I'm going to go look at an 87 300E at the dealer this afternoon. It's a 1 local owner with 55K miles and an asking price of $8K. The car is completely original, dealer serviced, and from the pictures looks to be in mint condition.

This car seems to have never been driven very much - from the car fax I see the mileage at the emission tests going back about 15years. It's basically been driven 2-3K per year since new - last entry shows 48K miles in 2005. Is this something I should be concerned about?

Also, how does the price sound? Low mileage prices are all over the place but it seems a bit high to me - I'm thinking if everything checks out something around $5 - $6K is more like it - does that sound reasonable?

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I'd rather argue against a hundred idiots, than have one agree with me. — Winston Churchill

Savas,
My '87 300E was bought by my mechanic. It now has 285K with original engine/transmission. Running like a fine tuned Benz! $8000 sound way high even with low mileage. Why don't you look at autotrader.com and get comparable prices nation wide?
Anziani
'93 320CE 205K
'95 E420 125K

At looked at autotrader and only saw a few comparable cars - both priced around $7.5K

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I'd rather argue against a hundred idiots, than have one agree with me. — Winston Churchill

Unless it has an authentic AMG kit on it, $6k tops.

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2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

thanks guys

No AMG, it's completely stock. My current 300E does have the kit though, including the duck tail and aero 1's - but it no longer looks as good as yours! I've had it since '96 and racked up a little under 300K.

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I'd rather argue against a hundred idiots, than have one agree with me. — Winston Churchill

For 8K you can get a late 90's W140 S500 or S600, maybe even something newer than that.

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Closing the store
Benzbonz.biz on your smart phone or tablet.

Heck, got my girlfriends 2002 CLK320 /w 104k for $6500...

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2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

i would be in for about 3750

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1989 300ce 129k
( facelifted front,updated tail lights, lowered suspension,bilstein sports, lorinser front spoiler, MOMO steering wheel, remus exhaust,stainless steel brake lines). (Gone)

1997 s320 154k (what a ride). Sold with 179k miles. Replaced with Hyundai Equus

1994 e320 Cabriolet 108k



1972 280se 4.5 153k Owned for 12 yrs, sorry I sold it


[/SIGPIC]

Unless the owner had the dealer change out all the rubber on that 25 year old car, I'd say it's a sub-3k car.

If ALL the rubber is fresh,runs PERFECT, and looks perfect, it's worth the price.

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Eugene

10 E63 AMG
93 300te 4matic
07 BMW X3
14 Ford F-150 Fx2

Thanks guys. I took a look and it was very nice, exactly what I wanted - an original unmolested car. But even to my relatively untrained eye the rubber bits looked worse than my 300K mile car. I offered $3K and they weren't interested claiming they just lowered the price from $8999 to $7999. The search continues but luckily I have no timeline so I can wait.

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I'd rather argue against a hundred idiots, than have one agree with me. — Winston Churchill

I wouldn't do it. It's an '87. Like the poster said above, lots of rubber components could have dried up or are ready to go. Half that price maybe...probably even if stuff dries up. Just a long time to have only gone 57K total...hmmm.

A little twist. Dealer emailed me this morning that a customer took it to get inspected and "it did not pass, we are probably going to wholesale it". All of a sudden my offer was way too high

I'm going to try to find out what the problems are, it could possibly still be worth pursuing.

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I'd rather argue against a hundred idiots, than have one agree with me. — Winston Churchill

Have you approached the previous owner to see if there was anything with the car? I did that with an S124 300TE and got a surprise that didn't come up on the history check, although I'd already bought the car. Lol.

I concur with previous posters; unless the car has been all but restored with fresh rubber/plastics, it's not worth anywhere near the asking price. It needs fresh flexible brake lines, radiator and heater hoses, coolant expansion tank, vacuum lines, engine and transmission mounts, lower control arm bushings, sway bar bushings, and probably a bunch of work on the rear suspension. Oh, and the tires are probably more than 6 years old, so need to be replaced - their shelf life has expired. I've never seen a used car that had any material amount of this work completed. But if you want to use it as a reliable daily driver, it all needs to be completed.

I value cars such as this one like this: what would you pay if it had 155K miles but the same excellent paint and interior? Because it probably isn't any better than a well maintained 155K mile car.

Or this. If you paid $8K for it but burned through $2K in maintenance and repair in the first year, would you be happy with the purchase? For $10K you can find a pristine E-class that is at least 15 years newer, a very late 210 or earlier 211 chassis car.

My rambling $.02

The plot thickens. They will probably be lucky to get $1K wholesale, so maybe are a whole more negotiable. Might be a nice car at $2K.