despicable merc

stumbled on a nice 03 E500 with 130k For 5k . The guy took really good care of it.. i recently got E350 and sold E320. Dont ask what happened to E350.

i am familiar with E350 & E320. Not so much with E500 i've only heard horror stories. Need an advice... don't ask why i wanted i just want it!


P.S. i was kinda critical about E500

cetialpha5

That's a pretty good price. I think the horror stories involve the airmatic suspension and the SBC brakes. Find out what the status on those are. You could always drive it for a few months and if you don't have those problems, you could probably get rid of it for the same price. I think the other part is that as a first year model, they had tons of problems, but the owner may have fixed many of them at this stage.

AMGAffalterbach

I've had every component of my AirMatic suspension fail and I have an E550, no SBC brakes though being facelift. AirMatic repairs have been the single most expensive maintenance item on the car, first it was the rear bags. Then a stuck relay that burned out my compressor and left me stranded (the only time the car ever has) since it drained the battery. Finally, my front air struts went when it was parked in the garage and I heard a loud bang while in my living room. Also had an issue where the car had about 4-5" of wheel gap because the wire to the AirMatic pressure relief valve broke. Got through all of that and now have all Arnott parts and more peace of mind. Thank god I have a close friend that owns a Mercedes shop, he came to my garage to do the AirMatic repairs on the complete front bag failure, didn't have to trailer it or pay much for labor.

The E500 is a decently fast car, has some more options, but if you really want an upgrade in power and refinement both hold out and get an E550. Puts lengths on any E500, facelift body style, no SBC, newer electronics (depending on year), and a lot of the small issues fixed.

soldbydon

My '04 E500 wagon has had all the expensive issues like the failure of the battery control module, the air suspension pump, the front air struts (went with Arnott for replacements at $450/side versus $1700 from MBUSA), cracking of the plastic radiator (found Chinese for $112 vs MBUSA for $600), SBC failure (MBUSA warranted most of the cost at vehicle age of 10.5 years), failure of the cam sensor, and replacement of most front-end parts (normal wear on Ohio roads). I was stranded only 4 times by the side of the road in 2014! But I do love the design of the car and pull a utility trailer with it regularly. So I have "upgraded" to the facelift 2008 E350 that does not have the air suspension, BCM, or SBC. There are dozens of improvements in the facelifted models 2007-2009 and I would highly recommend that someone consider that version over the 2004-2006 models. Plus the Bluetooth feature (requires adapter on eBay for $100-$120) is super nice and allows you to use your smartphone with less risk while driving. I miss the dynamic seats and heated steering wheel but most everything else is better. Good luck!

OnlyGerman

Buy it if everything checks out... i wouldn't keep it to long at that mileage though.

AMGAffalterbach

The question was from september '14 lol