vspt

Hi,

Been a long time since i visited this forums. I used to visit quite often since I was debating between a 2003 E55 new and my current 911 turbo... needless to say i went with the porsche and couldn't have been happier... but recently someone rear-ended my wife's Volvo XC90 suv and she's now in a market for a station wagon since the kids are quite a bit older.

She initially wanted an audi A6 wagon, which would have been around $60K, which is the price range we're looking for in a car. I remembered though that the E55 came in a wagon and told her to keep her options open, so we visited dealers today from Audi, BMW, and finally mercedes... We'll let's just say her mind is changed completely, after visiting the mercedes dealer who had a used E55 wagon... she loved it... and kinda the best of all world's for me

Now the only problem is that mercedes in SF wants $78K for this vehicle, which doesn't even have the 3rd roll seat option w/ 16K miles. I browsed the web and see pricing anywhere from $65K-78K, all under 20K miles.

The question I need help on, is that the lower end price ranges are not from a mercedes dealer, and I'm usually used to buying from the main dealers. Anyone have any advice for me on both the pricing and if I can save at least $10K, if it's worth it.... don't want headaches either and been awhile since I bought a car that's used.

Thanks in advance.

jangy

You are right about the pricing. I say check out an E55 wagon and then decide. they are really great rides.

bzliteyear

there was a recent one for sale by a porsche fanatic in SF w/ initials JO if he still has it available. for me, i'd have no problems buying a hi-end MB that's still under factory warranty if it's clean and you can get svc history. being from the bay area, i can appreciate how crazy some of these MB dealers are - i think they honestly believe they deserve to make $15-20k/used car. if i were looking, i'd buy one that's still under warranty and get it checked out from local MB dealer...then i'd pay $3k-ish to buy a 3 yr/100k full warranty, often from same people who do the starmark. you'll have all the benefits of certified but at $15k+ off the dealers' asking price.

p.s. i've been seeing some very clean e500 wagons including all wheel-drives for $35-40k-ish that i think might also be worth considering. still going to be super fast vs. the other cars you were considering (except the e55).

vixapphire

78k at a dealer seems like par for the course, although I'd expect it to be pretty loaded. The 3d row seat is a pretty common option, although it sounds like you won't miss it. I am not sure, but when 3d row seat is not included I believe there's actually a spare tire installed in its place. In my wagon (3d row seat was a must), I don't have a spare tire. This defeats the purpose of this car as an off-the-beaten-track family vacation vehicle -- those 18" z-rated tires aren't very easy to find out in the hinterlands; good luck finding one between Barstow and Albuquerque!

there's a guy selling one on ebay right now in your neck of the woods for 72k buy it now, and it's only got 3600 or so miles according to the auction.

why are you so worried about from whom you buy it if it's got so much remaining warranty and you can get carfax, etc.?

by the way, i'm thinking about putting mine up for sale in early 2007. it's black/black, has nav, premium, lighting, 3d row, keyless go, and i added tint to the windows.

good luck with your search!

AMG_55

look around, there were plenty for nice discounts, for some reason the dealers really wanted to get rid of them

coolcamden

I think $78K for an 05 is high. I know in the last 2 months in the Bay Area, Beshoff MBZ and Stevens Creek Porsche had 2 06 E55 sedans with less than 9K miles sold for less than $69K. Heck, even SF MBZ that you're talking about has a CLS55 that has 10K miles they're asking $79K for it. And we know that CLS's are more expensive to acquire than E55.

For a wagon, not many people look for them. The dealer would not want to sit on $70K worth of inventory, let them stew and come to you.

PM me if you wanna get together and approach SF MBZ for a volume discount deal for your E55T and the CLS55 for me. :-)

vspt

thanks everyone for the advice. My wife almost pulled the trigger on the Audi A6 Avant.... but I got her to checkout the e55 wagon... and... now we have it in our garage...

in flint grey and loaded with nav, ipod int, premimum package, lighting package, keyless go, dynamic seats, 3rd row... and at $64500, couldn't be happier w/ 19K miles.

Sitting in gargage pretty next to my 996TT

only thing is that it needs a Service D. either way, we're pretty happy.

gonna go out and push it a little more tonight and give an update when i get a chance.