Bono’s 1980 Mercedes 450 SEL up for grabs – but it needs work

A 1980 Mercedes 450 SEL first owned by U2 frontman Bono, is up for grabs with a low estimate of just £15,000.

When you’re a successful Rock star, you’re expected to go out and buy a Rolls-Royce and drive it into a swimming pool (like Keith Moon) or start a collection of Ferraris and other exotica (like Eric Clapton).

But U2 frontman Bono, on the back of the success of U2’s first album, went out and bought the favoured transport of Chairmen of the Board in 1980 – a Mercedes 450 SEL.

Of course, the Rock star gene had input into Bono’s buy, and he had it kitted out with a massive Alpine Sound system costing almost £50k in today’s money (complete with a fire extinguisher in case it exploded) and an interior plastered in cow-hide print leather. Lovely.

Bono auctioned the car off in 2000 for charity – with Pepsi-Cola paying around £50k – and it then went on to be sent for auction again a few years later by Boyzone’s Keith Duffy, who appears to have acquired it from Pepsi, before being sold once more in 2006 to a bar owner in Dublin who paid around £30k and had plans to stick it on the roof of his bar to attract punters well-used to seeing ‘Bono’s Banger’ on the streets of Dublin

It turned up recently on Car and Classic for £45k, but it didn’t sell so Car and Classic have it up for auction this month with an estimate of a far more meagre £15k.

Which, despite its slightly tatty state, must be some sort of record low price for a ‘celebrity’ Mercedes.