A few years back Nissan bought up a bunch of old Datsun 240Z's and restored
them, for sale, at Nissan dealerships. During the course of the program they
also arranged with owners to take their privately owned Z cars in, for the
restoration, at the same price. The price was $25,000. Various afficianados
of Z's calculated that you could privately do the same job that the factory
was doing at a somewhat lower price. The private job would not, of course,
have the factory stamp on it and would certainly command less value, if
sold.

If the Mercedes restoration program everybody is speaking about is for real
the Nissan program should give you a low end range benchmark on the price.
One, of course, would expect that it would be more expensive to restore any
Mercedes, in Germany, than a Datsun 240Z in Japan. For example, Nissan
dealers will sell you a factory rebuilt 280ZX engine for $1300-1400. Try to
get a factory rebuilt Mercedes engine for that price.

I know whereof I speak, I have two Mercedes and two Z's

If for some strange reason Daimler-Chrysler has lost its mind and will
indeed fully restore an old Benz for $15,000, I for one, would like to sign
up. Who cares about resale value  - I'd just drive the car for another 20
years.

I'm not holding my breath, however.