Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Mercedes 560SEC W126 buyers guide

You've heard of Death By A Thousand Cuts.  Well, this is Death by Many $1,000 to $2,000 Repair Jobs.  I watched this last night just before bed.  Thankfully, I had no nightmares.


Part 1 here.
Part 3 here.

3 comments:

Alan said...

I was *this* close to buying one of these a few years ago. A gorgeous, well maintained black one with Euro headlights. It had a lot of miles but drove like a German Rolls Royce. The seats were so stiff they bordered on uncomfortable. The steering had no feel but still somehow portrayed the feeling of a very fine mechanism. It rode wonderfully - soft but controlled and expensive feeling. The interior was beautiful and sparse - simultaneously cold and warm like a German modernist home. The thing ooooooozed quality. When you shifted from reverse into drive and vice versa you neither felt nor heard anything - as if the shifter was a switch changing polarity in an electric motor and not doing anything so crude as manipulating fluid in a mechanical box. It felt special and magical like no other car I've ever driven. It scared thje living shit out of me too, and ultimately head won over heart. It's a goddamned shame Mercedes Benz doesn't build cars like that anymore.

P.S. get the E39 M5!

Anonymous said...

This is a great review but some of the repair prices are a bit extreme I own an 87 and an 89 on a $40,000 a year job still hasn't broke me and I had to replace the trans in the 87 at 240k for $1200

Unknown said...

Pretty cars!

Looks like I will pass on buying one.
They sure are cheap to buy but judging from all I have checked into ..expensive to maintain..