1988 Mercedes Benz 300TE AMG Mallet Wagon – REVISIT
Another revisit for us. This happens with really conspicuous cars, particularly ones that just don’t seem to find owners who want to hold on to a car for the long haul. We first posted about this car back in 2008 and it is now up on eBay again for sale by We Be Autos.
The car didn’t sell at $48k and then again at $38k, garnering bids only up to $20k back then. It is now up with a buy-it-now price of $29,995.
The car has 77,800 miles on it and has taken on the Mallet moniker in homage to the AMG Hammer name. The seller says there is $40,000 in receipts, which are worth checking out to see how recent the “mechanical restoration” work was done.
Very cool car, that would have been one of the most awesome things on the road when new. I appreciate all the photos of the car, but wish they weren’t all taken in a dimly lit Mad Max style warehouse.
1988 Mercedes Benz 300TE AMG Mallet Wagon – REVISIT
The seller has posted a video of the car:
The below post originally appeared on our site July 29, 2008:
Bring a Trailer has been on fire recently with their finds, but this one really rang my bell. A W124 wagon project car done up like an AMG Hammer of the period.
I love everything about this car. A monster 6L motor, all black on black color scheme, classic late 80’s styling with AMG monoblocks, light colored wood interior, etc, etc… It’s a cherry ride. But honestly, unless this car is a documented AMG one-off, I’d be very curious to see who’d justify the $48k buy-it-now. It’s an incredible car, but c’mon… I hope the seller and community rise to the occasion to prove it authenticity because it’s a fantastic car.
dc
BaT featured this car again a year ago also. Between GCFSB and BaT (and who knows how many others), it’s had plenty of exposure. There’s got to be some interesting stuff going on here – in theory, it’s plenty desirable enough not to be bouncing around for over 4 years trying to find a home. My inner skeptic has shifted into overdrive…
Indeed, there is plenty of room here for sketchiness, but I also think there is just an extremely limited market for a car like this. Not a lot of people have $30-$40k lying around to purchase a 25 year old car. Even if you do, most of them are going to spend it on something more traditional.
Hot wagons appeal in general to car enthusiasts, but in practice, a car like this remains a hard sell. Would I love to own this car? Absolutely. The reality is that even though I could afford it, it’s hard to see where it would fit into the limited room I have. It’s not sporty enough to be my weekend car, and it’s too special to be my year-round daily driver in the NE. So it’d have to fit into that narrow spectrum between my more modern (and less special) sporty wagon daily, and my summer fun car that gets most of the use between April and November. That’s a narrow gap to fill for an expensive car that will almost certainly need expensive upkeep and diminish greatly in value with every fix you make (since sourcing period correct parts for what is nearly a one-off will be nigh impossible).
Still about the coolest wagon I can imagine though. If I had room for 3 or 4 cars, this would be well up there on my list.