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.