I am in the market for a W211 E63 Wagon and came across this listing from Kelly Motorcars in PA:

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/t-Used...ting=186953960

I subsequently ran a search on the data card and Googled the VIN when I came across a previous listing for the vehicle at 503 Motoring in OR:

https://www.503motoringsales.com/veh...5790eb095d595a

Now, there are a couple of things that jump out at me. First, the older listing documents 52,995 miles while the newer listing says the car has 51,693 miles (on both the description and on the digital readout below the instrument cluster). Second, the interior trim in both listings seems different -- looks like birds eye maple in the older offering but burled walnut on the current listing, which is what the data card says the car had originally. Is swapping every single piece of wood out on a car a common modification? Am I missing something here? Lol why would someone go to that trouble to go from maple to walnut? The first issue seems like it would be enough to stay away, the second is downright odd to my eye. Would like to get your thoughts.

The car maintains the powder coated orange calipers and flat badge Affalterbach crest; although it now wears the P30 wheels and is riding closer to its original height -- although I wonder about the air suspension. In short, no reason to believe both listings aren't describing the same car.

 

Interesting. Not only does it have the same calipers, but it also appears to have the same trunk mat.

It is not easy, cheap, nor common to switch the wood trims. That is very unusual and almost makes me want to say they are different cars. But that's not enough.

The badges when it was sold in OR appear to have been tinted (they look bronze) but appear normal in the newer listing.

 

Upon further inspection, the cars have the same worn out MB CPO sticker on the door jam. I am 99.9% sure these listings are describing the same cars. Badges can be swapped easily.

All of this begs the questions, how was the odometer rolled back? And why would one change all the wood trim? Very peculiar.

VIN is WDBUH77X27B150095 in case the ads disappear.

 

Everything makes sense to me except the wood trim.

My E55 wagon came modified, lowered, on rims, etc when I got it. But I immediately went to setting everything back to stock. And mine has the same trunk mat (as well as matching all weather floor mats).

But the mileage change and the wood trim is simply too big and weird of a difference. Something isn't right.

 

This car has been discussed previously (in 2017) and appears to have quite the story:
https://mbworld.org/forums/mercedes-...ml#post7036764

Hope this helps.

 

A trim swap on our cars is not super uncommon; the door and ashtray pieces like to crack. But it is expensive and a pain to do, and most people usually go from walnut to maple.

One thing I noticed was the shifter. I thought all 211 E63s had alcantara on the front portion? Makes me think the walnut trim came from a non AMG car

 

Why are we talking about my wagon? Those ads are old.. car has 65k miles now and the Carfax is clear. Yeah it’s had a few owners (7).. car is clean.. nothing that has popped up that was hidden or critical since I bought it over 20 months ago. I did have it listed for a bit on Autotrader, thought I had to sell it to get a 3rd car. Eventually made it work so I am keeping it.

This is what it looks like now.. still not a fan of the orange calipers. Someone, I’m assuming 503, did the trim swap and badge tint. I assum they were going for the P30 look, the only piece they didn’t get was the steering wheel. That’s is on my list for sometime next year.


overall maintenance on the car has been fairly low.. the lowering links they installed were taken out. Car was too low for a daily driver.

full paint correction done with gold level ceramic pro. Also redid all of the window tinting, wasn’t the best quality and was dark but let in too much heat.

 

Regarding the shift knob, I suspect prior to the trim change it matched the maple wood. Now it’s all of the dark ash with the Alcantara.

 

I called the place that had it listed and asked them nicely to pull it down. Spoke with Ryan who said he'd talk to his internet team to take it offline. Considering it's been on their site for a few years makes me suspect that they aren't probably going to do anything about it.

 

Not to keep blowing up this thread but I found something interesting. The shift knob remark made me wonder.. so I started looking at random E63's keeping an eye out for the Burl Walnut coloring. Ironically I found another old listing for an E63 on 503's website.

https://www.503motoringsales.com/veh...67e2f2d17f1c77

You can see that it too had that funky wood accent. Honestly some of the options people pay for with these cars new is odd. I personally don't like that color and am happy with the "upgrade" someone did. I feel for the car it ages it too much. And some of the people doing the carbon I feel if it's not OEM it also takes away from the classiness of the car.

I've sent out a few emails today to places that have my car listed for sale, which are old listings, asking them to be removed. I'm not going to bug 503 since they are correctly listing it as "sold". The person I bought it from was in Portland who bought it from 503. I had purchased the car from him minus the wheels he had and the roof carrier. He thought the P30 wheels were E55 wheels and didn't like them much and they had old tires. I had them cleaned up and put new Michelin Pilot Super Sports on them. So probably a bit TMI in regards to the car, but I wanted to clear up that this car isn't for sale atm. Also wanted to remove any kind of bad mojo history this car may have. It's had a lot of owners but it really wasn't driven, which is sad. The car is a blast to drive. If you do get one in the near future, make sure all of the maintenance is up to date. Mileage isn't a super big deal with these cars as long as it is maintained. I'm currently up for new shocks and I can't wait to get them. On average what I've felt is AMG's need new motor / trans mounts and shocks at about 60k miles. Just did the mounts, and it feels like a new car. Can't wait to see what new shocks will do next.

 

And I'm actually shocked.. Each place I asked to have the ad removed did so. Nothing fishy going on anymore. =)

 

What it use to look like... When 503 Motoring sold it. I almost bought this but decided to keep my 06 E55 Wagon.

 

I switched the wood in mind... here is mine. That orange wood is ugly af in my opinion.