I've been here for a couple years and despite not having a 500E/E500, I love this forum and I thought I would share my experiences with cars and Mercedes-Benz overall.
A little background: I was never really into cars until I got into college, my young age will show here. My first car was a 1993 Volvo 240 with ~70,000 something miles, I bought it in May of 2020. It was a solid car despite having some accident damage and little gremlins I fixed. It presented super well. Picked it up for around $6,000 pre-COVID and sold it for $11,000 to a Volvo enthusaist - my favorite car deal bit to brag about.
Now that I was out of school, I had pulled together a chunk of money that I could roll into something cooler. I really liked Mercedes-Benz and I thought the cars were undervalued and somewhat reliable despite the stereotypes. I couldn't have been more right.
So with a little help from my brother, I picked up a 1998 Mercedes-Benz C43 AMG in 2021. The car had ~33,000mi when I got it and is coming onto 50,000mi right now. I try to baby it as much as possible, but I'm not shy about pushing it hard either. An AMG must breathe after all.
This is how I received the car. I immediately knew I had to do 2 things. One, fix the ride height, the US-spec height is a sin. Two, the clear corners are cool but I always loved the ambers. They had to go.
The result was awesome. The car has a very aggressive yet understated look to it, I've been in love ever since. I cannot think of any car that can replace it for the money, reliability, and simplicity.
But now I had a problem. I live near Chicago, Illinois and the late 90s/early 2000s Mercedes-Benz are notorious for rust because of their water based paints and I own one. I told myself this car would never see snow - and this has stayed true. I needed a proper daily and I wasn't going to buy something new because let's be honest - we have enough new cars on the road and it's fun to fix broken old shit.
Being the young and uninformed idiot that I am, I was enamoured by the 300TE 4Matic. It checked every box I could think of:
I picked up a 1993 300TE 4Matic, one of the last of the 300TE 4Matic ever made.
Back story: The car got picked up at some estate sale or similar for not much, I'm going to guess around $4,000-5,000. Mr. Flipper tidied it up, performed some services, then threw it on BaT. Some guy wins the auction for close to $14k plus fees, and the car goes to California.
I find the car for sale on eBay after California man's acquisition. He reuses all the BaT photos for his listing which was definitely a red flag. I manage to get in touch with him and turns out he is a film director/editor person for Taylor Swift and is a total pain in the ass to keep in touch with. He basically unleashes his assistant on me who helps answer all my questions. The car somehow looks even worse than it did in the listings when it arrived. Ultimately, I pay a bit less than the seller did but I figured it would be fine in the long run.
However, having cleaned up the Volvo 240 somewhat mechanically and cosmetically, I didn't think it could be that bad.
Boy was I in for a surprise! After wiring the guy money, I had the car scooped and shipped to me. When it arrived, it was a total piece of shit!
Somehow, the 4Matic system was still running - lasted maybe 8 months. Eventually the transfer case committed seppuku and dumped it's hydraulic fluid everywhere so I sent it away for repairs. I will very quickly run through everything that was broken, and I have fixed.
Interior/exterior:
This is where we are today. I will try to update on any more things I run into, but the car has been pretty gracious to me after the outstanding and awful jobs I had to perform. Some of which, some indie shops helped me with.
The car has about ~81,000mi right now and I expect it to keep climbing through the years.
A little background: I was never really into cars until I got into college, my young age will show here. My first car was a 1993 Volvo 240 with ~70,000 something miles, I bought it in May of 2020. It was a solid car despite having some accident damage and little gremlins I fixed. It presented super well. Picked it up for around $6,000 pre-COVID and sold it for $11,000 to a Volvo enthusaist - my favorite car deal bit to brag about.
Now that I was out of school, I had pulled together a chunk of money that I could roll into something cooler. I really liked Mercedes-Benz and I thought the cars were undervalued and somewhat reliable despite the stereotypes. I couldn't have been more right.
So with a little help from my brother, I picked up a 1998 Mercedes-Benz C43 AMG in 2021. The car had ~33,000mi when I got it and is coming onto 50,000mi right now. I try to baby it as much as possible, but I'm not shy about pushing it hard either. An AMG must breathe after all.
This is how I received the car. I immediately knew I had to do 2 things. One, fix the ride height, the US-spec height is a sin. Two, the clear corners are cool but I always loved the ambers. They had to go.
The result was awesome. The car has a very aggressive yet understated look to it, I've been in love ever since. I cannot think of any car that can replace it for the money, reliability, and simplicity.
But now I had a problem. I live near Chicago, Illinois and the late 90s/early 2000s Mercedes-Benz are notorious for rust because of their water based paints and I own one. I told myself this car would never see snow - and this has stayed true. I needed a proper daily and I wasn't going to buy something new because let's be honest - we have enough new cars on the road and it's fun to fix broken old shit.
Being the young and uninformed idiot that I am, I was enamoured by the 300TE 4Matic. It checked every box I could think of:
- Reliable
- Spacious
- Abundant parts
I picked up a 1993 300TE 4Matic, one of the last of the 300TE 4Matic ever made.
Back story: The car got picked up at some estate sale or similar for not much, I'm going to guess around $4,000-5,000. Mr. Flipper tidied it up, performed some services, then threw it on BaT. Some guy wins the auction for close to $14k plus fees, and the car goes to California.
I find the car for sale on eBay after California man's acquisition. He reuses all the BaT photos for his listing which was definitely a red flag. I manage to get in touch with him and turns out he is a film director/editor person for Taylor Swift and is a total pain in the ass to keep in touch with. He basically unleashes his assistant on me who helps answer all my questions. The car somehow looks even worse than it did in the listings when it arrived. Ultimately, I pay a bit less than the seller did but I figured it would be fine in the long run.
However, having cleaned up the Volvo 240 somewhat mechanically and cosmetically, I didn't think it could be that bad.
Boy was I in for a surprise! After wiring the guy money, I had the car scooped and shipped to me. When it arrived, it was a total piece of shit!
Somehow, the 4Matic system was still running - lasted maybe 8 months. Eventually the transfer case committed seppuku and dumped it's hydraulic fluid everywhere so I sent it away for repairs. I will very quickly run through everything that was broken, and I have fixed.
Interior/exterior:
- Driver seat tear repaired
- Entire floor carpet replaced
- B pillars repaired
- Peeling door cards glued
- Refinished shifter wood panel
- Front driver and passenger seat rear panels replaced
- Sun visor clips replaced
- 3rd brake light housing replaced
- Cluster housing cleaned
- Stage 1 paint correction
- Rear windows removed for light rust repairs under window seal
- Rear passenger door speaker cover replaced
- Driver door wood panel replaced
- Transfer case rebuilt
- Transmission replaced with reman
- Top end rebuilt
- Cap and rotor replaced
- Fuel accumulator replaced
- Spark plugs replaced
- Transmission cooler line replaced
- Fuel pump hose replaced
- Torsion bar bushings replaced
- Air intake filter replaced
- EHA valve replaced
- OVP relay replaced
- Exterior thermostat replaced
- Antenna replaced
- Driver seat motor soldered/repaired
- OEM European headlights installed
- Headlight wiper delete
- 15" Pre-merger AMG monoblocks installed
- Custom German carpet throughout the car
- Trunk roller cover installed
This is where we are today. I will try to update on any more things I run into, but the car has been pretty gracious to me after the outstanding and awful jobs I had to perform. Some of which, some indie shops helped me with.
The car has about ~81,000mi right now and I expect it to keep climbing through the years.
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