Photo: Bonhams
Celebrities’ cars usually sell for what people call “ridiculous amount of money” just because their steering wheel was graced by the owner’s golden hand. In the case of a Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG Wagon that Michael Schumacher used to drive back in 2010, “ridiculous” had an entirely different meaning, at the other end of the price scale.
Everybody in the U.S. knows buying a used car these days is a daunting job and even old examples with insanely high mileage sell for a lot more than they were worth a while back. In some cases, the asking price is even higher than their original MSRP. Across the pond, Europeans still enjoy normal price tags on the used car market. Either side of the Atlantic, though, celebrity-own vehicles are usually priced a lot higher than their intrinsic value.
And yet, it looks like people don’t always crave to buy celebrity cars anymore, or at least Europeans don’t. Or it might be that Schumacher’s name does not bear that much heft after so many years behind closed doors, who knows? What we know is that a Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG T-Modell (Wagon) that the champion used to drive in 2010 failed to attract much attention at a Bonhams auction in Paris.
The organizers of Bonhams “Les Grandes Marques du Monde” auction expected at least $110,000 from the sale, but the result was hugely disappointing. The lucky bidder got to pay only €27,600 ($32,000) for the sporty wagon, pretty much in line with the normal prices on the used car market for that model. Germans usually pay between €24,000 and €36,000 for a 2010 C 63 AMG Wagon, so the bidder got it rather cheap.
There is, of course, a possible explanation for this failure, since Michael Schumacher did not actually own the wagon. The C 63 AMG was a company car Mercedes-Benz gave to Schumacher in 2010 to mark the champion’s return to the Silver Arrow team and it was registered to Mercedes-Benz AG in Schlieren (Switzerland). Later on, the wagon passed to a Swiss owner and most recently got in the hands of a Mercedes-Benz engineer in Germany.
The Mercedes that Schumi drove between January and July in 2010 was, as you’d expect, luxuriously equipped, with more than €20,000 ($23,000) worth of extras. The starting price was €73,441 ($84,100) when it was new. Twelve years later, the odometer reads just under 152,000 km, which is less than 95,000 miles in the U.S. This should pose no problems for the mighty 6.2-liter V8 with 450 horsepower, and this C 63 AMG should still be able to do 0-100 kph (0-62 mph) in 4.6 seconds.
Bonhams also had a Tesla roadster on auction at the same event and this too had Schumacher’s hands touching the steering wheel during the Race of Champions event in 2010. The Tesla was more appreciated, it seems, as it fetched €138,000 ($158,000) at the auction.
And yet, it looks like people don’t always crave to buy celebrity cars anymore, or at least Europeans don’t. Or it might be that Schumacher’s name does not bear that much heft after so many years behind closed doors, who knows? What we know is that a Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG T-Modell (Wagon) that the champion used to drive in 2010 failed to attract much attention at a Bonhams auction in Paris.
The organizers of Bonhams “Les Grandes Marques du Monde” auction expected at least $110,000 from the sale, but the result was hugely disappointing. The lucky bidder got to pay only €27,600 ($32,000) for the sporty wagon, pretty much in line with the normal prices on the used car market for that model. Germans usually pay between €24,000 and €36,000 for a 2010 C 63 AMG Wagon, so the bidder got it rather cheap.
There is, of course, a possible explanation for this failure, since Michael Schumacher did not actually own the wagon. The C 63 AMG was a company car Mercedes-Benz gave to Schumacher in 2010 to mark the champion’s return to the Silver Arrow team and it was registered to Mercedes-Benz AG in Schlieren (Switzerland). Later on, the wagon passed to a Swiss owner and most recently got in the hands of a Mercedes-Benz engineer in Germany.
The Mercedes that Schumi drove between January and July in 2010 was, as you’d expect, luxuriously equipped, with more than €20,000 ($23,000) worth of extras. The starting price was €73,441 ($84,100) when it was new. Twelve years later, the odometer reads just under 152,000 km, which is less than 95,000 miles in the U.S. This should pose no problems for the mighty 6.2-liter V8 with 450 horsepower, and this C 63 AMG should still be able to do 0-100 kph (0-62 mph) in 4.6 seconds.
Bonhams also had a Tesla roadster on auction at the same event and this too had Schumacher’s hands touching the steering wheel during the Race of Champions event in 2010. The Tesla was more appreciated, it seems, as it fetched €138,000 ($158,000) at the auction.
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