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Originally Posted by lkchris An E500 may have problems with a current diesel! |
In some performance aspects the new BlueTec Diesel will give the 500E a good run but in build quality of the car, not even close. The new 211 chassis cars will be recycled into Camry bumpers while the 124 chassis will still be going. Even with known rust areas on the 500Es, and there are two that count that body is stronger than any of the newer cars.
After Katrina I bought a 93 500E [The Katrina Project] and a 2002 S600, both which had been submerged for a week, right next to each other. I bought the cars in April 06 [7 months later] and brought them to Kentucky. Both cars sat another three months before any work could be done on either.
When we started stripping the two cars down, we found that the S600 was rusted to the point that we were only able to salvage some suspension parts, some engine parts and some other small parts. All of the chassis and body parts were rusted beyond salvage.
The 500E [which had 220,000 miles], on the other hand was stripped down to base components. We lost all electronics, wiring, interior and transmission as expected but the body and motor are still solid as a rock. Only rust was on a place in the right rear fender area where a fender bender had not been fixed correctly in the past. That got fixed, the entire chemically cleaned and resealed and that body is ready for another 250,000 miles.
We just about broke even on the S600. The 500 is being built into the Shop's showcase car, with tweaks.