VinceB

Found a 2005 e500 sport, nicely optioned (Platinum Blue, sport, dynamic seats, massage seats, sun shades) but it has 61,xxx miles on it. They are asking $25K. Seems like a potentially good deal.

Anyone have recent auction prices available?

61K miles is a bit more than I'd like but I like the color, options and price seems pretty reasonable, any thoughts?

Is parktronic pretty rare and can it be retrofited?

Any thoughts on after market warranties?

Thanks!

Untertürkheim

Parktronic is pretty rare in the US, something I never understood. Most important are service records from a reputable dealer.

I would buy it contingent on getting a good warranty.

baxterdown

Vince,

Auction doesn't show E500 Sport on MY 2005. It shows E500, E500 4Matic. The only Sports it shows are E320 Sport and Wagon E320 Sport.

gnma

I don't know what "Auction" is, but if the response above refers to "sport" option availability for an E500 for 2005, I can say I own a 2005 RWD E500 Sport with AMG Package, and another reader just bought the same car. "Sport" was def. an option for the E500 back in 2005.

However, 61K for a 2005 model....Maint. items beyond the normal oil change will be due. I can say the fuel filter is one item that MB recommends every 5 years or 60K miles. Spark plugs every 5 yrs. or 91K. You should download the maint. book from MBUSA.com to see what maint. items are due @ 60K, bec. if they were NOT done you will have to pay for them, and that is something to consider after forking out your purchase $.

Unless you are able/willing to DIY, which is what I plan on doing on my 32K '05.

Just my thoughts. Good luck!

shaunls1

my car is an 03 and i got it with 65k on it and it now has 70 and have had no problems.i do my own oil changes and maitinence.when i got my car i got a 2 year 30k mile warranty but it cost me 2500 for it.the warranty is with chrysler and covers almost every thing just make shure you get the one that covers electrical like window motors and so on.

E500Newbee

I just recently got into an accident. Now I'm in the market for another E like mine with little bit more options. That's price sound about right. The last two days I have looking all over the market for it. Having found one I really like nor a potential one yet. I'm looking into the 06 S class too. But for your pricing, it is about right. Do consider the maintain schedule like some of the member above mention.

oilbelcher

Since I just bought my '05 E500 CPO from the dealer, I can give you some insight to how to properly price these (at least be in-line with going market). I used several different methods, and then compared them all to triangulate into my offer price. As of last week, I am now a happy owner of a rare '05 E500 pewter/black with AMG pkg in very good condition, with 3 extra years of CPO warranty.

1) First I wanted to understand how all 2005 E500s are currently priced by all MB dealers on MBusa.com. I downloaded all listed cars, '05 E500s, 4 matic and non-4matic. I analyzed milage, price, and had a value of yes/no for 4matic. I used Minitab statistical software, multiple regression analysis to be specific, to understand how milage and 4matic impacts asking prices for CPOs. NOTE - this assume the "typical/average configuration". It would have taken forever to analyze options, but this is easy to do later. Here is the equation that shows how the average configured '05 E500 is currently being priced in May08 by MB dealers across the country: $Price = $40,538 - (0.191 * miles). The car I bought had 42,460 miles, so the equation price is $32,428. Now, very important, my car had twice the dollar average in options, about $12,000 in options. So I added the depreciated value of the incremental value of options (12,000 - 6000 = 6000), after accounting for typical depreciation of these options (roughly 55% of 6000 is $3300; I show later how I got 55%). So $3300 + 32,428 = $35,728. I didn't want to pay more than $35,700 using this methodology. [note, all prices are for RWD. If looking at 4matic, you would add $1880 to formula price above].

2) Next, I took a different approach, using Kelly Blue Book information to show how current Retail 2005 prices compared to the 2005 MSRP price. This showed about 45% depreciation if I remember correctly. So 55% of my confirgured car when new was 68,000, comes to current price of 37,400. However, it is very safe to assume that the car did not sell for MSRP, but maybe 3% off of MSRP. So (68,000 * 0.97) * 0.55 = $36,278. Using this approach, I would not want to pay more than $36,278.

3) My last approach was to start with the actual price given by Kelly Blue Book, using their Retail used price. I configured using their provided car options and milage, and got a price of 32,760. Now per research, Certified Preowned adds between 1300-3000 in value over a normal retail prices (better warranty, more service, etc.). Since I had good analysis of all MB CPOs, and could compare to KBB, I see that MB CPOs add about 8%. So this is 32,760 + 2600 (which is 8%) for 35,380. However, this does not tell reflect total value of my car since it has some options that were not even listed on KBB, so this would be maybe $36,380.

Take the average of the three approaches and I should expect to pay a bit over 36,000 for a '05 E500 that was originally 68000 MSRP, and now has 42,460 miles, and is CPO through a MB dealer.

My dealer had my car listed for asking price of $37,900 in mbusa.com. When I got to the lot, they said this was the special internet price as the "internet is more competitive than walk-in customers". Makes sense to get what you can from walk-ins, who may not have done the same research. The parking lot window sticker was $38,900. I like to know some dope is paying more than normal, allowing the dealer to get their profit dollars from others, so they can afford to do business with me. Of course they honored my internet price, but I said this was just the starting point considering what I knew. The salesman couldn't keep up with me, so I did all negotiating with the sales manager directly. He was very impressed, took away all those rape fee charges (700 for processing or marketing fees). A quick aside, these fees are all just margin. You add them to their asking price, then compare that higher price to their cost to get their actual margin. He finally agreed with me. Most people fall for this! In other words, the only price you should look at is out-the-door price before taxes and governement fees (like tags). I eventually got down to just a bit over $36,000, plus 2 extra years of warranty on top of the 1 extra year coming with CPO. To be honest, I was hoping for a bit lower price, but did realize just how rare this combo was (AMG pkg, dynamic seats, prem pkg, navigation, with great color combo, and really clean and great condition). I believe less than 2% of E500s had my configuration, and less than 1% of all E class cars in 2005, and the dealer knew this too (which is why they bought this from a CA dealer, shipping to S.Florida).

All this analysis did took a couple hours, but I know what I am doing (similar to my normal job; different industry though). I would be happy to help with questions, but if you want detailed mulitiple regression analysis in statistical software, I would charge for my time. Negotiating with the dealer is really fun when you know as much or more than they do. You can stop their games really quickly and get down to business.

bzliteyear

check this car out:
http://www.gkautos.com/05e500sport6.htm
I've bought 3 cars from them, and chris is very picky about finding cars w/o accident/paint work. given the power of most 6 cylinder bimmer/MBs recently and combined w/ the higher gas prices, i'm hearing the V8's are quite soft.
anyway, check out this car...if I wanted a new mid-size car, i'd look at this one or the other blue 2005 BMW 545i.
good luck.
p.s. he also offers extended warranty if you want.
Patrick

VinceB

Patrick,

That's actually the one. Chris does seem like a good guy. MBZ says no accidents but car fax came up with something. Chris seems to think it's minor. I haven't gone over the car with a fine tooth comb yet... so you liked dealing with him in prior negociations?

Thanks,
Vince

bzliteyear

yep. chris is straight shooter. he also drives many of the cars so he knows how they drive.
one major difference - unlike many dealers, he has the cars washed, but they're not showroom detailed. it's not because he's cheap, it's because then you know what you're truly getting.
think about it - the good news is you KNOW how he got it, vs. dealers who have already reconditioned their cars and you have no idea how much "cosmetics" the girl is wearing when you wake up in the am, LOL
Patrick

RONB

i think you should get it for cheaper unless its 25 out the door. I got MY03 e500 for 23 ish almost bare bone, but 50,xxx miles. Its a little high mileage for the year. Don't forget to check the records!

bzliteyear

with all due respect, regardless of whether from this dealer or not, i'd take a 2005 fully-loaded E500 sport with 61k for $25k vs. the 03 bare bone 50k miles that's a little less. Sport pkg is about $5k msrp and with the rest of the options probably add another $5k more. remember the 05 has the 7 spd transmission, and 03 as the first year had many little problems that were corrected by the 3rd year.

imho, having owned many MBs with 100k+ miles, i think buying a good newer car that's well cared for is much more important than a low mileage older one. in fact, a 3 yrs old car w/ 61k probably means it's mostly hwy miles and these engines will run for a long time. my E55 had over 90k before i sold to a friend, and my current S55 has 99k. also, my previous E320 wagon had 100k miles, and our current E320 wagon has 109k miles and drives like new

Patrick

RONB

If its will taken care of, which it seems then by all means do it! Of course these are great cars; i'm just trying to save him a few bucks for mods

polo909

hello oilbelcher,

Nice way of coming up with price. i am not sure if i am lucky or not but i just picked up a 2005 e500 sports package and more with only 16700 miles for $31000. from local used car lot who sells 99% benz's. i shopped around at 3 local benz dealers in atlanta and all were in the 37000 to 39000 area. Just took me a little longer to track one down. Nice to be in the club. Take Care