I'm looking at buying a 99' 600 from a good friend of mine. It is black/black and has 89K miles. I've seen it only a few times in person, but never looked at it closely. Is it an S600, 600SEL in that year? I dont remember how the letters went on the back. He has been on top of maintaining it to the fullest along it's life. He owned it since new! Its coming back to his office from the local dealer this Friday. He just spent $3000 on it. I will find out what was done. I cant wait to really look at it closely. I understand this is one of the last hand built MB's made!

I have just a few questions for you more experienced MB guys. Hopefully I will get my knowledge of this car up very soon. I just read through as many threads as possible in the W140 section in the last 2 hours. I just learned the W140 term in the last hour of reading. There is a 99.9% chance of me buying this car from him as he is pretty much going to accept the price I tell him it's worth. I am an honest good friend of his and am not looking to kill anyone. He just got an 06' CLS 55 AMG. If the deal with his 99' goes through, I am taking $4000 of the price we decide and he wants me to order the infamous "chip, pulley, etc, upgrades from Kleemann. I own a high performace repair/fabrication/racing shop in North Jersey. I have owned everything from ZO-6's to Vipers, Lambo's, Supra's, Porsche, M BMW's, etc. I want to change it up for a little while and see how I like the big Benz', also my drving record could use a little time to clean itself up. lol.

I'll order my questions that I couldn't find in a search through this message board.

1. What's this car worth? It's obviously a 99' 600, black/black, 89K miles. I have checked ebay, autotrader, cars.com, etc, and couldn't find anything to solid to compare it to.

2. I have read about all the different problems with these cars. What should I look for before I buy it? As I said, I own a shop, with 3 lifts. I will jack it up and look all over it. Is there anything specific I should look for that prematurely goes wrong? I will drive it hard before I buy, to make sure the trans shifts perfect and the engine pulls hard and smooth.

3. Do these cars come with any available options from the dealer when buying new, or are they all pretty much standard? I have a feeling they all come with every option, but am not 100% sure.

4. How well do these cars respond to mods? Is there any tuner out there who makes any parts that keep reliabilty as a #1 concern but manage to sqeeze out a few extra horses?

5. It's weighs about 4985lbs right?

6. How many 99' S600's were made?

Hopefully if everything goes well and I get the car and learn most of its mechanical systems, I'd love to offer my services the the members of this board. I have never even driven an old school Benz, but my gut instinct is that I'm going to love it. I have driven hard core cars for daily drivers for as long as I've had my liscence. I'm 24 now but need a break from driving crazy fast cars for a little while and thought a 600 Benz would be best for me. I thought about 740iL, but MB is tons more status!!!! Any and ALL help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks you.


John

 

That is a rare find, I believe there were less than 20 1999 S600 vehicles imported to the USA. The only option on these cars in 98-99 is the 4 passenger seating. I bought my S600 when it was 1.5 years old and paid an arm and a leg for it. I can't imagine what your friend paid for his brand new!

I say it is worth ~$25-34K depending on the condition and work that was done.

 

Wow 25-34K!!! That's good. I hope some more of you guys have something to add to this. I dont know exactly what to think. Big thanks for the reply Leloz!!!!

 

this baby should cost at least 25k and up to 35k depends of shape.usually you get all the options possible.maintenance will be high.these v12 are expansive to maintain but what can you expect for 130k vehicle.yes it costed around 130k when new.

 

Some of the things that can go wrong with this car are listed in the Projects page of my web site...

http://v12uberalles.com/projects_page.htm

 

only 94 world wide for the MY99.....also grand edition was an option for this year....special black paint...door assist( it closes the door when its not shut compelely) amg mono wheels( not sure about the size 18 or 19s) and some more euro options. i believe only 14 or 16 were shipped to usa for this year.

possible mods....7.4L engine convertion, a very costy mod but great power( well over 500 hp ) SL74 accelerates 0-60 in less then 5 seconds ...S74 should be very close to that.

value...i think nothing less than 30k....never seen any 99 for less then 30k..but they are really hard to sell, if you find a seller who is in need for cash badly, then can be purchased for much less.

good luck on the purchase

 

I will answer your questions... Here it goes:

99 was the last year of the w140's of course, and "according to MB " there were only 14 s600, brought to the states. I have my doubts on that number, as i have tracked many over the years, and every other month or so, i see one come up, mostly black.

Regarding weight, your on.

Options: S600 comes with mostly every option available, plus extras, like wood steering wheel, rear shade, etc...etc... the only option that i have seen on some s600 and not on other s600 are the coupe style seats in the back, and park assist.

regarding price, most of the other posters are right..its around $25-35k, depending on how clean it is.

reliability...hmmm....the s600 are definetely more expensive to maintain. Just do a search on " s600" and you will get many of your questions answered regarding what goes wrong. The earlier w140's model were more troublesome then the later ones.

These cars are cruisers, i have owned several of them. Like you said they are more of a status then BMW. As they say, Benz is old money, bmw is new money status. I have owned a 750il as well as 740. Side by side, the mercedes has more presence. But the 7 series is more fun to drive, more sporty. The Bmw drives smaller then its size.

Regarding mods, beside some classy exterior mods, and some simple mechanical mods, i would not do any serious modifications. These cars are meant to be classy cruisers, and in my opinion, i see no sense of dumping so much money into mechanical modifications, and risking the mechanic health of the vehicle for a simple 1 second gain in the 0-60 stats.


If i had to give you an advice, i would say go with the 99 grand edition s500, this way your getting all of the options of the s600 with out the maintenance and expense of the v12.

Another great site that you can check out, is benzworld. Ironically, someone raised similar questions like yours, just this week about buying a 99 s600, but that one had 38k.

If you have more questions, feel free to send me a private message.


good luck

Ghost

 

Make sure to have it inspected by some kind of trained MB Mechanic or something. These cars could have had a rough past.

 

1996_S500

You are all over these benz sites. You are a w140 addict like me.

 

The RennTech SL74 actually hits 60 in 3.7 seconds.

 

well, i found the info on AMG 74 which is about 500hp . claims 4.9sec. Renntech 74 is like 570hp i believe but 3.7sec is abit too low to believe.

if you numbers are right. i should be looking for a S600 now and once i found one , should take it to renntech to make it a true sleeper, i know the S will be a bit slower but even under 5 seconds would dissappoint most of the smaller performance cars lol

 

yes sir ghost. I am currently on 3 benz sites:
www.MbWorld.org
www.BenzWorld.org
and
www.GermanLuxuryMotors.com

 

I don't recall there being an AMG W140 model. However, for the R129 model, AMG released two vehicles, the SL60 and the SL73. The 73 had a 7.3 Litre V12 making 525 hp. I believe the RennTech SL74 has 582 hp. That time is astonishing considering the sheer weight of the tank-like R129.

 

WOW, thanks for all the replies!! I am still waiting for the car to come back from the dealer. It should be at his office this week. There was some type of holdup at the dealer which is why it's taking soo long. I have the oppertunity to grab this car for very low $20's. I cant wait to see it and test drive it already. Hopefully tomorrow it will happen. I'll be sure to get all the service records from the guy and take as many pics as possible.

I think I might just go with a newer supercharged 55AMG. Not sure yet which car I want. If that's the case I will offer this car for sale if I am to pass it up. A major thanks to all you guys who replyed. What a great community it is here!!!

 

welll SL60 AMG and SL74 AMG....it was a 7,3L engine which is also in Pagani Zonda, producing 500 hp. 0-60 in 4.9seconds accourding to AMG.

I just checked renntech, renntech 74 produces 517hp, no info on acceleration but i would expect somewhere around little under 5 seconds.

 

nope, there wasn't one of those Showroom AMG's for the W140, but if you were rich enough, and was in Europe, you could go to AMG and special order one. They had a very nice collection of stuff for the W140.

 

I finially got to see the car today and bought it!!!! The paint is 8.5/10, interior is 9/10, mechanically is 10/10. The dealer just charged him $4558 for the repairs/maintanance they just did!!! 2 rear shocks, motor mounts, oil, and a bunch of other things. I have a copy of the receipts. It rides like a cushion which I love, and it has some good ***** when beat on. It feels like an easy 100mph car down the quarter, probobly 103-104 and low 14's maybee high 13's, not that I'm buying it for speeding around or anything. I just wanted to make sure the drivetrain was perfect. The trans shifts perfect as well at higher rpms. Suede headliner and HID's is unreal!! Backseat can for at least 5-6 girls. LOL. HOWEVER, I dont think I want to keep it. I dont think this car is for me. It didn't take too long for me to decide that. I think I'm going with an 03' SL55 I just found. Life is too short, and I think I'll save the big bad Benz for later in life. Without a doubt, MAJOR THANKS FOR ALL THE ADVICE AND HELP FROM YOU GUYS. I will offer this car for sale if the gentelman who just PM'd me about it doesn't buy. I haven't even talked to him yet on the phone, but he was the first to contact me so we' will see what happens with him first. Either way, I must unload it, it's not for me. I bought it for a few reasons knowing I wouldn't keep it, mainly that I got it for $23K!! So if I flip it quick for $1000 more it'll still be cheaper than the lowest value you guys think it's worth, and I'd make a couple bucks and save someone a couple bucks on it. The other reason is that the guy who sold it to me not only went for the K1 upgrades to his CLS 55AMG, but I am now building the entire car for him. Kleemann K4 with wheels, adjustable suspension, interior upgrades, stereo, and some body work. He wanted to sell it so he can build the CLS. Thanks again and pics are coming soon if nyone wants to see. Thanks again!!!!

 

Yes. I too would like to see some pics.

Sounds really cool.

 

there is one listed for sale on ebay....MY99 S600. White. for little over 24k.
that can be a reference for any interested buyers.

and yes we would love to see some pics.

 

Hey, please pm me. I would like to purchase this vehicle.

 

im no pro, but i wouldnt think this car, at fair market value, would bring more than high teens or maybe 20. huh.

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...en&cardist=945


is it this clean? if so, nice!

 

well, I am not the seller of the car. I just wanted to let people know there is one for sale on ebay and give bp95gsx an idea how much they go for.

well as of today there are 2 more MY99 S600s for sale on autotrader.com. Both Black. one has very low miles (34k) and the other 53k.

 

Sent you a PM!

 

Well, there was for sure... :-)

Here are my scanning of a W140 prospect;

http://www.pvv.org/~syljua/merc/W140_AMG_Prospekt.pdf

and the centerfold;


br,
syljua

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^6

Absolutely Beautiful