Candidate for $12K is a 1994 E500.

The usual 199 charcoal over black interior.

Exterior, good to very good. Hood is a little dull, but wet sand likely will bring it back up. Left rear quarter was scraped against a garage door and painted badly....sand lines, dull, etc. Needs to be reshot, figure $400 for both hood and fender to be good to go. A couple of small chips in windshield, otherwise trim, body panels, paint, glass, etc is very nice. Not a perfect time capsule, but very nice. Both bumper covers show a little fade from time, some nics and marks. Not terrible, but not perfect.

Interior very good to excellent. Seats, carpets, headliner, wood trim all in very good condition. Very little wear anywhere. Seats firm. Dash is good except nav unit glued to dash, may or may not come off without leaving a mark. XM sat radio (poorly done install, but there) included, built-in radar nicely done.

One set of 17" authentic AMG five-spoke star wheels with good tires, also OEM 16" wheels with tires.

161K miles. In the last 18 or so months, over $10K spent. Trans was rebuilt. Engine ingested a metal part and went kaboom. So a used motor from a 1994 E500 rear-end hit was located with 70K miles and installed. Runs perfectly. At same time, upper harness done, lower was already done, all subframe bushings done, motor mounts, trans mounts, front suspension parts, and a lot more. BIG $$'s spent on motor, install, and 'while we're in there' parts.

Car rides great, pulls hard, very smooth. Everything works, A/C cold, etc.

What do you think? All receipts present for the work listed above, some of it like engine and trans still with some warranty remaining.

Seller wants $14K. I say no matter how much work was done, odometer still says 161K and that's too much, and $12K is tops.

Bruce

Offer them 10K. It's only worth what someone is willing to offer and I'm pretty certain serious offers aren't aplenty nowadays. It's neither a collector vehicle nor a low mileage car, but rather a 16 year old Benz with a transplanted motor. If their more smart than greedy, they'll take the money and run.

__________________
Question Authority before it Questions you.

No. If I were shopping for one I would pass it over because I'd easily want to get my money out of it when it came time to sell. I'd also be shopping for the nicest example I can get for my budget, and at 14k there are other nicer lower mileage examples available. The replacement engine does nothing for me. On the one hand it adds value to the car being much lower mileage, but that's canceled out by being a used motor not original to the car.

It would be worth about $10,000 to me as well, and even at that price I would still probably pass on it. I wonder how the suspension is holding up at 160k, along with the evaporator and the rest of the rubber/electrical components. Plus when it came time to sell, it would be more of a challenge than one with less one that's sitting around the 100k mark.

__________________
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!!!

I likely wouldn't even be interested in the car you depicted, given it's overall less than average condition you described to a T. Since I only buy used cars in pristine condition - or I pass on them. However, if I had to bid on that car? $4K tops would be my top cash offer.

*On edit the trade-in value on that car is a tad over $7K, so in essence the private party wants double what a car dealer would allow on trade-in. The private party shows that car a tad over $9K in that condition. $10K private party, excellent condition. It must be a hot, sought after model.

There is a car that has miles, and there is a car that has been in trouble. This car appears to be the latter as it needed things, and didnt get them or didn't get them properly. This indicates to many of us that there might be other things that it didn't get, that aren't yet so obvious but far more important, so I'd put it a little above an equivalent condition E420.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Yeah, I think $10K is realistic too. $4K, c'mon!

It's funny, the guy spends tons of money on the car. It's not a car that was skimped on as I can see from the invoices. He just had bad luck with the motor, but was on top of everything else. Lots of new suspension parts, bushings, water pump, A/C parts, everything that goes between 100K and 150K is pretty much done.

The engine thing sucks, granted, but this is for someone that wants a nice driver and not a show car. I think other $10K E500's are high mile (~120K) original cars in nice shape, but eventually they'll need all the stuff this car already has done, so not a bad deal overall for someone willing to trade off a bit of cosmetics against not having to spend money on a mechanically younger car. My opinion anyway.

Thanks all.

Bruce

Who is shopping for a nice driver E500? I would think almost all would want one in as nice and low mileage as they can get, and use as a play car on the weekends. It would be similar to someone wanting to buy a nice driver Porsche 993, or BMW 750IL. Given a choice between a gleaming, well kept example with 50,000 less miles, versus a more tired example with more miles, but loads of repairs, which car would almost everyone go for?

__________________
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!!!

Comes down to a matter of money and affordability, really. The premium placed on any 15 year old MBZ with less than 100,000 miles is very extreme. I would guess that a lot of people who buy "driver" condition E500's most likely store and use them the same exact way as someone who bought the low-mileage one.

__________________
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...-RESIZED-1.jpg
1991 300E - 212K and rising fast...

I don't question how much was spent, just when and how. There's a big difference between proper preventative maintenance and neglecting things until things no longer work properly / then repairing them, in many cases the latter costs more (and continues to plague the next owner).

I'm not trying to judge this car other than my initial impression based on what was posted here, and making a generalization about maintenance costs and their effect.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Even $10K feels a little expensive. Isn't ~$8K a typical number for a 160K mile 500E? This one needs paint work, has a clean interior, and drives nicely. Overall sounds like an average car, nothing special. Are you willing to pay extra for this car because the motor was replaced? Not counting the motor and trans, how much money was spent on reconditioning/maintaining it? How much would you have to spend to replicate it if you started with a less expensive daily driver 500E?

Another way I assess the value of a car like this is to compare it to a 210 E55. Once into the low-mid teens you can score a nice 2000 E55 with far lower mileage. Now, I realize you aren't looking for a 210, but a ~6 year newer, lower miles, higher performance car is pretty much going to put a cap on the value of a 124.036. A daily driver 500E needs to be priced comfortably below a 210 E55 - and I don't see that here.