Florida man thought he'd got great deal on $4,100 Mercedes-Benz SL 600 but it only took him 10 miles to find out why it was so cheap

This Florida man was convinced he’d secured himself a bargain on this $4,100 Mercedes-Benz SL 600, but things weren’t so straight forward.

Barely 10 miles later, he was soon realizing why it’d sold for so little.

Would this be a severe case of buyer’s remorse or an opportunity to set things right?

For his sake, we hope it’s the latter.

If something sounds too good to be true, it often is

We’ve all had a moment in our lives where we come across a prospect that sounds just too tempting to pass up.

And that is certainly true in the world of car buying.

Admittedly, there are times when leaps of faith turn out positive results, as happened with this man and his Chinese ATV dump truck, or this Bentley Continental Flying Spur.

But plenty of people have felt the sting of a ‘great deal’.

When this man picked up the cheapest Ferrari, there had to be a catch, and there was – a whole laundry list of them.

Even AI is contributing to the problem, as one baffled Canadian customer found out when an AI chatbot offered him a remarkable deal.

For YouTuber Samcrac, his realization came about in a rather dramatic way.

On the face of it, this Mercedes-Benz SL 600 looked like a dream

To look at this car, you wouldn’t see anything wrong with it.

It certainly wasn’t in bad shape and there was no obvious indication that it was going to prove troublesome.

But there were some quiet warning signs.

The listing didn’t mention whether the car actually drove, which is a blazing scarlet in the red flag category.

While the beige leather seats held up nicely in the photos, there were other details that were throwing up red flags.

That includes cracked gauges and a swollen dashboard that had opened a gaping hole around the digital clock.

It wasn’t looking good, and things didn’t get much better once Sam took it out on the road.

The hydraulic suspension system lasted only a short while into its first drive before fluid began seeping out.

Arriving at a gas station, he struggled to get the fuel cap off.

So far, the car was already proving to be a royal pain – but it was going to get worse.

It ground to a halt as a warning on the dashboard indicated an electrical issue was the culprit.

Fortunately, he managed to restart the engine and get it home before the hydraulic fluid line popped.

While this would be a contender for the ‘Worst first drive ever’, the more pressing concern was this – could things be turned around?

Or had Sam landed himself with a total lemon?

Could the car be fixed or was it a write-off?

Riding very low, Sam was just about able to get the Mercedes-Benz SL 600 into the workshop.

Getting the rear wheels up on ramps, he was able to access the leaking hydraulic fluid line.

He opted to delete the Active Body Control (ABC) system, deciding that fixing it would cost more than it was worth.

In addition to that, the option to shell out for a coil-over suspension conversion was also on the table.

“The Mercedes purists will tell you that when you delete that ABC suspension, you’re getting rid of one of the best parts of this car—and I couldn’t agree with them more,” Sam said.

“So that’s why I want to ask you guys: what would you do with this?

“Given that we’ve paid $4,100 for it, is it worth sinking a couple thousand in it just to get the suspension sorted?

“That’s the only reason I haven’t sent this thing back to auction yet—is just because it’s begging to be fixed.

“But boy, you could spend a lot of money very quickly to have a basket case car on your hands.”

Key Features: Mercedes-Benz SL 600