Prepare for my bad news of the day:

After driving 3.5 hours to NYC from Boston to pick up my silver C32 at the dealer, I find that it is not in the "tip top" shape the non-mercedes dealer told me it was in. So I didn't get it

Here is why:
1. The car had 6,000 miles on the ODO, but the exterior looked like it had 60,000 miles on it.
2. Lug nuts were rusted
3. rear calipers were rusted.
4. Three large dings in the panels (when they told me there was only one small one and that it would be removed before I arrived.)
5. Then the worst part of it all, the hood and grill was pitted like you wouldn't believe. They added touch up paint to at least 30 chips just on the front part of the hood alone!

Now for the sketchy part, the car has 6,000 miles on the ODO, but for some reason, on the stock rims, continental tires were wrapped instead of Pirelli Pzeros. Hmmmm, who changes tires after 6,000 miles?

Anyways, it was an absolute mess. I left at 8:30am and got back at 4pm.

I'm talking with a local dealership about picking up a new one. I want to think I can get a NEW C32 for a good price now that the C55s are coming out, but not sure if this is true.

Still AMGless, but hopefully not for long

 

pzero rossos came stock on many C32's...good luck on the search, there are many better C32's on the market...you get what you pay for.

 

i picked up my 2004 C32 brand new for $53,900 with the bixenon package and alll.. of course thats $53,900 and then there are taxes and all!!!

 

Hmm, sorry about your experience. Hope you get the car back soon.

 

what nyc dealer was it if you dont mind me asking? manhattan, soverign, helms bros, silver star?

 

Well was that really a big deal? I mean, obviously it was bad, but it might have been an opportunity to walk away with the car at a ridiculous discount... if it's just exterior work, then it's not all that bad, is it? Yeah, that's a big if, but hear me out for a second...

I understand that it wasn't what you were expecting, but it might be worthwhile if you put some work into it -- if you get the car marked down, like a ton...

That's bad... if it was seriously bad stuff like scratches on the paint or really bad dings, or rust.

Bad, but easily taken care of. It's bad if the car hasn't been serviced, but you can run it through Carfax and see what comes up. That should tell you about an odo rollback (which in unheard of nowadays), and if there were any major problems with it. The guy that owned it before probably had it pimped out, with better/different brakes/wheels and he might have taken them off when he got out of it?

THAT is bad, but again, fixable. Depending on how bad they were, you could take the car to an MB dealership back home and have them do their paintless ding removal thing... it costs money, but that's money you take out of the price of the car...

You could buy a C32 hood and grill and replace it... again, it costs money, but just pay less for the car.

See above. Or the guy might have taken the Pirellis with him to his new ride (that b*stard )... Or he might have beat the hell out of that car and destroyed the tires.

Obviously you get what you pay for, and this could be a bad deal for sure... but if you have your mechanic look at it, and after he gives it the once over it's all cosmetic, I'd low-ball and offer the guy $10k less than what he's asking for and see if he goes for it. New pads and rotors, new tires, new hood and grill and fix the dings on the panel. BAM! Like-new C32. Spend the rest on beer... or go check out RENNtech stuff... It could be a lemon or it could have been mistreated, but it could also be an opportunity.

I'm not saying jump in blind when there are many other cars out there... I'm just saying sleep on it and maybe have the car looked at. If it's just cosmetic, what do you have to lose by haggling and spending the "savings" on fixing her up? Tell him it's in bad shape and he obviously can't sell it...

That's a good plan too... obviously you don't inherit anybody else's headaches when you buy new.

 

He said it was non-MB... probably those MF'ers at NEMET or something...

 

whoops,

 

They were selling it for $41,000. Only optional equipment was the 6 CD changer. If the exterior was that bad, who knows how the poorly it was driven. I know, I could have repainted the hood, bought a new grill, removed the dings, replaced the rear rotors, but now we are talking more money. I'd rather spend the few extra thousand and buy it new.

Now, I'm not saying I wouldn't buy a C32 used because I obviously would. But, believe me guys, if you saw this C32, you would guess the mileage was in the 50K area.

A local dealership is offering me a new 04 with identical options for $50,500.
However, they are playing a couple games with me, for example, they said, "we have to ship this car up here, but in exchange, we have to send the dealership an s class. Now I'm sure you are thinking that this doesn't affect you, but it does. You'll have to pay double shipping to have your car shipped up here and to have the s class shipped down." I told them I would drive directly to the dealership and buy it if that was the case and save $1000. They quickly said, "Well come down and I'll talk to my supervisor about waiving the cost."

Hopefully I'll be driving it next week!

The used exotic car dealership in Queens did refund my $500 down and apologized for not taking a closer look at the car before I arrived, so I'd prefer not to mention their name.

 

Oh, also the Carfax report came back with the following:

No accidents or problems. Serviced on time.
But the strange thing was that all the miles were put on in the first 6 months of driving (from late 2002), then only 24 miles were put on it from mid 2003 to now. Maybe it was sitting outside on a lot for a year... Who knows, just glad it is not mine

 

Sounds like one of the cars from AMG Challenge or C-Spot events. Did it have gold colored calibers?

 

nope, the front calipers were silver and had "AMG" printed on them. Not sure about the rear ones since they were rusted!

 

Just ordered an 04 C32 AMG from Foreign Motors West in Natick, MA! Brilliant Silver with Charcoal Interior! Should have it by the end of next week. Can't wait.

Any of you guys have Autobond (sp?) installed? I'm thinking of getting it installed on the front bumper to prevent chips, etc.

Also, for those who are interested: FMW has an 04 Peuter C32 with 800 miles on it. They are selling it for a very low price. Has anyone purchased a new C32 AMG for under 50K (hint hint)? IF you are interested, contact Shawn Cook at Foreign Motors West in Natick, MA. He is a straight shooter and is definitely the person you want to talk to there.

 

If autobond is one of the several clear plastic protectors, then I have something similar installed. The product I had intalled (X-pel) covers the front bumper, part of the hood, lights, and front portion of the side view mirrors.

If possible, you should get the installer to install it at the dealership before you pick up the car.