- Hello, my name is Sean and I'm here today to confess
that I have an addiction.
I have an addiction to cars, but not just any cars.
I was never one of the lucky ones who got to dream
about Lamborghinis and Corvettes and Vipers.
You see, I'm a crazy person.
I like obscurity.
I like the underdog.
I'm an absolute sucker for useless convenience features
and stuff that's really fast that flies directly
under the radar. Cars that used to break necks,
but, now have been forgotten about that can be
bought at 10% of the cars original value.
But shock, if these cars are so great,
why are they so cheap?
You ask.
Well, that's a great question, made up audience guy.
Cars that depreciate harder than a brand new
iPhone come with all kinds of unfathomable
electrical issues. They're often overly
complicated to work on and need special tooling
and special computers for diagnostics and even
repairs causing a fear of ownership.
Thus, plummeting that resale value.
No sane, self-respecting person should ever put
themselves into the endless pit
of doom, that is depreciated luxury sports
car ownership. So why did I go
and buy the cheapest Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG
I could find with no regard for self preservation?
Well, stick around guys and strap up your lap belts
because this one's going to get bumpy.
But take a step back in time for a moment.
Close your eyes, relax a little bit,
and let your mind wander to a time before you
could get wheels, tires, and suspension
at fitmentindustries.com
To the year 2002, back when the Dodge Viper
changed the world with 450 horsepower
8 L V10.
Passing through
the quarter mile in the low 12 second range.
A time when the corvette Z06 dominated the
sports car segment with a 400 horsepower V8,
running up on supercars with also mid-12 second
quarter mile times. The Ferrari 360 was
a pinnacle supercar of the early 2000s
with a screaming 400 horsepower V8
also running in the 12 second quarter mile
range. All legendary automobiles that will go
down in history as the greats that can hold
their own with most sports cars being produced
even to this day.
And then in late 2002, Mercedes-Benz took a version
of their SLR, McLaren supercharged, 5.4 L V8,
and they stuffed it in deep into their new
for the 2003 model year midsize E-Class sedan.
While this giant engine did bring the weight up to
over 2 tonnes, the 470 horsepower, 516 lb. -ft
of torque concoction was somehow helping this
E-Class defy the laws of physics
and run within a half second in the quarter mile
of those cars mentioned above.
Which, is a pretty crazy feat in itself for
any car, let alone one with four doors that can
comfortably hold 4 adults, massage your tushy,
ventilate air into your sweaty back
and pack more tech into the interior than you
will ever need.
As a matter of fact, when this car came out in 2002
for the 2003 model year, it was the fastest and
the quickest sedan in the whole wide world, which
starting at $80,000 and being optioned in the
low six figures, I hope it would be.
But as time went on the flaws
and the weaknesses start to expose themselves.
These cars became notorious for
air suspension failure, electrical issues that
will leave you stranded with a dead battery
and engine cooling system that's tied into the
transmission cooling system and then the little
seal breaks, and then they mix. And then I don't know
if you know anything about transmissions or not,
but you don't want glycol mixing
with your transmission fluid.
The gas tanks would leak and cause fumes to enter
the cabin. The electronic braking system had a
finite amount of breaking actuation allowed
before you had to replace them.
And a good chunk of these actually
experienced premature failure,
which is pretty scary, but maybe
even scarier than that is the labor costs
at the Mercedes-Benz dealership.
It's absolutely insane, but, I will let you
in on a little secret. The seemingly catastrophic
issues, most of them were actually given
an extended warranty and the problems were
mostly all solved in the beginning years of
the car's life, when you still had to be pretty
wealthy to own one of these cars.
So finding one with a really well-documented
seemingly no expenses spared service history,
isn't exactly hard to find but that still
didn't stop these cars from depreciating like
any other Mercedes-Benz.
And that's where I swoop in.
But first, a little backstory. When I was
14 years old, YouTube had just hit the scene.
And when all the car nerds hit the platform
or maybe some of you guys even
remember streetfire.net, in fact, if you guys do
remember streetfire.net, go leave a comment
down below. I want to know how many OGs are
watching these videos. Anyway, some of the
craziest cars on YouTube and streetfire.net,
doing all the hood rat stuff and street racing was
the Terminator Cobra.
I already had this weird obsession for Mustangs as
a whole, especially that new edge generation.
And then the Cobras came in and absolutely
crushed the competition. And, with a
factory supercharger, they were really easy
to modify and make absolutely magnificent sounds.
Just listen to this one.
- car engine revving
And then, while I was detailing cars at a Ford
dealership I was presented the opportunity
to buy a $1,500 Mercedes-Benz sight unseen.
The story was that a couple came in looking to
buy a new Ford and they wanted to trade in
their old Mercedes and the dealership basically
told them to flee, they didn't even want
the thing. So the sales men and knowing
that I like weird stuff came and told me
about it. He didn't even know what it was
or what condition it was in,
and I had to make a decision on the spot
whether I wanted this random Mercedes or not.
So being the rational human being that I am,
I shook the man's hand and forked over some cash.
The next day I was presented the new to me, 1997
Mercedes S500.
I knew nothing about Mercedes at the time, but
after experiencing that luscious S class ride
quality superb material usage of build quality,
18 way power seats,
and the laughably awesome useless features
of the car, it was absolutely game over.
Introducing people to my heated and power
reclining rear seats, outdated corded carphone,
dual pane windows, that for some reason,
everybody thought were bulletproof,
soft closing doors and adjustable suspension
created so many conversations.
And then I found the window sticker
in the glove box showing a $97,000 MSRP
for my $1,500 box. At that exact moment in time,
I fell in love with oversized luxury cars.
And I was nothing but smiles and spine comfort
when I drove that car.
Now I did have to do some suspension work,
and get inside the engine and do some
of these upper timing chain guides and stuff
like that. But what I found was that
they made so many of these cars and they
recycled a lot of their engine and parts
into a bunch of other models.
And that parts were really as affordable
as any domestic car and the stuff that
wasn't affordable from Mercedes usually led
to aftermarket budget friendly solutions
with tons of DIY information out there.
But I still had this overwhelming urge to
own a Cobra, to own a boosted V8, to drive
a car that runs 12s out of the box
with the goal of getting into the 11s.
Now, I don't know if you've noticed or not,
but the last couple of years have been
absolutely bonkers for Cobra values.
Needless to say, I don't entirely feel comfortable
forking over 25 grand for an 18 year old Mustang
with a hundred thousand miles with a value
of $6,000. Enter the year 2018,
I'm just minding my own business
cruising down the highway 41 in my true blue metallic
2001 Mustang GT that's for, lack of a better term,
loud as heck.
This dated looking Mercedes sedan rolls up on me
and matches my speed, gives me a stink eye
and 3 honks.
So me being the law abiding pinnacle example
of self-control, we both took off on that
third honk, or rather they took off like
I wasn't moving at all in a car that I
still thought was fairly quick enough.
I literally took the next exit and I Googled the
letters that I saw on the trunk.
The letter "E" two 5s and "AMG."
And what I discovered then and there changed
my life forever.
Apparently you can just go buy the perfect
combination of car ever built.
The E55 AMG ended up being the perfect combination
of the SVT Cobra's demonic ease of making power
with the interior and build quality of Mercedes-Benz
and with the charm and features of the S-Class.
I immediately posted my Mustang for sale and on
July 4th, 2018, I purchased one of my favorite vehicles
that I've ever owned.
A pewter silver metallic, 2003 Mercedes-Benz
E55 AMG. And with 130,000 miles for less
than 10 grand, sure it needed a little bit of work,
but I went home with a car that had heated
vented, massaging active high bolster seats,
height, and damping adjustable air suspension,
a big blown V8 that made almost 500 horsepower
the heated and cooled center console
in a Mercedes branded Nokia flip phone.
It also had 4 zone climate control,
8 piston, yeah, 8 piston Brembo brakes,
an electronic closing truck in a luxury sedan
that cops literally do not care about.
It does infinite burnouts and beats up
on muscle cars all for the same money
as a heavily used 350Z or bugeye WRX.
Now you might be thinking to yourself,
a car like this has to be problematic
and a huge pain to work on, right?
I mean it is a Mercedes man.
Well, no, that's not really the case at all.
I did have one case where I had the battery start draining
on me, which was as easy as using a multi-meter
on the battery and monitoring,
unplug some fuses to find out
that the seat control module was not shutting
off and it would drain my battery.
And then there was this one time that the crank
pulley separated and it actually exploded.
Which probably would've left me stranded,
but I was just a few blocks from home,
so it's all good.
As far as working on the car goes, if I
of all people can get long tube headers up in there
and triple pin the new modular crank pulley,
make my own lines for the dual fuel pump set
up and run dual water to air heat exchangers
in my driveway with basic hand tools,
I think that speaks volumes for itself.
I will say though, I do go through a lot of tires
and honestly, one of my biggest fears going
into this was, man, I wonder how hard it's going
to be to find wheels and tires for this thing.
Luckily for me, there was already 8
of these things on the gallery
which made it super easy to find the exact look
that I wanted and voilà.
Here we are with my 20 x 10 + 38,
20 x 9 + 35 vorsteiner flow form wheels.
And those bad boys are wrapped at 255 35
nitto NT555 G2s.
And then you got a 285 30 out back, and
I got to say, it's the perfect kind of OEM
plus look. It looks kind of stock, which is
exactly what I was going for.
Anyway, what I'm really getting
at here is that there are hundreds of cars
out there that offer a ton of value
for the money that don't end up on the cool kids list
that everybody knows about.
Cars that will perform at leagues
above their price bracket, cars that are going to spoil
and pamper you as you drive them and
still have a massive support for aftermarket parts.
I bought my E55 AMG because it was the fastest car
that I could buy for under $10,000.
And you don't see a tonne of them around.
When was the last time you've seen more
than one of these bad boys
at the last car meet? It's powerful, it's unique,
and it has the bonus of it ventilated in Masayan seats.
But, maybe the best part is
it flies completely under the radar of most people.
Cops will not look at you twice in a big pan sedan
even if you're doing something stupid,
like flying pass a cop doing 90 in a 65.
But real car enthusiasts are nothing but smiles
when they see this thing. It truly is,
in my opinion, the best car that you can buy
for the money.
So what do you guys think?
Am I messed up in the head like Ricky?
Or do these cars actually make a ton of sense
to own. And let me know what cars you
guys think are must-haves
for the money that have high value propositions.
And I need some ideas for my next million,
if you know what I'm saying?
Make sure to slap that thumbs up
if you guys learned anything today.
And don't forget to subscribe and click that bell,
So you don't miss any of the crazy builds
or the giveaways coming your way very, very soon.
And of course you guys know where to go to take
your car to the next level with wheels, tires
and suspension from fitmentindustries.com.
I'm Sean, @seanb.fi on Instagram.
Thank you so much for watching, peace.