Hi all! I'm brand new to the forum. I've been "lurking" for some time and because of all that I have read I'm taking the plunge tomorrow! I have a '97 S500 going to Stead Mercedes in Walnut Creek, CA for a pre-purchase inspection. The car is black on black, 88K on the miles and seems to be in remarkable shape. I drove it for about 45 minutes and was VERY impressed. Doors, locks, wipers, stereo, suspension (non- accumulator) all performed flawlessly. The independent dealer is asking $21.9K for the car. Tires are new, it has a clean CarFax and I can't detect any body work anywhere on the car (save for an epoxied crack in the front air dam. Assuming the car checks out tomorrow, what do you guys think?? The price to me seems right in the ball park.
Any comments would be greatly appreciated!
Paul [8D]
Welcome to the forum. The price seems quite reasonable for this car, quite good in fact, of course, depending on condition. Save another $1,000 for fluid changes, air filter changes, spark plugs and odds and ends as soon as as you purchase so you can keep track of records henceforth.
Yeah thats what I thought. My only reservation is that all the service records are missing. I think if the car checks out this will give me a little bargaining chip and might be able to knock off that thousand dollars to use on getting the car up to snuff.
Paul
If you can't get the dealer to knock off the $1K, you might be able to bargain for the services to be performed before you take delivery. The $1K value to you only cost the dealer a fraction of that to perform. Dealers are much more willing to bargain services like that instead of cold hard ca$h. If I recall, the 90K service is quite expensive.
The local Mercedes dealership contacted me this afternoon and said they found a few things that needed to be addressed. Both motor mounts needed to be replaced, the left side valve cover had a small leak and the forward tow hook cover was missing. Additionally, the moon roof will only open about half way and there is a burned out light bulb in the instrument cluster. All said and told, the damage came to about $1500. The Mercedes tech said that other than the aforementioned issues, the car was in excellent shape. My local independent, MBI Motors in Portland, OR. quoted me about $850 for the same work. The seller knocked $1900 of the price. So I picked it up for $20000 even.
I picked up a '97 S600 (same miles) for $21500 from a used dealer (not Mercedes) that had a few issues totalling about what yours had. I'd say your price from a Mercedes dealer is not bad.
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