hello i am new here and I am wanting to help my son purchase a new vehicle, he is interested in this E500, can I get the experts opinion? I am a little confused as he was told it is a "brabus" package and I am not sure what this entails. Also he says its a charcoal grey with a hue of dark blue but what is the official color?

I would appreciate opinions on this vehicle and what this brabus package entails and what to look for as my son said he is interested and i wanted to help him decide

here is the link http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/rch/cto/4795500640.html

thank you all for your help

 

Looks good. E55 would be a lot faster but might cost 6-7k more. I contacted Brabus about my car and they admitted that if there is not any custom engine components labeled Brabus, then they are just bolt-ons at best by the dealer. If they are not proven on an original dealer sheet, then you can just find the parts or at worst are not real Brabus parts. I wouldn't pay more for a Brabus car that doesn't have engine mods and proof. Your intake looks stock and that is one of the first signs it is not a performance Brabus. Aside from that, I would recommend to check a few things before you purchase and E-class.
1. Check the tire wear in the rear. If the inner tire is bald, count on purchasing adjustable rods from Shardul to fix this. If not tires can go bad in only a few months and that gets expensive.
2. Picture shows the DVD player (nav) working from what I can see. DVD can go bad easy and costs a bit to fix to get nav working
3. look at the back of the alternator for melting. Search for pics on the forum to show the difference of a new one and a potentially bad or soon to be bad alternator voltage regulator.
4. Make sure you lube the sunroof as soon as you buy it. don't wait. Lube both the inner and outer cables. - outer is not visible on pano-roof. when it goes bad it binds and doesn't close from one open to the next.
5. Make sure TPMS is working. you should be able to use menu to see each tire pressure. True Brabus wheels would have these working.
6.If you can check with the owner or do this yourself with a screwdriver, remove the rear seat and check the fuel pumps are not leaking and no fuel smell with a full tank of gas.

I will say it again. I love this car (mine is an E55) it has brabus door plates rear brabus emblem and pedals. I will fix all the sneaky things my dealer and my ignorance missed. I will never be able to get another cheaper brand of car now that I own this car.

Hope this helps -

 

The color number is on the black build sticker on the B pillar. It might begin with a "C" and will be a 3 digit number. The paint color number is the same designation world wide, but the color's name varies from market to market.

The center grille on top of the dash does not appear to me to be correct for that year. The Black wood denotes that the car has the Sport Package & should have visible exhaust tips coming thru the rear bumper, not facing down under the bumper.

 

hey guys thank you for the reply,

the thing you speak about the rear bumper....there are no pics of rear bumper so how would you know that? and about the thing you mention the dash not looking right for the appropriate year....is that a deal breaker?

also can i get your guys opinions about the rims, are they authentic brabus? how can i tell, can it be known by looking at that pic?

he mention even the door lock has the Brabus "B" logo, what does this mean about the vehicle? does it make worth more or is it just replica stuff? he says its brabus package

 

also if someone could let me know about those rims i think they look good but i know most of the brabus rims are replicas so if someone could shed some light on that for me it would be much appreciated

 

The E500 comes loaded as this one appears to be. Center dash is sports look, which is standard on the 500s. As to the rear bumper & exhaust pipes I think Barry is only distinguishing between the sports edition and the standard, the former having exhaust pipes showing under rear bumper, and the latter facing down under bumper.

As DavidRobinson recommended, you may want to check under rear seat cushion to make sure there's no gas odor. This is a common and known issue on these cars, better yet have owner fill up tank 100%, then check under cushion for leaks or gas odor. When I bought mine, tank was half full, seller did not disclose that problem, and a couple of days later when I went to fill up, that was when I found the problem. Gas leak issue shows only when tank is full. I had no recourse against seller

As to Brabus, does not look like it, and these appear as aftermarket ornaments. I would offer him $8K, if everything checks out.

 

hey thanks for reply, when you say doesnt look like it you mean they are not authentic brabus parts? the brabus wheels are replicas? is it possible for replica brabus door pin locks?

 

I wouldn't be to concerned with the wheels being brabus or not. KBB price is spot on if all the other red flags check out. When I bought my car it was the only one for 500 miles so I bought it. I would say check the regular things like service records and others that I have mentioned. Then drive it and verify nothing else jumps out at you. The only other thing about the wheels I would verify is that they don't have hubcentric rings and then don't worry about authenticity. The wheels look great in the pics.

 

thanks drob, so there is no true way to verify if the wheels are authentic or not? i know there is quite a big difference between authentic and replica and I wanted to know that before I shot an offer to him if everything turns out good with the vehicle

 

I'm on my phone so it's hard to tell if it has the Sport package or not. I can't see the front bumper too well but it dies have the black accents on the grille so that is consistent. You can also check to taillights to see if they are LEDs. The Birdseye Maple in the front doesn't match the rear door so that is a little strange.

I can't speak much for the Brabus package because there are so many parts on Ebay that have the Brabus logo stamped on them.

 

Most important. Can you and/or your son afford repairs to an E500? Air shocks=1500.00 each oem, aftermarket 1000.00 for a pair. Brake system repair 500.00 to 3000.00, Many, Many sensors. Don't get me wrong on buying it, I have two, but you need to be able to pay to have it put on a proper Mercedes scanner to diagnose a problem and sometimes only experienced shops or dealers with specialty tools can fix it. Many shops cannot do an alignment on a Mercedes. Many can't or won't do a transmission service which is very, very important . Its not a car to guess what is wrong.

 

The door lock pins, whether they are real Brabus or not don't add or subtract a penny to the car's value. It only means that somewhere along the way someone removed the OEM pins.

 

ok thanks all, can anyone tell from the pic whether its a one piece or two piece rim?