Discussion
"Picture me rolling in my 500 600 Benz" 
I always knew that the 600 Mercedes of this era had a V12, but it wasn't until a little over a year ago that I found out that for the 2002 model update, the old 5.8L V12 was ‘downsized’ in favor of 5.4L V12 with two turbos bolted on for good measure. The resulting performance even when weighed down by 2.2ton of barge is impressive. 0-60 in 4.5 seconds, 0-100MPH in 9.3Seconds, ¼ mile in 12.5sec and a 180MPH+ Top speed. And they had depreciated to a point where I couldn’t think of a way of going quicker on 4 wheel for less, but had the performance in a fairly nondescript barge. I wanted one very badly.
Unfortunately they don’t come up for sale cheap for very often. In fact I found myself waiting over a year for a car to come up within budget, at Christmas of all times. As much as I had managed to convince/delude myself into thinking the stories of eye watering running costs were over egged in the months leading up to looking for one, now there was an actual car to go and buy I was hesitant, fearful that the stories of £2,000 suspension pumps and £1,000 per bank coil packs were going to come true all at once. I had cold feet.
Then one lunch break, idly checking eBay I noticed that the car I had been considering had its buy it now price on this car had been slashed to far below what I’d ever get off with the cheekiest of haggles. While a sudden drop in price should have probably been a warning sign at that point I wasn’t really thinking about anything other than the words 'V12', 'Twin Trubo' and 'CHEAP'. I mashed that blue ‘BUY IT NOW’ button as quickly as my phone would allow...
The car is a 2003 Mercedes S600L that 13 years and 156,000 miles ago cost £95,000!
Despite the massive risk the car has turned out to be a decent buy. While the bodywork and interior do need some tidying and TLC there is no rust and all the toys work, and being Mercedes flagship non AMG saloon at the time, there are a lot of toys! No Fridge though
. It does have Keyless Go and a power boot that I will never tire of!
While the comfortable, well speced barge part of the car is a welcome, the real reason behind buying the car was to scare myself with that engine, which I’m pleased to report, is just as spritely as the performance figures suggest. Even my 380BHP Soarer couldn’t prepare me for the way this thing puts on speed. From a dead stop it’s brisk, but the weight and traction issues make it a difficult car to get going quickly. Once it’s rolling though, the wide spread of torque means it just keeps on pulling and pulling and the numbers keep building and building before fear of losing your license, freedom or life makes you relent. I bloody love it!
As for the crippling unreliability… I did have to press a few buttons on my laptop to turn off the Secondary air injection system because it occasionally threw a EML when it was very cold outside, and I’m not bothered enough about emissions/the environment to actually fix the problem. That’s it. The car has worked from the day I got it 4 months ago to today flawlessly.
Plans are to put some money into the car and make it into a long termer. I can’t think of a single car that I’d replace it with short of something like a F10 M5 or C7 RS6 which will probably never be in my price range nothing seems like much of an upgrade in terms of speed, and short of needing something massively more economical (9-12MPG City, 20ish on the Motorway…), I don’t know why I’d get rid, so I am happy to spend a little on getting it nice.
Oh, and in case anyone was wondering what that Buy it now price was. £3,200
.
Any input is welcome!
Thanks
I always knew that the 600 Mercedes of this era had a V12, but it wasn't until a little over a year ago that I found out that for the 2002 model update, the old 5.8L V12 was ‘downsized’ in favor of 5.4L V12 with two turbos bolted on for good measure. The resulting performance even when weighed down by 2.2ton of barge is impressive. 0-60 in 4.5 seconds, 0-100MPH in 9.3Seconds, ¼ mile in 12.5sec and a 180MPH+ Top speed. And they had depreciated to a point where I couldn’t think of a way of going quicker on 4 wheel for less, but had the performance in a fairly nondescript barge. I wanted one very badly.
Unfortunately they don’t come up for sale cheap for very often. In fact I found myself waiting over a year for a car to come up within budget, at Christmas of all times. As much as I had managed to convince/delude myself into thinking the stories of eye watering running costs were over egged in the months leading up to looking for one, now there was an actual car to go and buy I was hesitant, fearful that the stories of £2,000 suspension pumps and £1,000 per bank coil packs were going to come true all at once. I had cold feet.
Then one lunch break, idly checking eBay I noticed that the car I had been considering had its buy it now price on this car had been slashed to far below what I’d ever get off with the cheekiest of haggles. While a sudden drop in price should have probably been a warning sign at that point I wasn’t really thinking about anything other than the words 'V12', 'Twin Trubo' and 'CHEAP'. I mashed that blue ‘BUY IT NOW’ button as quickly as my phone would allow...
The car is a 2003 Mercedes S600L that 13 years and 156,000 miles ago cost £95,000!
Despite the massive risk the car has turned out to be a decent buy. While the bodywork and interior do need some tidying and TLC there is no rust and all the toys work, and being Mercedes flagship non AMG saloon at the time, there are a lot of toys! No Fridge though
. It does have Keyless Go and a power boot that I will never tire of!While the comfortable, well speced barge part of the car is a welcome, the real reason behind buying the car was to scare myself with that engine, which I’m pleased to report, is just as spritely as the performance figures suggest. Even my 380BHP Soarer couldn’t prepare me for the way this thing puts on speed. From a dead stop it’s brisk, but the weight and traction issues make it a difficult car to get going quickly. Once it’s rolling though, the wide spread of torque means it just keeps on pulling and pulling and the numbers keep building and building before fear of losing your license, freedom or life makes you relent. I bloody love it!
As for the crippling unreliability… I did have to press a few buttons on my laptop to turn off the Secondary air injection system because it occasionally threw a EML when it was very cold outside, and I’m not bothered enough about emissions/the environment to actually fix the problem. That’s it. The car has worked from the day I got it 4 months ago to today flawlessly.
Plans are to put some money into the car and make it into a long termer. I can’t think of a single car that I’d replace it with short of something like a F10 M5 or C7 RS6 which will probably never be in my price range nothing seems like much of an upgrade in terms of speed, and short of needing something massively more economical (9-12MPG City, 20ish on the Motorway…), I don’t know why I’d get rid, so I am happy to spend a little on getting it nice.
Oh, and in case anyone was wondering what that Buy it now price was. £3,200
.Any input is welcome!
Thanks
Edited by 279 on Monday 9th May 19:39
Took a lot of water to swallow the massive brave pills requred I imagine? 
Fantastic car, would love one, but they are three times as expensive to buy in Sweden and very very rare.
I've had 3 e38 750's and V12 are fantastic, but the big Beemer is hardly faster than an onder Golf GTI, I imagine this is very very much faster.
Fantastic car, would love one, but they are three times as expensive to buy in Sweden and very very rare.
I've had 3 e38 750's and V12 are fantastic, but the big Beemer is hardly faster than an onder Golf GTI, I imagine this is very very much faster.
Amazing, obviously seen this in 'the' other thread but hadn't quite realised you'd had it a while now and picked it up for so little. I've only had my CL500 a month but really want to try a 600 to see what it is like. A bit like wanting to try an M5 when I had my 540i - one day I will buy the proper one!
I love the way there are rare anomalies like this in the Mercedes back catalog, most of these are 320 diesels or the odd 500 V8, then there is this lunacy, I have done 350 miles in my 388 bhp CLS 500 today and the wallop it provides when you plant your foot at 90 still amazes me, god only knows what this is like, and, having had a nosey, they did a faster one, the S65 AMG with 600 odd bhp, oh and you can remap them, amazing to get something like that for three and a bit grand.
Max M4X WW said:
Amazing, obviously seen this in 'the' other thread but hadn't quite realised you'd had it a while now and picked it up for so little. I've only had my CL500 a month but really want to try a 600 to see what it is like. A bit like wanting to try an M5 when I had my 540i - one day I will buy the proper one!
he he, knew it was just a matter of time before you popped up Max! How's the CL?Brilliant bargain btw OP! At that price, a gigantic bill and just walking away isn't TOO painful....
Incredible amount of car for the money paid - well done for taking the plunge.
It's on some of my favourite OEM wheels too, those Segin monoblocks. Such a well thought out design on S Classes of this vintage - can't say I feel the same about any of the models since, perhaps apart from some of the updated interior elements.
The last time I saw an S600 it was stuck to the floor having suffered Airmatic trouble, and the previous owner was looking for £2,500 as a quick sell. Although I was sorely tempted I couldn't (and still can't) justify the running costs and potentially ruinous bills of a bad example. Genuinely looking forward to progress on this one!
It's on some of my favourite OEM wheels too, those Segin monoblocks. Such a well thought out design on S Classes of this vintage - can't say I feel the same about any of the models since, perhaps apart from some of the updated interior elements.
The last time I saw an S600 it was stuck to the floor having suffered Airmatic trouble, and the previous owner was looking for £2,500 as a quick sell. Although I was sorely tempted I couldn't (and still can't) justify the running costs and potentially ruinous bills of a bad example. Genuinely looking forward to progress on this one!
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