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18 Nov 2013

How To Lose £74,000 In 3 Years - Buy A Mercedes SLS

The Mercedes-Benz SLS is a remarkable car.  It sounds like a hot rod and goes like a train.  But if you buy one from new you will lose a lot of cash, in depreciation alone.

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