MERCEDES-BENZ (W126) 420 SEL: BUYER'S GUIDE
Median Price: £9,737 • Highest Price: £42,120 • Lowest Price: £1,502 • Sell-Through Rate: 85%
Source: Bring A Trailer
How much is a (W126) 420 SEL worth?
In our experience, we've seen plenty of (W126) 420 SEL's go under the hammer and based on analysing every sale you can expect to pay £9,737 for one in average condition - that places it amongst the cheapest 20 - 30% of collector cars across our database.
As Mercedes-Benz's go, a (W126) 420 SEL is on the lower end relative to other Mercedes-Benz models. In fact this model is £8,624 below the median Mercedes-Benz price of £18,361.
What is the maximum to pay for a (W126) 420 SEL?
Across the 128 (W126) 420 SEL's we've seen sell, the highest price ever recorded for this model is £42,120. It was sold by Bring A Trailer in the US on 06 Jul 2023.
What is the lowest to pay for a (W126) 420 SEL?
Well, that depends on where you draw the threshold.
The lowest sale of all time for this vehicle is £1,502. RM Sotheby's sold the car at auction in the US on 12 May 2013.
When looking at more recent sales the lowest recorded price is, as you would expect, higher. Analysing every sale since 2020 shows that the lowest price between 2020 and today is £2,379, Mecum sold this car in the US on 10 Nov 2022.
What is the background of the make / model?
Mercedes-Benz produced this model between 1986 and 1991.
Mercedes-Benz is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926 and headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany.
In 2018, Mercedes-Benz was the largest brand of premium vehicles in the world, having sold 2.31 million passenger cars.
The brand's origins lie in Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft's 1901 Mercedes and Carl Benz's 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen, which is widely regarded as the first internal combustion engine in a self-propelled automobile. The slogan for the brand is "the best or nothing".
How common is a (W126) 420 SEL?
According to data from the DVLA, the UK licensing authority, in 2022 there were 19 licensed vehicles alive and kicking on UK roads. There were also 59 vehicles that are SORNd - in other words not currently registered for the road. Note: that data is for this model and all of its sub-models.
Building on that, we've also seen plenty of these go under the hammer at auctions around the world, 151 to be precise. It's among the 6% most common collector cars to sell at auction.
Of those 151 times the model has gone to auction 128 have sold. In other words, this model sells on 85% of times it goes to auction - that's above the average sell-through rate we traditionally see.
What is the [enter model]'s like to live with?
We know from reviews of this model by our 42,000+ strong community how this car performs across multiple variables. Those variables stack up to give a TCVScore which is a relative score of how good a car is across the 5 variables in comparison to all other cars.
For the [enter model], it scores a [enter score] out of 100 - that places it in the [enter position] of all cars in our database.
How the car scores across all variables is below:
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To understand more or add your own review, click the links below.
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Why this article was created
Well, we've got one of the largest databases of sold classic car prices in the world so we thought we ought to help and put that data to good use. To be clear though, this article is not intended to be a full tour of every nook and sill of the (W126) 420 SEL, rather it's meant to act as an introductory guide and overview of the market for this model.
It is here to provide you guidance on how much you should and shouldn't be paying for one based on the 151 we've seen previously.
If you're after more detail, we've got you covered. Click the button below to be taken to a the price guide for this model so you can see every single sale, price trend over time and lots more.
How this article was created
This article was created by looking back at sales of (W126) 420 SEL since the beginning of our database in 1992. We've scanned over 30 auction houses and results from over £15 billion of sold cars around the world to understand the where the market is at for this car.
The Classic Valuer takes that data and analytics which enables it to generate these articles at scale, for further information regarding the (W126) 420 SEL please visit the price guide linked below.
About The Author
Giles Gunning
Giles is CEO of The Classic Valuer - one of the world's largest databases of sold classic cars in the world going back over 30 years covering over 11,000 models. Giles and The Classic Valuer are regularly referenced in key classic car publications including Classic & Sports Car.
Giles grew up around the iconic historic motorsport venue at Goodwood and enjoys his 1972 Alfa Romeo 1600 GT Junior around the Sussex roads. His primary car goal is to purchase back a selection of his grandfather's car's including his 1931 Riley Brooklands.
