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I'm Ton from Thailand and I'm in the process of acquiring my first MB AMG vehicle, an E55 AMG from 2006.
I have been planning to purchase one of these cars for a long time now, unfortunately there's not many available over here, if you're lucky you can find 1 per year. One reasonable priced one just popped up and I'll check it out this week.
Thailand is notorious for engine swaps, due to our high import tax (327%, the price for this car is approximately $40k) many sellers are importing a standard model and swap the engine, transmission etc. to make it seemingly look like an AMG.
Is there any hints what would give it away from visual inspection that the car is not a genuine AMG?
Additionally, what I'd like to know is common problems and pitfalls when I go the inspect the car, what should I look out for?
According to seller, the car has 50k km on the clock, which seems really low.
I'd love to take the car to a dealership to have it checked out from top to bottom pre-purchase, unfortunately that won't be of much help, the seller could bribe them, or the mechanics are clueless, 2 very common problems over here.
Thanks for all the replies in advance, I really appreciate it, as this is a really costly purchase and I have made the mistake before, paying for a really expensive car blind which turned out to be a total lemon where I spent a countless amount of cash, but ultimately the car would never run properly.
Cheers,
Ton
Last edited by natza; Aug 1, 2016 at 09:24 AM.
Reason: Added photos
That looks pretty legit. Is there a supercharger under that engine plastic cover? :-)
Front brake calipers and rotors, AMG badge on engine, interior, quad exhaust... how does it sound? Also, if you get really low and take a picture from the rear, you can tell if it's a genuine AMG exhaust. Look for this thing:
Search "e55 common" or "e55 problems" and you don't need the quotation marks. Start reading and you will find all kinds of stuff that's good to know. Also try the advanced search by title, even more efficient way to find stuff. Search is your friend.
Last edited by Dublinoh; Aug 1, 2016 at 01:46 PM.
Reason: Ocd
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
