I bought mine with 125K from the first owner. The car was located and serviced by the dealer in an upscale area. It has 175K now and the car has been really, really good. I looked at every E55 for sale in the Los Angeles area for six months before buying and here is my takeaway:

1. Look for one-owner cars
2. Should have a decent service record on car fax. Mine had dealer service up to about 85K. after that, not much.
3. The car should have all the right stuff on it. The bumpers mentioned above are an extreme "beware" sign. I don't give a cr4p what the seller feels. Don't go near it. Always look for inconsistently large panel gaps on a car. On the car above, between the bumper edge and the hood and headlights. Sloppy work and it possibly means damage repair or, at least, modification. Look for inconsistent body panel gaps. Lastly, the car has been lowered.
4. Most cars I drove had ECU's that desperately needed a reset. You may want to ask the seller if you can reset the ECU before you drive it to give that car a fair test. Many I drove were so weak, they felt like an 80's Buick.
5. If you are planning on having this car for a long time, IMHO, it is better to pay quite a bit more for very low mile cars. Say, less than 35,000 miles. Many with this mileage were carefully kept and are near brand-new even 14 years later. They do not make cars that even approach this quality today and it will last you a very long time. They are reliable and have excellent performance, safety, comfort, good looks, and are unique. They are easily serviceable as well. New cars today have some improvements, but overall, you are getting an exceptional vehicle for very little money. What can you buy for $18,000 new? Nothing that comes close. Alternatively, you can also buy very good high-milers for under $10,000.
6. Bolt-on performance upgrades do not result in much improvement. these cars come well designed as a package.
7. Buy a tire pressure monitoring system. It will pay for itself the first time you try to drive on a flat.
8. Make sure the car is aligned before you buy it. Check for uneven tire wear from inside to the outside of the tire tread.
9. A double DIN navigation console is a huge item for me. It is very difficult to "cleanly" convert from single DIN on the E55. The E55's came with matching wood pieces and the wood was unique to the E55 and the 2002 Special Edition (AFAIK). Even if you find a clean setup, it may not match the rest of your wood in the cabin. There are many excellent double DIN touchscreen head units that will add all the modern functionality you could want. I have tried single DIN pop-out touchscreen units and have been unhappy with them. Lastly make sure the head unit has 4V pre-amp outputs. I tried Pioneer and Kenwood units. the Pioneer (7500) sounded fantastic, the Kenwood, not so much.
10. Finding one with a factory phone is nice, but IMHO, you are better off replacing the head unit and using the phone functions from that. The one real advantage that a factory phone car has is that the phone buttons one the steering wheel can be utilized with an aftermarket head unit and about $80 in CANBUS adapters. If the car didnt come with a phone, the phone buttons can not easily be activated to work an aftermarket radio. The volume and < > buttons on the wheel can work without additional programming but I have found these to be of limited benefit for the extra money and trouble.

Good Luck!

Steven

 

Agree with the post above. I got a one-owner car, and it had been very well looked after.

However, there are a lot of items that near the end of their useful life between 100-150K mile range. Mine had 110K, and I've done about another 25K. In that time, it's needed new rotors/pads (expensive), sway bar bushings, lower ball joints, and an O2 sensor, engine/transmission mounts, and it's also likely to require a new MAF soon.

So if buying a higher mileage car, I'd recommend checking that at least some of this work is done, especially if you are not a DIYer.

One think that I did find surprising is how pleasant the car is to work on. There are many items that I've fixed myself that I found to be significantly more awkward or expensive on other cars I have owned. I think that's probably quite an unusual trait to find in a high-performance car.

 

When you buy a used car you still have to do some initial investment.
I only did maintenance basically...
Oil change, air filter x 2 times, brake rotors/pad $700, 4 tires $800, spark plugs $200, fuel filter $100, valve gasket $100, tension pulley $150, tranny service $300, fixing/paint front bumper that I cracked $600. Total spent $3300 in the last 3 years. However, few items will last other 50K to 100K and all maintenance items.

 

I think, in the 3 years I own this car, I spend more money modifying it then the actual fixing of the car due to breakdown or things broken. The normal stuff like regular maintenance like oil, filter, bulb blowouts and spark plug and wire change I did all that myself. The biggest most expensive maintenance thing I did to it were the brakes...rotors and pads which I had the indie guy do. I bought tires thru the web and it only cost me 80$ for 4 tires mounted and balance. The mods, mainly exhaust work and springs were done at the shop but all the hardware were bought via the internet myself. Seriously, this is probably the lowest maintenance for a high end performance vehicle one can own. I can't vouch for other European cars like Audis, BMWs or Jaguars....as I haven't own them.


I forgot about tranny oil change...which cost me 300$ which I took to the shop which took the guy 40mins to do....(if I ever were to do it again, I'll do it myself, as most of the time spend was for waiting for all the oil to drain out and he stand there, bull****ting with me for 25 mins)

 

Loving all the advice!

The search continues!

 

+1 on the higher mileage parts replacements and trans oil changeout although I would do the trans oil immediately on a lower or higher miles car anyway.

 

Still hunting.

Looked at a few, had some inspected. Tons of junk out there!

 

Take a look... I've had her for years and am looking to sell at the right price. You won't be sorry...she's in great shape!

https://mbworld.org/forums/w210-amg/...99-e55-fs.html