Will have a 2007 RWD S550 for sale soon and wonder how the lack of 4Matic might affect buyers interest, at least in areas with little snow. I'm thinking that the reduced weight, no possibility of repairs on a front diff and transfer case on a 16 year old Mercedes would make it a positive thing.Thoughts?

 

For me yes I prefer non 4wd vehicles that I drive on road.

Your reasons are exactly how I feel - I live in Deep south.
Provides No real benefit I need.
The no maintenance and/or repair issue always sounds good to me when you do not have it.

 

Depends on the market (climate). You are in a borderline icy/snowy climate where 4MATIC is desired.

For me a RWD daily driver car is a no go, no matter the price.

 

better reliability
simpler to maintain
drives better
better mpg

4 x 4 is rarity I presume it was only developed for countries where people do lots of skiing ?

 

I doubt it matters at this point. It is unlikely people are using these as daily drivers in snowy climates. Or at least not many people. My guess is buyers are looking more at overall condition and service history vs. AWD. Besides, AWD is overrated imho. I've seen so many trucks and SUV's in the ditch over the years, as perhaps overconfident drivers think their AWD turns their car into a winter traction machine. Nope, doesn't help you stop. I'll take real snow tires on a RWD car over AWD with all season tires. We've had plenty of SUV's with snow tires--now there is the real setup.

 

I was on the hunt for RWD (New England resident) but ended up with 4Matic. Almost 2 years later I have no regrets (except for just recently discovering that it needs a new right front inner CV boot......). I use this car as a daily driver and while winters have been mild recently there is always the chance that I need something to drive when it is actually slippery outside.

 

For a nearly 20 year old complex German luxury car the top priority is price. What would be your listing price? Compare other vehicles at the same price point, which is probably cheap. Main consideration is how cheap can I get this thing for?

 

Well. somebody put on a set of Giovanna 22's which probably cost them over $5,000 with tires right there. Plus it has the AMG sport package and Distronic. I wouldn't want double that, and it will be fully serviced when I do have it for sale. It's 16 years old and the first year of the new bodystyle so it looks nearly the same as 2013's.

 

Looks good. And it’s an old German complex luxury car. Not “special”. Not collectible.

You are in a price point where buyers are looking for basic transportation.

Aftermarket wheel cost will not be recouped.

 

show us a picture of the comand unit - the pictures are pre facelift mirrors....

NTG3.5 facelift has a different bit at the bottom so you can swap the always dying hardrive easily

 

and what's this thing for?

 

the pics directly above are the older NTG3.0 unit

the last updates on UK models with the NTG3.5 had the names of the petrol stations displayed, the speed cameras listed - plus in the UK the correct way to input Sat Nav addresses - finding the correct house by only entering 7 digits - aka like ONLY typing your Zipcode and it goes direct to any house in the country...

so its likely its really a pre-facelfit car with head and tail lights from a facelift model...

 

That is a PCMCIA card adapter that holds 32 GB of memory for all of your music before Bluetooth and Apple Play. I never use mine anymore.

 

TBH I wish all my cars were AWD. I live in NYC, and while we don't have daily snow, we do occasionally have snow storms. My first AWD car was my E350. Once you experience 4Matic you will wonder how you ever lived without it. The house I live in now is on a hill. I never realized how steep the hill was until the first time I experienced a significant amount of snow and none of the Chargers, Challengers, Mustangs, and Camaros could not get up the hill. Here I am backing out of my driveway through 18-to 24 inches of snow and driving away like it's a regular day. Yes, we have had several mild winters, but I would rather be prepared than not prepared.

 

Are you an MD? Around here if we get 18-24 inches of snow, everything is closed and only emergency personnel have to go to work.

 

Staten Island, NY.
The drifts on my block tend to be very deep. Usually, once I'm on the main road things get better, but the block itself is on an incline and very long.

 

in the UK up to 40 years ago they used to make all season tyres as the standard fit for all cars - these "normal tyres" had sipes - you drove through 3 foot of snow got to work and no one noticed it was slippery - then the accountants moved nearly all cars to budget shopping cars with front wheel drive, but back then these didn't go round corners very well. To combat two issues, some marketing idiot had the bright idea to sell twice as many tyres, by moving all cars to summer tyres - however with climate change and UK's position on the planet no one noticed it was a problem, and so for many years no one knew what a winter or even an all season tyres was - and thus we didn't buy twice as many (as you must by law in Germany)....

then as the rich stole more and more money from the poor, we had an explosion of BMWs and Mercedes in the UK - no one noticed that change - and no one knew what a summer tyres was, let alone any other tyre type - they were just round black things - then it snowed.... and all of a sudden the whole country stopped moving completely for days on end - no one understood what had gone wrong, but 1" of snow and the country totally stopped - really puzzling anyone over 40 who knew it had always been quite easy to drive in 6" of snow....

this grinding to a halt catastrophe hit hard over the next few years - now and then on a couple of days, over one to two months of a winter it happened repeatedly - even 1/2" was enough to block a motorway for 10 hours at a time...

after a few years it suddenly clicked with UK road users - every-time the world ended - it was always a BMW or a Mercedes that caused the entire stoppage - after been stranded for 5 hours every one noticed nobody seemed able to get a BMW or a Mercedes to move more than 5 foot regardless of traction control or driver skills....

BMW woke up and just shipped 4 wheel drive X Drive models with the steering wheel on the correct side, and we still battle on with summer tyres all year long

or you fit a set of Michelin cross climate tyres on you car and can happily drive any two wheel drive car just like we did 50 years ago.....