Hi,
Thanks to all of you for your welcome.
Some of you seem concerned by the price they have to pay to get their E 500 and where to find them in the US.
Try www.mobile.de, a german website where you can find about 15 to 20 mercedes E 500 on sale. I have recently seen a 1993 (black/black) with 82 000km (about 500 00 miles) with a complete book at 16 000 $.
As you will see it, prices can be very low (down to 8 000 $).
But if you intend to buy, be very careful about the origin of the car, ask for a complete service book, and ask for a garanty on the mileage : many odometers (?) are manipulated sometime up to 100 000 km down. After all, the inside of those cars ages slowly. Be also aware of high mileage cars : no speed limits on the german autobahn, which I have, as you imagine, longly and dutyfully experienced, also means that engines suffer ; that's the probleme with having no 5th speed on the "tranny" (I like that word !).
The good thing about Germany is that their TUV (official car test administration) is very strict on the quality of the car that are on the road. Once again, this does not mean the cars are reliables.
Alex

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Carpe Diem