Hey guys,
I've been really busy over the past 9 months and I totally forgot about this thread (and the internet in general, for the most part) until recently. Thought I'd give y'all an update.
My brother ended up buying the car. We got all of the paint oxidation (it was bad, the car had always been garaged but it seemed like it had never been waxed. The gauge needles were still orange but the paint on the hood was milky dark gray instead of black) buffed out with Klasse. The car ended up needing about what I figured it would in the way of catch-up maintenance, he's put about $7k into it (could've been substantially less, but he had a shop do the work). Engine wiring harness, distributor rotors and caps, engine mounts, a bunch of other stuff that I don't remember. Nothing atypical for a 400e. It hasn't left him stuck though.
The car doesn't have ASR; I found this out when we picked it up from the previous owner to take to our mechanic for a pre-purchase inspection (since my brother didn't have his license at the time). I found myself first in line in the wrong lane at a red light. My 560 never had a problem with wheelspin, but my 560 never had those piece of **** Michelin MX4 Energy tires on it, either, and it had a LSD. I didn't think about that at the time. Light turned green, I stood on it. Didn't expect the 400 to have enough power to light up the tires most of the way across the intersection. Apparently that expectation was incorrect. No harm done, except that my brother was in the passenger seat at the time. Excellent example.
Ehem. Anyhow. The car's been fine; he did have one accident, but it wasn't his fault (some ass cut him off and slammed on his brakes while he and my dad were on the way to the mall). Didn't do much damage, just needed a grille, headlights, a bumper and (I think) a hood. He ended up replacing the headlights with Depo euros and doing the wiper delete, replaced the taillights with smoked MHWs, had the windows tinted and threw some OZ rims with Bridgestone RE-960s (not what I would've chosen, but they're decent tires) at it. He's happy with it.
Oh, and my girlfriend needs a car when she starts driving later this year, too (19, never had a driver's license >_<)... I've been teaching her on the 300D, and I insist on baptizing her in the Church of Mercedes before letting her contaminate her mind with a BMW or some Japanese or American car or something.
I'd love to pick up another 400E/E420 for her (just so I can drive it
) but I think we're going to go the 210 E430 route for that.