Seller is asking on the high end of pricing. Car is in amazing condition.

Mileage: 112,000
Exterior: black
Interior: beige

2 owners. Very clean and runs perfectly. The car’s paint is in excellent condition with no fading anywhere and no rust anywhere. Only two owners and tons of service records since new. The vacuum seal soft-close door feature still works as well as all other electronics.

The 4.2 and the standard shock/spring set up suspension suit me fine. The tires are 95% and only have about 2000 miles on them. The wheels are 18" AMG Monoblocks and are in great condition.

I’m having my Mercedes indy do a PPi tomw morning. The car is clean but I feel the price is on the high side. Please advice on pricing.

 

I have the exact same vehicle, also in black, and also in the same condition except that mine has 293+ thousand miles on it. I went into the dealer to replace a lost valet key and the owner came out to look at the car. He had four salesmen in tow. When I walked back out to the car they were all standing around looking at it. The owner of the dealership asked me if I would mind if he started it up. I handed him the key and he started it up, let it run for a moment, shut it off, stepped out of the car and said, "Don't let anyone sell you a new car. This one is made out of steel and has another 500,000 miles left to go. I believe in part that the vehicle is in such good shape because it is run almost exclusively on freeways and very little stop and go traffic on surface streets.

I am guessing based on the pictures that you are purchasing the car from a dealer and in doing so you will probably pay a higher price than if you purchased it from a private party. I would be interested to know what the dealer offers in the way of a warranty in terms of miles and time. That might add value to the transaction as well. If the windshield is the only thing that needs to be fixed would buy the car provided there is a good undercoating and no visible rust from salt on the road.

The last thing I would note is that the vehicle appears to have had very few passengers when the surface of the front seats is compared. That certainly adds to the value as well.

These are difficult to find in as good a shape as this one is. I wish you well in whatever your decision is.

Paul Curtis

 

Paul, thanks again for your reply. Funny, I recognize your story about the dealership and the salesmen admiring your car as you had replied to a question I asked over a year ago.

My mechanic gave it the thumbs up and neither one of us could find anything wrong with the car so I bought it. The seller had a thick folder with paperwork going back to 1997. I paid a little more than other W140s for sale, but the condition of the car, the history and the paperwork, warranted the extra money. All in all, I’m very happy with the purchase.

 

Glad to hear that you are comfortable with your decision to purchase the vehicle. I have told that story to a number of people about the dealership because it is highly unusual for the owner of a dealership in the presence of his salespeople to tell me what he did. However, it does show the ethics of the owner, something I have admired about him for many years.

I will share just briefly a couple of tips. First, I use the Bestline engine, fuel, and transmission additives. Their Website is https://performaxlubricants.com/. Second, I use a product called Glare on my paint. It is not a wax but instead is a covalent bonding polymer finish with UV protection and has been on the paint for almost five years. That was also the last time I put Glare on the car but will do so again this fall. Their Website is https://www.glare.com/. It is amazing stuff as it doesn't just make the car shiny but protects the finish from UV as well as bird droppings and things of that sort. I have the car washed in a hand carwash just because I don't care for streaks often left by machine washing. Neither of these products is cheap but both are worth every penny I have paid for them.

Best wishes with your vehicle. I know it will serve you well.

Paul Curtis

 

So we all want to ask "How much did you end up shelling out? She's a beauty!

 

It's a long story, I hope you don't mind.

Before anything, I'd like to thank all the people on this forum. I have learned so much by reading for months and by asking questions (in that order). In 2018, during two separate periods of the year, I bought two W210 E430s. The first I paid $500 for it. It had been so badly neglected, that it took almost $3K to make it run for the first time. My main lesson with that car was that there is nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes. The second car was in perfect mechanical condition but I bought it on a Thanksgiving Saturday. I found it in Virginia and the traffic delayed my arrival time significantly so, that I got there late at night. I made another rookie mistake of buying a car at night. The next day, I saw the different shades in the color of the front fenders and the hood and the rest of the car. On top of that, there were many rust spots in all the key parts, even by the sunroof. I took it to two body shops and they both told me that the job required to fix the car cost more than the car was worth. I sold it a month later. The lesson with this car was obvious. A side lesson was that I could spend a little more and pick up something in good condition and with a service history. I set out to do so and in the meantime, upgraded from an "E" class (W210) to an "S" class (W140), which is how I arrived at this car.

This time I budgeted accordingly, lined up my money and knew exactly what I wanted. I looked at over 50 cars. At one point, I even considered flying to Florida to pick up an S500 and negotiated with many shipping companies about another very clean one in California. My initial wish had been for an S500, but a couple of S420s kept popping up in my searches. I decided to research what the differences were. The S420 did not have the special suspension in the back, which was fine with me, fewer headaches. I had read on Benzworld that in the US market, S320 & S420 have Zebrano wood trim and that the S500 had burlwood. But I lucked out on this S420 because the owner had had the burl wood option added. I read about other features standard in the S500 but options in the S420. In summary, none of them were important to me. I wanted the W140 chassis and I wanted a V8. I wanted original paint and no rust and I wanted a solid service history. I got all that and more.

On Thursday October 3rd I drove to NJersey after work. The car was at an indoor garage in a decent area. I met the owner and felt comfortable. It was obvious to me that the condition of this car was extraordinary. I asked the seller if he was OK with taking it to a mechanic of mine for an inspection. Without hesitation, he said yes. Another good sign.

The next day, we met at my mechanic's shop in New York and had the PPi done. After getting the greenlight from my mechanic, seller and I agreed on a price. The seller asked if I wanted to keep the car in my garage. I explained that getting the money would take me three days and in true wealthy people fashion, he didn't even look up from his phone while sitting on his 2017 S63, and told me to keep it and to contact him when I had the money. They then drove me home where his associate parked the car at my garage.

While the car sat in my garage for the weekend, I used my detective powers and found an old insurance and registration cards in the glove department. Luckily, the previous owner's name was uncommon so I looked it up using my friend Google. Google even gave me a mobile number. I composed a short message thanking him for keeping two inches of maintenance and service paperwork from the very first oil change in 1998 and telling him the car was now garaged in New York City. I recently saw an almost tearful Youtube video by car blogger Freddy Tavarish about reuniting with an old Mitsubishi he had a long time ago. I myself reunited with an old car 5 years later and in a different country at a stoplight. After my first promotion at work, I had gifted my super reliable Toyota Camry to my father. Papi drove the car for a year and then shipped it to South America. Years later I visited that country in South America and while sitting at a stoplight, I looked to my left and recognize my college stickers in the back of that Camry, I looked at other details and confirmed it was my car. It was a very congested crossing which made it impossible to stop and chat. My Camry was now a taxi. I looked at the driver and hoped he knew all the effort I had put into that car, all the Saturdays I had washed it with my own hands, the girls I had taken out while a Senior in College in New York City. Anyway, the thought I had was that just like with old friends, it's good to stay in touch with some objects from our life.

To my surprise, the owner replied right away and turned out to be a super nice guy. Let's call him 2ndOwner. I took the opportunity to ask him if there was anything that needed to be done to the car, he said nothing. When I pressed on a couple of items, he stopped texting and called me back. We spent almost an entire hour talking about the car. The car had been originally purchased by his next door neighbor in 1997. Let's call him 1stOnwer. 1stOnwer took immaculate care of this car and never let it stay overnight outside of his home indoor garage. He never took it out in the rain or in snow. 2ndOwner always admired 1stOnwer's car when he walked his dog. He also saw how 1stOwner acquired other cars through the years. One Saturday morning, 2ndOwner told 1stOwner that he ever wanted to sell, that he was interested. Years later, they started discussing it and 2ndOwner became the owner. 2ndOwner was a master mechanic (maybe an engineer) but made his fortune on something else. Despite this, he was humble and he was very generous with his time. Not only did he offer to send me old spare parts he had found but also additional records. I was very impressed and remain eternally grateful. In summary, these two guys did every imaginable repair and kept obsessive care, at the point of synthetic oil changes every 2500 miles for the 20 years that he kept it. 2ndOwner bought it in 2017 but he owns 4 other cars and felt that it was time to let the W140 fly to a different coop.

I asked him to please relay our conversation to 1stOwner.

I first took the car out last night, we went to Greenwich Village and walked around a bit, sat by the fountain at Washington Square Park and then came up for ice cream at Amorino on Amsterdam and 80th. The car feels like a knife on butter, not a sound at all. Someone even asked me if the car had been purchased new or used. I love the calm of the cabin, the smoothness of the engine, the feeling of being inside a tank but also the responsiveness of the V8.

To me, it is a 100K car that I got deeply discounted. I will care for it as well as my resources allow me and as close to the first two owners did.

 

CarlitoE430,

What a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing it. In addition to the information about the car, there are some good lessons about both finance and morals.

It is truly amazing that you found your Toyota in South America quite by accident and almost within arms reach.

If I have learned anything from this, it is that you will do right by the car, preserve it for the next generations, and enjoy it while you own it. It is indeed one of the most well-engineered vehicles in the World. Over one billion dollars was spent in research, design, and development of the W140 series by Mercedes Benz. Fortunately, the money was used wisely by skilled people at every level.

I wish you as much joy in your car as I have received from mine. The quiet, the comfort, the stability, and the reliability of this vehicle knows no match when it is properly taken care of.

All my best,

 

That was a wonderful story it was so telling I called my brother! Sometimes in life we make a choice between living to live, or living just to survival! I seen my mom and dad go to work 5,6 even 7 days a week to provide a better way of life for their children, why because they never had that opportunity when they were they were kids. So as we (kids) got older, and some wiser took a page out from what was taught by mom, and dad to pay your bills, and put a little money away. Now all these many years later those times when I didn't have a pot to **** in, or a window to throw it out of can rest assured that they made me proud to be a good Son. Living life and enjoying it!
Oh yeah 8k was a good in my book!
R
2MERKS

 

Curtis and 3Merks, thanks for your kind responses.

 

2000 ML320 here with 247,000 miles on it Entering its 21st year. I updated the lighting on it...have done all the maintenance and repairs on a timely basis, 70% of the stuff DIY, more difficult work at trusted indy mechanic...
I am neither selling this baby nor buying another car.....the maintenance and repairs have cost some money over the years...but if I amortize all the money on the purchase, maintenance and fuel, this car has cost me less than a Honda Accord's monthly payment over the years...very solid build - built like a tank! Tows my boat, will seat 7 and puts a smile on my face every time, I start it and press the accelerator....