SOLD 1993 500E, Pearl Blue/Gray, minor damage, $8,500 (San Jose, CA)

[Jlaa]

UPDATE: Relisted on Facebook group and price reduced to $5,800 as of 7-Apr-2020. New photos and seller's description uploaded to thread. Also, new descriptors from seller in latest ad: #RunsGreat and #DrivesFine



VIN = WDBEA36E8PB905445

Anyone know if this gentleman is a member here? Oooooofffff.. That looks like a hard hit. Sad to see.

 

[gerryvz]

That's major frame damage and a total. Parts car to keep the remainder running.

Perhaps @RicardoD can get the resonator mount from him.

 

[RicardoD]

Looks like aftermarket exhaust. All I see is a resonator mount surrounded by car!

 

[silver_diesel_benz]

Saw that guy’s post he said he’s currently weighing his options but might part it out or sell it to someone. All I see is glorious wide fenders for my 606 300D .

 

[outrbnks]

Saw that guy’s post he said he’s currently weighing his options but might part it out or sell it to someone. All I see is glorious wide fenders for my 606 300D .

To silver-diesel-ben, I realize your post above may not be a serious comment, but just speculation, and I realize my comment below is controversial, and perhaps offensive to some, even though I do not intend to offend anyone, this is just my personal preference, one opinion among many. Please accept my apologizes, absolutely nothing personal at all.

Your comment brings to mind my personal opinion that rare or hard to find E500E parts should really be made available to E500E owners who need them for their cars. For instance, I am about to install new euro headlights on my 92 500E, This process will make available a set of brand new facelift 500E lens, when I decide to sell them.

Recently I had the opportunity to sell/swap these face lift lens to an owner of a 400/420, so he can install 500E headlights on his 400/420 car.

I decided that along the way an owner of a E500 will have a real need to put these lens on his/her E500 as a replacement for broken /old lens. I will not sell these spare E500 lens to anyone that doesn't need them for their E500. Just my personal choice, and I don't need to do a bidding war on them to make money.

I have no idea about the difficulty of getting new E500E fenders these days, but there is (or will be), a E500E in a fender bender that will need these to get back on the road. I realize that we live in a capitalistic system, and if you got the bucks, you can buy just about anything you want.

Kind of like buying a diesel 124 right front fender and putting it on a non-diesel car because the vents looks kool, (I don't think so, just an example).

Again, money talks, and people are free to sell/buy anything they want too.

Just a thought from a 500E owner who may really need 500E specific parts some day.... O

 

[gerryvz]

I think it's a free country -- if someone wants to buy E500E parts for their car, and pay for them, then more power to them. E500E owners will always find and pay what it takes to get the parts they need. Sure they may have to search, and pay some big $$$, but eventually the parts will show up and then then can be snagged.

Personally I wouldn't hesitate to sell any part I have to anyone who wants to pay what I ask for it. If they genuinely NEED it for their car, then all the better.

I understand the sentiment of selling .036-specific parts to .036 owners first, but personally I am a capitalist. I would sell to the person who wants to buy and who fronts the money.

 

[TerryA]

Anyone know if this gentleman is a member here? Oooooofffff.. That looks like a hard hit. Sad to see.

View attachment 95190

I’m going to be positive here.

First you know going forward it’s going to have a Salvage Title. If the Owner is OK with that and he is willing to pay I think it salvageable. It appears to me the Doors and the “B” Pillar took the Hit. The lower valance still looks pretty straight.

I had an MB friend who has since passed on but he would have jumped on this job in a heartbeat. A good body shop could put it back together. It should be pretty easy to find a 124 in junk yard with 2 good doors and “B” Pillar to cut out. Owner says it still drives fine so the frame might still be straight.

There I said it!

 

[Kyiv]

I sympathize with @outrbnks sentiment. There's something thoughtful and noble about it. Like most everyone, I'm for turbo capitalism, but "anything goes" is, at the end, a pernicious attitude - I think. In this specific context for a continued thriving of W124 500E species/community.

 

[Dunnik]

Ouch

And yet I'm encouraged by how strong that 30 year old safety cage is. Severe damage to the B pillar but it's intact. A modern car would probably do no better (might do worse), the only advantage would be the side airbags.

Precious as our cars are, you'd rather they take the hit, and not you or your passengers.

 

[gsxr]

I am 99.44% certain that car is Pearl Blue Metallic (aka Ice Blue). Also pretty sure it is WDBEA36E8PB905445, which was reported as a total loss about 3 months ago. And, it is registered ~10 miles from San Jose. See attached.

If anyone has a CarFax account that can look up via license plate, CA plate "AJNOODL" would confirm the VIN...

 

[jhodg5ck]

shame it's on the wrong side of the country...but ain't no way fixing her would every make $$$ sense.

 

[gerryvz]

As I said, with a T-bone hit that hard, it's easily a total loss. No financial sense to bring it back to life. The car will never drive correctly with that kind of frame damage, and there is going to be PLENTY of hidden damage that the photos won't show and likely can't be properly repaired.

Data card: VIN Decoder for Mercedes-Benz

 

[silver_diesel_benz]

You can still buy 500E front and rear fenders from Mercedes, but guess what? They want close to $1K a fender. I think someone needs to make some high quality replicas for everyone such as myself who want a 500E body kit for their car and even replacement parts for .036 owners. It was a joke, I’m sure he’s going to want way too much for the car otherwise I’d buy it. Judging by the comments, if it were for sale there will be a bidding war and it won’t make any financial sense to buy it.

 

[gsxr]

shame it's on the wrong side of the country...but ain't no way fixing her would every make $$$ sense.

Especially not with 200kmi on the clock. Real shame, if it's the VIN suspected, it's one of four that color imported to USA.

You can still buy 500E front and rear fenders from Mercedes, but guess what? They want close to $1K a fender.

Fenders aren't the problem, it's the moulding/cladding which is NLA...

 

[silver_diesel_benz]

Especially not with 200kmi on the clock. Real shame, if it's the VIN suspected, it's one of four that color imported to USA.



Fenders aren't the problem, it's the moulding/cladding which is NLA...

That’s true. I’d be willing to bet if someone had good quality copies made of cladding, bumpers and fenders they could make some good money and help a lot of people out. Even for 500E owners it would be useful since a lot of that is NLA. If someone had all of said parts and found someone to make them then maybe a bunch of people could pool money together to pay for a big batch to keep cost down, that would take a lot of coordination, cooperation and making sure the demand was there.

 

[silver_diesel_benz]

He wants $8,500 just FYI everyone

 

[gerryvz]

He wants $8,500 just FYI everyone

He's gonna be very lucky to get $5K in today's market/environment.

 

[Jlaa]

He's gonna be very lucky to get $5K in today's market/environment.

What is meant by "today"? Because 3/18 is very different from 3/19, which will also be very different from 3/20?

 

[silver_diesel_benz]

He's gonna be very lucky to get $5K in today's market/environment.

Yeah that’s too much in my opinion for the kind of work it needs. It wouldn’t make sense for someone to buy it and pay to have it fixed, it’s going to lose a lot of value due to being wrecked and at his asking price you’d probably be in it close to 20K all said and done. If it were cheap enough I could buy it and try to fix it myself, I think that’s the only way it makes sense is for someone diy to fix it.

 

[gsxr]

If you look very closely at the two tiny photos, it's nearly unfixable. Looks to me like the rear fender is tweaked (look near tail light), and the roof is buckled. And that's just what is visible from this side. Passenger seats may be junk. Bumpers, fenders, powertrain all worth some dough but $8k is quite a bit. Not saying someone wouldn't pay that, just that the number of potential buyers at that price is pretty small. Far more interest at ±$5k. More photos would help too.

So if anyone buys it, I could use the lower part of the battery box if y'all don't need it!

 

[RicardoD]

I need to convince my son to go into the E500 parts business as I would love to pick up this car and have him deal with all the part removal, boxing, selling.

 

[jhodg5ck]

8500....that's funny.

 

[silver_diesel_benz]

If you look very closely at the two tiny photos, it's nearly unfixable. Looks to me like the rear fender is tweaked (look near tail light), and the roof is buckled. And that's just what is visible from this side. Passenger seats may be junk. Bumpers, fenders, powertrain all worth some dough but $8k is quite a bit. Not saying someone wouldn't pay that, just that the number of potential buyers at that price is pretty small. Far more interest at ±$5k. More photos would help too.

So if anyone buys it, I could use the lower part of the battery box if y'all don't need it!

If think a lot of things are technically “fixable” but whether it makes financial sense and whether it’s going to be near original specs or not I think that’s the question, I’d say probably the whole door sill/ b pillar would have to be cutout and replaced with one from a good car and a frame machine could pull the quarter panel straight and maybe the roof or maybe the roof would have to be sectioned.

 

[JC220]

If think a lot of things are technically “fixable” but whether it makes financial sense and whether it’s going to be near original specs or not I think that’s the question, I’d say probably the whole door sill/ b pillar would have to be cutout and replaced with one from a good car and a frame machine could pull the quarter panel straight and maybe the roof or maybe the roof would have to be sectioned.

I never personally would even think of repairing a car hit that hard. A hit like that will have distorted the entire car. Not matter how much is pulled, cut and replaced it will never quite be right. I have seen cars with much smaller impacts like that and noted twisting on the entire chassis in very small amounts that most would not notice. This is a parts car plain and simple sorry to say.

 

[gerryvz]

This is a parts car plain and simple sorry to say.

I said this from the get-go. Some accuse me of being too quick on the draw to call a wrecked car a rolling parts car.

But there is so much time and expense to bring such a car back to "normal" -- and it will NEVER be normal due to unseen damage, frame damage, and so forth -- no one is going to be spending the money to bring this car back when they can just buy a non-wrecked one.

Just the simple side-swipe of my 560SEC had some unforseen issues that cropped up after the accident damage was repaired -- specifically the rear suspension lower control arm being tweaked. This necessitated me buying a complete subframe to replace the rear suspension with. This was not observed, nor caught, but the trucking company's insurance adjuster, nor by myself. The car drove just fine. It was only after I got it aligned, and the MB stealership couldn't align it within about a degree of spec. So obviously the suspension on the side where the semi sideswiped me was tweaked. I should have probably gotten at least a couple thousand more dollars for repair of this damage, had it been observed/known at the time.

Bottom line, there are a LOT of unknown/unseen demons lurking from this T-bone damage ..... such that the car will NEVER be totally right ever again, if it were to be "repaired."

 

[RicardoD]

The vultures are circling on Facebook, just joined the E500 group there, but probably hard to sell in this current environment.

 

[gsxr]

I said this from the get-go. Some accuse me of being too quick on the draw to call a wrecked car a rolling parts car.

You usually are, Gerry. But in this case, you are 100% correct!

 

[gerryvz]

Someone is spending time on Faceplant ? In an E500E group? Lol! How are their HOW-To tutorials? Collection of print magazine articles? Production numbers and paint color stats?

Please refer the seller to this thread here ... and if he thinks he can get $8500, to this:

 

[gsxr]

Wait... is it an E500 (W211) group, or E500E (W124) group?

I wonder what the 036 Facebook demographic would look like vs Gerryboard. And also the content, and S/N ratio (with or without Dolby NR, just for Jlaa)...

 

[silver_diesel_benz]

Yeah I agree better to be a parts car than to try and fix and I think anyone who would pay to have it fixed is crazy.

 

[silver_diesel_benz]

Wait... is it an E500 (W211) group, or E500E (W124) group?

I wonder what the 036 Facebook demographic would look like vs Gerryboard. And also the content, and S/N ratio (with or without Dolby NR, just for Jlaa)...

It’s an .036 group. Mostly just people posting pictures of cars, not really any technical discussion.

 

[gsxr]

It’s an .036 group. Mostly just people posting pictures of cars, not really any technical discussion.

Ohhh. Sort of like an 036 Instatweet thingy. Got it.

 

[RicardoD]

Well, I talked to my son who is game, and just tried to message the owner. Let us see what happens. Doubtful I will be bidding what the owner may feel it is worth.

 

[RicardoD]

Oh, anybody have an idea how much one could get out of this car in used part sales? Asking for a friend.

 

[silver_diesel_benz]

Too bad I don’t live in Cali, I’d strip it. Already done one w124 before, looked like a stolen car when I was done , I’ve got tons of parts I don’t need. I’d say $1,500 for the interior, $1-2K for fenders bumpers etc. $1-2K for the engine and transmission. $500 for brakes? $500 for subframe/diff? And some $ for various other small items. I dont know about exact prices or anything just kind of guesstimating off of stuff I’ve seen for sale.

 

[sheward]

I'd guestimate $6000. - $7000. depending on the effort and time put forth. There are enough smaller NLA items that one could fairly get aftermarket pricing for. As Dave said, the interior could be lost.

drew

 

[silver_diesel_benz]

I'd guestimate $6000. - $7000. depending on the effort and time put forth. There are enough smaller NLA items that one could fairly get aftermarket pricing for. As Dave said, the interior could be lost.

drew

You’re right forgot about the interior being messed up, duh

 

[RicardoD]

Yup, $8500 asking. Just got off phone with owner. He bought it after the accident. He told me his body man can repair it for $10k and doesn't want to part it out. Says car still runs and drives great and that he also owns a 92 that he just posted about on Facebook.

 

[silver_diesel_benz]

Yup, $8500 asking. Just got off phone with owner. He bought it after the accident. He told me his body man can repair it for $10k and doesn't want to part it out. Says car still runs and drives great and that he also owns a 92 that he just posted about on Facebook.

View attachment 95354

Is he firm at $8,500? Probably wouldn’t make any money at that price point.

 

[ace10]

#DrivesGreat

lol

 

[TerryA]

Yup, $8500 asking. Just got off phone with owner. He bought it after the accident. He told me his body man can repair it for $10k and doesn't want to part it out. Says car still runs and drives great and that he also owns a 92 that he just posted about on Facebook.

View attachment 95354

Ricardo,

Soooo, He will sell for $8.5K if he can get it and he obviously thinks he can? He bought it at a Salvage Auction or directly from the insurance company at the right price for stripping it.

Sounds to me that after he started getting estimates, he realized he didn’t want to pay $10K to the bodyshop and is now trying to flip it.

Probably trying to DBL his money by convincing someone else to spend the $10K. That’s why it on Facebook instead of the 500eboard because some other uneducated person on might bite on that $8.5K price.

I say unfortunately for him it ended up here anyway.

I still say it’s fixable but would never be more than a driver or maybe a track car. Fix the “B” Pillar throw two used 124 doors on it bang it out a little and enter it in the 24 Hours of LeMons race.

At my former place of employment, an associate of mine had a brand leased Nissan SUV (NXT?). It was a not a personal lease but a company long term 3 year 85K mile lease.

He got T-Boned by an LAPD car in downtown LA. It looked way worse than this 500E. This was about a $21K vehicle new and the insurance company had it put back together. It was out of action for about 3 months. When he got it back it looked brand new again and he drove it for 3 years.

Key here was the bill was paid by the insurance company. If it was my personal car I would have insisted it be totaled.

I guess sooner or later we will find out the fate of this 500E.

 

[gerryvz]

Oh, anybody have an idea how much one could get out of this car in used part sales? Asking for a friend.

Yes, if you wanted to take the time to part it out, list parts for sale, and do the logistics for shipping them -- I think $5-6K+ is pretty achieveable. If this car could be bought for $3-4K, and you had the room and time to part it out, it could be lucrative both in terms of getting spares for one's own hoard, as well as selling unneeded parts (like the fenders) off.

The seller is a complete idiot if he thinks he can get $8,500 out of it. In this economy, with the current E500E market -- this is a $3-5K car. and it's likely that the seller bought it for $5-6K and wants to turn a profit. He made a bad investment, that's all I can say.

This car deserves to be totally stripped and parted out. As I said, any shop that thinks they can fix this car and make it as good as new, is either fraudulent or smoking some seriously good California weed.

#DrivesGreat

 

[gerryvz]

Someone should tell the seller that he needs to take MANY more photos of the car, including the damaged area. He is WELCOME to post a thread in the CARS FOR SALE sub-forum here. He will never find a better and more qualified audience to buy this car than on this site.

It would be great if one of you Faceplant mavens could please post a link in that group to this forum/thread. Let's see the seller show up here and advertise the car, properly. Since probably 90% of you guys have Faceplant accounts.......

#DrivesGreat

 

[silver_diesel_benz]

Someone should tell the seller that he needs to take MANY more photos of the car, including the damaged area. He is WELCOME to post a thread in the CARS FOR SALE sub-forum here. He will never find a better and more qualified audience to buy this car than on this site.

It would be great if one of you Faceplant mavens could please post a link in that group to this forum/thread. Let's see the seller show up here and advertise the car, properly. Since probably 90% of you guys have Faceplant accounts.......

On it chief

 

[gerryvz]

Looking at the photos, here's my interpretation:

1. The roof is highly tweaked. Given this damage, the structural integrity of the car is forever compromised. This ALONE is enough to disqualify the car from EVER being rebuilt.
2. The trunk is sprung. You can see that it is tweaked and mis-aligned, very likely because of the impact from the side. It would be difficult to bring this back into proper alignment, as it is probable that the impact moved the trunk mounting point ever so slightly.
3. Damage by passenger side taillight. Fixable.
4. B-pillar is decimated. Sure, a new one could be sourced and welded in. But there are going to be issues with where it attaches at top and bottom.
5. Frame rail below doors. Looks like this took some significant impact. Likely floor-pan damage. Again, would have to be pulled and straightened. Do-able, but will NEVER be correct/the same.
6. Front fender alignment. Likely some mis-alignment there as well, as evidenced by the loosened lower cladding piece.
7. Electrics and vacuum issues. Likely the impact disripted or even snapped/broke/tweaked the vacuum and electrical lines running along the door frames and floor-pan on the passenger side.
8. Interior. Unknown due to no photos, but likely that the passenger side front and rear seats and associated items (fuel pump relay, vacuum pump, etc.) have been compromised.
9. Rear windscreen. Appears that it has been cracked at the bottom, as illustrated by the bubble in the tint.

#DrivesGreat

 

[gerryvz]

Someone just told me that the post has disappeared from the Facebook .036 group.

Can someone confirm or deny that is the case?

 

[RicardoD]

Yes, confirmed, the original post with the T-boned photos is gone. Good you captured the photos. The nice looking silver car post with 345k miles is still up.

If this is $6k worth of parts then my offer would be $3k and it would be my kid making all the money and doing all the work.

Oh well, back to figuring out how to make an exhaust mount bracket.

 

[gsxr]

Yup, $8500 asking. Just got off phone with owner. He bought it after the accident. He told me his body man can repair it for $10k and doesn't want to part it out.

Wait... he bought it wrecked? I'm confused. If this is true, he probably got it very cheap, and is trying to make a quick buck. But he may have over-estimated the value. The high-res photos Gerry attached to post #43 show severe damage. On the bright side, it shows how well the W124 passenger compartment is protected in a massive side impact.

My $0.02 about the repair: He's claiming $10k to fix because he's trying to find a buyer that will naively believe this. If true, why not fix it and then re-sell (or, keep it as a DD)?

 

[silver_diesel_benz]

Wait... he bought it wrecked? I'm confused. If this is true, he probably got it very cheap, and is trying to make a quick buck. But he may have over-estimated the value. The high-res photos Gerry attached to post #43 show severe damage. On the bright side, it shows how well the W124 passenger compartment is protected in a massive side impact.

My $0.02 about the repair: He's claiming $10k to fix because he's trying to find a buyer that will naively believe this. If true, why not fix it and then re-sell (or, keep it as a DD)?

Yeah I thought it was this guys car and it just happened, definitely sounds like he’s just trying to flip it for a quick buck. Yeah good to know that you’re protected in a side impact, I wonder what hit it and how fast they were going. If you were on the passenger side I’m sure its survivable but maybe not without some injury, I’m curious to see some pictures from the inside.

 

[gerryvz]

The seller is a complete idiot if he thinks he can get $8,500 out of it. In this economy, with the current E500E market -- this is a $3-5K car. and it's likely that the seller bought it for $5-6K and wants to turn a profit. He made a bad investment, that's all I can say.

#DrivesGreat

As I said, he bought the car from the PO or insurance or auction house for $5-6K, and is trying to get a 60-70% quick flip.

Looks like this forum (once again) has called this snake-oil salesman's bluff. Similarly to the seller of the red "Yurro" 124 cab (Mr. Ball).

That trunk logo alone is probably worth $100 to someone.



#DrivesGreat