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I'm in the talks with someone for a one owner 2003 E55 AMG and I need some help from the knowledgeable forum members here. I had a pre purchase inspection done today and the mechanics told me that overall the car is in great condition and that it has relatively low km's for it's year. They mentioned that the previous owner took great care of it. I also had access to all the service records since day 1 as the car has been maintained at this shop since day 1.....
Some things that came up during the inspection were:
-Rodents had chewed through the oil cooler hose and it needs to be replaced
-Both axle seals are leaking and the car has lost a lot of oil.
-Valve cover gaskets are leaking and need to be replaced
-Differential Fluid and Engine oil need to be top'd up/changed
-Drive belts & Supercharger belts as well as pulleys are worn and need to be changed
-The car also has a stored code for the thermostat.
The struts are in good shape, front and rear brakes are also in great shape. the SBC unit was placed by original owner in 2016 and the radiator is not cross contaminating as far as the mechanic can tell because the transmission fluid appeared clean.
Given all these things the mechanics mentioned that the car was still taken very good care of and being a one owner garage kept car I'm confident that is the case...I'm wondering if you folks think that I should take advantage of this or should I pass?
We've agreed on 15,000 CAD (11,649 USD) for this 120,000KM(74,000 mile) car...I think its a fair price even given the problems....what do you think?
The price sounds reasonable to me. I am approaching completion of year 4 of ownership of mine; bought it with 77,000 miles and am around 144,000 miles now.
This is a awesome price for a E55, I would pull the trigger. The car looks in relatively good shape, and all the issues you've mentioned are easy fixes.
I would negotiate the price to offset, the cost of the repairs. If you don't move on this, someone else will, and you'll regret it.
Be really sure the rodents only chewed the oil cooler line & make certain that differential doesn't make a peep
I had to replace mine as it was not cheap - these cars can be savage on maintenance $
Would you work on it yourself or take it to a shop? Those are mostly easy things to fix but not necessarily cheap especially if you take it to a garage to do for you. You could easily be in for a few thousand $$ for a shop to fix all that.
A great condition 05/06 is ideal but 03 in good condition is infinitely better than other years of higher mileage and questionable maintenance. As long as you don't specifically want options only available on the newer years (which I can't name one) then there are only a handful of design differences- radiator as already mentioned which are quite cheap. There is also a difference with the fuel pump fuse/relay design to be aware of. There will be other minor things but this is all I can think of off the top of my head.
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