nycphotography

Ideally Trumps plane would crash into Hillary's motorcade and we can get a do over for both parties. wtf.

Tej7

Can someone please provide cliffs/Cole's notes on what happened in this thread?

superpop

Nothing, nothing happened in this thread.

Mike5215

Sure. A kid who desperately wanted to join the forum bought a salvage high mileage S550 with rear end damage for $10k, hoping to restore it for another $1k in parts and the liberal use of a rubber mallet.

Some members warned against it as foolhardy given his lack of collision repair experience. Others felt his adventurous spirit and positive attitude warranted support. A conflict between those factions emerged.

The OP remained stubborn with respect to taking advice from the naysayers, often, but not always, to his detriment. This pissed the naysayers (myself included) off to no end. It was like watching a slow motion train wreck for us.

Ultimately neither faction had a clear winner or any real satisfaction. He was able to put the car on the road in some form, but spent over $15,000 and was still dealing with an imperfect collision repair and ongoing mechanical issues. Despite his claim that he planned to enjoy the car for many years, as soon as it was back on the road he put it on Craigslist hoping to break even or net a small profit.

Then he disappeared from the forum, leaving everyone vested in the story with no ending. Also there was an excellent screenplay written based on the thread.

Tej7

Damn, I wish I was there to witness it from the beginning haha. Thanks Mike.

DaveW68

YES!!!!!!

It's all here. Enjoy at your leisure.

The Thomas J

Vlad buys salvage car believes he got a great deal. Attempts to fix it on the cheap, fails. Claims he would use just a mallet. Posts pictures of said mallet. Bickers with all those who tried to give him advise, wasted money on wood steering wheels and armrest refrigerator before he even had a key to start the car. Didn't understand the function of an alternator. Drove it uninsured and unregistered for a few weeks.

When the forum demanded proof of insurance he provided a geico insurance card of proof of insurance that was issued the day he posted it. He than crossed state lines to register the car out of state in an attempt to wash the tittle of it being a salvage. Vlad than Claimed he fixed the car and would drive it for years to come because it's such a "smart ride."

He almost immediately listed it on Craigslist for $15,000. After a few days dropped the price down to $12,000.

No one has heard or seen him since. I speculate that his wife may have terminated him with his own mallet.

Did I leave anything out?

Just like a Seinfeld episode, a whole lot of nothing.
Watching it unfold before my very eyes was interesting.

Tej7

Hahaha, thanks for that. He's probably too ashamed to come back here after all that transpired. I almost feel bad for the guy.

MBNUT1

Trust me shame is not part of Vlads vocabulary.....Which in a strange way was part of his charm. He would post things that most self respecting people would find utterly humiliating but not Vlad.

BenzV12

It's sad for him , it was a quixotic movement from first .He acted like Wheeler Dealers' Mike Brewer but he couldn't set the Thames on fire as an old English word saying

The Thomas J

One thing this thread has done is brought all of MBworld.org together. Despite some bickering among ourselves we are a much closer group now.

Rob CL

Has anyone checked the trunk area for Vlad, or his thumping mallet?

steelers6nj

Lmmfao,maybe 20 pages,he actually said south of a $1000 and a rubber mallet fix,REALLY,smh

steelers6nj

Did you get all the repairs done,how's the car running????

DaveW68

He had it listed for sale for what he paid for the car in wrecked form. He is/was losing all of the costs that he put into the car for repairs, fridge, steering wheel, and key. This leads me to believe that he was running into more costs than he could handle and was trying to dump it. The ad is no longer up, so he either sold it or took it down so he can park it in his garage as his garage queen. He has abandoned this board, so we may never know. He might be too embarrassed to update.

steelers6nj

Yeah man,theres no way he should've paid that price for that car,but your probably right about him being embarrassed,a person that does certified body work,those kinda people will buy cars like that and they definitely wouldnt have paid that ridiculous price,but hey,WE LIVE AND WE LEARN,hopefully....

DaveW68

He didn't learn. And many of us tried to help him. He ignored all logic and did things his own retarded way.

jahquan3

He'll be alright especially if he truly did mean the experience of it all was apart of the allure of tackling this job. Ultimately he admitted that 1k was a play on words and that he knew he needed to invest more then that in time and effort. However he did get the car running for far less then some suggested. It's a middle place of craziness, desire to accomplish a difficult goal and trolling everyone that was willing to be triggered.

sloanbj

We should encourage and perhaps even subsidize a repeat attempt with another donor car. The entertainment value, particularly seeing the know-it-alls rebuffed by all his McGyvering, was excellent. The guy is talented and seems to succeed any anything he puts his mind to. I don't care if he went a bit over budget. He was completely transparent about it all. The refrigerator really tops it off.

DaveW68

I think any subsidizing of another retarded project should be done solely by you and your ilk. Watching you blow your money on another project done as stupidly as BenzS55 did his would definitely be entertaining for us naysayers to watch. And then selling the car for what you paid for it in its wrecked state would make for a nice climatic ending. Negative return on investment. Nice!!

MBNUT1

This thread made the news
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1...-on-the-forums

mercedesbenzs55

I couldn't set the Thames on fire, but I roasted the tyres on tower bridge!

mercedesbenzs55

And you bought yours to make a profit? I believe this car will appreciate more then the one before and after it. but not just yet.

I will buy an S600 W221 someday. But only when it hits terminal depreciation. That's when I'll put in the Khul Box.

In the meantime, my Wife and I have enough to buy a house and acreage.

It was foolish to do this project while still in a rental($1700/m!).

The next time I buy a W221, It will be parked in a mortgaged house.

DaveW68

Hey....your alive!! You've been gone so long that I was beginning to think you drove your car off a cliff. Did you end up selling the car? If so, what was the final sales price? Did another young starry-eyed kid end up buying it?

I purchased my car as a daily driver that I can fully enjoy....hopefully for at least a few more years. I still have very low miles and warranty coverage for the next 5+ years, so that should add to the peace of mind of owning such a car.

It's good that you finally see the error of your ways. I hope that you've learned that the next time you purchase one of these cars, buck up for a low mileage, non-wrecked car that you can get warranty coverage on. Seeking a lower cost, higher mileage Benz has been the demise of many members of this board. No need to be a statistic next time.

DrDoe

Benzs55,
Just wanted to let you know that I'm your fan. You are a hero in my book. I think you were able to achieve much higher results than others for such a low budget.
Buying used car is like buying a lottery. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't. I bought cars unseen with both low and high odometer readings and I can tell you that those numbers don't mean a lot. That's the risk for buying cars unseen.
Cheers and good lucks!