Geez, tough crowd Brodie!

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Nothing too bad, I'm just rather appalled that he joined this forum just to say that?

So, before I get the pic tomorrow, this will suffice:
1: Go here: http://old.mbclub.ru/mb/vin/?lng=eng
2: Enter this (my VIN): WDB1240361B490817
3: Check the box for "FULL VERSION"
4: Click "Search"
5: And then read the details, it's all there

Sorry, to ruffle the party; I just stumbled across your posting, Brodie, while I was searching for something else completely unrelated. I did not know there was a hazing period for the fraternity that had to be completed before I posted.

But your point about reading the details is a fair one; late at night, I skipped through the middle postings and missed it and went ahead with my ill-informed posting anyway. If you have that kind of paper trail, I am sure you will want to share that with your buyer. It did occur to me, however, that this was an export car that could have gone to another market such as somewhere in Asia. I think there were a few in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. From there, it could have come into California.

I toyed with the idea of importing my 500E into the US in 1995 and was quoted $15-20K for the Fed Cert on top of transporation +/-$5K. This, when added on to $100K new cost, seemed unappealling when dealers had new '94 E500s sitting on showroom floors for <$85K. So, your assertion of rareness in the case of your car should be well justified.

In any event, 500Es are fine cars. I just drove from New York to San Francisco via Canada north of the Great Lakes (4500 miles) in a Bentley Continental GT and I would have rather done it in a 500E.

It's cool, I didn't mean anything by it, it's not like I have a massive post count either, I'm much more of a forum lurker. I was just surprised that it was your only posts, maybe I should be more honored.

But yes as you can see it is indeed a Euro market car, if it went to any other country between leaving Europe and going to US I'd be surprised, the car has been registered in Hawaii since 1993 when it received the final conversion at G&K in California.

But here's the pics as promised: (and I realized I need to vacuum my car again hahahah)
Behind Gas Lid


Under Gas Cap


Cruise Control Stalk



Gear Change Gate (my personal favorite)



Oh, and since I had some questions via email, yes, the AC has been converted, its a state law here

OK, OK, Uncle, I am convinced it started life intended for Europe.

I learned a lot in this exchange and for that I thank you all. First, I had never seen a Brilliant Silver car of this early vintage. Second, I learned that one of my cars that is officially a '99 S-Class was actually built in early 1998!

Furthermore, I would not be surprised if the "49" in your VIN means it was for the German market as my VIN equivalent digits is "44" for Great Britain, both the international dialing codes for the respective countries.

I am sure one of the readers of this forum can confirm or refute my guess on this.

So, eating humble pie all the way, I retract my naysays of yesterday.

True USA-spec 500E's will have the VIN start with "WDBEA36".

All non-USA spec 500E's will have the VIN start with "WDB124036".

The last 7 digits of the VIN are simply sequential chassis serial numbers... they increment to B999999, then roll to C000000, C000001, and so on. The A999999-B000000 roll happened around the 1990 model year, the B-C roll happened right around the end of 1993 or beginning of 1994 model year. But there is no logic built into the serial number indicating destination country, etc. That information is kept on file by MB though. View page 10 of this PDF file for more details on the USA VIN format.

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