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Month: June 2018

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Roll the Dice: 2002 Audi S6 Avant

Typically, our ‘Roll the Dice’ features have been cars that are a bit of a gamble; little history is disclosed, there are no photos to show the car’s condition or no description, something’s odd about the example, it’s got a million miles…you get the point. Today’s S6 Avant is a bit of a different gamble, though.

To be fair, jumping in to any 15-odd year old German car today is somewhat of a leap into the unknown. You’re entering territory where the complicated electronics begin to fail, oil seeps from every joint of the motor and rattles permeate the body structure. Often, you’re left chasing the ghosts of deferred maintenance. Add up the number of things that could potentially go wrong on an older car and then cross reference the part costs, and you’ll quickly see the problem.

So what does that look like when we consider today’s S6 Avant? Well, if the seller is to be believed, in the past year they’ve spent $14,079 fixing this Audi. The last nice S6 Avant that I looked at sold for $13,000. You don’t have to be a math wiz to figure out that’s a bad deal. And that last nice S6 Avant was in much better condition than today’s model with only 50,000 miles on the clock.

So if you’re getting in to today’s car, you’re rolling the dice a bit that the $14,000 “invested” in this one has resolved all the problems. But there are positives, because the seller has opted for a no reserve auction format, and…oh yeah, it’s supercharged.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 Audi S6 Avant on eBay

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2001 Mercedes-Benz S600

What to know how professional athletes go broke? This is how professional athletes go broke. Among many other ”investments” professional athletes dump their playing salaries into during their  careers that suck all their bank accounts dry, buying six-figure cars that turn into four-figure cars is a great way lose a bunch of money. You might think doing this isn’t such a big deal and isn’t a big piece of their net worth, but you have to realize that it’s never just one time or one car. Even worse, it’s not even just the car they blow money on. You need to buy the rims and the stereo systems too. You sign a professional contract and go buy a car you’ve always wanted. No big deal. Well, your mother and father needs a car too. Don’t forget your wife. Oh, her parents need cars? Your brother could use a new car too, he’s been there since day one. Same goes for your cousin. How about your two best friends you grew up with? They’ve supported you the entire way. Grandma’s Buick and your aunts old Ford Explorer are on their last legs. Now take all those scenarios and do all that three or four times over after that. All of a sudden you’ve blown a literal fortune on cars. Today’s car is an example of that.

This is a 2001 S600 that was bought and owned by former NBA player Anthony Carter. You probably don’t know who that is and neither did I, so let me explain who this guy is. Carter was an undrafted point guard that played an impressive 13 seasons in the NBA for six different teams before retiring after the 2012 season. He was mostly an off the bench guy for the majority of his career with his contracts usually being only for a year or two at most that paid him around a million dollars a year. Good work if you can find it and easily enough to buy a W220 S600 for over $100,000 then dump a bunch of other money into thanks to custom paint and a crazy stereo system. Now let me be clear, I am not saying that this car somehow made him broke, but this is merely an example of how it can happen and still continues to happen to this day. Although one thing is clear, the current owner of this car is asking entirely too much money for it.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2001 Mercedes-Benz S600 on eBay

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1992 Porsche 911 Carrera 2 Targa

Yesterday I wrote up a 911SC priced at top market (perhaps even above top market) and I will stick with that general theme here simply as an exploration of where some of these high priced cars are selling. That 911SC probably shouldn’t have been priced as high as it was given its overall condition and mileage. It’s a nice car, just not top market.

However, this Guards Red 1992 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa is befitting of that sort of price. The question simply is just how high the market has reached because the asking price here is quite a bit above the standard 964 pricing we typically see. That’s not unheard of for the 964 Targa because they’re pretty rare and from my experience the vast majority really don’t seem to be in great shape and have much higher miles. If we remove those issues do we have a six-figure car? Here is where we might find out.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1992 Porsche 911 Carrera 2 Targa on eBay

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1981 Porsche 911SC Coupe

If you’ve been paying attention to the current crop of Porsche GT models you’ll notice that there seems to be a relative abundance of paint-to-sample cars on the market. Even with Porsche significantly raising the cost of the PTS option buyers are opting for it more and more. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this influx of PTS cars is that Porsche’s standard color choices have dramatically improved as well. I guess everyone really wants color these days! It is a nice change though as Porsche is coming out of a long period where the color choices were less than inspired.

Part of what is great about all of these PTS cars is that we get to see more of the great colors from Porsche’s past. If you only began paying attention to Porsche in the current millennium you could be excused for thinking that Porsche, as a brand, was a bit boring. In fact, you might think that of every German automaker. However, Porsche has rarely been boring when it has come to its color palette. For better or worse, it has offered a wide array of options encompassing the entirety of the color spectrum going all the way back to the early years of the 356. In a way the current influx of PTS cars and better standard options simply is a return to the norm.

I mention all of this as prelude to this Light Blue Metallic 1981 Porsche 911SC Coupe, located in Florida, with Cork interior and 64,500 miles on it. Blue over Cork long has been one of my favorite historical Porsche color combinations. While some of Porsche’s brighter blues are my favorites, the ’80s saw a good number of lighter shades of blue that might not strike you for their brilliance, but which offered an elegant beauty that fit the lines of the G-series 911 quite well. This particular 911SC shows off those colors to good effect.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1981 Porsche 911SC Coupe on eBay

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1986 Mercedes-Benz 420SL

Earlier this week I checked out a 1984 Mercedes-Benz 380SL that was in a cool European-spec setup. I don’t mean to focus too much on R107s, but one just happened to pop up that I couldn’t overlook. This is a 1986 420SL. Yes, a 420SL. If that number ‘420’ followed by ‘SL’ seems odd, you aren’t wrong in thinking that. In North American, Mercedes only sold the 350SL, 380SL, 450sSL and 560SL offically through their dealerships. Back in the 1980s, some people were bringing in the 280SL, 300SL and 500SL through grey-market channels before that was put to a stop by ironically, Mercedes themselves. For whatever reason, I can’t recall ever seeing the 420SL for sale in North America and they are even not that common in Europe. They use the same 4.2 liter M116 from the W126 420SEL and is generally thought of as ”not the 560” the same way you think of the 420SEL sedan. Either way, one popped up for sale Florida and it doesn’t look like a bad example at all.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1986 Mercedes-Benz 420SL on eBay

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