How Much 2016 Mercedes Can You Get For $90,000?

"wbizarre - OEM fetishist" (wbizarre)
03/19/2016 at 10:53 • Filed to: rcr

I was watching the latest !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and a bit of info really surprised me. Mr. Regular said that the 300CD’s price in 1978 was the equivalent of $90,000 today. 90 grand, for a mid-range coupe with the slowest motor? So I took a look at what you can get today for the same money. Here’s what I came up with.

CLS550 in Steel Grey over Saddle brown leather, on optional 19" wheels, B&O sound, active contour/ventilated/happy ending seats, lane tracking, LED lamps. Weighing in at just under $90,000. Not quite “fully loaded”, but “mostly loaded”. I tried building the E-class coupe - the closest by class to the W123, but at this point you can’t even get it up to $90,000. When the AMG E-coupe comes out it’ll probably fill that price slot, but for now I went with the fake-coupe CLS.

Anyways, compared to what you’d get in 1978, today’s values seem great!

DISCUSSION (6)

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
03/19/2016 at 11:06

Somebody made a post about this earlier. There were some wonky inflation rates in the late 70s/early 80s and many calculators aren’t accurate in that era. Most people ended up paying the equivalent of 60-70k for the cars.

LongbowMkII > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
03/19/2016 at 11:12

Built a C63 coupe with the 507 package, leather and LSD. Came in at 81k

Your boy, BJR > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
03/19/2016 at 11:13

Yes but will this car hold up nearly as well as that one to 40 years and a few hundred thousand miles?

JR1 > Your boy, BJR
03/19/2016 at 11:24

I wish

gawdzillla > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
03/19/2016 at 11:42

The w123 still looks better, sad

BorkBorkBjork > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
03/19/2016 at 12:16

Yep, the good old Misery Index. I do not miss anything about Jimmy Carter’s presidency.