FOR SALE 1992 400E, Midnight Blue over Palomino, 117,000 miles, $11.5k (Dallas, Texas)

[bob_loblaw]

1992 400E in Midnight Blue with Palomino interior with 117,000 miles that I purchased off of Bring a Trailer in April of 2023 and was noted on this board previously (Prior 500e Board Thread)(BAT Auction April 2023)(BAT Auction January 2022). Car sold in January of 2022 on BAT for $8,500 and then in April of 2023 to me for $7,400. Car has ASR but does not have heated seats. Ugly aftermarket radio was installed by PO; it works but was on my list of things to replace, but I do have the stock radio to go with the car. Car is located in Dallas, TX.



Car has served as a true daily driver for me since I purchased it, mainly making trips to my firm's office in Fort Worth, taking my kids to school, and a couple of work/lakehouse trips to east Texas. It has been very reliable for me, including throughout Dallas' brutal summer of 2023, but I bought a 997 911 that has mostly replaced DD duties for me and I'm the kind of moron that prefers dailying a 911 to a comfortable sedan, so it's time to move on.

If you look at the prior 500E board thread discussing this car previously, the commenters pretty much nailed the condition of the car. GSXR in particular noted: "Dude paid ~$10k to buy this car in Jan-2022, spends over $10,300 at Euro Automotive over the next year (!!), and >$20k later it's likely still not sorted."

Which was both right and...optimistic. To make a long story short, GSXR was right that the car still wasn't sorted, but it was even more not-quite-sorted than I had hoped. Which is a shame because Euro Automotive is very near to my house, but it was clear they were in over their heads. I normally wrench on my own cars but given my inexperience with W124s and a desire to drive the car instead of curse at it in my garage, I took it up to Auto Hans up in Addison where I had a long discussion with the owner and his Mercedes tech (both checked out well enough for me) before handing over the keys and racking up a good sized bill on deferred maintenance items across two visits (June 2023 and December 2023), but ultimately wound up with the car I was hoping I was buying and was able to put 5k worry-free miles on this car over the last year.

I'm still looking for the December invoice (my recollection is that it was $1,200) but the June 2023 invoice was $8,700 so I'm about $17k into this car. I have absolutely no illusions about recovering all of that, but I did want to provide background on the increased asking price over my purchase price. I feel confident selling this car at this price that the buyer is getting what they're paying for. Hagerty's current #3 value on a '92 is $10,200 and I think this car presents slightly better than the average #3.


Pros:

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- Would drive this car to Austin and back at the drop of a hat. Runs great, starts every time, drives comfortably and competently​

- Several major service items have been addressed under my ownership: new A/C compressor/drier, distributor rotor cap, valve cover gasket/timing cover seals, tie rods, resealed power steering pump​

- Interior (with a few exceptions listed below) is in fantastic shape and is a really nice place to spend time​

Cons:

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- Paintwork is a definite 10 footer. Prior owner in the BAT auction for some reason decided to not detail the car at all to "present it fairly" (odd given his opacity about some of the mechanical issues I stepped into), but really it just made it look so much work than it is. I did a mild paint correction before taking the photos for this ad and was able to remove most swirl marks and bring a lot of life and depth back into the paint. That said, there is significant crow footing on the hood and the clearcoat has worn through on the passenger rear quarter panel (about a 6x12 inch patch) and the roof is starting to lose the battle and has a couple of dime sized clearcoat burns. That said, aside from the clearcoat issues, crowfeet, and a few moderate scratches, the paint presents very well​

- Wood on the dash has some cracking and one chipped piece, needs restoring ultimately but presents fine for a driver​

- Headliner is a little loose in the back towards the rear window​

- B-pillar material has come unglued on the sides, noted in pictures. Thought about taking it to an upholstery shop but it doesn't bother me much.​

- As noted in the prior thread and confirmed by Auto Hans, the prior shop did some kind of control wire bypass on the ECU to the fuel pump relay. Auto Hans didn't notice any visible damage on the ECU and it didn't appear to be causing any issues when they looked at it, so they let me know to keep an eye on it but advised I could keep driving it for the time being. It's been almost a year now since that visit and I've yet to have an issue with it, but do want to note that it's something to keep an eye on.​

- Auto Hans noted some wear and visible age in the flex disk; categorized it as "not urgent" to me but that it was something to note and address in the future, so I went ahead and left it as for the time being.​

- Same for the motor mounts. I'm generally pretty sensitive to busted motor mounts and haven't ever noticed anything, so I put it on the list for the future and haven't noticed any issues.​

- Floor mats are absolutely shredded. Was going to replace with a set of Coco Mats but couldn't decide on color and now I figured I should leave it up to the next owner. Buy at the asking price and I'll happily buy you a new set of Coco Mats of your choice as a parting gift to go with the car.​

- When replacing the odometer gears I accidentally bent the speedo needle; couldn't find the replacement needle so I did a field repair with some model paint and it looks totally fine but you can see if you stare at it.​

- Haven't ever tested the sunroof and don't plan on testing it now. For all I know it works, but that's a question you can answer for yourself after purchase.​

- A/C is charged and blowing quite cold (this coming from someone in Texas who doesn't own cars without functional A/C) but it does have a slow leak that Auto Hans narrowed down to the evaporator under dash. Given what I spent on the car and what dash removal to replace the evaporator would cost, along with the fact that the A/C worked great and maintained pressure for the better part of a year, I decided that just topping up the system annually was good enough for me.​

Have also attached my Excel summary of the service records, happy to provide detail/invoice images on any specific records (have them all in paper). Pictures are attached but happy to get additional pictures of any items of inquiry.

Also final thing you'll notice if you run a CarFax is that the car wasn't titled in my name until March of this year. Car didn't pass its initial inspection here in Texas due to the third brake light having a short and not activating; I wanted to get to driving so I slapped an old set of plates on the car and then subsequently forgot that I hadn't ever transferred the title, until my wife noticed the inspection sticker being out of date and read me the riot act about not having transferred the title. Nothing nefarious, I'm just an idiot who likes paying sales tax penalties, I guess.

Please reach out with any questions via DM, happy to exchange conversation via e-mail or on a phone call.

 

[a777fan]

Thats a great color combo. Thanks for taking the time to make such and in-depth sales post. Hoping this one finds a new enthusiastic home in the near future. Best of luck with the sale!

 

[gsxr]

Sold for $7600 plus fees, or $8k all-in plus T/T/T/T. Ouch! This was worth more, IMO.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1992-mercedes-benz-400e-24/