Evaluation: Showing 43,873 miles and used. Older repaint with several small blemishes throughout. Cracks in the plastic around the mirrors. Scratches on the grille. Tidy underneath. Decent leather seats but the leather on the center armrest is dry and cracked. The rear console has a crack as well, and the gauges are slightly faded. A piece of plastic around the rearview mirror has also cracked, broken off, and fallen into the passenger footwell. It’s the Benz that Porsche built and for those who know it it’s a rather exciting car, but this one is in used condition.
Bottom Line: Mercedes-Benz’s Stuttgart neighbors over at Porsche built the 500E by hand, and only a little over 1500 were sold new in the US with a retail price of over $80,000. Only perfect ones are worth that today, but given the appreciation for 1980s-90s Benzes and the Porsche connection of the 500E, these cars have a loyal following.
This one was bid to $30,250 on Bring a Trailer four years ago, and then was advertised for private sale a few times in the $60,000 neighborhood. The market hasn’t caught up with the seller’s expectations yet, and although Dallas probably wasn’t the best place to sell a sleeper Mercedes like this, the result here was fair.