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Month: February 2020

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2003 Audi TT 225 Coupe quattro

In 1993, my father purchased a W113 Mercedes-Benz 280SL Roadster. It was green with black MB Tex and do you know what? It looked, and felt, old. At that point, it was a 22 year old car that had been mostly forgotten by the enthusiast world. After all, the dated W113’s replacement – the oh so 80s even though it was from the 70s R107 – had just gone out of production, itself replaced by the thoroughly modern R129. A teenager, I loved the fresh R129 at the time, and the W113 seemed like a dinosaur by comparison. But my father loved the look of the W113, and so for the then princely sum of mid-teens he purchased a relatively clean, reasonably low mileage and (almost) fully functional Mercedes-Benz SL. Not a bad deal in hindsight – or at the time, considering the new SL’s $80,000 sticker price – in 1992!

Fast forward 27 years, and the SL market has gone completely bonkers, awakening to the fact that the W113 was (and still is) a beautiful, classic and elegant design. I’m not even sure you could buy a non-functional, rusty wreck of a W113 for the same price my father paid in 1993 – and an expensive restoration would await you.

Why do I mention this?

Currently, almost no one has time to even consider the 8N chassis Audi TT. It’s old, with the last of the first generation produced 15 years ago and its replacement – the 8J – has also fully completed a production cycle. It doesn’t have the super wiz-bang computers, million horsepower engines, or cut-your-hand-on-the-front-end styling of the new models. A fair amount lay in a state of disrepair; crashed, thrashed and trashed to a point where they’re nearly given away – quite seriously, there’s one near me for $1,500. But find a good one, and I think now is the prime time to grab a clean TT that will be a future collectable. So here we are with a ’03 TT 225 Coupe in Goodwood Green Pearl Effect over a light tan interior. I think I’m in love!

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2003 Audi TT 225 Coupe quattro on eBay

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1988 Alpina B10 3.5/1

It’s hard to imagine being the bottom of the totem pole at Alpina, but the 3.5/1 might just be that car. In part that’s because the E34 lineup was so robust, featuring the cool 3.0 Allrad and the Learjet-channeling BiTurbo. When BMW ceased the production of the M30, V8 powered 310 and 340 horsepower 4.0 and 4.6 models replaced the inline-6. In comparison to those headliners, the 254 horsepower B10 3.5/1 seemed like an article more suited for the corner of page 2. However, consider for a moment that the B10 3.5/1’s power numbers weren’t too far off the contemporary super-saloon S38-powered M5 and it helps to restore some clarity to the impressiveness of the products rolling out of Buchloe. Today one of the 572 3.5/1s produced is up for sale in Massachusetts:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1988 Alpina B10 3.5/1 on eBay

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2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK55 AMG

A late-model Mercedes-Benz AMG car that probably doesn’t get enough attention in my eyes is the W209 CLK55 AMG. Probably because during the three year production run from 2003-2005, just 1,517 of them were brought to the US. Nearly half of those, 761, were for the 2003 model year and the final year of 2005, just 247 of them were sold new. That means your chances of seeing one and finding one for sale is pretty slim. As luck would have it, a 2005 popped up outside of Philadelphia and I couldn’t wait to take a look. It looked clean enough from the outside and then my eyes were drawn to the $8,500 price tag. Then I did some digging, and the wind let out of my sails.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK55 AMG on eBay

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2002 Mercedes-Benz G500

If you are looking at the title then looking at the photo of the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen and wondering what is going on, there is an explanation for that. Thanks to the W463 generation running from 1990 to 2018 and going through multiple, multiple facelifts, many parts from later models literally just bolt on to earlier years. That means with enough money, you can make a G500 that is old enough to buy cigarettes look like a 2018 G63 AMG. Wouldn’t you know, that is exactly what we have today. Sort of.

This 2002 G500 has been updated in order to try to look like a G63 AMG. It has the bigger bumpers and fender flares, bi-xenon lights, updated brush guard, LED tailights, 20″ wheels, and they even went as far as putting AMG badges on it. The thing is, they went this far, and forgot a few important bits that makes this thing look like a half-assed job. Even more disappointing, you open the doors and get a really quick reminder that this is still a 2002 with 128,000 miles on it.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 Mercedes-Benz G500 on eBay

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2002 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S

The 996 Porsche 911 C4S generated a healthy discussion a few weeks ago when I looked at a very nice 2002 in Miami that surprisingly is still for sale. Wouldn’t you know it, another 2002 happened to pop up for sale and as you can see, this one has a splash of color on it. However, this example for sale in California isn’t as nice as the silver car from a few weeks back. This Speed Yellow C4S has almost 160,000 miles on it and by the looks of it, they were very hard miles. Still, Speed Yellow with matching hard back seats and a painted center console? Tough to overlook. And what if I told you that you could buy this car for under $20,000?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S on eBay

4 Comments