I owned one of the last E500s sold as new in the USA. It was manufactured in April 1994 and I took delivery in August 1994. As far as I know, AMG had nothing to do with it. There was no AMG insignia anywhere on the car. I spoke with MBNA numerous times about this car on varied subjects and was always told that the car was assembled by Porsche in the building where Porsche previously made the 959s. I am looking forward to buying a E50 or E55 AMG with the supercharged motor when it becomes available. Someday I might buy a used E500 and restore it. It was a geat car in all respects except the 4 speed transmission. The fenders were the best feature.

ah, but shipping the 124 chassis back and forth across between zuffenhausen and sindelfingen is so much more economical?

look, everyone knows the "official" story, all i'm saying is that there have been rumblings that the reason porsche got the nod from DB was because posche was in danger of being bought out by foreign interests and this collaboration was an effort to give porsche some work, and therefore, cash-flow to avoid being bought out. some speculate that the 500E project may have even been a prelude to db buying shares in porsche.

think about it, db could have just as easily done the work themselves especially considering that alot of the components in the 500e drivetrain are off-the shelf (read: r129 parts). why go to not just an outside source, but a competitor no less? granted, they don't really share the same market entirely, but they are competitors.

i'm not saying that this IS what happened, but it wouldn't much surprise me if it were. and, of course, no one would ever really admit on the record if that were indeed the case.

i also would not be surprised if amg had had something to do with the '94 e500. again, i haven't been able to get a definitive answer about that, but it's not any more unlikely than daimler-benz "merging with" (read: BUYING) chrysler.
just some things to think about

__________________
'94 W124.036 249/040 leder; 8.25x17 EvoIIs
'93 W124.036 199/040 leder; 8.25x17 EvoIIs, up in flames...LITERALLY!
'93 W124.036 481/040 leder; euro delivery; 8.25x17 EvoIIs
'88 R107.048 441/409 leder; Euro lights
'87 W201.034 199/040 leder; Euro lights; EvoII brakes; 8x16 EvoIs - soon: 500E rear brakes
'70 R113.044 050/526; factory alloys; Euro lights

I really wish MB would buy Porsche, how cool would that be?

Hehe, not exactly.. What I meant was that it would cost DB a fair amount of money to instruct AMG on the assembly of this model, and why spend money on that once more? They already had a crew at Porsche that knew what was supposed to be done.

What you say about Porsche beeing in trouble is a different matter, it would still not be "economical", nor would there be any point in changing co-producer.

Just my opinion

__________________
::: Sven :::

http://home.no.net/shvoldum/Sigpic.jpg

A little off topic, but the highest per Benz sales of AMG cars is in Canada. We seem to like them up here.

__________________
Jason Priest
1999 E430
1995 E420 - retired
1986 420SEL - retired