BX75

My friend wants to sell me his 2003 E500 w/ ~19k miles on it, perfect condition. I'm interested in the car, what would be a reasonable offer to make?

CE750

If it BONE STOCK, with no options... i.e. Harmon Kardon, Xenon lights, NAV, etc..

$43K

cyclerider

How is the car equipped? Did your friend offer you a price? Is he the original owner? Has the car been serviced by the dealer according to schedule? How much warranty is left?

BX75

Has Xenon's, sport package. He's the original owner, his wife drove it and babied it pretty much. Not sure on the warranty, if I do buy I'll make sure I get a quote from the dealer for an extended warranty.

Are there any maintenance trouble spots on this car to look out for?

He mentioned he'd be willing to sell in the low 40's.

cyclerider

I would look it up on www.kbb.com, www.edmunds.com, and www.nadaguides.com

CE750

If it's in cherry condition, and has those two options... $44.5K is a good price.

Add more for extended warranty, NAV, HK stereo, PANO Sunroof, and parktronic.

Fully loaded it can come close to $49K

CE750

Just to be clear... those are "Good prices" not on the high side at all.. and not from a dealer's lot prices .. add 10% minimum to those prices if you shop at a dealer, and add sales tax to that price yet again..

cyclerider

CE750 is right on the money.

CE750

I sold cars for 2 years in my college days.. and I keep a subscription to NADA and have access to bank residuals on all cars thru a friend of mine at the major lending bank.

CE750

just make sure you have all dealer service records, including recalls.. and then take it into the dealer have then run complete VIN search for all recalls and SB's.. you pay for some SB's but all recalls are free.

Does it have the COMAND? or the older Cassette deck/Harmon Becker?

jprescott

I agree with all of you but I think to get an accurate assessment of the market you need to check out autotrader.com,cars.com and the New York Times(or local paper). I am selling my pristine E500 with 19500 miles on it and I can tell you no one will give you more than $40k for it. And that's not a friendly price. As of now I'm negotiating with a forum member and I'm at $36,200 not including shipping. Dealers will pay $35 for the car and maybe give $37+k on a trade. If he is your friend he will give you kbb/edmunds trade in value and record a low transfer price so you don't pay high taxes.

jkosiba

only options were xeon lights and premium sound. Private sale in excellent shape. As another reference, I talk to my friend who works for bmw and he said they took in a 2003 with 30k miles and gave them 32k trade.

CE750

First off, the E500 for what ever reason has the worse resale of the E's.. maybe it's the fact that most buyers for such a car, are new car buyers.. but..

are you in a hurry to dump it or something? I find it odd that you're going below wholesale blue book on a car that is easily worth 43K at the low end to a 3rd party buyer. Very odd.. The dealer prices I've seen on '03 with low miles are in the upper 40's.. and they're probably discounting them a maximum of 2-3K .. but the customer is also having to pay upward of 8.25% sales tax ontop, which is built into the pricing of a 3rd party sale.

Of course dealers will buy it off you for $35K.. that's what they're in business to do... Only a fool would outright sell a car to dealer and expect anything more than low or below wholesale blue book. You need to target an end user.. not dealers to sell.

You must have a VERY bad market for MB where you live.

jprescott

Check out your local paper classified adds and watch how these E500's move. Also check out the dealer advertised price and NOT what kbb/edmunds tells us it's worth ,then get back to me.

JWS3

of our Es and note that on the whole value/retention STINKS. No dealer will pay anywhere near KBB/Edmunds--most won't even pay WHOLESALE. Everywhere I go I hear how "sof" the market is for these cars and how they simply don't move. Even my local MB dealer offered well under wholesale when I contemplated an ML.
As for selling privately, I have NEVER had any luck in this regard. Even priced well below KBB "retail" it seems as though nobody wants to buy except thru a dealer.
Very disheartening, I must say.

CE750

First off, no dealer will give you a $ over whole sale blue book for any car, period.

second of all, there are two different values for a car.. second hand to a party ,and second hand to a dealer... they are about 10-15% apart. A very low miles E should get low KBB pricing easily.. the only issue I can see is the '03 was the first year, and most people steer away from a first year of anything.

I can tell you this, if I put my CDI on the market today, I'd get back 90% of what I paid for it with in a week. Almost the same can be said of any 2005 E.. as a matter of fact one sold for $50K (2006 E350, basic package 11000mi).. just this last weekend in the paper.

jprescott

I'm sorry but I don't know where you are getting this info. While you are at it go to ebay motors and do a search of recent SOLD cars to see the REAL market value. A car is like a house. We all think that ours is worth more than they really are . We all take it personally when the truth comes out. By the way if I can buy a loaded up E350 for $48 at this time of year with all the trunk money in, would I buy a used car for the same?

TPAbnz

I think one of the quickest ways to check “market price” is to check ebay’s “completed items.” It’s a mix of retail sellers and private parties. I did a quick check and no 2003 E500's sold for over $40,000.

You may want to check this out
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2003-...QQcmdZViewItem

which is an ‘03 E500 sport, ven/dynamic seats, lights, folding rear seat, 11K miles with a buy it now price of $41K. There have been no bidders.

Perhaps another approach would be for you to offer your friend a flat amount like $1,500 over what the dealer offers to buy the car outright.

I agree (biased opinion of course) that a used CDI will probably get this highest resale numbers.

Good luck!

TPAbnz

You're absolutely correct!

jprescott

This is the only way I have had a bite on my car. So far I have two friends and one forum member interested.

CE750

A quick look at ebay is showing me that there is softness in the 2003 E500 market.. not sure why, but there is a flood of them for sale.. going to hurt price for sure.

Sorry, timing is everything.

benzboy

Sorry boys...had a solid offer for my '03 E500 for $42K and I turned it down. If you have a low milage 500 with some toys you should hold out for $45K. Don't try to compare it to a 350. NOT THE SAME CAR!!!

Calcio

Similar cars went for between $35,000 - $38,000 at the dealer auctions in October and November. Average to above average conditions - don't know the options.

CE750

lets be clear..

Dealer Auction price IS NOT news paper / auto trader price..

Dealer's pay in many cases below wholesale on a car... that's not the market price for it. A complete idiot will walk into a dealer and ask them to buy their car from them.

Calcio

True, but not sure I understand your point. The dealer auction prices are the current wholesale value of the car and give you a good basis for determining a fair price. You will not get this on a trade or by selling to Carmax but there are folks out there with a used car dealer license who will go to the auction for you and buy you a car for $500 to $1000 over (that’s how I got these numbers). That being said, I would rather buy one from an individual than this way so I can get the history, other than a Carfax, and touch, see and smell the car.

BTW, OT but since you have the Platinum Blue, how do you think the charcoal interior would look in it?