DaveW68

Did you move to Australia?

DaveW68

Trade in value of an average 2007 4matic with your miles in your area with a clean title is under $14k.

KNBS550

Are you selling it already???

DaveW68

If he is, then he's preparing to scam some unsuspecting chump out of a bunch of cash. Resale value of his car, in as-repaired condition, is worth no more than what he paid for the wreck and shipping.

IMO, he's just looking to stir the pot as this board has become quite boring since this ridiculous thread died down. I really don't think he's planning to sell it.

triniexr

Whoa. This thread is still going!! Could this be the longest running thread on this section?

I just checked, it is. Its even longer than the Picture Sticky thread.

jahquan3

Add one more for good measure
Oh I doubt he's gonna sell it since he loves the car.

sloanbj

Well done on Benz55 for sticking to his guns, being smart enough to disregard a lot of bad advice from self-proclaimed experts, and fixing a cheap car cheaply (who buys a salvage at auction then turns it over to a Dealer for crying out loud???). Looks sharp and clean.

S-class is the standard for large luxury cars, so every Tom Dick and Harry seems to want one and will do anything to get one. There are many paths to the same result. This is one of the most cost-effective for sure.

I wish other posters would be as honest, intelligent, forthcoming and good at documenting as Benz55. He is a credit to this forum.

Wolfman

Credit to the forum? For what exactly?
How to do a low budget fixer-upper job on a salvage car so that it looks good on small low res pics?

Do you know how it drives and what condition the engine/drive train/suspension is in? The things that can cost real money when issues occur...

If you want to get an S-Class for cheap, there are plenty on auto trader or craigslist with clear titles that could be taken for a thorough inspection before purchase.
Prices would be close to what he paid and I bet that the overall cost of ownership will be less.

sloanbj

The cheapest S550 4Matic for sale anywhere in the country with under 100K miles is $18,875, according to autotrader. Most are around $22K. Benz55 spent around $14K if I recall. He did extremely well. He will likely have the same nightmarish reliability issues going forward as any other owner.

DaveW68

I applaud him for sticking with the project. He's a little goofy and f'ed up in the head IMO, but he took on something that nobody else in their right mind with any knowledge of these cars ever would and made it look a lot better than when he got it.

Wolfman is right in that the car looks OK with low res pics. Honestly, it probably looks similar to any other 10 year old car with normal wear and tear. The problem is that he had it fixed on the cheap and it will never have the same structural integrity of a car that never sustained a high impact collision with frame damage. I just hope for his sake that he never gets rear ended (enter Mike) in that car again as the rear crumple zone is no longer the same as it used to be.

I believe he has around $17-18k into that car. It should not be compared to a non branded title car as his is only worth about 60% (perhaps a little less) than a similar car that has not sustained that kind of accident and never been branded. His car's actual resale value is likely worth no more than what he paid for it prior to any of the repairs.

I think Sloan's BJ is a little out of touch with reality. Many of the people who he thought offered "bad advice", which I'm sure he'd consider me one of them, were offering realistic advice to make his car proper and safe. The OP chose to take the cheap route to make the car look like a 10 year old Benz that might not be noticed as having been totaled to the average observer, but it has lost the rear safety aspect and cannot be compared to a car that never sustained an impact like that.

If he keeps it at least a few years and the car services him well, then this project won't look as stupid since it will keep depreciating no matter what. In a few years when a non-branded car with $120k+ miles is worth $10k, his might be worth $6k. So the value gap will keep narrowing over time.

There are actually plenty of sub 100k mile S550 4matics available for under $20k. Here's a sampling:

https://www.cars.com/for-sale/search...=GN_REFINEMENT

DaveW68

According to Edmunds.com (more reliable and realistic than KBB), a non option packaged 2007 black S550 4matic with 80k miles in Portland, OR in average condition has a private party value of $14,911.

kn51

Tossing the fridge in would probably boost the value by 10K.

Hopefully it wasn't a salvaged fridge though.

Mike5215

An impulsive buy by a reckless but earnest kid who didn't know his own limitations, but willing to take criticism and learn.

Not an easy fix for a set of tail lamps, a deck lid and bumper at $1000 including repairing both quarters with a mallet. But not a total disaster repair scenario either.

Very entertaining thread. How many threads run that long and spawn a Hollywood screenplay in the middle? I hope he keeps the car and gets to enjoy it for awhile. A lot of work just to flip it.

nycphotography

Dave, a car is worth what i can buy (or sell) it for, not what some wonks say it's worth from their publishing office.

The cars.com link was a reasonable expression of FMV. And autotrader is another reasonable expression of FMV.

KBB and Edmunds are complete figments of the insurance industries imaginations. If I'm feeling generous. When I'm not feeling generous KBB and Edmunds are vile evil products produced covertly by the insurance industry to maliciously defraud claimants with fictional "values" far below any real marketplace.

Once you're under 20k for an S class, "branded title" means a whole lot less than you seem to think. There are plenty of people who understand that cars get "totalled" for lots of reasons, and many of them were easily repairable, but weren't for various reasons. Sometimes the adjuster cheats the claimant on FMV. sometimes the claimant is psychotic and things diminishment of value should be 10k on a 22k car. But once the claim is settled, there are a number of people who make a living picking up the salvages and "working them".

If there weren't, then the salvages wouldn't be selling for $11k.

nycphotography

Most of the work was angsting over what approach to take to each hurdle. It really wasn't that much actual work on the car.

DaveW68

Yes, this is true. The long and ridiculous thread was the real prize for the OP.

BenzS55 over paid for his wreck. With shipping, before anything was ever done to the car, he was in for around $12k. I understand the scenario of cars that shouldn't have been totaled or sustain damage that never affected the frame. But in his case, the frame was crushed....and he used the cheapo fixer Maaco to pull it, who is just a small step better than Earl Scheib (I'll paint any car any color for just $29.95!) And then PDR on the dented fenders. A far cry from quality repair work to be sure, and much shoddier than a professional shop doing the work and then reselling the car. IMO, the entire endeavor was foolish and never thought out one bit. A read of the entire thread will prove that out. And God only knows where it will go from here with an undocumented NYC car with 80k miles.

I disagree about your assessments of KBB and Edmunds. I believe Edmunds is a pretty accurate valuation tool, especially trade-in values as they do seem to follow auction prices fairly accurately. Market value of "some" cars can be off by quite a bit, especially specialty models like BMW's M cars and AMG's which usually bring higher prices than what those companies claim the values are. But Edmunds for regular cars is a good tool to use.

1bad540

Guys not all Nyc cars are driving in NYC!! plenty of open roads in Ny. And Long Island is a vast place. (also in Ny)
Daves just upset that his 07 s600 with a clean title is only worth 5k more...

nycphotography

True.

But I'd still estimate about half the S550's in the NYC area are used for car services, and they know they're going to cycle them out at 85-100k miles.

So buying without provenance, you have to pretty much assume the worst. Particularly transmission services, brake fluid flushes, power steering flushes, and any ABC flushes likely never got done.

DaveW68

I'll buy every 35k mile, brand new condition, full service record S600 with a 7 year warranty for $17k that I can get my hands on. Do you have any leads for me? I have a couple of buddies at work who said they'd pay $35-40k for that privilege. This would give me a great opportunity to turn a tidy profit.

1bad540

ha Dave was waiting for the come back!!!

superpop

I know in the NW these cars seem to command a premium, maybe because outside of Seattle and Portland, there are not a lot of them. There are several brokers around here that buy cars cheap in Cali or the east coast and then truck them here for sale and seem to make a profit. Still, I doubt the OP will make more than a couple grand on this deal if that. And at some point you have to decide what your time is worth. Maybe he is gun shy about the first big breakdown that will erase any profit he could hope to make, or worse yet be upside down with a car big time.

jahquan3

I don't know how anyone can say Benzs55 is not a credit to this forum. There are several legit portions of this wonky thread that will be useful to members going forward. Regardless, on how he got to his intended outcome, he allowed us all to partake in the journey. This is exactly what the forum is for. Even some of the advice he did not follow will be helpful for someone else on a similiar path in the future.

Mike5215

True. Although the exact same thing could be said if he'd bought a baby alligator and decided to raise it in the bathtub of his apartment. Informative and entertaining, but probably not a great idea.

nycphotography

The problem with "not a great idea" is that it is one of those value statements, you know an opinion, this is almost always expressed as if it were an absolute fact.

Maybe he knew he was willing to risk the $14k for the learning experience? Maybe he understood that if the whole thing went boom, he could still part it out and come out almost flat?

Maybe, and here's a really shocking thought that nobody on the internet ever seems able to grasp, maybe he knows his own circumstances better than we do? GASP! NO, that can't be possible. I mean we KNOW it's a bad idea. We KNOW he's an idiot. We KNOW all sorts of stuff...... that we don't actually know but we sure like to think we do.

THAT is my problem with the "it's a bad idea" judgement in general. It's arrogant. It's presumptive. And even though it's right for the speaker, and maybe even actuarially right in general, it completely dehumanizes the individual its being directed at by assuming them to be average, normal, and/or not capable of directing their own life and their own results.

Mike5215

Not true. I actuarially don't assume he's normal.