any experience with "theft recovery" ?
 

I'm talking to someone about a 93 300D. He said its a theft recovery. Meaning it was stolen, insurance paid the owner, then the car was found, and insurance sold it.
When he sent me the pics, I realized it had a 94-95 front, the trunk said E300 Bluetec. So I'm thinking that someone put a bunch of different parts together to make this car. But its really nice looking.

Should I run away from this ? Smells trouble ?

1993 300D
82,000 miles
$7500

centroid:

California dealer plate, and what appears to be a premium price. Where in CA is it located? Have you requested at least a Carfax from the dealer?
Your other thread about inspections by Peachparts users prompts these questions.

Its a private party. I'm still trying to piece it together. Don't have that much info yet.

I'll get a Carfax soon.

Theft recovery, salvage title.

A salvage title 'can' be hard to insure.
Cuts 1/4 to 1/3 off the value of the car.

Not necessarily bad if you get the discount up front, because you'll take a haircut when you want to sell it.

Lots of odd stuff on the car.
W202 wheels, aftermarket grille, bluetec is wrong, should say turbo, trunk, bumpers and taillights are 94-95 as well.
With that much replaced, it implies a fair amount of damage at some point.


jim

The salvage title on my car, cut the value in half.....

I don't have good vibes about it. I'm going to pass.

Its nice looking but its got too many parts put together from other cars.

Good to know about the salvage title/ insurance/ value issues.

Are you sure it's not a '95? Perhaps the seller has the year wrong.

Passenger side front fender has a vent/grill. Its a 95.

My 300e is a theft recovery from the early 90s but with a clean title... has held up as good or better than comparable cars over the years. YMMV. I'd go through it with a fine toothed comb and make sure it has enough vin tags to be registered, that they match (the title and each other) and get a ppi to make sure it isn't two cars welded together. With a salvage title i would not come close to full price with it. However a theft recovery can be as solid and reliable as its clean couterpart.

The thieves may have made the changes to disguise the car. Not a dumb idea.

More often the thieves strip the cars. A front clip is valuable for most import cars. Its possible a later nose was the replacement. They keep them drivable enough so they can dump them somewhere in the middle of the night.

Priced 2-3k too high if the car is perfect otherwise, in my opinion. Waaaay too easy to swap instrument clusters on those cars too.

My bro's '91 is identical to that car, and has the vent in the fender. I believe ALL 124 Diesels had the vent.

Edit: WAAAAY too much $ for that car IMO. Many newer & as nice examples can be found for less.

negative...

all 124 diesel's from 90 through 95 have the vented fender...

in 86/87 they did not.

I guess I stand partially corrected...Rich

Actually, all 2.5 diesels have the fender vent (including the 190D 2.5 T). The 603 cars do not. Looks like the 606 cars did get the fender vent though.

-J