E55 Purchase Help
 

Hello everyone. been reading post here for about a year, and looking to finally purchase one of my dream cars. I have found a few cars (2004 - 2006) and was looking for some insight from people who have lived with these cars for a while. I have a couple questions.
1. I have some nicely sorted and clean high mileage cars. Between 185k -204k miles. What are your thoughts on E55's with this type mileage. I have seen the 400k car, but is that the norm or rare?
2. What options do you find you couldn't live without. Pano roof, dynamic seats, upgraded stereo, etc.
3. Even though these cars have high mileage, they look aesthetically great. What type pricing would be acceptable.
4. A couple cars are lightly modified. Should that add or take away from the price. The mods are done well, and doesn't appear the owners tracked or beat on the cars.

Thanks for any help and suggetions.

All things considered, if records and receipts are in order, would you have a issue with the high mileage?

I'm about to roll 160K miles on my car; no issues so long as proper maintenance is performed and I'm slightly OCD about that. I believe MSG 55G has over 170K miles on his and he's modding it for more power. Proper maintenance records are important so you know the previous owner didn't shortchange the car. With the mileage you are looking at, I would be more concerned with the wear on the transmission since it is a high-dollar item; if you can get access to STAR or know someone who can come with you or loan it to you, you can use that to determine the health of the transmission. If the price is right, I would have no issues with a higher-mileage car but I would go into it expecting to rebuild the suspension front and rear (unless already done) and begin budgeting for a possible transmission replacement. And don't forget the fuel pumps and filter every 60K; that's almost $1000 in parts alone.

See this post for how to verify:
https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...ml#post7162893

Here is a post describing how to verify maintenance performed using the FSS:
https://mbworld.org/forums/showpost....postcount=1147

What would I be looking for, in the way of checking transmission wear?

Lots of guys here are over 150k miles, the M113/M113k is very reliable if maintained well. Of course with higher mileage (and age) calls for replacement of wear and tear items: gaskets, seals, rubbers, bushings, etc.

My 05 has:
Pano roof - gives the car a nice black glass roof. I try not to use it too much but do move it once in a while to keep everything lubricated
Rear power sunshade - pretty much always up in the summer as it keeps the interior cool and keeps the sun off the leather
Parktronic - useful in tight spaces
Active headlamps - looks cool, but I can live without it
Harmon Kardon sound - not sure how much of an upgrade is it over the base system?
Nav (I think all cars after 03 had nav) - system is old and laggy so I just use my phone for nav. But I think the smaller screen without nav looks cheap
Linguatronic - useless to me; I'm not sure if it was standard in the later cars but my friend's 04 does not have it. Don't think I've ever used it :rolf:
CD changer - never used as I have the aux input

I wanted keyless go while I was searching for an E55, but I don't mind not having it. Plus the door handles go bad often. The ventilated/dynamic seats would be nice but don't always work. Distronic is a more rare option but I'm not a cruise control guy so I don't care for it. I would like to have the manual sun shades for the rear side windows though because I like to keep the sun out. The folding rear seats would come in handy but I don't move a lot of stuff with my E55 so it's not a big deal. I think the 04s also had a solar panel option to power fans to cool the interior on hot days

As mentioned above, STAR can access clutch lock up times.

Expect to dump $3-4k into any car for neglected maintenance, things the previous owner may not even know about.

What is the rear seal issue that I keep reading about? Is this common? Cost to fix?

Rear main seal can happen on any car. The seal is $20, the labor is hundreds if not over $1k at the dealer. Transmission needs to come out. I would guess 90% of cars have some sort of leak there, even if it is just a mild "weep". I would only bother fixing a major one.

My '06 wagon has a rear main leak. Been quoted $1200 or so to fix. Being a guy who likes to stay on top of maintenance, it's annoying AF to park a $100K car over a piece of cardboard. I'll get around to fixing it at some point but for now, I agree that it's not a big deal... Good luck with your search.

regarding the options -

the only one i really wish i had was the split folding rear seat. not really sure why any car wouldnt have them but it really could come in handy at times. for instance, my snowboard is about 2" from squeezing into the trunk so i have to stash it in the back seat instead - turning my 5 passenger car into a 2 seater

distronic is more of a detriment than a plus in 2019. i'm sure it worked great in 2004 but with so many cars today with some sort of radar controlled system on them i'm constantly getting external error messages. sometimes it works great for 2 hours, others it resets 5 times in 2 minutes. kinda wish i just had regular cruise control

dynamic seats are pretty useful. the massaging function is quite handy on long road trips and even though i'm not really tossing this thing around corners, the inflating side bolsters are helpful. i've only owned the car in cold months so i haven't used the ventilated seats yet

We might be twins. The one I'm looking at looks alot like yours. Is that Black Obsidian? How much for the bumper + paint + install? I think that will be my first mod.

What a nice looking car. I would like to see polished black rims to match the gloss of that thing.

car is already slightly modded with pulley, tune, split cooler with ice tank under hood, etc. No exhaust work was done though. I don't need the foam support if I get the bumper?

if you want my advice avoid a modded 1. high mileage not a problem try and find 1 with few prev owners and don't get 1 from young kids you know they trashed it.

It is lightly modded. Only 2 owners. the current owner is a mechanic and owns a shop. I think it was more of a show/weekend car, and wasn't trashed.

What exactly would I be looking or checking for in Star for the transmission. What should or shouldn't the numbers be?

Thanks for all the info fellas. Looks like I'm searching again. After looking into my target vehicle, it appears the seller was not being truthful about a few things. So I'm not going to be purchasing the car. I'm back on the lookout for another one. Was really stoked about picking it up.