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Hi, I've been looking to getting into an e55 amg, did all the research, but I've found the pricing to vary wildly. For example, when I was window shopping last year, it seemed you could get a nice 110k-130k mile car for 10-13k. Now, when I'm more close to actually buying, I can only find people wanting 15k for a 150k mile car, or 19k for a car with 100k miles, while more ragged out and sketchy e55 go for 10-13k. The only thing weird is it hasn't seemed to effect any other 55k engined cars. For example, I have found multiple CL and S55 in nice condition with under 100k for $12,000. I understand those cars have the problematic ABC but even when factoring in a whole new set of ABC suspension + pump, it's still cheaper than an e55 with more miles. So my main question is did e55s really go up in price, or is it just because of my market area/time of year?
They're going up for sure. To your point about other 55k platforms, I think the reason the E55 is leading is that it's a goldilocks size. C class is smaller and often less equipped, and the S class is huge. Just take a look at where the E39 M5s have gone, I used to have one and now massively regret selling it (aside from the maintenance costs...).
Hi, I've been looking to getting into an e55 amg, did all the research, but I've found the pricing to vary wildly. For example, when I was window shopping last year, it seemed you could get a nice 110k-130k mile car for 10-13k. Now, when I'm more close to actually buying, I can only find people wanting 15k for a 150k mile car, or 19k for a car with 100k miles, while more ragged out and sketchy e55 go for 10-13k. The only thing weird is it hasn't seemed to effect any other 55k engined cars. For example, I have found multiple CL and S55 in nice condition with under 100k for $12,000. I understand those cars have the problematic ABC but even when factoring in a whole new set of ABC suspension + pump, it's still cheaper than an e55 with more miles. So my main question is did e55s really go up in price, or is it just because of my market area/time of year?
If you are comparing today's prices to one year ago this time then there is a real difference (generally up) in prices becasue of the impact on the market (and everything else in the world) from the Covid-19 virus that hit exactly one year ago. Prices dropped last year - in some cases 25-35% or more. I was fortunately in the market at that time and grabbed a very nice car for a cost better than I expected.
I've been keeping a very close watch on this market for several years now. I wish one of the deals I was working on some sedans a couple of years ago had panned out, in the end I'm glad my wagon deal worked out the way it did. Things are definitely on the rise and I think if you bought an E55 in 2019 or 2020 then you likely managed to buy one at the bottom of the market.
I think that these cars are going to do nothing except become more special. I think we all know that they days of big V8's are coming to a close, and so are the days of factory supercharged motors. Dodge is going to ride the "Hellcat everything" train until it stops and I'm sure that will be the end of it. Obviously AMG will never build another supercharged motor again, and probably not anything bigger than a 4.0l. Not that the other motors and the new turbo motors are not amazing, we just happen to have something particularly special with what we have, and I think its representative of an interesting niche in a now over forever era.
As much as the engine is special, the whole platform is. Newer cars with too many screens and an excessive amount of complexity and electronics are going to be very difficult to keep online, and some of these interiors are going to look VERY dated in a couple of years. I think the W211 platform fits into a nice Goldilocks zone where you have modern features, but the style will hold up well. Its also a very repairable and durable platform that will be relatively easy to keep on the road.
Also, people (many on this forum) looooooooooove to modify and beat on these cars. I wholeheartedly support this. These cars are fun to tinker with, the mods yield excellent results and they are a total blast to drive with your foot on the floor (assuming you have the space lol). But, for every car that's modified and driven hard, the mostly stock and pampered cars become increasingly more rare and valuable. Personally I'm going to keep my wagon pretty much stock and pamper it. she's currently jackstanded in the garage getting a whole winter full of love, detailing and preventive maintenance.
I'm kinda shopping for an under 10k sedan. If I find one I'm going to modify that car, and beat it senseless. its going to be fun.
Also, as so many of these cars got cheap, I'm sure they also got purchased by a lot of 20 somethings. I used to be a 20 something, and I also have a 23 year old son. I know what they do to cars, its not pretty but all part of youth. My kiddo has windowed two blocks so far already. Its been fun teaching him engine building. I'm sure many of these inexpensive cars were taken out of the market pretty quickly due to catastrophic mechanical, financial or collision events.
I'm also going to say we should throw Mr. Demuro a bone here. he's been a real advocate for this market, for the E55 and the W211 platform, and in particular a big advocate for the wagons. he's provided press, enthusiasm and an excellent sale platform targeted specifically at our sort of car. I think its clear he has propped up the market. Average sale price on carsandbids comes out at 14,868.50, but the two most recent cars were over 17,000 and another auction ends today. its bid over 15,000 with two hours left. These cars are nice, mostly stock, but far from perfect.
When I got my W211 E63 I was just testing the waters of Mercedes, my last cars were Porsches and a couple of Supras before I got into vintage Range Rovers and left the car scene.
Hopped on Craigslist after selling my last Land Rover and fell in love with the looks of the SL models, but needed 4-doors. Even chatted with some people selling CL500 / CL55s but couldn't bring myself to test drive a coupe. Just wanted 4 doors so I could scoop up friends here and there, which Supras and Porches are 2-and-done cars.
Found an E63 for 9k with 70k miles w/ two owners on Craigslist, knew virtually nothing about the car, got in and was blown away by how well an '07 felt modern and classic at the same time.
Took the car for a spin and the owner said let's go to the freeway. Being far from a sports car in quite sometime I took to the LA freeway entrance as if I were lumbering around in a Land Rover, the owner looked at me and my wife in the passenger seat and said "FLOOR IT". and holy **** did it put a smile on my face.
Drove us to the bank, got cash out and got the title.
Now after owning, I've probably put 5-7k in to bring it back to factory spec, new Bilsteins, Rebuilt intake manifold with metal internals, Yokohama Advans (which are amazing LA tires, not so much for Seattle), new coils, injectors, full suspension/steering component replacements, brakes, and exhaust mods, I am leaving the car from a visual standpoint purely stock.
I've seen some clapped out examples, and I too am fine with it... but having an unassuming sedan have people that know nothing about these cars turn their heads when it's just cruising and clean and then really shock them at WOT is something I will always love. And this car, now at 90k still demands a price well over what I paid and I think in 5-10yrs we will see these becoming modern classics.
When I got my W211 E63 I was just testing the waters of Mercedes, my last cars were Porsches and a couple of Supras before I got into vintage Range Rovers and left the car scene.
Hopped on Craigslist after selling my last Land Rover and fell in love with the looks of the SL models, but needed 4-doors. Even chatted with some people selling CL500 / CL55s but couldn't bring myself to test drive a coupe. Just wanted 4 doors so I could scoop up friends here and there, which Supras and Porches are 2-and-done cars.
Found an E63 for 9k with 70k miles w/ two owners on Craigslist, knew virtually nothing about the car, got in and was blown away by how well an '07 felt modern and classic at the same time.
Took the car for a spin and the owner said let's go to the freeway. Being far from a sports car in quite sometime I took to the LA freeway entrance as if I were lumbering around in a Land Rover, the owner looked at me and my wife in the passenger seat and said "FLOOR IT". and holy **** did it put a smile on my face.
Drove us to the bank, got cash out and got the title.
Now after owning, I've probably put 5-7k in to bring it back to factory spec, new Bilsteins, Rebuilt intake manifold with metal internals, Yokohama Advans (which are amazing LA tires, not so much for Seattle), new coils, injectors, full suspension/steering component replacements, brakes, and exhaust mods, I am leaving the car from a visual standpoint purely stock.
I've seen some clapped out examples, and I too am fine with it... but having an unassuming sedan have people that know nothing about these cars turn their heads when it's just cruising and clean and then really shock them at WOT is something I will always love. And this car, now at 90k still demands a price well over what I paid and I think in 5-10yrs we will see these becoming modern classics.
great story and a SMOKING deal on your car. maybe ill see you around, there are a growing number of 211 guys in Seattle/tacoma lately.
great story and a SMOKING deal on your car. maybe ill see you around, there are a growing number of 211 guys in Seattle/tacoma lately.
Heck yeah we have to represent the PNW. I don't have much of a story besides finding an 03 e55 w/ 130k miles for $9500 a few years back. All stock, 2 owners, so it gave me some room to mod it
We now just picked up a '13 GL63 AMG for the family, the AMG bug definitely bites hard!
Nice video! I do agree with the air suspension part heavily. That's a big reason why I love the e55, and it really turns me off when a car comes up with a conventional conversion.
Man, that's what's bugging me XD. I really don't want to pay more than what people were paying a few years ago. The car is still worth every ounce @$15k, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I just checked FB marketplace, and someones selling a clean one with 177k miles for 12k.
Yep, I agree. Somehow an 18-year-old car can still keep up with modern-day performance. Added in that the 55k is one of the, if not the most reliable Mercedes engines. I already went through the whole "performance and lowering" phase on my current car, but now want something big, comfortable, stock, and powerful, which with the market, I'm leaning more towards the S55 just because of the sub-100k miles @$12k. I just don't want to have to worry about stretched chains on a motor with close to 200k.
Cars and Bids really have increased values over the past couple of months of various different makes. Funny enough, I was introduced to the platform by legitstreetcars
They're going up for sure. To your point about other 55k platforms, I think the reason the E55 is leading is that it's a goldilocks size. C class is smaller and often less equipped, and the S class is huge. Just take a look at where the E39 M5s have gone, I used to have one and now massively regret selling it (aside from the maintenance costs...).
Yep, I think that's why the e55s tend to have more miles as well, as many are daily driven. Since the CL is a coupe, a lot of people will keep them stored during the winter, which is why a lot of them are sub 100k miles. And due to the S-Class original MSRP, I'm guessing that a lot of people who could afford them over the past 15 years have been older and would hold onto them longer, hence fewer miles and owners.
Heck yeah we have to represent the PNW. I don't have much of a story besides finding an 03 e55 w/ 130k miles for $9500 a few years back. All stock, 2 owners, so it gave me some room to mod it
We now just picked up a '13 GL63 AMG for the family, the AMG bug definitely bites hard!
Ha! Same here, after I got another taste of German engineering, I was missing my lumbering Land Rovers. I started to look around, found myself on the G-Wagon W463 forum on this site and turned my attention to the G-Class.
Found a pristine G55 and jumped on it! I've never been in an E55, but damn if my E63 (which I love the N/A) had this damn motor, I can see why the prices are just going up.
We now just picked up a '13 GL63 AMG for the family, the AMG bug definitely bites hard!
Trying not to have the AMG bug over here. We had a GLC 300 loaner when my wagon received its new fuel tank, wife wants one BAD and admittedly I also liked it a lot. I hear the AMG version of these is stellar, but I'm just having trouble caring about extra power in a compact SUV. like I dunno... fast compact SUV just seams kind of dumb. But what do I know... I'm the moron with a 700+hp Ford F350 that runs low 11's. We'll do whatever the wife likes on this one.
I picked up this one-owner older ladies' (75 yo) ML63 and restored it back to it's glory. My E55 still holds my heart though, it's just too much fun. The ML63 is a much "nicer" car but too civilized. I have no plans to ever sell my E55.
I picked up this one-owner older ladies' (75 yo) ML63 and restored it back to it's glory. My E55 still holds my heart though, it's just too much fun. The ML63 is a much "nicer" car but too civilized. I have no plans to ever sell my E55.
Thanks for sharing that. It was interesting to see the prices are going up. Which is great. Also there were a few with super low miles. One had 7k miles. Woah.
common man, did you really need to share that? I was sooooo close to starting Monday morning in a productive fashion, now I must go down this rabbit hole instead.
I spent 8 years (2010 – 2018) living in NYC with no car. Whenever the time came to leave, I knew that I wanted either an E39 M5, E36 M3 or W211 E55 so I always kept my eye on the market. As the years wore on though, the BMW prices kept climbing to a point that I couldn’t justify. In September 2018 I moved to NJ and purchased an unmodified, clean carfax 3 owner designo graphite E55 off ebay for $18k. Today I think the same car listed on BAT would go for around $24k. I’ve put 20k miles on it and could probably get more out of it today than I bought it for 2.5 years ago. Still though, these values lag far behind those of the M5 & M3
For the hell of it I just went through the last 10 BAT listings each of the M5, M3 & E55 and came up with the below averages:
M5:
Miles: 95,900
Price: $32,731
M3:
Miles: 111,600
Price: $18,455
E55:
Miles: 62,700
Price: $20,006
Given that info, it looks like the current market has the M5 worth at least double a similar mile E55 and an M3 probably worth 30-40% more. Additionally, the E55 had the lowest production of the 3 with 8k total units while the M5 had about 10k and the M3 36k. So as it is, there appears to be a much larger demand for the BMWs. I know the bimmer guys regard these generations of M5 & M3 as a last of it’s kind. A real “drivers car” with an analog feel…whatever the hell that means. I personally value the raw power of the E55 and enjoy hammering it down a drag strip as opposed to tossing it around the twisties. Will the E55 ever make it to the M5/M3 territory? Who knows. As someone who’s never even ridden in either and can just look at what they offer on paper, the math doesn’t really work for me. But maybe there is a reason why a 48k mile M5 with 5 owners and damage on the carfax just sold for 3x what I got my E55 for and I just don’t get “it”.
Agreed on the BMW pricing madness. To help explain that, go find the Smoking Tire podcast where he talks about how the Fiesta ST is more fun than the M3. That lit peoples hair on fire!
My Dad owned an E39 M5 for many years, and I have a 540i which serves as our "extra" car. I find them to be kind of outdated feeling and not that fast.
My Dad owned an E39 M5 for many years, and I have a 540i which serves as our "extra" car. I find them to be kind of outdated feeling and not that fast.
Funny, barely-related story: my first AMG was a 1999 C43 AMG. 307hp v8, zero to sixty in 5.9 seconds. I thought it was a rocket ship.
Fast forward 10 years: my wife's 2014 GLK350 is exactly as fast.
03-09-2021, 06:52 PM
