Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
A few weeks ago I checked out a 2004 Mercedes-Benz C240 4Matic in wagon form and explained that you probably weren’t getting much Mercedes wagon for under $10,000. Today, I might have an exception to that loosely based rule. As long as you are okay with a few miles on the odometer.
Yes, this 2011 E350 4MATIC Estate up for sale in Florida comes in with nearly 208,000 on the odometer and doesn’t look like it is ready to slow down.
I think sometimes we need to be reminded that old cars are in fact, old. As much as we romanticize them, at the end of the day they are just a bunch of parts pieced together inside a metal shell. We like to think that the older construction is somehow different, and that is the case for some cars, but a lot of times we experience Paris syndrome when it actually comes to driving them. These old cars often feel slow, sloppy, and can be a pain to live with just for basic creature comforts. Hello, Porsche 912.
The 912 has all the exterior looks of the big brother 911 with its long-hood design before the days of impact bumpers and can surely lure us in with its timelessness. However, you are soon reminded that it is powered by a flat-four that pumped out a little over 100 horsepower when it was new. Inside? Well, it has a radio. Maybe the heat works, if you’re lucky.
Having just looked at a B3 3.0, let’s look at its predecessor – sorta. What do I mean? Well, indeed, the Alpina B6 2.8/2 was the first E36 modified by Alpina, but it was replaced in 1993 by the B3 3.0 model. The B6 2.8/2 was also only available in sedan and coupe form. So what’s going on here, with this very obviously long-roof 1997? Japan.
That’s right, although the B3 model had replaced it, in 1996 the B6 2.8 was resurrected for the Japanese market. Now only available in Touring form, the car was reportedly a reaction to BMW’s decision not to bring the 328i Touring to the market. Unlike the contemporary cars, these were badged as “Limited Edition” and mostly came with the standard automatic instead of Alpina’s SwitchTronic gearbox, and they were only made in Arctic Silver, Bright Red, and Boston Green as we see here. Some 136 are claimed to have been produced, and this one is number 40:
Very rarely does Porsche swing and miss. However, the early 718 Boxster GTS and Cayman GTS are probably a miss. When Porsche decided to go with turbocharged four cylinders for the 718 chassis, there were objections from fans. Loud objections. Porsche probably knew this but went with it anyway. There is a reason why they went with a flat-six for the GT4 and recently rethought GTS 4.0. That leaves the flat-four GTS examples in a real no man’s land given it was disappointing enough to be completely replaced mid-cycle. Not ideal.
Thankfully this 2018 Boxster GTS up for sale in California has the saving grace of being finished in paint-to-sample Brewster Green. This is one of my favorite colors in the entire PTS catalog and very rarely does it miss. Even on this orphan of a model.
From the G8x to the E36 seem like a vast gulf to you? Well, a similar gap in time takes us back to the roots of BMW’s small modern convertibles. From the diminutive Isetta grew the oddly-shaped 600, which then bore the 700 run. Available in 2-door sedan, Coupe, or rare cabriolet, the 700 developed some 30 horsepower from its .7 liter twin in the rear. The handsome Michelotti design signaled the direction for the new BMW designs, with (for the time) modern lines penned to the standard 3-box formula. A total of nearly 200,000 700s were produced, but just over 2,500 cabriolets were produced. This one is far from perfect, but still very cool to see:
