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500Eboard Management
Why do you like the 500e?
- Thread starter ALL500
- Start date
I have less than $2k in my 400e. Rides like a dream, nice power, beautiful black leather interior. Trunk big enough to haul my crap. Not afraid to get in a crash with it (God forbid).
It's no collector piece like a lot of the people's 500s on here, but a perfect driver for me.
I'm here at these forums because drivability problems with these cars are wicked!
It's no collector piece like a lot of the people's 500s on here, but a perfect driver for me.
I'm here at these forums because drivability problems with these cars are wicked!
I've been a car enthusiast my whole life. At my 1 year birthday, one of my gifts was a wooden garage structure with wood blocks shaped like cars. Throughout my child hood, I had Hotwheels, Sizzlers (remember those?) and of course Aurora AFX slot cars as well as a fleet of Tonka trucks. My older brother also had 1/24 scale slot cars, we had a cool track setup in our basement. Fun times.
My family bought a new '69 Datsun 510 for my older brother and I helped him modify it throughout the '70's. I eventually inherited it and continued modifying and upgrading it. Being into "sport" sedans, when the 190E 2.3-16 came out I was in lust. It was everything I wished my 510 was but better, unfortunately, it would be years before I could afford one. I started looking semi-seriously for one in mid-1990, drove a few but couldn't quite pull the trigger. Around that same time, I saw a review of the 500E and knew I would have one someday but obviously, it was way out of my price range at the time. I eventually found and bought a 16V in December of 1996, but not before finding a high mileage '86 300E with 5-speed manual. So, for about 5 years I had both a 300E and 190E. During that time, I came to love both sedans but appreciated the better build quality of the W124 as well as the more usable space. I realized that the 500E was "my" perfect sport sedan.
Everything about the 500E intrigued me. The 5.0 liter, all alloy, DOHC V8, the 4-place Recaro seats, the lowered suspension, 4-piston front brakes, ABS, ASR, SLS and of course the beautiful flared fenders. And the build quality was second to none. It was (and is) a technical marvel with both brawn and beauty. For me, the epitome of sport sedans.
Today's cars are quicker, faster, handle better, blah, blah, blah, but there isn't another sedan that fully embodies the overall satisfaction that these cars give me. I've had my silver E500 for almost 15 years and I have no intention of ever selling it!
My family bought a new '69 Datsun 510 for my older brother and I helped him modify it throughout the '70's. I eventually inherited it and continued modifying and upgrading it. Being into "sport" sedans, when the 190E 2.3-16 came out I was in lust. It was everything I wished my 510 was but better, unfortunately, it would be years before I could afford one. I started looking semi-seriously for one in mid-1990, drove a few but couldn't quite pull the trigger. Around that same time, I saw a review of the 500E and knew I would have one someday but obviously, it was way out of my price range at the time. I eventually found and bought a 16V in December of 1996, but not before finding a high mileage '86 300E with 5-speed manual. So, for about 5 years I had both a 300E and 190E. During that time, I came to love both sedans but appreciated the better build quality of the W124 as well as the more usable space. I realized that the 500E was "my" perfect sport sedan.
Everything about the 500E intrigued me. The 5.0 liter, all alloy, DOHC V8, the 4-place Recaro seats, the lowered suspension, 4-piston front brakes, ABS, ASR, SLS and of course the beautiful flared fenders. And the build quality was second to none. It was (and is) a technical marvel with both brawn and beauty. For me, the epitome of sport sedans.
Today's cars are quicker, faster, handle better, blah, blah, blah, but there isn't another sedan that fully embodies the overall satisfaction that these cars give me. I've had my silver E500 for almost 15 years and I have no intention of ever selling it!
It all started with a 1984 MB 190D. It had 64 BHP and the fluid and filter maintenance was DIY.
In 2003, I upgraded to a 94' E320 wagon with the M104 because I wanted more space and an airbag.
Then, I bought my mechanic's personal 1992 400E with the M119. It was a great car that ended up getting T-boned, but we all walked away from a totaled car.
Then. . . I saw a one owner 1993 040 500E in Atlanta at Buckhead MB and paid for part of it with the totaled 400E insurance money.
Then. . . a well known MB mechanic had his 92' Renntech 500E for sale, so I bought that.
Then. . . , as the MB disease continued to eat away at my pocket book, we bought a 2001 SL500 for the wife.
Not being satisfied with taking only one passenger, I bought a 95' E320 Cabriolet to share the top down experience with the kids.
All this time, I had been reading about the C126, and finally bought a 90' 560SEC to see what the fuss was about.
I do like all these cars for very different reasons, but, I must say that I love the 500Es the best because of the way they drive and handle.
If I had to pick only one of these cars, I would pick the 1992 500E Renntech as THE one to keep, with the 93' 500E a close second.
Next would be the SL500 and so on. . .
Again, I must say that I would have NONE of these cars had it not been for the guys here on THIS forum. You have all collectively taken me from a complete novice to a dangerous novice with tools in his hand.
In 2003, I upgraded to a 94' E320 wagon with the M104 because I wanted more space and an airbag.
Then, I bought my mechanic's personal 1992 400E with the M119. It was a great car that ended up getting T-boned, but we all walked away from a totaled car.
Then. . . I saw a one owner 1993 040 500E in Atlanta at Buckhead MB and paid for part of it with the totaled 400E insurance money.
Then. . . a well known MB mechanic had his 92' Renntech 500E for sale, so I bought that.
Then. . . , as the MB disease continued to eat away at my pocket book, we bought a 2001 SL500 for the wife.
Not being satisfied with taking only one passenger, I bought a 95' E320 Cabriolet to share the top down experience with the kids.
All this time, I had been reading about the C126, and finally bought a 90' 560SEC to see what the fuss was about.
I do like all these cars for very different reasons, but, I must say that I love the 500Es the best because of the way they drive and handle.
If I had to pick only one of these cars, I would pick the 1992 500E Renntech as THE one to keep, with the 93' 500E a close second.
Next would be the SL500 and so on. . .
Again, I must say that I would have NONE of these cars had it not been for the guys here on THIS forum. You have all collectively taken me from a complete novice to a dangerous novice with tools in his hand.
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I wouldn't say I'm a benz guy, in fact their are brands that I would say I favor quite heavily over MB, what drew my attention to the 500e/e500 is the Porsche affiliation (as Porsche is my go to brand and IMO the best sports car in the world.) Besides the Porsche affiliation, I would have to say my favorite part of the car is the hand build quality, and the unique factor of it. People ask me all the time what these cars are (if they don't know already.) What other car has such a great story, is built so well, is so unique, and has such a stable market and great resale value for sub 30k dollars? Sure, you can go buy a later model 2009 C63 for close to 30k these days, but it will be worth about 10 grand in 3 or 4 years. The 500e is money in the bank and has dated/aged better than any other car from the era in my opinion.
A friend and I used to drive his parents 1978'sh coupe to the beach and go surfing. I always liked the body style of Benz coupes.
My first MB was and is a 93 300ce. Then I started learning about MBs, specifically w124's. I was toying around with the idea of putting the 500e bumpers and fenders on the coupe.
Then I started looking at 400e's, test drove a couple. Eventually I bought my 93 500e. I like the 500e, I like the stance, the wider fenders, the way it drives, etc.
I am started to become more of a 4 door car guy because of the 500e. I am not sure I will ever become a wagon guy, but who knows.
However, I am a little critical of some of the parts on the cars.
Of course, my biggest critique is of the original harness issue etc. It has been brought up in the defense of the harnesses, that it was the environmental laws, etc.
I understand that, but gee whiz, was part of the law that they should start biodegrading a in less than 5 years......granted, some harness last longer than others, but I have heard some didn't take long to start degrading. If German engineering is top notch, then I would say the engineers that created the harness did a poor job. It sure wasn't long before the laws must have been changed, because the bio-degradable harness started being replaced with non eco junk in at least 1999.
Overall I really enjoy the ride the ride of the 500e. Boards like this one and helpful people on this site, make it easier for the DIY guy to fix our cars. There is a lot of good information on this site. Used parts can also be found on this site too. I have yet to find the camaraderie that exists here on any other site.
I hope to always have ownership of a .036.
My first MB was and is a 93 300ce. Then I started learning about MBs, specifically w124's. I was toying around with the idea of putting the 500e bumpers and fenders on the coupe.
Then I started looking at 400e's, test drove a couple. Eventually I bought my 93 500e. I like the 500e, I like the stance, the wider fenders, the way it drives, etc.
I am started to become more of a 4 door car guy because of the 500e. I am not sure I will ever become a wagon guy, but who knows.
However, I am a little critical of some of the parts on the cars.
Of course, my biggest critique is of the original harness issue etc. It has been brought up in the defense of the harnesses, that it was the environmental laws, etc.
I understand that, but gee whiz, was part of the law that they should start biodegrading a in less than 5 years......granted, some harness last longer than others, but I have heard some didn't take long to start degrading. If German engineering is top notch, then I would say the engineers that created the harness did a poor job. It sure wasn't long before the laws must have been changed, because the bio-degradable harness started being replaced with non eco junk in at least 1999.
Overall I really enjoy the ride the ride of the 500e. Boards like this one and helpful people on this site, make it easier for the DIY guy to fix our cars. There is a lot of good information on this site. Used parts can also be found on this site too. I have yet to find the camaraderie that exists here on any other site.
I hope to always have ownership of a .036.
Camaraderie is certainly big part of this experience.
Especially at the GTGs that have occurred on the West coast, Altanta, Birmingham, DC, and other places around the country and world.
You get a chance to meet interesting people all over the globe that have a mutual interest in our cars.
Especially at the GTGs that have occurred on the West coast, Altanta, Birmingham, DC, and other places around the country and world.
You get a chance to meet interesting people all over the globe that have a mutual interest in our cars.
My first Mercedes was a 1957 190SL that I bought for my wife in 1978. At that time I paid $5,700K for it. It was far from perfect. Over a period of about 10 years I personally rebuilt the engine, polished all of the aluminum, installed a new radiator, SS battery box, blew the rear end out of it, had the trans rebuilt and the drive shaft balanced. All new leather interior including the dash, new carpet thruout. Crashed it once and it took 6 months to get it back and about $8,000K.
By then it had a new paint job. My wife crashed it again into a guard rail in a hail storm. This just messed up the grill and the opening. Well I found a guy who had a brand new never touched grill opening clip that my body man could use for a model to fix mine. It turned out better than before and actually helped increase the value.
Anyway what impressed me about that car stuck with me til this day. It was built like a bank vault. I sold it in 1988 for $18,000K. It was on a plane to Japan the next day.
The same guy that I got the grill opening sold me a 1964 220 SEb Euro coupe in Polar White for $3,500K. It had 4 speed on the floor, the big Euro headlights and black leather interior. It had set in his warehouse for 10 years never running once. We put in a new battery and used some starter spray in the intake and it started. After setting that long. WOW I was again impressed. I drove it home about 6 miles and lost most of the rubber on the tires. Anyway after going thru the brakes, putting new Michelin tires, changing all of the fluids I drove it a couple of years. It ran really great but the beautiful black leather interior fell apart. All of the threads were rotten. Eventually I decided I couldn't afford to restore it and sold it for $5,000K.
Next I bought a 1967 230 Fintail with a blown engine from my wife's girlfriend for $700.
She put a piston thru the cylinder wall. I had a machinist re-sleeve the bad cylinder and I re-built the engine in the garage. New pistons, rings, bearings and got a valve job on the head and put it back together and drove it for about 3 years.
It was a nice driver while we had it. I got rid of it after the tempered windshield blew up in my wife's face on the freeway. I still hear about it to this day.
Sometime in the early 90s I bought an 84 Euro 500SL for my wife to drive. It had 78K miles on it. It's a nice car but after driving it 100K miles she lost interest in it and wanted a large car to drive around her friends and wanted more protection surrounding her. So she now drives a Cadillac and the 500SL w/ 180K miles sets out front all wrapped up for the last 4 years. I still procrastinating on what to do with it.
Again in the 90s I bought a 1986 300E in Champagne w/ MBtex Tan interior with 30K miles on it. I really liked this car and drove it to 115K miles over the next 8 years. Everything was nice until I lowered it and put 17" Monoblocks on it. After that it looked great but rode like crap. I sold it about a year later loosing a lot of $$$ with all of the mods I did on it.
In between all of these Benz cars I had some brand loyalty issues. After selling the 190SL we bought 2 brand new Mitsubishi cars an 87 Starion and an 88 Galant. They were both demos with low miles. Anyway these cars both were driven to around 140K miles and were sold for nothing in the end.
I also owned a 98 Caddy STS for a while but I hated it.
Finally I got interested in the 500E in early 2,000. Believe it or not I credit Neil aka Need to Speed's website for stoking the fire. Also Scott Shell's 500Ectasy site. I started looking at 500Es for sale in SoCal. I looked at 2 or 3 at one time. One belonged to Guido aka "Italian Benz"
His car was really nice but it was lowered with H&Rs all around and on the freeway the ass end did the hula over dips.
I also looked a couple of C36s. I almost bought a Starmarked C36 but I was not ready to pull the trigger.
Next I offered Afshien $25K for his car but he wanted $27K and sold it a month later for $26K. It was immaculate w/68K miles on it.
Finally in 2004 I spotted my soon to be 500E in the Saturday edition of the Orange County Register. This was at 9:00AM in the morning. I called the guy and said I would be by around 10:00AM. This car had 89K miles on it and looked really great and even drove better. I made him an offer which he couldn't refuse. By 10:45AM I was the proud owner of my 040 1993 500E.
After 11 years of ownership and 50K miles of driving it's the best car I have ever owned. I will
not be parting with it anytime soon.
By then it had a new paint job. My wife crashed it again into a guard rail in a hail storm. This just messed up the grill and the opening. Well I found a guy who had a brand new never touched grill opening clip that my body man could use for a model to fix mine. It turned out better than before and actually helped increase the value.
Anyway what impressed me about that car stuck with me til this day. It was built like a bank vault. I sold it in 1988 for $18,000K. It was on a plane to Japan the next day.
The same guy that I got the grill opening sold me a 1964 220 SEb Euro coupe in Polar White for $3,500K. It had 4 speed on the floor, the big Euro headlights and black leather interior. It had set in his warehouse for 10 years never running once. We put in a new battery and used some starter spray in the intake and it started. After setting that long. WOW I was again impressed. I drove it home about 6 miles and lost most of the rubber on the tires. Anyway after going thru the brakes, putting new Michelin tires, changing all of the fluids I drove it a couple of years. It ran really great but the beautiful black leather interior fell apart. All of the threads were rotten. Eventually I decided I couldn't afford to restore it and sold it for $5,000K.
Next I bought a 1967 230 Fintail with a blown engine from my wife's girlfriend for $700.
She put a piston thru the cylinder wall. I had a machinist re-sleeve the bad cylinder and I re-built the engine in the garage. New pistons, rings, bearings and got a valve job on the head and put it back together and drove it for about 3 years.
It was a nice driver while we had it. I got rid of it after the tempered windshield blew up in my wife's face on the freeway. I still hear about it to this day.
Sometime in the early 90s I bought an 84 Euro 500SL for my wife to drive. It had 78K miles on it. It's a nice car but after driving it 100K miles she lost interest in it and wanted a large car to drive around her friends and wanted more protection surrounding her. So she now drives a Cadillac and the 500SL w/ 180K miles sets out front all wrapped up for the last 4 years. I still procrastinating on what to do with it.
Again in the 90s I bought a 1986 300E in Champagne w/ MBtex Tan interior with 30K miles on it. I really liked this car and drove it to 115K miles over the next 8 years. Everything was nice until I lowered it and put 17" Monoblocks on it. After that it looked great but rode like crap. I sold it about a year later loosing a lot of $$$ with all of the mods I did on it.
In between all of these Benz cars I had some brand loyalty issues. After selling the 190SL we bought 2 brand new Mitsubishi cars an 87 Starion and an 88 Galant. They were both demos with low miles. Anyway these cars both were driven to around 140K miles and were sold for nothing in the end.
I also owned a 98 Caddy STS for a while but I hated it.
Finally I got interested in the 500E in early 2,000. Believe it or not I credit Neil aka Need to Speed's website for stoking the fire. Also Scott Shell's 500Ectasy site. I started looking at 500Es for sale in SoCal. I looked at 2 or 3 at one time. One belonged to Guido aka "Italian Benz"
His car was really nice but it was lowered with H&Rs all around and on the freeway the ass end did the hula over dips.
I also looked a couple of C36s. I almost bought a Starmarked C36 but I was not ready to pull the trigger.
Next I offered Afshien $25K for his car but he wanted $27K and sold it a month later for $26K. It was immaculate w/68K miles on it.
Finally in 2004 I spotted my soon to be 500E in the Saturday edition of the Orange County Register. This was at 9:00AM in the morning. I called the guy and said I would be by around 10:00AM. This car had 89K miles on it and looked really great and even drove better. I made him an offer which he couldn't refuse. By 10:45AM I was the proud owner of my 040 1993 500E.
After 11 years of ownership and 50K miles of driving it's the best car I have ever owned. I will
not be parting with it anytime soon.
I really wanted it bad but $25K was the limit at the time. At another time, it might have happened and that beautiful car would still be in SoCal.
It went to Pennsylvania and disappeared. I don't think it's been seen since. At least I'm not aware of it being out there anywhere. Makes you wonder what happened to it?????
I think it's in somebody's private collection.
Maybe Afshin knows. He pops up here once in a while.
Gerry, that is a good idea !
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