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Some fun SL65 facts to consider. Assuming the number for total worldwide production of R230 body SL65s is 3055 (the most often cited number) I've now cataloged 99% of them, 3028 cars. I'm looking for the missing 27 but not too bad for a data base involving hundreds of thousands of manual VIN searches to compile.
In any case:
Model year distribution worldwide (Model year as designated by Mercedes, NOT year of production):
MY 05 - 1087, MY06 - 609, MY07 - 348, MY08 - 164, MY09 346 convertibles and 392 Black Series (yes 392, NOT 350), MY10 - 69 and MY11-13.
US got 59.3% of the non-Black Series cars and Canada and Mexico account for 3.8% so 36.9% to the rest of the world.
I went back and checked all my 10 and 11 hits just now and I did have several MY 11s as MY10s. The adjusted numbers are 27 MY11 and 54 MY10 with 16 of the MY 10 being US cars. BUT, typically Mercedes used the digit just before the second F in the VIN to designate MY. In addition the datacard has an 80x code the x of which is supposed to designate MY. For the 16 cars I have listed as MY10 US they all have an 80x code of 800, which would seem to mean MY10. BUT, they all also have a VIN with a "B" as the character just before the second F which maybe means MY11 (A for 10 and B for 11 since 0-9 would have been used for the first decade of 2000). To add further confusion all the non-US cars only have a FIN that doesn't designate MY at all so you have to go by the 80x code. Based on that there are 38 non-US MY10 cars. I think best to just assume there are 81 MY 10/11 cars in the world and we really don't know how they were all titled. BTW, the total went down one as one was an MY09.
Some fun SL65 facts to consider. Assuming the number for total worldwide production of R230 body SL65s is 3055 (the most often cited number) I've now cataloged 99% of them, 3028 cars. I'm looking for the missing 27 but not too bad for a data base involving hundreds of thousands of manual VIN searches to compile.
In any case:
Model year distribution worldwide (Model year as designated by Mercedes, NOT year of production):
MY 05 - 1087, MY06 - 609, MY07 - 348, MY08 - 164, MY09 346 convertibles and 392 Black Series (yes 392, NOT 350), MY10 - 69 and MY11-13.
US got 59.3% of the non-Black Series cars and Canada and Mexico account for 3.8% so 36.9% to the rest of the world.
@zachmac Minor correction- we have 3038 accounted for and only missing 17...
I'll be happy to tell you if I have it in the catalog if you tell me the last eight digits of the FIN / VIN number.
@IDLEBUMSKI On second thought never mind as long as it has a VIN ending in 152038. That would be a black on black 09 sold new to New Zealand and be only the second SL65 sold there ever. The other was an Obsidian Black over Berry Red 2005. If the VIN doesn't end in 152038 please let me know as that would be a new car in my data! AND OF COURSE YOU SHOULD BUY IT!
great, thx. yea, only two sold here sounds right, and this one has the black interior, so hopefully you can confidently take one more off your 'missing' list. thx and keep up the good work. this particular car only has about 60kms, = 37k miles, and ridiculous custom stereo built in behind seats and in trunk, you can see larger display and non oem tweeter bottom of a-pillar, which apparently cost 150k.
great, thx. yea, only two sold here sounds right, and this one has the black interior, so hopefully you can confidently take one more off your 'missing' list. thx and keep up the good work. this particular car only has about 60kms, = 37k miles, and ridiculous custom stereo built in behind seats and in trunk, you can see larger display and non oem tweeter bottom of a-pillar, which apparently cost 150k.
@idlebumski maybe I am not communicating in proper New Zealander It is only missing from my list if the VIN does NOT end in 152038. If it is that VIN I already had it. If it is different than that let me know what the last 8 of the VIN are and I'll add it and it would be a THIRD car imported to New Zealand. I suspect though since the colors match 152038 that is this car?
do you know of these models were all sold, or were they just coded as cars manufactured by the factory in the broken down categories?
For instance, I am curious if the black series has 392 cars coded in the vin or are these actually sold cars worldwide? I am thinking some are crash test or factory prototypes that were never sold and the company sometimes destroys them once they are done with the experiment or why they were made extra.
@ruey220 those are good questions but I don't know the answers? What I do know is that cars early in each model year run do also have codes in their data card that indicate things like "Modify before customer delivery". So those I assume are not crash test cars but are probably test mules. Even Mercedes is going to try to sell a car that retailed for close to $200k after driving it for testing.
WRT to the black series I doubt the crash tested 42 cars! Plus that might be why they used the same VIN series (the model code is the same whether it is a Black or not). The way you know it is a Black is an option code on the Data Card plus the datacard states "SL65 Black Series" versus just "SL65" Not sure they had to crash test any of the Black series?
@idlebumski no contradiction. The facelift was for the Model Year 09. Many cars for a Model Year are manufactured and sold in the preceding calendar year. Your car was finished at the factory 8/1/08 so could easily have been shipped, sold and registered by September 08. But it is still considered an 09 model year car.
03-09-2022, 12:26 PM
