Pictures of my $500 '88 560SEL
 

Man, I am still pinching myself.:D

Interior is perfect, just needs a cleaning!


Here are some pictures of the car as I bought it. It has not been washed yet.


The last one is the only dent I could find. Paint is perfect except the front bumper which appears to have been primed on a Monday.....

your wipers are not correctly oriented

:eek: This is your post 666 is that a good thing? W126 looks nice - that is the classic color combo that states elegance. Nice find

Yeah they are, it's just the picture.........

yeah I see now.. a weird reflection in the passenger headlight is messing with my brain.

Wow....the beast of all beasts....I'd love to have one of those as a tinkering car some day..... :D

Very nice! These cars are awesome in black! I wish mine was black.

I say you got a bargain!

Wow, that's an amazing deal!! How's the rear suspension feel??? :D:D

Very nice car for $500. There's a 1991 560SEL for sale at a used car lot near me with a broken windshield, stolen stereo, non-funtioning door locks, missing driver's door handle, and a puddle of oil under it for $5900. It has been for sale for over a year...big suprise. Whoever priced it certainly doesn't know the values of MBs from that era, not to mention the blue book value in excellent condition is just under $4000.

Looks like you got a great deal on your car. Love that color. The two-tone black/grey has always been my favorite on the ones from that era. Have fun driving it!

Roger that. I paid over $38,000 for mine, back in 1996 as "Certified Preowned" (then called Encore) ata Mercedes Benz dealer near Disneyland in the OC; it had belonged to the man that used to own the Beverly Hills hotel, whose wife said it was "too Flashy for Beverly Hills!! and made him buy her a new BMW at 27 years of age..


I put over 100,000 miles on it too, but spent over another $38,000 in AMG and euro upgrades, maintenance and repair on it (finally added up the receipts this month) and yet, I am NOT calling it a lemon. It looks and runs perfect at 160k miles.


So --- I never found it cheap to acquire or keep especially, but I absolute love driving it, and hop[e to keep it forever. I did over 30,000 miles on it since Thanksgiving, these cars absolutely LOVE long trips on the open road.

Thanks for the replies and encouragement. So far, I haven't had a chance to drive it so I can't comment on the rear suspension. Looks like the hydraulic suspension fluid is missing, so maybe some repairs in are in order in that regard. The motor will start if you give it some gas, but it won't hold idle and appears to be missing on a cylinder or two. Nevertheless it revs up quickly and with a roar and does not make any unpleasant noises that would indicate a badly damaged engine or one that had jumped time. Oil pressure is solid, engine light stays on. Trans fluid looks and smells good. Further diagnosis is in order.

The interior cleaned up remarkably, I'd give it a 90%+ rating. All of the electricals are good except for the driver's seat tilt and headrest. The super-cool rear window shade appears to have a working motor but the mechanism seems to need a little help. All the windows work as do the seat heaters and the rear recline. The headliner is absolutely perfect as are all of the door seals. The B-pillar covers are shot just like every other W126, but other than that I just can't believe the condition of the interior (more pictures to come). A new trunk seal is in order as there is a good 6" missing piece from the lip of the seal on one side.

I guess the bottom line is that I will have to wait and see the overall state of the mechanicals before I can tell how good a deal this was. At the very least, I can part out the car and make back much more than I paid but I would much prefer to put this car back on the road. The body is in such great shape that I can only imagine the worst mechanical diagnosis making that goal unrealistic.

And of course, I wouldn't be confident in my ability to do such a thing if it weren't for the great folks here!

Thanks again folks!