Last summer I went to see a $2500 '65 Dart wagon on CL for a friend. 6-cylinder & automatic. Car was described as good condition, but needing 'minor work'. When I got there I saw rust bubbles coming through the Earl Sheib maroon paint and holes in the rear floor. Not really as bad as it sounds, but my friend can't handle DIY, so I didn't bother to test drive.
A week later I spotted another maroon wagon on CL, 40 miles away from the first, described as 'excellent, $3500'. Pulled up the pictures and it was the SAME CAR!
Sad thing is those old wagons are asking premium prices now, since most manufacturers basically stopped selling wagons here in the '90s.
A beautifully preserved red '79 Volare wagon is featured in the latest issue of Hemmings Classic Car magazine.

Happy Motoring, Mark

That is crack pricing. My 95 wagon is in pretty amazing condition and I paid $2700 for it w 247k. Ok its black on black leather, mine is mb tex. It has ASD, mine does not. What mine does have is a sunvalley transmission at 180k, headgasket, rebuilt head and wiring harness. 15k and no wiring harness? No headgasket replacement?

Oh but its got MONSTER wiring so you know the misplaced priorities are on the check list.

He says he's selling the car because his wife wants him to... I wonder if it is priced too high on purpose ;).

He uses one of my pet peeve lines... "the last of the handbuilt Mercedes". I hate it when people say that.

Some sellers are just out of touch in a serious way. Some buyers as well. I had an older couple pull up at our house with a 71 114 coupe maybe ten years ago.

They had heard I had Mercedes cars. So they offered me first chance at 14K. I really did not want to burst their bubble. I had better examples in my garage that I paid about 2k for not much earlier. That particular model is not sought after although to me it drives well. Back then almost nobody wanted them

So I just said hang on to it for awhile and you may get your price. I was thinking maybe in 50 more years that was. It was not event the greatest example condition wise either.

The nicest one I got had an interesting problem. When i went to pick it up. It started well but when you pressed the gas pedal you just sat and waited for the engine revolutions to pick up and then it eventually reved up. Could be a half minute. .There was no way you could time it for say getting into an intersection.

The seller gave me stack of invoices for services he had done. I could not believe the prices that garage charged him. One bill was 1200 dollars just to do the front brakes. Plus many other invoices just as bad. No new front calipers in the front brake job bill either.

Anyways it drove the two hundred miles home. It was almost all highway. By the time I got home I was not certain of what the exact issue was. So decided to do a general tuneup. The point spacing was just too tight is what I quickly found. . I suspect he sold it just because he could no longer stand his mechanics bills.

Judging by some of the other bills only 500.00 should have well covered adjusting or changing the points. How some of these garages get away with this is really something else.

You meet the good, the bad and the ugly. Sometimes the latter two at once.

There was the time, when I was shopping for my first w116 -- even back in '97 a hard to find car in unrotted condition in these parts -- and I came upon an ad for a lovely looking dark blue 450sel: "spent winters in Florida."

Off like a rifle shot I am to go see it. "My grandma's car" announces the vendor. Who happens to be of a foreign persuasion who, were I to indulge in stereotypes, is not exactly renowned for adherence to the law.

Well, yes it's bloody gorgeous. Interior like new. Gleaming but very well done repaint. Underside to make a tear come to your eye, wintered in Florida (and inland FLA) no doubt.

Only problem? All four door sills have long rectangular patches welded in, not flush but over the main sill. Very amateur work, and the paint has been touched up over them.

Think back to the French Connection, fellas.

I walked away. The idea that one day down the road I might be crossing the border into the USA and a Customs drug dog who happened to be out for a dump in the border post yard would freak on my car, was just too much.

I wonder if grandma (assuming there was a grandma) knew what her rockers were packed with, on her return trips from The Sunshine State.

I wonder where that misnomer came from. The E500/500E was handbuilt by porsche. I'm pretty sure some of the AMG engines are at least. The W124 was the last designed by hand I think?

Local guy, 82 300D sitting in field, missing head. Paint fully baked off, most glass broken, interior shot, (weathered from missing glass) Basically a scrap car. He wanted 2k for it cause you know its a "mersedis".

lol I've said that about my w124... and it's true... my hands.... :)

I think that is the crux of the over-pricing. After paying so much initially for these luxury cars, then repeated high garage repairs as they hit the >10 year "down-hill slope", owners consider only what price would help them recoupe some of what they "invested" in the car. But, that is totally different than the true value. In many cases, getting a car back to "driveable" at garage prices would be much more than it is worth, hence negative value as a keeper and more valuable as a parts car, though PickNPull won't pay but a small fraction of its parts value. For those of us who can fix cars resourcefully, it may still have positive value.

My 1985 300D came with a thick folder of repair bills when I bought it in 2001 for $2500. The lady who owned it obviously wanted to keep it in "as new" condition, even paying $200 to replace the burnt-out LED segments in the factory radio. But, they eventually broke her. Many bills were >$1000 for things I consider routine "weeknight jobs" like brake pads or radiator flush. Best for me was a rebuilt transmission, then warranty replacement a few months later when it failed, just 2 years before I bought it. I could read her frustration in the bills, and so many trips to the dealer. The bills did state that they vacuumed the car as a compliment, and I am sure the Service Manager smiled broadly. At least she priced it to sell, but don't know if there was an "adjustment phase" before that. A bottom-feeder like me can live with missing LED segments, but I just put that sucker on the shelf and installed a new $80 radio w/ DVD.

About a year or so ago, I had the misfortune of going to check out a W114 with my sort-of-brother-in-law. It looked magnificent in pictures, but based on the seller's description, it sounded like it needed a head gasket. Other than that, the seller informed us that the car was "flawless." He was asking $4,000.

Upon arrival, things were not as they seemed. For one, the exterior was a cheap respray with cracks already forming in the paint. The seller had conveniently photographed the car from only the driver's rear, since it turned out the grille was smashed in and the front right fender was crumpled.

We immediately discovered that the air conditioner didn't work because the condenser was punctured, though the seller was convinced it was because "the head gasket needs did." As to why it needed a jump to start it not more than 5 minutes after killing the engine? 'Cause the head gasket needs did. Why it wouldn't shift out of park? 'Cause the head gasket needs did. Why did it just randomly conk out and refuse to start again? You guessed it, 'cause the head gasket needs did.

But, the best part was when he produced the folder with the car's service history. In there was a recent sheet outlining some brake work, a bit of wiring repair, and... a new head gasket.

:cool: "So... this is an estimate for all this work?"
:dizzy: "Nah, I paid that ****, I paid all that *****."
:cool: "So, the head gasket was just replaced?"
:dizzy: "Nah, it need the head gasket did."
:cool: "So this sheet is just an estimate?"
:dizzy: "Nah, I paid that *****, it's all did."
:cool: "So, where it says 'head gasket repair' on here, that's something you had done?"
:dizzy: "Yeah, I did all that *****."
:cool: "So why is the head gasket leaking?"
:dizzy: "'Cause it need the head gasket did."
:cool: "So why don't you take it back to the shop that did the head gasket and have them warranty it out, since it's failed again?"
:dizzy: "Nah, I ain't done the head gasket yet."
:cool: "THIS SHEET: IS THIS AN ESTIMATE, OR DID YOU HAVE ALL THIS WORK, INCLUDING THE HEAD GASKET THAT IS LISTED HERE DONE!?"
:dizzy: "Yeah, I paid all that *****, it all did."

As I recall, we put a couple of particular fingers in his face and left.

epic