Topic: Grey market?
View Single Post
Old 02-20-2006, 08:33 PM   #3 (permalink)
benz420
BenzWorld Extremist
 
Date registered: Nov 2004
Vehicle: '91 560SEC
Location: Annapolis,MD,USA
Posts: 933
RE: Grey market?

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/foru...posts=6&fid=12

Quote:
Snibble - 8/16/2005 2:25 PM

[*]What does "greymarket" mean? Whats a "Euro" car?[/*]

Not all w126 models were available for sale in the US market. Models such as the 280SE, 420SEC and 420SE were not available for sale at dealerships in the US. Ironically, the diesel version w126's such as the 300SD and 300SDL were not available at the European market and was primarily sold to North America.

If a car that was not originally sold in the US market is brought over to the US, it is known as a "Greymarket" vehicle. Many greymarket w126's in the US are 1st generations. Very few are 2nd generations.

A "Euro" reffers to the European-spec w126's. These cars had physical features that were different than the US-spec ones. These included Euro's H4 all glass lens headlights, shorter/smaller bumpers, higher compression engines and a different exhaust/emission systems.

Due to the less restrictive exhaust system and higher compression engines, the Euro w126's provided much more horsepower than the US version. Unfortunately, certain states(i.e. California) require strict emission controls and in a lot of cases, the Euro 126's in the US will show less power than it originally came with.
For 65,000 dollars, the price is completely unreasonable, but for 6,500 dollars (what i think you meant), that is perfectly reasonably, given it has a good service history w/ records, etc...
__________________
Eli
1991 Mercedes-Benz 560SEC SOLD
1986 Mercedes-Benz 420SEL SOLD
2007 Honda Civic SI SOLD
2006 Suzuki SV650N
benz420 is offline   Reply With Quote