day in my freshly maintained R129.

The preowned 2003 SL55 I had sat in on the show room floor was very nice ... but seemed a little more closed in than the R129. I must be sencitive to tighter spaces.

It was a beautifull car. If I had and extra $ 100 K ... I probably would have driven of in it!

I am 48 and I got the car for my wife who is 48. It is an 92 SL500. I have a few toys, a 66 XKE and a 63 Elva, she had commented a few times she wanted a toy car too and there are few sports cars in automatic (for the wife) that I like. The XK8 is one, but too pricy.
rkubara

I am only 22 as well and I just bought a 1998 SL 500. Ive basically been driving only mercedes since I got my licence, except for my last car which was the 528i.

21 and got me an SL600, had it for about a year. So officially started rollin' in it at 20

R129 foe life! Or at least for now :p

We now have 40 responces ... the average age (up to and including agentMurdoc) is currently 34.8 years of age.

Don't pretend to be in touch with the youth of today (being nearly 50 with no children) but it seems to me that an SL is decidedly uncool (kool?) for a 21 year old. Surely a 911 or muscular US V8 hits the spot better?

I orignally found the same question posted on a forum I visit occasionally.

http://www.mercedesshop.com/shopforum

I thought it was an interesting thread. So I asked the same here to generate a bit of discussion about the R129.

I have not conciously pretended to be in touch with the youth of today (being nearly 50 with no children).

Hey ... if a bunch of 63 year olds begin to respond (the average age of R129 buyers originally) 70 by now? ... great. I'll adjust my running total.

Then I will have perhaps a more accurate answer to the question I posed. How old are the R129 drivers on this forum?

The older ones seem to not respond. So the people who do respond work out to be 38.4 years old.

Is it wrong that young people might enjoy the R129?

I'm 40. I bought my first SL 2 years ago and now currently drive a 95 SL600. I've had both the 500 and the 600, and for those people that think the 500 is nearly as fast as the 600, they're fooling themselves. The 600 is the king of the SL class.