Tag: 1997

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1997 Mercedes-Benz S500

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Ever hear the saying “Buy the seller, not the car”? I know that might be difficult sometimes given the circumstances of this hobby we indulge in, but I can get on board with it. Sometimes you think you’ve found the right car, then you show up and it has an empty french fry box from McDonalds with a coupon for a free ice cream cone that expired in 2003. You try to look past it, but you know maybe this wasn’t the most well looked after example that is out there. Then on that rare occasion, you’ll bump into an owner that is absolutely fanatic about their car and suddenly everything makes sense in the world. Today, we have one of those owners.

This 1997 Mercedes-Benz S500 up for sale in New York has everything. All the maintenance done, all the service records, low miles, photos that show every angle, the window sticker, everything. This person loves their car and actually took more than two seconds to make the ad to sell it. Walk me with in this rare moment where you can actually enjoy seeing a for sale ad.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1997 Mercedes-Benz S500 on eBay

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1997 BMW 540i Sport

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This week I ran across this early production 540i Sport package car. It’s interesting for a few reasons. First, I’ve always really liked the clean look of the early sport package cars with either the turbine Style 32 wheels or the multi-piece BBS Style 19s as shown on this example. Something really worked for me about this wheel on this body style. An early 540i Sport, it’s missing some of the later additions I covered on later 540s, but still carries the aforementioned 17″ wheels and M-Sport suspension. However, this car is a bit different than the usual one that you’ll come across.

Having covered only 61,500 miles in its life, it’s almost completely original. It sounds strange to trumpet that, but most of the 540i Sports seem to be modified – even slightly. This one just looks like it’s got tint. And everything is there – it’s a California car with all original literature. It also doesn’t have the standard sport seats that would have accompanied the sport package. It was ordered in Arctic Silver Metallic with black leather comfort seats, but it’s got the all-important 6-speed manual transmission. Here, the pre-facelift orange directionals and less fussy taillight design work in harmony with the lack of body kit and beautiful exterior hue. Is it a winning combination?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1997 BMW 540i Sport on eBay

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1997 Alpina B6 2.8 Touring

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While some other aftermarket tuners such as Ruf and Renntech offer turned up versions of the already potent cars, Alpina operates slightly differently – filling in the voids of models not offered by the manufacturer. There are plenty of examples of this, and if often seems to be misunderstood; Jeremy Clarkson’s review of the Alpina Roadster is probably the most notable case. A slower, softer, automatic version of the hardcore roadster certainly doesn’t make a lot of sense at first glance. But what Alpina does is give enthusiasts the opportunity to enjoy the performance that BMW offered in a slightly different package that sometimes outperforms the original platform car. One of the notable missing gaps in the BMW lineup in the mid 90s was a faster version of the E36 Touring; building off the earlier B6 – effectively, Alpina’s 4-door M3 challenger built between 1992 and 1993 with a bespoke engine and typical Alpina upgrades, the company later launched the Japanese-only market B6 2.8 Touring. Produced between 1996 and 1998, only 136 of these small wagons were produced, again utilizing the 240 horsepower bespoke Alpina motor, special wheels and interiors, Alpina’s own body kit, exhaust and suspension. They were available in 3 colors only; red, green, and silver:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1997 Alpina B6 2.8 Touring on eBay

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1997 Mercedes-Benz S500 Coupe

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The Mercedes-Benz W140 Coupe is growing on me. Especially when they are done as well as today’s car. This 1997 S500 Coupe up for sale in Costa Mesa is painted in the ultra-bright Imperial Red and most importantly, the 18″ three-piece AMG wheels. The interior is take it or leave it beige leather, but it does make up for it having just a little over 25,000 miles. Time to buy in on the C140? Probably not this example given the asking price. Let me explain.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1997 Mercedes-Benz S500 Coupe at Private Collection Motors

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1997 Porsche 911 Carrera S

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I don’t know about you, but I love white cars. Not cream, not pearl, but as white as the giant glaciers in the Swiss alps. Well wouldn’t you know, I just happened to stumble across a 1997 Porsche 911 CS2 painted in none other than Glacier White. It has everything has everything to that made the 993 so great and then some. Widebody rear end, 18″ Turbo Twists, painted hardback sport seats, matching white gauges, and more. Even better, this example has just 58,000 miles. Everything is perfect then, right? To a lot of people, not so much. Let me explain.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1997 Porsche 911 Carrera S on eBay

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1997 Porsche 911 Turbo S

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The end is near for 2019 and the decade as a whole, so I figured we might as well go out with one last bang. Only this bang comes in some wild shades of green and ironically requires enough green to buy that would knock your house down. This 1997 Porsche 911 Turbo S is finished in Wimbledon Green Metallic over a Nephrite Green leather interior and needless to say, is one wild 911. I took a look at another 993 Turbo S a few months ago, from the same dealer no less, that was finished in Glacier White and had just 7,600 miles on it and was left wowed by that. This car? Almost certainly a 1 of 1 example given the colors. The miles? How does 532 sound? Total.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1997 Porsche 911 Turbo S on eBay

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1997 Mercedes-Benz CL500

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I hate to go on a run of W140 Mercedes-Benz Coupes, but I couldn’t pass this one up. This is a 1997 CL500 up for sale in Victoria, Australia is finished in the lovely shade of Aquamarine Blue. It surely isn’t the traditional black/white/gray, and in the grand scheme of things, I think that is a good thing. While I love my Brilliant Silver Metallic, sometimes you just need a little color. Aquamarine thankfully isn’t garish and is looks pretty good in my eyes on such a hefty car such as the C140. This car being in Australia also means a few things. One, it is a European-spec, which is a always a good thing. But that also means it is right-hand drive. So your options are limited in countries you’d want to own this car in unless you are a giant fan of blindly merging onto the highway because of this massive C-pillar on this car.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1997 Mercedes-Benz CL500 on Benz World

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1997 Mercedes-Benz E300

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I’m sure I’m not the only person who wants both an analog experience in my car along with having the ease of DIY on most everything, but also wants modern tech and these crazy new safety features called airbags. Case in point, my Mercedes-Benz W116 and W123 are both simple enough that I can diagnose and fix almost anything on the entire car in my home garage, but their main safety features are headrests and a padded steering wheel. If you go to the other end with a newer Mercedes-Benz diesel, you see cryptic messages on your infotainment screen saying the car isn’t going to restart unless you fill the tank up with AdBlue fluid, but hey, at least the car will literally steer itself in between the lane lines while you are frantically Googling on your phone what the hell AdBlue fluid is. So is there a happy medium? Well, I think I have one option.

The W210 is a very fine chassis in my eyes. Granted, I’m biased as I own one, but they are seemingly sturdy cars as long as you keep them away from constant moisture and salt. All the gas engines in car are equally as fine, but thankfully the US market was blessed with a gem of a diesel, the OM606. This 3.0 liter inline-six replaced the OM603, which replaced the OM617, so we have good lineage here. It was available in turbo and non-turbo, with today’s car I want to look at, a 1997 E300, being the non-turbo. Much like Mercedes diesels of past, this one has a lot of miles, but probably also has good years left in it as well.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1997 Mercedes-Benz E300 on eBay

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1997 Porsche 911 Turbo S

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To many, there is no higher predator on the Porsche 911 food chain than the 1997 Turbo S. It was everything all packed into a single car. Only 182 examples made it to the US and they were all very expensive as you might of guessed. Most had a sticker price of over $150,000 in 1997, which in 2019 money is north of $240,000. After your tax and all that good stuff, you are out the door at nearly a quarter of a million dollars. That was more than a Ferrari F355 Berlinetta at the time, but its apples and oranges and you can see where values for both of these cars are at today. This example up for sale in Ohio is finished in Glacier White over Cashmere Beige leather interior and has just 7,700 miles on the odometer. The price? This or a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan’s Upper East Side?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1997 Porsche 911 Turbo S on eBay

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1997 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S

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You can file this one under the “strange but true” category. This 1997 Porsche 911 C4S is finished in paint-to-sample yellow. However, this isn’t just any yellow. This is literally Ferrari yellow. It says “Ferrari” right on the door jam sticker. Ferrari’s name for the color is Giallo Modena because they are Italians, but Porsche calls this Ferrari-Gelb. (Literally Ferrari-Yellow) I would of loved to have heard the conversation in Stuttgart when the buyer asked for a paint to sample in a car literally from a competing brand. My guess is this was a very important person who spent a lot of money with Porsche over the years because Porsche doesn’t exactly bend over backwards for anyone off the street and they certainly don’t do it for less than those giant bags with ‘$‘ on the side of them. Given the paint to sample, you would be correct to guess this one also has some other cool little touches.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1997 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S at Klassik Sportwagen

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