I am also obviously a 500E fan; what did it for me is not only the power and handling but the uniqueness of the thing. Remember; the car was built to be the factory answer the AMG Hammer; the car had no influence from AMG beyond the fact that assuredly the MBZ engineers probably bought a real Hammer and tore it down for ideas. The car was constructed of MBZ parts, but the parts were SPECIFIED by Porsche, who did all the chassis development work. Further, 500Es were handbuilt in the very same Porsche factory that the legendary 959s were built, and by the same hands. The cars arrived at the Stuttgart Porsche factory as body-in-white 300Es, and were then modified by Porsche to allow for the M119 drivetrain and given the flared fenders and custom suspension bits too numerous to list. Jeez, they were even manually pushed from station to station on carts! They were then shipped back to Mercedes for final assembly, then took another trip across town back to Porsche for final testing, tuning and elimination of ANY defects. In short, a handbuilt car.

History is one thing; driving is another. Since I do mucho highway driving, if I were to pick between a 500E and C43 on this criteria alone it'd be a no-brainer; the 500E OWNS the highway. But around town, no doubt a C43 is a nimble dance partner.

Drive both, then decide. It's the only way you'll feel good about the decision.

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Best regards, Michael
'92 500E
'88 300TE