FOR SALE NOS vintage Becker Grand Prix, Italy, $2.350 OBO

[500AMM]

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MERCEDES W108 W110 W111 W113 W114 W115 BECKER model GRAND PRIX new car radio. | eBay

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I'm not familiar with these, but the price appears a bit screaming to me.

 

[gerryvz]

That's the old top-of-the-line Becker unit, from around 1967-1969 or so. I had one in my 300SEL 6.3 as a stock install, until I "upgraded" to the Becker Mexico Cassette, which was introduced in 1970. The Grand Prix as you can see had not only AM and FM bands, but also long wave and short wave.

It's honestly probably not that far off price-wise, for a new or near-new Grand Prix in the box, unmolested. Those things are difficult to find in good condition, not to mention an original unit with all of the paperwork like this one has. I have all of that paperwork, cards and diagrams from my days owning a 6.3 in my deep parts archives down in the basement. That literature used to be fairly easy to get 20 years ago.

This one has all of the original mounting brackets and fittings, and the metal is nice and shiny (not oxidized or rusted as you typically see), which further reinforces either that it is NOS or near-NOS, or was refurbished nicely. I'd tend toward the former as the Becker stickers appear to be un-molested.

Hopefully this is a unit that has the "Wonderbar" feature. The Wonderbar is the ability to do self-seeking between stations. You press on the black "Becker Grand Prix" bar at the top of the radio's faceplate, and the needle goes to the next station along the dial, left to right. You keep hitting it to get to the next strong station. Some radios had it, but many did not.

This radio does not appear to have an auxiliary amplifier, which was often mounted in the glove box.

If someone wants an original radio, this would be a candidate. Like I said, the price is high, but the quality of the unit is also high. Compared to the €5.000— pairs of E500E headlights, which is crack-smoking pricing territory, this Becker Grand Prix asking price is fairly reasonable (though somewhat high).

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[LWB250]

You could probably get a rebuilt unit from the guys at Becker for a little less. Plus you would get a good dose of verbal abuse with it, as they're sort of rough and tumble guys from North Jersey. Eddie is a good guy, just a bit gruff.

Dan