Find or Sell Used Cars, Trucks, and SUVs in USA

1992 Mercedes-benz 500sel W140 Sedan on 2040-cars

Year:1992 Mileage:295800 Color: Silver /
 Gray
Location:

Orland Park, Illinois, United States

Orland Park, Illinois, United States
Vehicle Title:Clear
Engine:5.0L 8 Cylinder Gasoline Fuel
Transmission:Automatic
For Sale By:Private Seller
Body Type:Sedan
Fuel Type:GAS
VIN: wdbga51e9na024834 Year: 1992
Exterior Color: Silver
Make: Mercedes-Benz
Interior Color: Gray
Model: 500-Series
Warranty: Vehicle does NOT have an existing warranty
Trim: Base Sedan 4-Door
Options: Sunroof, Cassette Player, Leather Seats, CD Player
Drive Type: RWD
Safety Features: Anti-Lock Brakes, Driver Airbag, Passenger Airbag
Power Options: Air Conditioning, Cruise Control, Power Locks, Power Windows, Power Seats
Number of Cylinders: 8
Mileage: 295,800
Condition: Used: A vehicle is considered used if it has been registered and issued a title. Used vehicles have had at least one previous owner. The condition of the exterior, interior and engine can vary depending on the vehicle's history. See the seller's listing for full details and description of any imperfections. ... 

This 1992 500SEL has been known and driven by me since it was purchased 7/15/93 with 14,814 miles from Team Motorsports in Springfield, MO, by a very good friend of the family.  Over the years, we have serviced it properly and it was done on a corporate account for essentially its entire life.  I'm including every service receipt from July 1993 to date.  No expense was spared in keeping it in solid working order.  The car is in excellent cosmetic condition - the pictures do not do it justice.  The leather is soft, not punctured.  Mechanically, the car runs and drives better than any W140 I have driven.  The power is still there and the car performs as it has for the past 20 years for us.


Everything works.  The car has power seats, heated seats, lumbar, cold air, warm air, incredible power steering, a built in Escort SR1 radar that is a phenomenal unit.  I know technology has improved over the years, but for the average highway patrol, this unit seeks out the cops well in advance.  The Becker radio was just serviced by Becker Auto Sound, and has an auxiliary input jack (pictured).  The transmission was rebuilt in 2005 at around 205,000 miles.  The same shop rebuilt it again, under warranty, at around 275,000 miles in 2011, as a courtesy to me, because there was a jerking shift between 1 and 2.  The new transmission operates flawlessly.

The car is incredibly clean, as indicated in the pictures.  The car has been detailed constantly, most recently about three months ago.  It was repainted by a shop in Indianapolis about six years ago, and I'd call it above average overall.  There are some marks on the rear bumper courtesy of a hit and run a few weeks ago.  Additionally, some of the paint is peeling on the exterior mirrors.  Other than that, the body is quite nice and it is a solid, clean car.  It doesn't look like it has anywhere near the mileage it does.  It appears to have a fraction of the actual mileage.

The bad part: the engine is leaking or blowing out oil.  This surfaced over the past two years, indicated by abnormal oil consumption and smoke blowing.  At speeds of 75mph and greater, when the car is cresting a hill, an excessive amount of white smoke comes out of the back end.  It's not clear as to exactly how the oil is leaving the car.  In my experience, the oil comes out of the back end uniformly, and not the exhaust - so it's not contained to just the left side of the car - it's almost as if oil is leaking from the engine onto the exhaust and getting burned off that way.  I say this, but I am absolutely no mechanic and don't know what is going on.  In the city, consumption is about a quart every 700 miles.  On the highway, with high speeds, the consumption or leakage increases to a quart every 250-300 miles.

My reason for selling is the oil problem.  In the past six months, I have spent $4000 on maintenance items: new catalytic converter, new power steering pump, oil leakage corrected, valve cover gaskets resealed, and a host of other items.  Immediately prior to the expenditure, I was concerned about compression and had a test.  All cylinders were at least 195, and many were over 200.  My mechanic told me he was convinced that the car would not have good compression, but not surprisingly, the engine is in great shape.  He repeated the test to verify and found that indeed, the engine has excellent compression.  It makes sense because the power is always there.

I never intended to sell the car, but at the prospect of another $3000 plus (I am fearing it is a leaking head gasket, but won't know unless we tear the engine apart), that may or may not fix the oil leakage problem (it took nearly a year for my mechanic to replicate the issue while driving the car himself as it is not a constant occurrence).  At this point also, I am exhausted from the back and forth to my mechanic.  I've been chasing a problem for two years, while still driving the car, pouring money into it, and I still have issues.  This is the perfect car for someone who is a DIYer, or someone who has more than one vehicle at their disposal.  I am not one of those people.  The situation kills me, as I could be out of the woods for three years if I fix the car, or I may not.  In the end, my frustration has gotten the best of me.

If you are willing to put up with or fix this oil problem, this is one of the nicest W140s out there.  The body and interior are really very nice.  The mechanicals have been well maintained and everything works.  Compression is excellent and you will be hard-pressed to find a car with better service history - you would be hard pressed to find a W140 with a service history, and even if you get a complete service history, I guarantee you that no car has been attended to better than this one.  The records show consistent maintenance since 15,000 miles.  I truly hope the new owner takes care of this car and enjoys it like we have.  For now, despite all the attachment I have to this car, it is time to move on.  

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Auto blog

Mercedes has already booked 30k orders for new S-Class

Mon, 21 Oct 2013

When Toyota snags 30,000 Corolla orders over a three-month span, it's entirely possible we're in the midst of a global economic collapse and that the end is nigh. That's because the scale for Toyota is so very large. Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, operates on a much smaller scale, particularly when we talk about its higher-end models, like the S-Class.
In 2012, Mercedes sold 65,000 of its flagship sedans in Germany and the EU. That's 178 units per day, for 365 days. Based on that, you can imagine the excitement at Stuttgart when it accepted 30,000 orders for the new S-Class in just three months. That's an average of 333 per day on a continent with a notoriously shaky economy. Now, admittedly, this enthusiasm could wane as the refitted S-Class becomes more common and Mercedes achieves market saturation in Europe's many chauffeur and livery services, but Mercedes isn't choosing to look at it that way.
"The new S-Class has already jumped back into the lead in terms of new vehicle registrations in Germany and its neighboring European countries," Mercedes-Benz head of sales and marketing, Ola Kaellenius, said in a statement last week.

Mercedes widens luxury sales gap on strong early CLA demand

Wed, 02 Oct 2013

Mercedes-Benz CLA sales have been booming, with the Stuttgart-based manufacturer moving 2,300 of the sleek four-doors in its first week on sale. That is astonishing. Mercedes moved nearly twice as many CLAs (which start at $29,900) in one week than Jaguar, a brand that is on a very solid roll, sold in all of September. Ignoring the price differences between the Jag line and the CLA, that is still wildly impressive.
Mercedes has been pushing the CLA in television ads, using a shortened version of its Super Bowl spot, which starred William Dafoe, Usher and Kate Upton. "As the bargain entrance into the Mercedes portfolio, we weren't sure how luxury buyers would react," Kelly Blue Book auto analyst Alec Gutierrez told Bloomberg.
The CLA push was just part of MB's 6.7-percent increase in September sales, which were also helped along by a 17-percent jump in E-Class sales. That surge has allowed Mercedes to widen its 2013 sales lead over its rival, BMW, to 2,491 cars, according to Bloomberg. If CLA sales continue at this rate, we can only expect that margin to grow.

Mercedes FWD platform to last until 2018, convertible and two-seater future uncertain

Mon, 22 Jul 2013

Mercedes-Benz seems to be expecting a lot of success from its front-wheel-drive CLA-Class. Automotive News is reporting that the sub-C-Class sedan could grow when its second generation arrives in 2018.
The current FWD platform for MB underpins the CLA, the B-Class, the GLA-Class, and the A-Class. The B-Class will arrive in North America as an EV for spring of 2014, while the production GLA crossover will arrive three to four months after that. The five-door A-Class won't be crossing The Pond. Sad faces all around.
According to AN, another model will be based on the front-drive architecture, but it won't be coming to the US market. Set to arrive next year, rumors are that it'll be a wagon version of the CLA, sort of like the ill-named five-door CLS Shooting Brake that is also a Europe-only item.