Mercedes-Benz S500 S Class 5.0 Auto

Sale price: £1,999.00 make an offer

Technical specifications

Manufacturer:Mercedes-Benz
Model:S 500
Year:2000
Fuel Type:Petrol
Color:Black
Mileage:167,100
Transmission:Automatic
Engine:5
Door:4
Got questions?Ask the Seller
Current customer rating: current rating for this car (2)
based on 8 votes

Photos

Description

Here for (reluctant) sale is my much loved S500 S Class Mercedes. I’ve owned the car for two years, and have enjoyed every single minute of it. Considering it cost around £70k when new, there are a whole bunch of toys to play with, from air suspension (with firmness and ride height adjustment) to the heated seats with enough positional motors on them to suit any driver (and yes, they all work on both the driver’s and passenger’s side). It is a pleasure to drive, and even on long journeys you almost feel more refreshed when you get out! Of course, as a five litre beast, it has all the power you would ever need (I believe around 300bhp) so overtaking is never a problem. You can drive it like a chauffeur would, or you can stiffen the suspension up and instantly it feels like a hot hatch (if you’re that way inclined!).
I’ve decided to sell the car because I’m looking at moving further away from work, which means a longer drive. Although you can easily get 25+ miles to the gallon on out-of-town trips, I can’t really justify keeping hold of it when there are more economical cars out there, so sadly its time is up with me as its owner.
I feel that this is the best time to sell it, as I have just put the car through its MOT, which – for the second year – it passed with absolutely no advisories. You won’t need another MOT until November next year!
As you can therefore imagine, the car is in pretty good condition. It has no major problems, although there are a few niggles which I will list below. When you’re looking at buying a 15-year-old five litre car that cost £70,000 or thereabouts, you’re NOT going to get one that’s perfect unless you spend £5k or more. It is therefore much better to know what you’re buying, so you can figure out how much it would cost you to make the car perfect should you wish. I’m going to list absolutely everything I can think of so you know every little thing, no matter how small!
To make it perfect, here’s what I would have fixed, starting with what I think are the most important things:
- If you don’t drive the car every day, the battery tends to drain after about 5 days. It could be a new battery that’s needed, but personally I think there’s something that doesn’t get switched off overnight that drains it. Charge it for an hour and all is good again of course. To fix this you could measure the power drain whilst systematically removing the fuses to see if any circuit in particular is draining the battery when it shouldn’t. If nothing is, then perhaps it is the battery after all!
- There are three things that aren’t perfect regarding the display. Firstly, the rev counter gets stuck and is therefore totally inaccurate. Secondly, there’s a tiny mark on the temperature display on the bottom left. Thirdly – and this has only happened a couple of times, but I’ll still mention it so you have the full picture – the actual speedo needle got stuck after I had been driving for about 30 minutes. You can tell what speed you’re doing still by clicking the cruise control lever, but obviously you’ll want to get this fixed. The simplest thing is just to replace the dash console, which is very easy. They’re cheap to pick up second hand, and they literally just slot in and out (have a look on YouTube!). That’ll fix all three issues simply and cheaply!
- There’s a tiny crack in the driver’s window. This is because there’s something in the window mechanism that dropped out – a clip I think. I actually replaced the window (£100 from ebay), then annoyingly 2 days later put it down all the way, and the clip dropped out again without me realising. On the way back up, it cracked again. I never got round to doing it again, but I’d suggest rather than just replacing the glass, you have a new or decent second hand mechanism fitted, something that most local garages will do at a decent price I’m sure.
- The airbag light comes on if someone is sitting in the passenger seat. I drive on my own, but if you are going to drive with passengers, for safety’s sake I’d suggest you get your garage to have a look at this.
- The handbrake could do with tightening. Again, a simple ‘ask your mechanic to do it when he/she’s got a minute’ job.
- The windscreen washer fluid leaks, I think from the pipe that goes to the front left headlight. If you had the car up on a ramp, I’m sure you’d find the leak very easily, so – again – if this bothers you it should be a cheap and easy thing to fix.
- The aircon probably needs re-gassing now; it doesn’t seem to go quite as cold as it did last year. Obviously you probably won’t worry about doing this right away!
- Yes, it has very nice alloys. They cost me a significant portion of the money I’m asking for the car! Yes, they come with the car. I’d suggest you get them balanced though, as above 65mph you can just feel them start to judder slightly.
- Some cars come with two keys. This one comes with just one key but also with a card for keyless ignition. The keyless ignition works, and keyless unlock works, but for some reason keyless lock only works on one door. I think this is because the sensors are old, and in my opinion not worth doing, as you can just click the ‘unlock’ button on the key remote, hardly a hassle!
- If you listen to AM radio, sometimes it crackles when you go over a bump. Not always, but sometimes. Probably a loose wire from the radio unit, easy to find with an ammeter or whatever.
- There's a piece of chrome trim missing from the back left (although you'd hardly notice it!) which is about £25 max from eBay
That is all I can think of. The important thing is everything mechanical is perfect, as far as I can tell from driving it for two years and having passed two MOTs with no advisories. It is showing no signs of age, and the only ‘expensive’ part I’ve had to replace was the mass air filter (about £140) as the old one had gone – which you’d expect after 15 years! It had been a totally reliable car, and apart from having to charge the battery for an hour or so if I haven’t used it that week (my bad for forgetting to take it out for a spin!) it has been my perfect driving machine for the last two years. I’ll be sad to see it go, but sadly needs must.
The usual ‘buying a car on eBay’ rules apply. You are bidding to BUY and not to LOOK. I strongly suggest you contact me to arrange a time to come and have a look at it. I will happily take you out for a test drive, with ME driving unless you bring proof of fully comprehensive insurance on any vehicle. I expect the winning bidder to pay the full price, and I will not accept any negotiation after the auction has ended. I ask for a £250 deposit on Paypal within 24 hours of the auction ending, and then we can arrange a time for you to pick up the vehicle that is convenient to us both within the following 7 days – obviously the sooner the better.
If you have less than ten feedback, I am happy for you to bid (we all started somewhere), but I would ask that you message me with your contact details so I know that you’re not a scammer!
Please note that the car is advertised elsewhere so I reserve the right to end the auction early if it sells.
Any questions, please do not hesitate to ask and I’ll do my best to reply.
Happy bidding!


Also published at eBay.co.uk

Questions to the seller

More Mercedes-Benz Cars