Max.H

I'm ready for something else. So, I am planning to offer my impeccably maintained E55 to a new owner when we get back from family vacation.

Ive had several requests to buy my car before from members and such throughout the last 11 years or so. Just wondering if anyone has an idea how the used car market is these days for clean E55?

I know there are a lot of lower priced junkers (sorry no offense to anyone) passed around to multiple owners, engines modded, needing 5-10k in repairs, or just low mileage cars that just sat waiting to give issues.

I am talking a totally 100% stock unmolested E55 drivetrain Not even a tune. Just a few tasteful carbon fiber parts, E63 interior, steering wheel, shifter, tail lights, OEM MB E63 bumper, red brakes. That is it. It has 148k miles mostly all freeway miles for my commute to work and back. But, well taken care of and problem areas have been address under warranty and or by me. So, we shall see.

What Ive seen is the junkers are going for much less. But, clean well maintained cars with 1 owner max 2 owners, service records and such still command fair price. So it appears.

My questions are. What do you guys think about selling a car on ebay? Or just sticking to cargurus, cars.com, mbworld, autotrader? How long does it take to sell these days?


What are you guys thoughts?

Fantomas

eBay will give you a national/international audience and a ton of questions from dreamers not buyers but potentially you might sell it there. Craigslist will give you access to local buyers, Southern California has a huge craigslist user base, good potential it will sell there. Autotrader, cars.com and cargurus are everyone's last resort, I don't know a lot of people that use those these days. Bring a trailer is a great one if your car is as perfect as you say it is. People have been posting their low mileage desirable classics and fetching good money.

E55 doesn't have a big market for it, it's a gas guzzling supercharged V8 with a maintenance bill that will chew through a middle class savings account. Ultimately it's a numbers game, you just need one buyer and he/she can come from anywhere. The more places your car is listed the higher chance you have of selling it at your desired price. You might spend $100 listing it on obscure sites and you'll get a craigslist buyer from a free ad or vice versa.

Only advice I can give is don't post your number, have people email you their numbers and you can call back at your convenience. There's a lot of idiots that don't value their time or yours, this will help weed them out. I ignore illiterates and "offers", people who are genuinely interested will want to start a dialogue first.

Strigoi

I'm going to be putting my E63 up for sale fairly soon too. Not really looking forward to dealing with idiots and flakes from CL. You can go on Ebay and check sold listings to see what ones in similar condition have sold for.

Max.H

Ive sold cars on craigslist before Autotrader cargurus last resort? I didn't know that. Bringatrailer could be nice if they accept my car.

mbstarfan

We purchase a 100% 2005 E55 last month for 11,500. It was posted on auto trader and craigslist.

It was 2nd owner (1st owner had it for less than a year), 135k miles, all maintenance records (still has original SBC), clean carfax, VMI 8 pages long.

Over paid? Maybe. After searching for a while, that was the best one I could find at the moment.

Hope this info helps. Pretty sure others will chime in...

Joe

StarvingArtist

I have seen a lot of owners come and go over the years, sorry to see you go. Don't give it away. Wait for a buyer who will appreciate your car... or someone who will pay to play.

tw2

I completely agree with not giving out your number. Idiots love text messaging and calling. Only literate people can formulate emails worth reading. The time wasters can't seem to be bothered with emails and if they can seem to string a sentence together it is usually plainly obvious whether you need to continue the dialogue.

I bought one of the more expensive E55's available at the time, great condition, low mileage so there are buyers out there, they are just less common.

Max.H

Ya for sure, thanks. It will be priced fair. Not over priced and not giving it away like a fire sale. Someone will be very happy with this car.

patrick_y

It doesn't matter where you post it, the platform is second to the quality of the post. High quality photos that are descriptive and color balanced is key. A black interior shouldn't come out all black, you should be able to see the black seat and the black carpet clearly. The description needs to be accurate and cover all the basic questions any reasonably thorough buyer would ask. Remember to be thorough and that will sell the car. As a buyer, I wouldn't invest the time to ask questions if I thought the seller missed a lot of basic things in their post. Makes me think the seller isn't thorough and the car wasn't thoroughly maintained.

Max.H

Wow, that's very informative. Thank you. I was thinking the same. I plan to take good photos in good lighting to show the potential buyers how the car really is. I will also be very thorough in the description.

cetialpha5

It all depends on the price, if it was $1, it'd sell instantly, if it's 20k, it might take a long while or never. Check nadaguide.com and KBB. You probably won't like what you see. Everyone always thinks their car is nicer than others. It's only worth what someone is willing to pay. The seller determines the sale price, price it too high and it won't sell. If the phone rings off the hook, it's too low, if you hear crickets, it's too high. You only get one chance to make a first impression. You only have one car to sell, buyers have many other choices besides your car, other brands, other models, other prices, both higher and lower and the choice to not buy.

tw2

I found when selling my last two AMG's no one seems to want to know too much about the maintenance. Maybe it is just me but I thought that someone like ourselves would want to know in at least minor detail what had been done to the car in terms of upkeep - both expensive one off procedures through the life of the car and maybe the last 2 years of regular maintenance. I thought it would help decide whether to even consider the car but it seems to clutter the advertisement up too much for most people and if they are serious they ask later... or never in some cases.

You might have mentioned already, what are you looking at for replacement? I can't think of too much that offers what the E55 does.

lseguy

100% agreed on the marketing/pics aspect. Like described above, high quality pics of everything (vs 5 pics of low pixel quality and poor exposure) can make or break a potential sale. I ALWAYS sell my cars myself (never trade, never carmax) and Ive had best success with Craigslist/local Facebook sales groups (Free) and links to a google photos cloud account where I've stored at least 30 or so photos. My photos include pics of both keys, manuals, folder that has receipts and maintenance records spread out like a fan shape, pics of the undercarriage, pics of the spare tire wheelwell, pics of the recently cleaned/wiped engine compartment, pics of recent polishing/buffing while in progress (showing my actual buffer and high quality polishes sitting on the roof, pics of a bottle of Lexol leather conditioner and microfiber on the leather seats), close ups of the Michelin Pilot Sport logo on the cleaned tires, perhaps a link to an excel spreadsheet that details all maintenance/repairs...all of that tends to show someone that has fanatically cared for the car, which is a strong selling point to the picky buyer whose willing to shell out the premium price for the right car. (I've even gone as far to have photos taken of the local shops computer showing no stored codes for the car).

Good luck with the sale!

Samue23

cetialpha5

Oh yeah, I agree with the pics too. But take pics of the options. I hate when dealers tend to crop out the important ones that I'm looking at. I like to see the front bumper to see if it has parktronic. Or a few of the dash so you can see if it has the front senors or not. View of all the buttons so you can see if it has the heated/cooled seats, View under the hood for the bixenon warning stickers, keyless go if it has it, power trunk closer, folding rear seats etc. And of course post the vin so people can tell what options it really has. Not sure why some people don't want to post it. All dealers post it and if you're selling the car, it won't matter if it's out there or not, you won't be the owner anymore. It's not like they can hack into your bank account from the vin. Plus it's public info anyway, it's clearly visible on the dash of every car on the street.

Max.H

What I meant was. A car that is priced right. Anyone have experience or seen about how long it usually takes to sell.

usually takes me within 3 months

Max.H

I'm kinda getting sad that the time is nearing. My wife is yelling at me to pay extra attention to the family. But, the E55 is part of the family too! LoL

Ive had new and used cars break down and give me tons of problems but, my E55 is always rock solid. The MB tech thinks its because my car has never been modded and how I treat the car. He told me he's seen cars with more then half the miles but modded and or multiple owner cars. Bought and sold in a short period of time, they break down a lot. Because of issues that have never been resolved under warranty or modded and not maintained.

My last dealer checkup came out perfect and the Tech came up to me and said the car is good for another 10+ years if I keep driving it like I have and keep the same service schedule. That is what makes me sad to sell it. It's hard to find a car this fast, comfy and build quality that is so reliable.

Also, The MB tech mentioned I should go for the coveted mercedes benz high mileage awards. Some kind of Mercedes legacy thing that sounded kinda fancy. If a car passes inspection and up to standard like mine he says. You can get a nice certificate and a grill badge that signifies your car meets the MB standards. He said they have it for 150k miles, 250k, 500k, and so on. The current record is a E class taxi in Greece that has well over a million miles. Anyone ever heard of this before?

TipracerE55

cetialpha5

MB still goes by kilometers so it's 250k kilometers which translates to about 155k miles. They have badges for 250k, 500k, 750k 1000k kilometers and one more for 1 million miles.

https://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/herit...ghmileageaward

Max.H

Ohh that's awesome. I would love to do this. I've seen some MBs before with the grill badges but, I never knew what they were until now. Very cool!

patrick_y

The above being said, why are you thinking of selling?

1. The car isn't going to bring in much money. Probably around $10K to $12K. My guess is that it's not going to make or break you.
2. What are you going to replace it with? It's hard to get this kind of car for this kind of money.
3. If the forecast of the car is good reliability, might want to reconsider selling the car. Reliability issues can add up quick, repairs generally end up costing more than gas, insurance, and sometimes even more than depreciation on a somewhat newer car.
4. If you're driving high mileage on a regular basis, say 20K miles or more per year, you definitely should sell this car and consider an electric car. The gas savings of the electric car will be substantial if you can get electricity at a reasonable rate (San Diego has somewhat more expensive than average evening electricity rates).
5. If you can afford to keep this car and get an electric car, you could turn your E55 into a weekend car. It won't cost too much to keep it; depreciation would be minimal, insurance $100 a month, parking space, gas as a weekend car, repairs would be the big question mark.

Basically, the E55 is probably one of the more reliable high performance cars to own. Air suspensions is its biggest weakness. Stock ones are generally very reliable, even when they're double-digits years old.

Max.H

Ive loved owning this car for its reliability, speed and comfort. Now, I'm ready to let someone else enjoy the car. I'm ready for a new car, that's all.

CharlyE500

I have my E55 for almost 10 years as well. Bought it when it was only 3 years old then I started to buy W210 E55 x3, CLK55 x2, CLS55. At one point I had W210 E55, W211 E55, CLS55, Honda Odyssey and MDX. I sold CLK55 and W210 because they are just not as fun as W211. I am sure I will keep it for 5 more years.

patrick_y

You had three W210 E55s? Goodness! I always wanted a 210 E55 (one with parking sensors would be helpful). And a 203 C55 would be great as well (too bad none came with parking sensors in USA).

patrick_y

Got it! Any thoughts on what you're going to get next?