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If there is one thing that I see time after time that drives price, it’s mileage. I know low mileage often tracks with condition, but something about everyone seeing a low number and it takes an otherwise average used vehicle and suddenly puts a price premium on it. I know I’m not exactly announcing a ground-breaking discovery here and this has been around since well before my time, but is it still always interesting to see played out time after time. Today’s car, a 2002 Mercedes-Benz S430, is a perfect example of that.
The pre-facelift W220 S-Class was an utterly forgettable car in almost every way, including the plagued S600 with the M137. Quality was not good and durability was straight-up bad, and most of them are withering away with very little demand given all the other S-Class options out there. However, find one with really low mileage, and suddenly everyone is clamoring over it.
It is hard to believe the C208 Mercedes-Benz CLK-Class was the first Mercedes-Benz “E-Class” coupe to be offered with a V8. It is by name and appearance only though, as it was based on the less expensive C-Class W202 platform. Still, it fooled literally almost everyone in the world except those who write internet blogs about 20-year-old Mercedes-Benz models a few times a week. The CLK430 brought the goods without spending S-Class money for the V8 or king-of-the-hill M120 V12, and did it rather well. I personally think the M113 V8 is one of Mercedes-Benz’s finest engines ever in terms of reliability, efficiency, and power output. It only got better when that 4.3-liter went to a 5.4-liter displacement, but from the outside, they look totally similar.
Today, we have a very interesting CLK430 Convertible up for sale in Miami of course, and boy does it have some extra goodies on it both factory and aftermarket. Also, just under 27,000 miles.
Thanks the Mercedes-Benz W463 chassis from running 1990 all the way to 2008 on the same platform, you do get some mixing and matching going on in terms of body parts. However, almost every time it is someone sticking late model bumpers and grilles on an early example, but touching nothing in the interior so when you open the door you are mightily confused. I really don’t like that as the early example and anything pre-2002 in the US is a rare bird that should be left alone. However, today’s 2002 G500 is a little different situation. This is not a bolt-on bumpers job – not even close.
I harp a lot about the W220 Mercedes-Benz S-Class and how it might be the most disappointing flagship the team Stuttgart has ever launched. It was the year 2000 and this car fit in quite well for the time, just like oversized baggy suits and trucker hats. Well, all those were donated to the Goodwill during spring cleaning 2005, but the early W220s lived on and still roam the earth to this date. A lot of these are now on their 12th owner and look like this, but some of these survived, and this is what we have today.
This 2000 is finished in Bordeaux Red Metallic, which is not to be confused with Titanite Red Metallic from a few weeks ago, and inside with find a Java leather interior. It is quintessential early-W220 with the blobby 17″ wheels to match the body. Inside, much of the same with a two-tone dash and that very tiny COMAND navigation system that was a slight upgrade from the maps in The Legend of Zelda. So if no one wants it, is it actually worth anything? Seems to be.
