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I recently had a close relatives husband pass away. She asked if I wanted to buy his car. It’s a 1995 S500 Mercedes with 110,000 miles. V8 gas not diesel the car is in meticulous shape and well maintained. Price is dirt cheap 4k. Currently driving a 2003 Crown vic with 97,000 miles. Great shape well maintained. Paint is peeling is spots but no mechanical issues. Car is a daily driver runs great 23/24 mpg.
Either car is going to be a daily driver 35/36k a year. I was gonna buy it drive it for a while see how I like it and if I don’t I’ll sell it. The few times I drove it it was a nice ride.
While it has “electronics” it’s nothing like a newer Mercedes. As far as working in them I got no issues working on something that old. I know the Crown vic is absolutely ridiculously cheap abd easy to work on as it’s a really no frills car. Rides great I like the car just fine so it’s not a must get rid of it’s a pile of junk. I don’t need a car with a bunch of whiz bang stuff.
What say hivemind? Buy try or pass altogether? She has three other buyers lined up if I pass so the car will be sold easily
Keep the CV. The best quote I've ever hold about buying an old BMW: "You're not buying a $10K car, you're buying a $30K car that will need $20K worth of work."
I recently had a close relatives husband pass away. She asked if I wanted to buy his car. It’s a 1995 S500 Mercedes with 110,000 miles. V8 gas not diesel the car is in meticulous shape and well maintained. Price is dirt cheap 4k. Currently driving a 2003 Crown vic with 97,000 miles. Great shape well maintained. Paint is peeling is spots but no mechanical issues. Car is a daily driver runs great 23/24 mpg.
Either car is going to be a daily driver 35/36k a year. I was gonna buy it drive it for a while see how I like it and if I don’t I’ll sell it. The few times I drove it it was a nice ride.
While it has “electronics” it’s nothing like a newer Mercedes. As far as working in them I got no issues working on something that old. I know the Crown vic is absolutely ridiculously cheap abd easy to work on as it’s a really no frills car. Rides great I like the car just fine so it’s not a must get rid of it’s a pile of junk. I don’t need a car with a bunch of whiz bang stuff.
What say hivemind? Buy try or pass altogether? She has three other buyers lined up if I pass so the car will be sold easily
I wouldn't buy that Mercedes. Your crown Victoria has fewer miles, repairs are much cheaper if you need them.
You definitely don't want to daily drive that old Mercedes.
95 is an old M car. Based on what your wrote, it would be a hard pass for me. Enjoy the Crown Vic and be done with it. Even if you sell, you're not going to make a lot of money vs your time to sell, IMO.
Put me down as fourth in line, if the others pass. Several "old wife's tales" about Mercedes Benz that you want to remember...
1.) Never purchase a used Mercedes Benz without inspecting the maintenance book. To ascertain that the regularly scheduled maintenance has been performed. Sounds like this auto has been maintained correctly.
2.) Never own a Mercedes Benz newer than 1995 because before that, they were designed and built by engineers . . . after that, they were designed and built by accountants.
For a very well maintained, good condition car like that S500, I'd be all over it yesterday. Yes, expensive to maintain, and running premium gasoline is not cheap; but the S-class are awesome automobiles, even the older models.
p.s. I'm still in mourning about giving away my '89 Mercedes 300CE coupé several years ago. I miss that thing!
The only real issue I found was some have a wiring harness that gets killed by under hood heat. Some are repaired some are replaced. I’m not sure if they replaced their harness I’m summing they did but will find out
Other than that from what I read these things are built like a brick outhouse. It’s also old enough that working on it isn’t s hard a the new ones but being old enough that some parts are probably hard to come by.
I may buy it just to tool around on weekends a while then sell it. I’m not sure yet. These rent usually the type of cars I drive. As far as working on them...some parts are probably more but the typical wear items brakes shocks rotors filters are average price.
For $4,000? I'd buy it in a heartbeat and enjoy it. Those older MB's with the 500 V8's are absolute tanks and will easily hit 500k miles with minimal issue. I'm not saying they're a Toyota Corolla, but they're nothing, and I mean nothing, like an older BMW (or newer for that matter). Heavy duty steel parts, nuts and bolts instead of plastics and clips.
What you're likely to face are aged gaskets and seals.
I had an old co-worker who lives in Newport Beach who had one those MB's as his daily driver. Last I saw of him was around 2010 and he still had it. Was approaching 150k miles back then, and I hear he still has it and drives it all the time. Refuses to spend the money to replace it because there is nothing quite like it to replace it with anymore.
It won't be too long before the MB loyalists start to consider them collector classics as well. They're already starting to view the SL's of that era in that category and prices are starting to increase a bit for well maintained ones. Me personally, I'd love to have a mid-90's MB SL500 myself, if I had somewhere to actually put it.
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