First 380sl Delivered in US

[Alex D]

I met someone who claims to have the first 380sl delivered to the US.  He's the original owner, having gone to Germany and ordered the car.  He said he waited 6 months for delivery.  Says it's all orginial with just over 100k miles.  He didn't seem like the type to keep detailed records, didn't know the name of the shop who services it, he told me "it's down off I-40 someplace"

Is there any way of determining if it was the first 380sl delivered to the US with limited documentation?  Where to begin?

Thanks,
Alex

[Benz Dr.]

I think you would go by the VIN of a 380SL. Since those numbers start at 00001 it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out. I worked on the last 450SL ever produced and figured that by VIN as well.

[Alex D]

Hi Dan,

Wouldn’t the vin tell you what the # car was made from the factory, but not necessarily where it was shipped to?  Or am I missing/not understanding something?   

[dpreston Virginia]

The vin would tell in what order it was made but I doubt it will tell when it was imported.
I would be more concerned with a low mileage excellent condition car.
Even if it was first in US it would be an interesting fact but not make it more valuable.
I have the second 1967 912 Porsche made
#0002. A fun fact but doesn’t make it more valuable in my opinion.

[m300cab]

personally i wouldn't put a premium on it
i would price the car according to it's condition, miles, color desirability and market value

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Unrelated to cars, i once purchased a computer (it was specially made for me so I could connect it to a vibration machinery monitoring system) the serial number was 000001. My business partner when he saw it had a good laugh. The year was 1992.

Dieter

PS, As a beiline my Pagoda and another Members Pagoda on this site are only 3 VIN numbers apart (both cars are 280SL models). Does anyone know if our two cars were completed on the same day or in the same week? Tom from the California Classic Centre told me it’s a good bet both cars were made on the same day, however both our data cards are not date stamped.

[neelyrc]

Dieter, I don't think any physical data cards delivered with our cars were date stamped.  Mine were not.  The data card for my car supplied by the Classic Center includes a date stamp of February 24, 1969, which is incorrect as I actually took delivery of my car at the factory on February 12. 1969.  According to the table in our Technical manual, my car was manufactured in January, 1969, which would appear to be right considering the delivery date.

According to Technical Manual data your car and Michael's car were also produced in the month of January, 1969.  I do not know of any other production data that we have access to that would provide more specific information.  Without such data I don't think it is possible to determine if these two cars were built on the same or successive days or in the same week. 

Alex, excuse the highjacking of your thread. In my opinion you will not be able to verify the claim of first 380SL delivered to the US.  I agree that the important things are as indicated in posts #3 and #4 above

[Agkaslov1]

Hi would you consider selling your Porsche 912?

[mbzse]

.../...if our two cars were completed on the same day or in the same week?

The M-B factory in Sindelfingen produced some 20 Pagoda cars per day. (average, the number varied a bit over the 8 production years)