87geeinn

I'm sure there are other like me who are always lurking for deals online. This '08 E63 P30 just popped up and is local to me so I bopped on down to take a look at it. Here's some observations (in no particular order) for anyone else eyeballing this same car:

- Body exterior was surprisingly nice. One small dime-sized ding in driver side, rear passenger door with some touch-up paint on it but the rest of the body seemed mostly free of defects and clear coat swirl marks. Front passenger door is missing the square lock tab for Keyless Go. Small scuffs on the top bumper area near lower trunk lid edge.
- Only one key and it did not work (battery dead maybe, although the red light did flash when pressing the buttons). Thus, was unable to test any of the Keyless Go door handles. Car needed to be started with the key in the ignition.
- Trunk electronic opening/closing mechanism inoperable. Motor still worked and looked like someone tore apart the paneling and then noped out when they realized the difficulty of the job (plastic retainer tabs/trim items missing, etc)
- New tires...but the passenger rear tire is directional and was installed backwards. Regional tire chain that did the work, that specializes in ya know...tires can't even get this right. Also looked like the front tires were smaller than factory spec but I didn't look to closely to verify.
- Water intrusion under the trunk floor, possibly from aggressive car wash. Water present under the sytrofoam paneling fore of the spare tire compartment. Water present and pooled up ON the positive battery terminal.
- Wheels had quite a bit of pitting and clear coat failure/spider webbing with some curb rash to boot. IMO, they would need a full disassembly and refinishing. This isn't readily apparent by the pictures.
- Brakes seemed okay but at about 50%. Calipers also fairly beat up.
- Resonator deleted and straight pipes installed; rest of the exhaust looked factory and intact
- Little plastic gray covers for the electrical connectors on the air intake pipes missing
- Hose near bottom of radiator not secured into its clip
- Evidence of water and/or oil on lower drip pans/paneling (rear main perhaps?)
- Battery is mostly dead (also not secured with the lashing strap BTW). Car started very slowly and key on/engine off, battery was around 11.9V even after letting it idle for several minutes.
- Headlamp lenses have been replaced and quite a bit of sealant present around the sealing surface. Driver side upper mounting tab was broken and poorly "repaired" with lens sealant?
- Front struts were replaced with Arnott units about 4-5 years ago, IIRC. I looked at the CarFax which they printed out but just going off of memory here. Confirmed with visual inspection.
- Car seemed to raise/lower okay with the raise button. Dealer claims it has sat for several days and they haven't noticed any sagging.
- Dealer had local shop replace lower thrust arms and coolant reservoir and overflow tube due to a claimed coolant cap leak. That said, coolant looked nice and new so unable to check if any possible contamination from head bolts. Also no record on CarFax of head bolts being changed out.
- Car has a slight miss at idle which could be from the battery being shot, spark plugs needing replaced, or something else. Plugs were changed at some point several tens of thousands of miles ago but can't remember exactly when. Upon startup, I didn't notice and ticking/clacking from lifters, etc nor while running.
- Interior pretty decent. Give it a 7/10. AMG panel of some sort poorly glued to center console sliding section; Both sun visor mirror panels broken and lights inop. Driver side panel actually fell off when I opened it up.
- Rear sunshade works
- Sunroof works
- Windshield in good shape and pretty clear with no cracks and pits; other windows tinted with no bubbling
- Leather shows some wear, commensurate with age/mileage but no tears or significant issues
- All pneumatic seat bolster functions completely inop. I could hear hissing from both seats when trying to operate but nothing moved. All the bladders are probably shot.
- Headliner starting to sag in driver side rear area, as expected
- Alcantara sections of the steering wheel pretty chewed up
- All other interior functions seemed to work (i.e., electronic seat controls, heated/ventilated seats, etc) but I didn't thoroughly go through everything

I didn't bother taking it for a drive or examining the car any further because at this point I had made up my mind on not purchasing the vehicle. I also reviewed the CarFax, which to-date has not been posted on the dealer's website. Car had eight prior owners and some Mercedes dealership work from CA mixed in there. I saw a few notable entries about the fuel tank being replaced...twice, uppper/lower radiator hoses being replaced, intake manifold gaskets, brake flush (fluid looked pretty clear on visual inspection), rear diff fluid replaced, air struts, etc. Nothing major though. Additionally, I didn't bother taking pictures or making detailed notes of service because I didn't have intentions on writing this post until this AM after thinking about how many others are probably interested in the car since it's a P30.

I'd recommend this only to someone who is REALLY wanting a P30 and has the additional $$$ to sort some things out. Don't expect any ROI though. Caveats are that I did not get the car on a lift to really have a look underneath, so there could be other issues lurking that were not readily apparent...and a test drive could have revealed driveablilty/drivetrain/other issues. All in all, this car is appropriately priced driver quality car and the dealer was honest and forthright when explaining overall impressions of the car before I decided to take the drive up there and have a look.