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We feature ultra low-mileage cars every so often and the majority of the time they are cars that you could understand why someone didn’t pile miles on. They are usually low-production cars that could be seen as collectibles or future collectibles. Today’s car is a little different. This 2008 Mercedes-Benz S550 was mass-produced and made to be disposable in every way. Mercedes knew these cars just had to be good enough for five or so years until their bread and butter buyers trade it in for a new S-Class and hope the cycle never ends. Thanks to an unfortunate set of circumstances, this W221 has just 2,731 miles on it and looks like you might expect a nearly-new S550 to look. With prices of these cars now in the mid-teens, what you expect to pay for this prime example?
Fresh off last weeks bit of random Mercedes-Benz facts about the 1990 300E that came in both a 2.8 and 3.2 liter, I’m back again with some information that might be useful every once in a blue moon. From 1990 to 1993, you could purchase a 300SL with a dogleg 5-speed manual gearbox. Yes, the same dogleg from the 190E 2.3-16v cars. You might think this is the best news ever, but not so fast. This gearbox in this car has often be described as sloppy at best and really isn’t an enjoyable experience. The throws are long and vague, with any hope of fast gear changes being wishful at best. Rumor has it that there were only 166 examples of these 5-speed cars bought to North America which make this a pretty rare car to say the least. But if no one wants it, does this make it valuable?
Over the past month I checked out a few W124 Mercedes-Benz Estates and from the looks of it, they are still in pretty high demand judging by their price tags. I can see why as those wagons were and still are some of the best all-encompassing packages you could buy. Some might argue that the W123 Estate was better and I see their points, but the newest one of those is now 33 years-old and lack things like airbags as well as other modern safety features. What is interesting is that the car that replaced the W124 Estate, the W210, kind of flew under the radar when it came to fans of wagons. Whether it be its elongated looks or lack of old school Mercedes feel, people aren’t exactly eager to snatch these things up. It doesn’t mean that they are bad cars or anything, but the passion is just a little lacking compared to the W123 and W124. Today’s car, a 2001 E320 Estate up for bid in Oregon, is painted in the rare Aragonite Blue Metallic and is actually quite nice. Does that mean anyone will be clamoring for it?
Pre-merger Mercedes-Benz AMG cars always seem to have a bit of mystery to them. Lots of times they pop up and don’t have any kind of documentation other than what you can actually see on the car and an overzealous seller shouting how it is an AMG car. The majority of the time the car just had some à la carte body parts and maybe some wheels, but was missing the big things like the AMG-modified engine and the actual AMG workshop building the car. Today’s car has none of that guessing. This is a car so unique and important to AMG that it had magazine features written about it and was even used in the brochures for AMG at the time. This is the 1983 500CE AMG.
This W123 Coupe started life as a standard 280CE before it was sent to AMG to be totally transformer into the best they had to offer in 1983. Everything was modified from the engine, the suspension, the bodywork and even the entire interior was changed to make this car a true one-of-one example. A M117 5.0 liter V8 was borrowed from the 500SEC and dropped into this car but not before being tweaked by AMG. The power number was raised from 230 horsepower to a little over 280 horsepower that propelled this car to 60 mph in just 6.5 seconds. At the time, that was enough to hang with almost every exotic on the market. Inside, nearly everything was changed including installing a crazy Pioneer stereo system and wrapping everything that was normally plastic or vinyl with leather. There is so much more to highlight with this car, but the photos can do all the talking.
Every now and then I present pieces of information that relate to Mercedes-Benz history that is somewhat significant, but mostly just stuff that might be useful for one specific moment in what might be years worth of time. One of those pieces of information has to do with the 1993 300E. Conventional thinking would lead you to believe that this car came with the 3.0 inline-6 that Mercedes has been putting in these cars and other models for years. Not the case for the 1993 300E. This car, badged the 300E, could be bought with either a M104 2.8 liter inline-6 or a M104 3.2 liter inline-6. Why they offered two different engines just for this year, I don’t know. In 1994, the model changed to the E320 and all of those cars got the 3.2 liter while the 2.8 liter moved to the then-new W202 C280. How can you tell if a car is a 2.8 or 3.2? Well, if memorizing VINs isn’t your thing, the trunk should have a 2.8 badge on the opposite side of 300E badge. Of course, some people removed those badges for a cleaner look or just didn’t want people to know you didn’t spring the extra cash for the 3.2. Another tell is that that all 3.2 liter cars have headlight wipers but only some 2.8 liter cars had them too. You can conclude that if a car is missing the headlight wipers it is a 2.8 liter so at least that is one sure fire way. Today, I actually have a 1993 300E with the 2.8 liter and immediately you wouldn’t you know as it doesn’t have the 2.8 badge. Luckily, this car’s tell is missing those headlight wipers so we can conclude it is in fact a 2.8 liter example. Isn’t all this useless information wonderful?
