So what do I do with a retired E430?
Discussion
Firstly: this is not a for sale advert.
My Merc has a bit of a story attached to it. She was given to me as part of a business deal; now at the time she'd had a rear-end shunt, nothing too hard, but needed a rear panel, bootlid and boot floor. I owned a bodyshop, so not a big problem. It cost me around £2k retail to get her back on the road, but the car had a private plate which recouped me £1800. I was happy and for the last 4 years she's been my daily driver, taking the mileage up from 120k to a nudge under 150k with the only expense being a a viscous fan and an aircon recharge. As an E430 she has leather and electric everything as well as wafty V8, wallowy ride, original AMG Monoblock allosy and an original Merc Sat Nav CD/Radio.
Now this car has no service book or 2nd set of keys. The original owner who gifted me the car was getting divorced and these items got lost in the inevitable chaos that ensued.
3 weeks ago someone kindly scraped the front wing and has written me a cheque for £700 for the repairs (I no longer own a bodyshop). Last week, one of the front tyres punctured and is unrepairable. So I need a pair (as both were around 3mm left) of fronts. This will set me back £300'ish. I'm running on the spare at the mo.
I don't need it any more as I pick up a new (to me) vehicle this week. So I could just pocket the £700 and not buy tyres in which case I'm up a grand, then sell the AMG's and SatNav CD/Radio and get another £400 (?) The rest goes to the scrappy.
or
I could get it repaired for £700, spend another £300 on tyres and sell it. But for what? It's a 150k mile, no service history V8 petrol guzzling barge. Probably only worth £1500 in which case I gain £100 for a whole load of faff and the chance that someone will offer less than I paid on the repairs.
So what do the masses think - Repair and flog or break?
My Merc has a bit of a story attached to it. She was given to me as part of a business deal; now at the time she'd had a rear-end shunt, nothing too hard, but needed a rear panel, bootlid and boot floor. I owned a bodyshop, so not a big problem. It cost me around £2k retail to get her back on the road, but the car had a private plate which recouped me £1800. I was happy and for the last 4 years she's been my daily driver, taking the mileage up from 120k to a nudge under 150k with the only expense being a a viscous fan and an aircon recharge. As an E430 she has leather and electric everything as well as wafty V8, wallowy ride, original AMG Monoblock allosy and an original Merc Sat Nav CD/Radio.
Now this car has no service book or 2nd set of keys. The original owner who gifted me the car was getting divorced and these items got lost in the inevitable chaos that ensued.
3 weeks ago someone kindly scraped the front wing and has written me a cheque for £700 for the repairs (I no longer own a bodyshop). Last week, one of the front tyres punctured and is unrepairable. So I need a pair (as both were around 3mm left) of fronts. This will set me back £300'ish. I'm running on the spare at the mo.
I don't need it any more as I pick up a new (to me) vehicle this week. So I could just pocket the £700 and not buy tyres in which case I'm up a grand, then sell the AMG's and SatNav CD/Radio and get another £400 (?) The rest goes to the scrappy.
or
I could get it repaired for £700, spend another £300 on tyres and sell it. But for what? It's a 150k mile, no service history V8 petrol guzzling barge. Probably only worth £1500 in which case I gain £100 for a whole load of faff and the chance that someone will offer less than I paid on the repairs.
So what do the masses think - Repair and flog or break?
The paint Looks good, did it have a full respray?
A bit of me wants to buy this, if only to use for a month. But given that I just bought a bicycle to save money on the 2 mile commute I do in a Peugeot 206, it doesn't seem all that sensible of me. If it's still reliable then it's not depreciating and is sort of a sensible barge for anyone not doing loads of miles.
A bit of me wants to buy this, if only to use for a month. But given that I just bought a bicycle to save money on the 2 mile commute I do in a Peugeot 206, it doesn't seem all that sensible of me. If it's still reliable then it's not depreciating and is sort of a sensible barge for anyone not doing loads of miles.
Pentoman said:
The paint Looks good, did it have a full respray?
A bit of me wants to buy this, if only to use for a month. But given that I just bought a bicycle to save money on the 2 mile commute I do in a Peugeot 206, it doesn't seem all that sensible of me. If it's still reliable then it's not depreciating and is sort of a sensible barge for anyone not doing loads of miles.
Not a full respray, but the back-end was painted, with a blend into the rear doors.A bit of me wants to buy this, if only to use for a month. But given that I just bought a bicycle to save money on the 2 mile commute I do in a Peugeot 206, it doesn't seem all that sensible of me. If it's still reliable then it's not depreciating and is sort of a sensible barge for anyone not doing loads of miles.
Anyway. Full advert, with pictures, and link to loads more on Flickr is now at:
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1861801.htm
Got to be a contender for SOTW surely
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