Found a very clean and uncrashed but
high mileage (190K) 500E recently. It
has been dealer-serviced for its whole life
and seems like a fine fast vehicle. Asking
around $19K.

However, what gives me pause is that I
know that this car is on the back end of
engine -and- transmission life expectancy,
even assuming no overheating or abuse.

For any other E-classe of that generation
I have a fairly good idea of how much it
would cost to rebuild. For the Porsche-
built mill and special slushbox of a 500E
I'm clueless and kinda nervous. The rebuild
shop I've used won't even quote it. A friend
bought a late-life BMW M5 once and found
himself hit with a $11K bill after the
head was warped at rebuild time -- just
for a new head, excluding the rebuild!

While I think the 500E is an exciting car,
I'm not up for quite that much excitement :-)

Can any of the shop-experienced 500e owners
fill me in on what to expect in this line?
(Frankly, given that my local rebuilders
aren't up for the job, I'm perfectly ready
to pull, crate and ship the cores if needed.)

Ron H

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