Chivo

Hello Mercedes drivers! I'm a proud owner of a BMW 750 1998. I bought my BMW three years ago for $5000 with 70k miles. The car needed work immediately & needed more work since I've easily put $15,000 into it.
I personally like to work on cars when the weather permits lol.
With this being said I'm looking at a Mercedes that needs a bit of work...

2006 Mercedes-Benz SL500 Roadster from an insurance company this SL Class was involved in an accident. Mainly, it will need a complete front bumper assembly, hood, grille, upper radiator support, cooling components and right headlight (left headlight - broken tabs). It will also need repair to both front fenders. No frame damage. 52,000 miles Price $10,000... Maybe cheaper..

With that in mind I see the same car for sale on the Internet for roughly 20 to 25,000 dollars. I don't truly know the price of this car I can imagine parts are expensive they are so on my seven series. What it be cost-efficient for me to restore a SL or buy one used with no cosmetic damage?

Thanks for any advice.

next2pool

That's a close call as far as value. Will you be buying it with a salvage title? I think your purchase price needs to be closer to $ 7K.

Vulcaneer

I'm thinking the fix-it project will be a money pit. Not to recover the costs. First of all the entry price is too high. The parts will be very expensive to buy. Your time for assembling is assumed to be cost free. But just to paint the replacement parts will likely be $6,000 or more. If you can paint it yourself, you can beat the market. If you need to pay to have it painted, then the paint shop will want to assemble some panels after painting. So it gets expensive.

If the insurance company is selling it, they have totaled the vehicle. Ask them what they value the car at to make the decision to total. If I remember correctly, they will total a car if the cost to repair is 75% of the current market value. So if a car is valued at 10,000...and it will cost more than 7,500 to repair...they will total. So they have pretty good idea of the value. And they'll share that with you.

However, if the insurance company has totaled it, then the vehicle will have a 'SALVAGE' title once they sell it. That will pretty much "kill" your resale value. So if you are fixing it up to sell it, not a good thing for you.

So it pretty much depends on your involvement and also your intention for the finished vehicle.

Chivo

I plan to keep all cars I collect so titles don't matter as long as it's road legal.

Can I turbo any V8??
How much is a facelift kit?
What if any interior feature have changed?
What's standard on this car?
How much you pay for your car?
What the difference in 2005 & older vs 2006 newer?

$4500-6000 good for salvage titled sl500?
(So rebuild will have $8,000 spread out in time)

$15,000-18,000 used running car a good price?
(with less then 100,000 miles)

V12TTenthusiast

OK so to answer your questions 1 by 1

Yes you can TT the V8 if you have the $$$ as you will have to make a custom kit and spend tons of hours on tuning, its not a simple 2-3k mod, you can easily get into the 10k+ range on doing a TT

By facelift kit I assume you mean the 09-12 look, kit can range 7-14k and install and paint another 7-10k

05-06 SL500/600 have same interior but 55/65 have a nicer interior

Standard 500 didn't get no where as much as even the reg 55s

If you choose to buy this car you need to make sure ABC is functioning properly, a faulty ABC unit can drain someone's wallet quicker then one would like.

For the price range your looking for spending on a used car (This will more to the higher range of 18k) you can either go for a Supercharged V8 SL55 AMG or a TT V12 SL600

SL55 has much more mods, easier to work on and there's a lot of aftermarket parts available for the car

SL600 with just a tune and you'll have a mid to low 11 sec car but parts are a lot more expensive, and not as easy to work on