After some feed back from the vast knowledgeable brains on this site please.

I have a Mercedes 500SE 4 door saloon left by a relative who is no longer with us, it is a 1989 model 5.0ltr V8 automatic with 189000 miles on the clock, the body work has a small amount of front wing rust and the metalic paint is dull and in places is peeling, a garage has had a look and said the discs are badly rusted and pitted, but mechanically not bad for age (that could mean anything) the interia is dark blue leather with heated electric seats but the leather is cracked and the walnut wood needs re varnishing.
Who would buy a car like this and were would i find out what kind of money i would get for it.

Trawling Autotrader, pistonheads and maybe the Merc forums would be your best bet for valuing the car. It can't be worth much though!

I'd be tempted to loaf around in it for a while if you can manage the fuel bills

try retro rides forum

if it had been MOTed on the road and lower mileage it might be attract a buyer otherwise car crushing value unless you can find some merc owner who wants it for parts. Pity the old merc V8 ws a nice engine.

I had a couple of these Merc W126 series S class cars, they are really great to drive with proper road presence- if only i had the space i would make you an offer.

They are great solid cars that are really easy to work on and have unburstable engines, especially the V8s. The 5 litre was between 240 and 265 bhp depending on spec.

The front wings and rear arches can be prone to rust but less so than a lot of cars of that era and are really easy to repair. All parts are availble either new through MB dealers or much cheaper 2nd hand from specialist breakers and on Ebay. There is a lot of online knowledge and information about these cars and they are actually very cheap to keep on the road compared to most modern classics.

2nd hand interiors are easy to get hold of. Brake discs arent really worth a mention as they aren't expensive to buy new and like any discs can always be skimmed by someone who can use a thae and wants a tenner.

A couple of years ago series MOT failed W126 SE and SELs were being bought for their running gear as this is shared with the SEC soupes and the much more valuable series R107 SL convertibles. Some were also transplanting the V8s into the smaller W123 cars which could take a V8 but were never made with one.
Since then though the price of well looked after examples has gone up so there are now people buying average condition ones to restore and sell on.


If you have somewhere undercover I'd suggest keeping it for a few years as it will only go up in value. The smaller, but very similar shaped W123 saloons ( 200 to 280E etc) are now worth serious money and the W126 S class will doubtless be following.

Ive still got a pile of spares taking up space including a bonnet, bootlid, pair of headlamps, window regulators, door cards etc.

Forgot to mention it is MOT'd has been every year although just sat on a drive for past 5 years, and needed a set of new tyres because they cracked with not being used, what a waste of money but hey ho he loved that car and thought it would be worth a fortune one day.

how much would you be after?

can you upload some pictures ?

glorious old wafters. still regret not buying a powder blue v8 from a local dealer with a mate years ago.

and no... wife would definitely kill me if i remedied that error now!

How much do i want £10.000 would be nice oh but iv'e just come back to earth with a bang, at the moment haven't got a clue probably not a lot.
Ill upload some over the week end if i can i do struggle with uploading photo's.

Dave.

Would be interested to see some pics and hear a price too.

Nice DONOR !

not a long wheelbase version ?

I had a 1988 420se which I sold about 4/5 years ago. Sold without MOT, 128000, OK condition, £800. Could of sold it several times over. Value will only go up on these, wish I could of kept mine

[Edited on 8/3/13 by Flick]