Mercedes-Benz Forum banner

This has caught my eye

799 views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  graftdesign 
#1 ·
A 1987 W126 560SEL in not so bad condition

What do you guys think? If anyone has a carfax, would you mind running it on this car?

Also, the guy said in the description that the transmission shifted form 4th to 3rd sometimes, randomly I assume and the exhaust needs to be replaced (that's ok, I would want to spend the money to upgrade it, to articulate a deep rumble and refined rumble from the back) and usually isn't that expensive or hard.

But I'm worried about the transmission.

What also made it catch my eye was the relatively low miles for the kind of car it is, 134k and it's in the town only 2 minutes from me. So far, I still need to find out where exactly he lives and might see the car inperson. What too catches my eye is the price....

but the price is making me wonder...which is why, if anyone can run a carfax as a favor, I would greatly appreciate it.

I might ask my family friend's benz specialist to help me inspect the car (he's reputable in the area as being the best).

Any insight and advice would be hugely hugely appreciated.
 
See less See more
#4 ·
Someone on this board has a saying "Theres nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes". Definately a truism. Unless you have access to cheap replacement parts and do your own labor I would NOT pick this one. Chances are if the things listed have been neglected, so have some of the more major components and the cost or repairs can quickly exceed the value of the car in no time. If the interior and body was in better shape... I would do it.
 
#5 ·
Ok, I was able to see the car in person. On few parts of the car, there were alot of scratches and there was a 2 inch rust bubble under the front right turn signal.

It looked like he backed into something, but it wasn't horrible.

I was told by a friend that body work is the easy part...but since it's a Mercedes, it'll probably cost alot.

The paint wasn't bad besides the scratches and stuff...

The interior looked alot better...it was just a little dirty.

I was going to have my friend's MB specialist inspect the car and was going to have the guy selling it, start it up. the owner just said the exhaust needs replacement.

I would do my own labor...but it depends on how difficult it is.

Should I just not bother?
 
#6 ·
It has neglect writen all over it. Chances are if they let the body go and didn't maintain body dings/dents they more than likely didnt take care of the engine/mechanicals either. Folks that love their cars take care of them meticulously.

I purchased my 90 sel recently (128k) and paid a bit higher for it ($5,500) as the ones in the 3-4k range looked like huge money pits with very obvious problems. I hindsight I feel I should have bought one even better for a few dollars more. In general it's a pretty nice car... very clean.. but with normal body wear and tear for its age. However after I got the car things started to materialize that were'nt very obvious or I didnt know what to look for. Mainly a small leak in the head gasket, cracked ball joint seal cover, pin-hole leaks in the muffler and possibly suspension issues. Normal maintenance issues really for its age.

I can't stress enough, buy the best you can afford or pay alot more later to get it right. Unfortunately I didnt know about this site until after I purchased my car on e-bay. I'm not sorry I bought my car I just could have found a better one for a few thousand more had I known what to look for. Bottom line, its very easy to exceed the purchase price of a neglected car in repairs by a factor of 4-5! As an example I contemplated a new paint job and got estimates of $4k to $5k! I would like a perfect paint job. Instead I am going to do touch-ups as I can't see spending that kind of dough. I saw near perfect paint jobs on cars in the 8-9k range and would have been much further ahead as cars in that range usually have better maintenance and even upgrades like nice rims, etc.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top