I have a buddy who’s selling an 05 g500 with only 60k miles. He’s asking 40k which I think is a pretty good deal in this market. I see the aftermarket led light upgrades for head/tail lights which I plan to do if I pick it up.

The leather seats are in great condition but the only thing I don’t like is how dates the interior looks (walnut finish with small screen display). Is there any interior upgrades/kit out there to freshen up the interior trim/radio to bring it up to a more modern esthetic?

$40k for a 2005 G500 with only 60k miles is a pretty good deal in today's market. If you like how it drives and the other quirks about it, you can't really go wrong with purchasing it. You definitely won't lose much in depreciation for several years.

I've done a bunch of things to modernize the interior of my 2005 G55k.
- I vinyl wrapped all the wood on the center console, grab handle, and seat adjustment switches with a matte carbon fiber look vinyl.
- I replaced the head unit and completely redid the stereo system
- I leather wrapped the steering wheel
- I replaced the interior lights with LED
- I replaced the headlights with LED units from JW Speaker
- I replaced most of the exterior lights with LED and am working on finishing that now
- I added in a Rear View Mirror Screen with rear view camera and 2 channel dashcam

Everything has made the truck a lot more modern, but still classic looking IMO. Take a look at my build thread to see what is involved to do some of these things, since, as expected, none of it is really straight forward and most require some custom work.

Shiann, beautiful wrap in that interior. I’ll have to look up the led lighting as that makes a huge difference.

I think 40k is a fair price during normal times and great considering the current used car market. As for depreciation, I’m already seeing used car pricing come trickling down and I’m not in need a of a car right now so may wait for things to normalize.

I have links to everything I purchased from vinyl to bulbs in my thread. It's a little long to go through now but all the info is in there.

I think 40k for a truck with only 60k is a good price, even before the current crazy used car market. The G has shown to really not depreciate much due to age, mainly due to mileage and condition. If it is good condition and you have access to all service records, it would be a good buy. Just take a look on bringatrailer how much some trucks have been selling for to give you an idea of the upper end of the market.

Due to chip shortages, manufacturing bottlenecks, Covid popping back up in many locations, I don't see the new or used car market getting better any time soon unless people start defaulting on their auto loans. That's a huge issue that will happen eventually since a large majority of the country is probably financed through the roof on their cars. With the hurricane sweeping across the East Coast also this past week, there will also be untold number of people/dealerships/insurance companies scrambling to get cars.

Either way, hope you will join the G community soon and get to enjoy G ownership! It really is a car/truck that isn't like anything else on the road. Has it's good parts and bad, but still puts a smile on my face every time I drive it.

There exist modern Android BT headunits that mimic the aesthetic of the original MB unit, but have 1080p 6-6.5" screens, 4G, etc. Check those out.

I have some incredibly bright LED bulbs for my turn signals but I can't find good LED replacements for the brake lights, reverse lamp or rear fog light. What bulbs did you use?

I have not purchased lights for the rear yet, but have something custom/special for the reverse lights and fog lamps. Parts are ordered and shipped, so they should be installed in the coming weeks. I'll probably purchase bulbs from SuperBrightLEDs like before and if needed, figure out a load resistor setup like I had to do for the headlights.

iJDMToy does make some LED plug and play tail lamps and fog/reverse lamps that look pretty good and modern overall. I've heard they work well, but do not have any experience with them.

https://smile.amazon.com/iJDMTOY-Seq...0937951&sr=8-4
https://smile.amazon.com/iJDMTOY-198...0937929&sr=8-2

There are a few other vendors that sell similar types of replacements. The look is a little too modern for me so I'll be going a custom route.

Thanks for the info. I did some searching was wondering if this is what you’re referring to?

https://smarty-trend.com/323-mercedes-benz-g-class-w463

Aside from my stereo, which I finally got AUX hooked up to I also want to change the seats eventually.

Scheel Mann has some great seat options for the W463. I've seen them in person on a couple of G's now and it's definitely on my build sheet.
http://scheel-mann.com/seats

Aside from that I did a full black interior swap with all black ceiling parts (handles, sun visors, etc, still holding out on the SOS center lights and keeping the side lights for now)

Yes, those Scheel Mann seats look VERY VERY interesting. Definitely the worse thing about the 2002-2008 U.S. G wagons is the front seats. Model year 2009 introduced a different perhaps better seat.

Has anyone swapped in the 2009+ model year front seats into their 2002-2008 G wagon?

BUMP - Has anyone swapped in the 2009+ model year front seats into their 2002-2008 G wagon?

No, though I imagine that it's a relatively straightforward swap.