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Crazy to think that $20,000 isn’t considering a large sum of money for a car anymore, but it will still buy you a handful of really cool used stuff as long as you are okay with it being 20 years old. Hard to wrap my head around the fact that the R230 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class is in fact that old, but thankfully it doesn’t look its age. Today’s car, a 2003 SL500 up for sale in Chicagoland, brings a whole lot of flash with its Mars Red paint, but thankfully you can drive away while still being under that $20,000 limit.
Just when you thought last week’s 1995 Porsche 911 Carrera 2 was wild with Amaranth Violet, we have another Purple Porsche that is on a whole other level. This 2004 Carrera GT checks in with paint-to-sample Viola Pearl and I’m willing to bet it is the only one. It was delivered new in Missouri of all places but quickly transported to its first owner in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. From there, it went to a few owners before being exported to England where it sits having just 7,500 miles.
I’m going to bet you didn’t expect to see this. “This” is a 2008 Wiesmann GT MF4. A very quick history of Wiesmann is that it is a small boutique from Western Germany started by brothers Martin and Friedhelm Wiesmann back in 1988 that produces a small number of hand-built custom convertibles and coupes. Since making your own engine and transmission is really difficult and expensive, they’ve always sourced them from BMW to squeeze into these bodies. Today’s car, the GT MF4, is no different. It uses the 4.8-liter N62 with a six-speed automatic, although a few were made with the popular M3-sourced S65B40 if you ordered the GT MF4-S. The interior is what you would expect with a bunch of generic parts that were clearly assembled by hand and all the BMW parts were covered in leather trying to disguise them. The price? Probably not as much as you’d expect considering how much goes into these and you’ll probably never see another one if you actually buy one.
Not that I am proclaiming to be Nostradamus or anything, but I follow the German collector car market literally seven days a week and try to have a pulse on all the models. Therefore, I am here to say that the 997 generation Porsche 911 Turbo is probably near the floor of their prices. The oldest examples are now over 15 years old and these are heading straight into the category of old enough to be classic cool, but still modern enough to use regularly if not daily drive if you live in a climate where that is possible. Important to note that I’m talking about the 997.1 generation, as there is a massive difference once the 997.2 was fitted with the PDK gearbox in addition to the always desirable 6-speed manual.
Today’s car, a 2008 up for sale north of San Francisco, doesn’t have the 6-speed manual but rather the old Tiptronic S five-speed automatic. If you want to get into a 997 Turbo for the least amount of money possible, here you go.
The Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM AMG not only holds the crown for the most amount of three letter-monikers in the model name, but also that of the craziest bodywork that you can’t believe is factory. I don’t want to re-cap everything, but if you want to re-read my post about this model from way back in 2016, feel free. As mentioned, these are extremely rare and qualify to be imported to the United States under a “show or display†exemption at a heavy cost, but it is doable. As the price of this one up for sale in The Netherlands proves, you can probably swing it for you are able to write a check this size.
