Warning!
We have 15 years of archives. Links older than a year may have been updated to point to similar cars available to bid on eBay.
This site contains Ebay partner affiliate links, which may earn us a commission at no additional cost to you.
Back in September I featured the ultra rare and ultra expensive CLK-DTM that was for sale in Florida. To my surprise, another CLK-DTM popped up on eBay and of course it is my duty to report this information to everyone. Seeing as there is a handful of these cars in the United States I figured this had to be the same car. The problem was is that the original ad literally had one sentence of information. The only thing I could go on was the mileage and location. So as I compared the numbers, 2,936 miles on the car back in September while today’s car has 2,948 miles and both are in Florida. Bingo. I mentioned this to the eBay seller and to his surprise had no idea this car was listed on Hemmings back in September. His digging found that a broker was using his cars to make their own listings in order to sell this car. He also found out that the Hemmings seller also used a SLS AMG Black Series and Carrera GT of his without his knowledge either. Needless to say he wasn’t pleased and will be making some phone calls to said broker.
Now back to this car, it’s still for sale in Miami with an asking price of $425,000. I predicted that this was would be listed at over $400,000 and hit it pretty square. I don’t know if collectors are licking their lips for a 11 year-old CLK at almost a half a million dollars but then again I don’t run in the same circles of people that spend four bedroom home prices on cars either. Do I think prices will ever fall on these cars? Probably not. Is this a blue chip stock that you can sell for a million dollars in 10 years? Probably not as well. If you are looking for an ”investment car” there are plenty of Ferraris and Porsches out there will perform better, but if you are a Mercedes nut like I am, this one would be at the top of my list if I had the money to blow on it.
The below post originally appeared on our site September 2nd, 2016:
While the regular 190E 2.3-16 Cosworth had originally been intended to be a rally car, by the time the company got to producing the “Evolution” models they were fully embroiled in the DTM war of the late 1980s. Massive wings mounted trunklids, fenders flared, and engines roared to new heights of power. While most probably associate the E30 M3 as being the pinnacle of this period, the wildest road-going warrior was the 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II. Mercedes-Benz made 502 of these cars, replete with AMG-tuned motors and enough wings and flares to make an M3 jealous. It should be no surprise that these cars hold a special place in enthusiast’s hearts and they’ve led the market in value because of their very limited nature:
Back in the 80s and early 90s, when AMG was an independent tuner not yet folded into the Mercedes-Benz family, those looking to soup up their Benzes could have their cars delivered to an AMG-authorized dealer for the installation of a range of body, suspension and engine upgrades. As a result, there are a number of “mix and match” cars from the period with bespoke configurations, making the authentication of pre-merger cars today quite difficult. The most famous car from this period is probably the “Hammer,” the AMG-tuned, V8-powered, wide-body kitted version of the W124 platform E-class (there’s a neat little video of Chris Harris driving one here). While the Hammer continues to be highly sought after, and priced accordingly, less well known is that AMG also produced a tamer version of the W124, the 300E AMG. This offered the brutish exterior styling of the Hammer while retaining the M104 six cylinder engine, bored out to 3.4 liters.
The Mercedes-Benz W136 was a car that started production, took a little break for something called World War II, then started back up production and carried on its merry way. This 1951 170S for sale in California is a car that was on the post-war production side of things and surprisingly it still something you can drive everyday if you really wanted. (I do not recommend driving a W136 everyday.) Despite being a 1930s design, under the skin was a relatively modern design with independent suspension and a top speed that could hang with highway traffic — although firmly in the right lane.
You probably know all about the W124 AMG ‘Hammer’ cars by now. A normal 300E that was transformed by then independent company AMG into a four-door monster thanks to the punched-out 6.0 liter M117/9 and various other à la carte options depending on the owners desires. They didn’t call these cars the ‘Hammer’ for nothing with 375-ish horsepower and even more torque. Because of this, the values have held strong at nearly 10 times and sometimes even more than what you’d pay for a normal W124 300E. When one of these cars come up for auction, it’s usually a big deal. This 1988 Hammer heading to the block at the end of the month will probably fetch a pretty penny, despite what Sotheby’s is predicting. So let’s check this monster out:
