All over the Eighties, when you sought after a large, robust luxurious sedan with otherworldly construct high quality and the entire newest technological marvels, there was once just one rational selection when you had the cash: the Mercedes-Benz W126 S-Magnificence. I see slightly a couple of W126s all the way through my junkyard adventures, together with a pair with higher than 500,000 miles appearing at the odometer, however nowadays’s 420 SEL— present in a Denver self-service boneyard lately — is an surprisingly blank instance with heartbreakingly low miles.

For a W126, even a gasoline-burner, 161K miles is simply getting damaged in!

The internal seems to be love it’s 10 years previous, no longer 35.

The sheetmetal is a little bit dirty, however there is no rust and no severe dents.

This automotive had an MSRP of $58,540, or about $155,357 in 2023 greenbacks. It wasn’t the most costly Mercedes-Benz automotive you should purchase in 1988, on the other hand; that honor belongs to the rakish 560 SEC two-door and its $76,380 ticket (a surprising $202,701 after inflation).

The ’88 420 SEL has a 4.2-liter SOHC V8 rated at 201 horsepower and 228 pound-feet. If that wasn’t sufficient energy for the S-Magnificence sedan client in 1988, there was once the 560 SEL and its 5.5-liter V8 with 238 horses and 287 pound-feet (and an inventory value of $69,210, or $183,673 in nowadays’s cash).

When you sought after a guide transmission for your W126, you needed to purchase it in Europe (and also you could not get 3 pedals with the largest V8s, even there).

Motive force’s-side airbags have been non-compulsory within the W126 beginning in 1981, turning into same old apparatus in 1987.

As a result of it is all the time 4:20 in Denver, badges from 420 SELs and S 420s generally tend to get pried off vehicles briefly, and then we will be able to think that they finally end up at the partitions of groovy little hippie pads. Now not on this case!

We will be able to simplest hope that probably the most great portions from this automotive can be rescued sooner than its date with the crusher.

Cross forward, cruise at 125 mph.

There has all the time been a large Mercedes.