I have a question for those in California. What kinds of hoops will I have to go through to get this car registered in California and what "issues" will I have with the every other year smog check?

What kind of mileage do people with these 500s get?

As long as the car was legally registered & titled in another state in the USA, there should be no problem registering it in CA. MPG tends to be high teens around town, low 20's on the freeway.

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Thank you. MPG about what I expected. A little worried about smogging. Seems like every time I have the 300CE smogged, it is a minor battle.

D'oh, I forgot about the smog issue. You are right, that could be a hassle. But if it passes the sniffer test, and visual, I don't think they can do much. The car should have catalysts, so it should be ok as far as emissions are concerned. But it would be nice to have someone else chime in who has a gray-market car (with Euro VIN) in CA, who could tell us what happens at smog time. Dang, I like living in a state / county without annual smog checks!

BTW - my 500 gets 16-17mpg around town, and 21-22 on longer freeway trips (best was 23mpg with the stock tires on a 500 mile trip).

Emailed you back!

Yesterday I gave Paul (suginami) and a friend of his a real good look and drive of her, real nice guys. I hope he chimes in here with his thoughts or emails anyone who contacted him pretty soon, I know he's traveling right now so shouldn't be too long.

Thanks everyone.

Thanks for showing me and MTI the car.

I liked the car, and if I was in the market for a 500E, I'd probably buy it for what he's asking. I think $13,000 is a fair price. The problem is that is exactly what he wants for the car. If it were me, I'd ask in the $15K range, and negotiate down to $13K so the buyer thought he was getting a good deal. What makes this car particularly unique is that it is a Euro car, with all of the things that U.S. cars don't get. Brodie claims it is one of two Euro 500E's in the U.S.

It has the Euro HVAC dials, which are great. It has the vacuum assisted head light adjustment switch, with all of the hoses still intact. All you need is Euro headlights, hook up the hoses and you're good to go.

It struck me as an honest car that has been properly maintained. In particular, the upper and lower wiring harnesses have been replaced, along with the starter and its wiring harness, as well. Those items aren't cheap. The transmission has also been rebuilt, which probably cost a pretty penny.

It drove fine, although the exhaust was too loud for my taste. The Euro exhaust apparently has 3" pipes, and along with the catalytic converter delete, had a loud rumble from inside the car.

The pics show the exterior condition well, except for the clear coat glazing on the roof. It has very fine, clearly defined clear coat scratches on the roof. I don't believe they will buff out, but can probably be minimized with polish and a good wax. But they are still there.

I can't comment on what the car needs mechanically, if anything at all. I would still recommend someone taking the car to an independent Mercedes mechanic if they plan on purchasing the car.
This is a car that was built in 1991 and has over 100,000 miles. It might need something to make it into perfect condition.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

Thanks Paul,
I'd like to qualify the rarity of the euro 500E's with "that I know of" and "fully Federalized" from what the rest of the 500E community has been able to find and let me know about. Being that it cost something between $40-$50k to federalize one of these cars from Europe it was just WAY cheaper to buy a US model. And they ran more expensive in Europe to begin with, so you're looking at a $130-$140k car in 1993 money, just crazy.
The pictures I guess don't show the roof too well, and I had just removed all the wax only a few weeks ago from the car to start on a full detail sometime soon, so they look a little more noticeable, that and Paul is a whole head taller than me his angle of approach is a little different hahaha but yes, it is something that can be marginalized with a serious detail and also since it's between the roof rain rails it could easily be repaired with a wet sanding and fresh clearcoat spray by a shop without much trouble.
The only other work that my tech has suggested is the front wheel bearings soon. This is the same tech that has worked on the car since it came to Hawaii in 1993 so he knows it very very well. There's a bit of a hardly noticeable whine coming off the drivers side bearing once the car warms up and the wheel gets put under load, either from a hard brake or sharp right. My tech says it's nothing to worry about and can be addressed in the next year or whenever I do the next full service.
I'm selling her at a substantial loss, and I deeply appreciate Paul taking the time out of his trip to help out any buyers out there who aren't able to make it in person. I hope this leads to a sale soon!

Thanks!

Brodie, does your car have the Euro exhaust without catalysts? While that's yet another cool feature, it also could cause problems for anyone who has to get the car past a tailpipe sniffer smog test (i.e., California). Wouldn't be an issue in most of Idaho, as only a couple counties have any sort of smog check. The good news is, the catalysts are the same as the 400E, so a buyer could score the pipe with catalysts fairly cheap (I know of two different people currently parting out 400E's, and the exhaust is available on both).

BTW - I know of at least four, possibly five, Euro-spec 124.036 cars legally registered in the USA. They are awfully rare though.

Are you talking about catalytic converters? It is illegal to sell those used; you would have to buy an entire car for them.

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1985 500SL Euro w/ AMG bits 130k
1984 300SD Turbodiesel 192k
1980 240D Stick China 188k
2001 CLK55 AMG 101k
2007 S600 Biturbo 149k Overheated Project, IT'S ALIVE!!!

Doesn't mean they are bought & sold used every day. Businesses (salvage yards) won't sell them, but private parties often will. It's a stupid law anyway; bad cats will either be plugged (car won't run) or won't work right (car won't pass smog). Either way, a bad cat is useless, seems pointless to ban selling used ones.

From what I can tell and from what I've learned from both the company that did the conversion (which was performed in Cali and passed inspection there) be from my Tech the car was fitted with a US spec exhaust system, not certain however if it's just the muffler or everything from the headers back (downpipe, cat & muffler) my tech did tell me he had hollowed out the cat that is on the car at the request of the previous owner (there's no exhaust regulations in Hawaii), which accounts for her throaty gurgle, but I asked him if I could fit a new replacement cat if needed and he said it would be fine after that. He'd just suggest a fresh tune up, oil change and spark plugs along with the new cat and it would pass just about anywhere fine.

I'm not really concerned with passing on any smog issues to the next owner. Even without the cat and a six month old tune up now, when I start the car after it's been sitting for a few days or even a week at times there's no smoke, blue tint or strong smell of fuel.

I'm sure that with a new cat and a fresh tune she'll pass smog fine. If anything it'll be a fairly small investment by the new owner and given that smog tests are every two years, a fesh tune just before she's due for a test would be called for anyways if you're as obsessed as I am over maintenence.

Oh, and I've only had one interested buyer from Cali too, maybe because of the whole smog worries, but I've had dozens (seriously, at least one or two a week) from the East Coast. They all seem to be scared off by the shipping charges tho, around $2100ish on average. Oh well.

But thanks guys, I really hope to sell her soon

I just happen to have nice Cats from a 1992 500E, also a new Mercedes Euro (non cat) exhaust system that was just put on eBay, Both are in Chicago.

Ron - Destroyer of 500E's
1992 - June 28 -June 30, 2007: RIP
1992 - March 19 - September 18, 2008: RIP
1993 - 8844 Miles. March 19 - ???: Soon to RIP......

With your resume Ron, I'm surprised you don't have three sets of each laying around!

Bump
Had another sale pending the last few days who came up dry at the last minute.
Please fellas, talk to the bank BEFORE saying you're committed to buying her.
Thanks!