Went looking at a couple of W210s sedans with 4Matic, not something that’s common around here.
First one: https://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/cto/d/valrico-1999-mercedes-benz-e320-4matic/7207020887.html <https://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/cto/d/valrico-1999-mercedes-benz-e320-4matic/7207020887.html> Pretty solid, mostly Florida car, guy is clearly a flipper and I called him out on it (nicely.) I don’t care, flipping is fine with me as long as the price is reasonable for the car. Exterior is good, interior probably an 8 out of 10. When he got the car it needed a conductor plate and connector body as well as front axles, which he’s done himself. Car drives well, everything works from what I can tell. I haven’t seen the VMI on it yet, hoping to get one before the end of the day. Don’t know what his position is on price. Looks like it’s got three accidents reported against it, none major (“no damage reported”) except one in 10/2018 which appears to have been repaired at the dealer in Sarasota. I might go for this one if I could get it for maybe $2800. Number two: https://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/cto/d/dunedin-2001-mercedes-benz-e320-4matic/7211065337.html <https://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/cto/d/dunedin-2001-mercedes-benz-e320-4matic/7211065337.html> Looks nice, doesn’t it? This is a classic example of pictures not telling the whole story. I was pretty stoked about this one, as it looked nice. As soon as I saw the VMI I knew it would be a bust, but I figured I would look just in case - you never know unless you look, right? Delivered in NY, went to Chicago, was up North until 2017. Interestingly, the miles put on the car while it was in Chicago were really low, like less than 3,000/year. This was encouraging, as I was hoping that maybe it was a summer car for a snowbird. No such luck. While it presented well in pictures, I could look into the corners of the front of the engine compartment and see rust. Perforations in undercarriage metal from rust. Surprisingly, the first place I looked was door bottoms, and they were surprisingly clean. But underneath the car was a whole ‘nother story. On top of the front fenders the paint was flaking off, too, something you can’t see in the pictures. I gave the car a cursory once-over to be polite and respectful about the guy’s time, but immediately crossed it off the list. And also - it had a CEL and BAS/ABS lights, which of course the seller failed to mention. “My mechanic said it’s something that’s got to do with the wheel sensors”, he said. Yeah, I’ll bet every one of them is rusty. Pass. I’m giving some serious thought on the first one until I can see the VMI. If it was pranged and the dealer fixed it, I’m fine with that. I didn’t see any indication of body repairs, so whoever did the work did it well. And I would add that the seller disclosed the accident reports when he showed me the car, as he had a CarFax for it that I didn’t look at. Hmm. -D _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
