At launch in 2010 the Mercedes SLS cost £166,750. Of course being a supercar for owners with lots of money those owners would go on to spend lots on options. Buy a new SLS today and you can quite easily reach £200k with various options.
Options rarely increase the used price of a car. They merely serve to make it stand out and be more saleable when you come to flog it.
Mercedes SLS AMG Roadster review
Mercedes SLS AMG Coupe review
Take a look at the classifieds and the prices of those 2010 SLSs are now way under £100,000. The cheapest on the market right now is an SLS AMG Sport which is advertised by Dick Lovett for £92,990. It has 14,576 miles on the clock.
That is a full £73,760 less than what it cost when new.
But as the car is being sold by a dealer the original buyer would have been given less than £92,990 by Dick Lovett. And it's loaded with options. The original buyer would have lost a lot more than that.
To put this into perspective you could buy a brand new SL 500 for £80,000 or an SL63 AMG for £110,000 and either would be less than the amount lost in depreciation over three years by the original SLS buyer.
But then again if you've got £165k to spend on a car are you really going to be sensible with your money? Probably not.
Article by Matt Hubbard