Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC – Reassuringly Expensive – Part 1

Our showroom currently boasts a superb 63,000 mile C126 560 SEC. Whilst doing some research on the car, we decided to look at the original purchase price. The 560 SEC was a flagship car for Mercedes-Benz, and as such was what you’d call ‘fully loaded‘ from the factory. The brochure doesn’t show a huge list of options, however a 560 SEC became even more expensive if you wanted a premium CD player system and a fridge in the boot – the boot fridge was an additional £1,642, roughly £4,333 in today’s money! (You can see a full list of factory equipment and optional extras for the C126 here)

The car in our showroom features optional Acceleration Skid Control, which added a further £1198.50 to the purchase price.

With the ASC box ticked, the original ‘new’ price in 1989 of our showroom car was £64,398.50.

But what does that mean?

Here’s some context to put the 560 SEC into it’s proper perspective:

List Price of Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC in 1989 (before options) £63,200

List Price of Ferarri Testarossa in 1989 (before options) £62,666

So, back to our showroom car… The price with options in 1989 would have been £64,398.50. If we adjust that figure for inflation and translate it into ‘2019 Money’ we come out with a figure of £169,874.61!

Hopefully that gives the full picture on just how exclusive this car was back in 1989.