I have a chance to buy a 1979 Beautiful Blue SL. problem: mileage cannot be verified. There is 8K on the odometer (8000 miles, not a mistype), and everything looks like it could be 8K (break pedal wear, etc). A GM dealer bought it at auction, had the tranny fixd, but in the course of trying to look up maintenance records, they could not find anything on this car. he wants to sell it around $12,000, but not as a dealer, just as-is.

Is there a way or source to find out more about this car? Does the VIN hold any information about whether it came from Canada or overseas? Would carfax help? Can Mercedes be contacted directly, beyond what a maintenance report would normally show? I'd really like to get this car, but if I cannot verify the mileage, what happens if I ever try to sell it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hmmm... 8k miles in 22 years and it needed transmission repair. Sounds fishy to me, but stranger things have been known to happen. I would do a compression test for certain.

You can contact Mercedes Benz USA and they will look up the vin number and tell you how many "Registered" owners there have been. What I mean is once the original owner sells, each owner is responsible for contacting MBUSA and letting them know the information on the current owner. I did this when I bought my '79 450SL (btw: we took the hard top off this evening and drove around AUstin, Tx. it was AWESOME! )

I would be very suspicious.... assume the worst and hope for the best... A mint car would probably not find it's way to auction anonumously. The car probably has been restored and the speedo replaced... Maybe it was wrecked...Do your "due diligence" and hypothesis that something in not kosher... Maybe you'll find out that you have uncoverd that Picasso that was tucked behind the velvet Jesus that you found at the garage sell for 17 cents... i'll keep my fingers crossed

A car with that history, I'd estimate the chances that the mileage is accurate at about zero. Maybe less.
By the time a car gets to auction, it has passed through the hands of numerous professionals (and amateurs), who scoop up the good bargains.
An honest 8000 mile SL simply would not make it to the auction stage. Its just not possible.

If the car looks mint and there is no sign of major repair, even if it had 100,000 miles on the clock, it may be worth the price. Have a mechanic pull the right valve cover and look at the cam. That will tell you something. Compression check would be advised as well. If they are all good, let me know if you don’t want it.

Steve
’85 500SL (Euro)

Brian K has a very valid point....Thus car would have been LONG gone before the auction block. My friensd is a dealer and he said this car would have been bougt Prior to the auction by someone else if the 8000 mi. were ableto be confirmed.:D

If the transmision sits for years. The the seals can become so hard that the transmision becomes inoperable.