YouTuber’s 1992 Mercedes-Benz 500E Just Can’t Keep It Together
It’s safe to say that after an entire year with no fix in sight, this 500E is a lost cause, but is it too special to give up on?
When Mercedes contracted with Porsche to develop the 500E, they unknowingly created an incredibly interesting and rare piece of automotive history. To be fair, Mercedes likely envisioned the car as a low volume production car from the beginning. But based on the future paths taken by both automakers, it became an interesting inflection point. Unfortunately, not all of the remaining examples are well sorted.
Automotive YouTube enthusiast Tyler Hoover of Hoovie’s Garage owns exactly that type of 500E. Last year he purchased it in hopes he could own an interesting piece of Mercedes history. Tragically, that didn’t happen. The sedan immediately started to have issues. And it’s not problem free yet. Regardless, the 500E remains in his stable.
A 500E That’s Almost There
Hoover isn’t exactly pleased with the 500E. Although it doesn’t need much in the way of repairs, it needed quite a bit of work before he got it back to his garage. To be fair, Hoover knew pretty much exactly what he was getting into. But there were complications. “The transmission…it would slip going into reverse. That was a complete rebuild, $2,600. And there was a noise in the rear end. So the rear differential had gone bad as well,” says Hoover. At 111k miles, those are repairs that probably shouldn’t have happened. Then again, as Tyler observes, the car is nearly thirty years old, so who knows. Either way, he isn’t thrilled at how much he’s spent so far, which is currently double what he paid for it. But the 500E is currently running and he is responsible for ensuring it remains out of a junkyard, so he deserves some credit for that, despite what he thinks about the situation.
Junkyard Journey
Speaking of junkyards, Hoover decided to address a couple of issues on his 500E so it looks as good as it drives. Because Hoover is very good at taking in older cars that need work, he expresses interest in a 1993 Chevy Camaro Z28 that happened to be sitting on a flatbed at the junkyard. Amusingly, he did actually end up buying the car, and he shared the experience in a subsequent video. Anyway, Hoover’s mission was to grab a new grille, hood ornament, driver’s side air vent, and rear antenna. The video morphed into a W124 treasure hunt, basically.
He comes across two 1994-1995 models, which is both a curse and a blessing. Mercedes changed the grille by 1994, which meant neither sedan came equipped with the grille or hood ornament he needed. But one of them did have the air vent and the rear antenna. There was just one problem. “Mercedes does a very good job of hiding their clips and screws to where you can’t see them with the naked eye,” says Hoover. Unfortunately, Mercedes did such a great job at obscuring their screws he became convinced he couldn’t remove it without the vent breaking. So he left it alone.
More Complications
To make matters a bit worse, Hoover wasn’t able to install the power antenna either. Turns out the electrical system changed between 1992 and 1995 so he couldn’t do much of anything. “I’ve completely wasted a day and accomplished basically nothing. Absolutely nothing. Which is typical. But I’m ready to start driving this 500E and enjoying it and once something else breaks I guess I’ll have that fixed along with these little things,” says Hoover. Kudos to Hoover for his Mercedes enthusiasm. He’s keeping a rare and desirable piece of Mercedes history alive. Make sure you watch the whole thing to see all the cool junkyard vehicles he came across, which include some interesting Mercedes products.