cetialpha5

Most of that is standard. Bixenons (look for headlamp washers), folding rear seat, keyless go, trunk closer, parktronic, dynamic seats, etc were the real options.

2MERKS

brakes all the way around including rotors -$500. He couldn't find the spare key -$300

Wow for the brakes and rotors on all fours really a excellent bargain, and spare key $300 bills, I payed $205.00 guess depends on the area!

Chris Downing

Did you get your key from a dealership? If you can do the work, the brakes and rotors are actually around $400 with tax from FCP Euro. Brembo pads and Zimmerman rotors. The Brembo rotors were on back order.

Nerdboss

I mainly wanted the HK sound, heated/cooled seats, and rear sunshades. All of the E500s within a 200 mile radius lacked these options except for this one.

Chris Downing

Those are some great options I haven't seen on a lot of 500s. Has the person told you they are firm at $6k? I buy and sell a lot of cars on the side and what I usually do is text or email something to the effect......."I realize you are asking $6k but is there any way you would consider $5200, that is really all I have budgeted to purchase my next car". You are not really saying you don't have the $6k just that you budgeted for a smaller amount. 9 times out of 10 this works unless its something that sells easily. I don't know about your area but I am in Charlotte and Mercs don't move really fast. Sometimes it takes them a couple of days to think about it but they usually come back with a yes or at least another counter. Good luck, it sounds like an awesome car.

Nerdboss

I'll try to negotiate a bit more in person, I haven't looked the car closely yet and it still needs a PPI. Trying to schedule time to look at it. It does look clean in pics, it's white with cream interior. I don't mind 6k, as it's in the range of what book value is. I'll make up my final decision after inspection.

Bahnstormer

One feature I really wish my car had is Keyless Go. I've rented vehicles with this option and it's very convenient being able to keep the keys in your pocket.

Nerdboss

Yep, my 2015 BMW has comfort access and I like it, but this is just an old project car to mess with so it's not a big deal. I haven't found a single W211 with that feature online.

cetialpha5

Not sure how you guys are looking. Use a vin decoder like:

https://www.datamb.com/

Most of the time the sellers never list all the options and you have to look at the pictures to see whether it has the option or not. For heated and cooled seat, that was somewhat of a standard option package, you can normally tell just by looking at the buttons the dash has, there's an extra row with the cooling buttons. Rear sunshade is also a button. I've looked at lots of W211 and it seems about 10-15% of them had the P2 option package. That was the bixenons with keyless go. The bixenons indicator is the sticker under the hood warning of high voltage, there's two stickers near the lights. Also headlamp washers, but that doesn't always mean it has it, just that if it doesn't have them, it definitely doesn't have bixenons. Keyless go would be the push button on top of the shifter, if it's just a regular MB star, then it doesn't have it. Also on the door handles if you see the black button on the door handle, that's the lock function, non keyless go cars wouldn't have the button. Easiest way to tell if you're somewhat serious is to ask owner for the vin and then run it through the vin decoder to see what options it really has. When I bought my W212, the owner didn't even know it had keyless go, for that model, it has a removable button and some previous owner had removed the button. Bought one for $15 on ebay and was in business.

In general, the later years tended to have more options than the early ones. I have one of the rarest W211, P2, pano roof, parktronic, power trunk closer, designo color, folding rear seat, real leather. Still missing a couple options like side blinds and it took months to find one that was loaded like that. Sites like cargurus, autotrader, cars.com etc were good because they always list the vin so it's easy to run the cars through the vin decoder to see what it really had. The descriptions never really told you all the options it really had and I was always mad at certain listings that always took the picture from the wrong angle so you couldn't tell whether it had an option from the picture or not, you had to run it through the vin decoder.

bbirdwell

Pretty good link you provided. I ran my VIN there and compared against my EPC data card; pretty close. EPC data card mistakenly shows my car with "Parktronic System" (I've got to look for that one!) while the website shows my car with code 615 "Active curve illumination" which the car does not have. Overall, a very handy link to have on hand!

bbirdwell

True story. The first time I encountered a car with keyless-go (some BMW model I rented out in California), I must have spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to start the d**n car! Frustrating as hell at the time but rather funny later when discussing it over beer...

Now, I wonder how many forum members have ever started their car or truck by turning the key to the "on" position and then stomping on the floor switch with your left foot so as to engage the starter?

Now to break away from the thread hijack and return to your regularly scheduled discussion...

cetialpha5

I found that most of them pulled from the same database and never really noticed an error like that. Interesting error on parktronic, it gave you a 220 code? Maybe your car was in between years. 615 is pretty standard for bixenons, may just be a generic description for the bixenons. Some early years were just bixenons and I thought in 2005 they added active curve illumination but maybe either you were too early or they didn't really do it til 2006. There's a couple other sites like:

https://www.vindecoderz.com/EN/Mercedes-Benz

But I like the first one better as it pulls up some vins that the second one doesn't. But if you use it too much, it locks you out so it's good to have another source and to also just look at the pictures to figure out if it has the option you want.

Also are you sure yours doesn't have it? It took me a while to figure out that I actually had it and it was working. They don't move if you're stationary and just turning the wheel. Only way I finally really noticed was just swerving back and forth in a parking lot, then you can see the beams swivel. I believe they only swivel 12 degrees so it might not be that obvious. It clearly works on turns though, I notice it lights up the road instead of the guard rail. Noticed that driving another car that didn't have the feature, the yellow headlights caused a nice bit of glare on the guardrail.

2MERKS

I did get it from the dealer, that darn SBC has me kinda weak in the knees to touch, I would like to swap out the corners rotors/brakes pads!

CDC55AMG

Hello all, I am looking into getting am E500 wagon. Have not settled on a year yet but wanted to see what you all recommend. I currently have an 06 ,W219 CLS 55 AMG designo so I am growing in my familiarity with Mercedes. I really like the M113k engine for it's power and reliability. I know the 722.6 5pds are tough when maintained which is not an issue but I am not opposed to the 7spd 722.9. The W211 wagons are really the only wagon I could find with 7 passenger capability over other makes wagons (BMW, Audi, Volvo, etc) and even SUVs for that matter. Looking forward to hearing from you all. Thank you.

tjts1

All the E500 wagons you're going to find in the USA are 4matic with airmatic suspension. The airmatic suspension is the most expensive part of the car to repair.

kajtek1

"Wagon air" having 2 non-adjustable bags is not considered airmatic, but shares some airmatic problems.
Bare in mind, that 3rd row seats are rated for up to 100lb passengers, although in my W210 I had 6 foot friends there for Las Vegas Strip cruising.
I have two of 7G in family each with over 180k miles and they perform flawlessly. I have no idea where the bad wrap about them come from. Maybe becouse ATF change on them is more difficult? But than they come with converter drain, what makes servicing much easier.

tjts1

All E500 wagons sold in the US have airmatic with airbags at all 4 wheels with adjustable ride height and electronically controlled shocks. Only the E320 and E350 wagons were available with coil springs up front. The airmatic wagon rear airbags are different front the rear only wagon airbags and about double the cost. The airmatic rear wagon shocks are 4x the cost of the rear only air wagon shocks.