Moving on from an ML430 - hopefully to ML63

[BenA]

Hi. This is a bit like one of those warm up exercises at a corporate training day.

My name's Ben, I live in London, near Greenwich and I'm quite a fan of Mercedes cars. I had an A140 as a company car when I was younger (1st model - and actually, that was horrible, I drove it like I hated it, and it hated me back). Then in later years after an A6 TDI quattro & a BMW 323 coupe, I had a C32 AMG, which was amazing....then I slipped into the dirty and dangerous world of tuned fiat coupe 20V turbos, which was fun but rusty....then as family duties once agian loomed I bought an ML430....

I first drove an ML430 as a press car loaner when i was working in the motor trade, at the time it was the fastest 4X4 ever released, 0-60 in 8.4 secs I think, as fast as a golf gti of the time....I got to take this £45k car home to my flat in clapham and remember being

A) very worried about parking it on the road
B) thinking I'd never own such a vehicle as it was so huge.

Anyway, fast forward 10 years and I bought a 60K miler for £8k and we still have it 120,000 miles later. It's not well built, lots of plastic bits have fallen off it, and as webuyanycar values it at £198 currently, it has been uneconomical to do anything other than keeping it on the road for the past 4 years or so....I've repainted the wings myself and done the minimum, expecting it expire any moment, but it still soldiers on, the lovely old thing that she is.

As I live in the ULEZ zone, the ML430 has to go before october, so I'll need to move it on - and when you look at the options, there's no £10-15k proper SUVs around that are not diesel really - so ML63 it has to be. ( my neighbour has a 10 year old diesel RR, which doesn't meet ULEZ spec either, so he's buying an S/C 5.0 RR- this policy is madness)

Dreams for the future - next "fun" car is going to be an SLK55 - just seems like a nice spot between the cost of the SL55 and a bit less weight....but ML63 has to come first so I have something to transport the dog & family in...

Thanks for reading, I have to say this looks like a very friendly and helpful forum, so I'm impressed that I cannot just set up a login.
Ben.

 

[BenA]

Oh, forgot to add - I took our old lady for a few laps around Brands hatch on one of their "drive" events a week ago - for £35 you drive 3 laps at about 60 mph, was a great lockdown treat, and Brands is quite a circuit, I imagine it's terrfying at a proper speed, so a single seater day is now on my to do list.

My son berated me for clipping the curbs when i hung back and gave it some beans,

The next one is in August if anyone fanices it - if you are less than an hour away - well worth it imho.

 

[BenA]

Oh - how could I forget, for two GLORIOUS weeks I had an S500 - I bought it from someone on Pistonheads who got it for £1k, and bigged it up massively and then stuck it on ebay. I paid £1,250 ish for it and took the overnight train up to Glasgow to collect it, thinking it had an MOT....sadly it didn't and it was a rusty MOT failure and I traded it for some jewellery to a chap in Essex .

An S500 is a fantastic car for the money - do I regret this incident - not at all!
I'll have another in a heartbeat.

 

[Dickster]

Hi. This is a bit like one of those warm up exercises at a corporate training day.

My name's Ben, I live in London, near Greenwich and I'm quite a fan of Mercedes cars. I had an A140 as a company car when I was younger (1st model - and actually, that was horrible, I drove it like I hated it, and it hated me back). Then in later years after an A6 TDI quattro & a BMW 323 coupe, I had a C32 AMG, which was amazing....then I slipped into the dirty and dangerous world of tuned fiat coupe 20V turbos, which was fun but rusty....then as family duties once agian loomed I bought an ML430....

I first drove an ML430 as a press car loaner when i was working in the motor trade, at the time it was the fastest 4X4 ever released, 0-60 in 8.4 secs I think, as fast as a golf gti of the time....I got to take this £45k car home to my flat in clapham and remember being

A) very worried about parking it on the road
B) thinking I'd never own such a vehicle as it was so huge.

Anyway, fast forward 10 years and I bought a 60K miler for £8k and we still have it 120,000 miles later. It's not well built, lots of plastic bits have fallen off it, and as webuyanycar values it at £198 currently, it has been uneconomical to do anything other than keeping it on the road for the past 4 years or so....I've repainted the wings myself and done the minimum, expecting it expire any moment, but it still soldiers on, the lovely old thing that she is.

As I live in the ULEZ zone, the ML430 has to go before october, so I'll need to move it on - and when you look at the options, there's no £10-15k proper SUVs around that are not diesel really - so ML63 it has to be. ( my neighbour has a 10 year old diesel RR, which doesn't meet ULEZ spec either, so he's buying an S/C 5.0 RR- this policy is madness)

Dreams for the future - next "fun" car is going to be an SLK55 - just seems like a nice spot between the cost of the SL55 and a bit less weight....but ML63 has to come first so I have something to transport the dog & family in...

Thanks for reading, I have to say this looks like a very friendly and helpful forum, so I'm impressed that I cannot just set up a login.
Ben.

Welcome and nice choices

 

[BenA]

Cleaned, Photographed and listed on ebay the ML430 today - I don't know what the rules are here, but this is definatley not me trying to promote my ebay listing - much the opposite, posting so;
a) you don't buy it
b) you appreciate my honesty as seller.

If any one has any tips as to how I can make it less desirable, do let me know!
mercedes ml430 - not great, but 6 month's MOT and a V8 with stainless exhaust | eBay

I always like to have fun with ebay ads, so if you have a stupid question and don't mind me adding it to the listing, please crack on. (i'm expecting lots of the "how much for cash" questions, but as I've set the start at £199.99 not so many of the "what's your lowest price ones!)

 

[BenA]

3 what's your lowest price questions already, so I've said I'll accept 0.02865434711353 Bitcoins (which is £1k) for a laugh.

 

[BenA]

Hopefully I have had a result - £700 ebay final bid and a chap who seems like a genuine bidder. He lives outside the ULEZ zone and, being from Ilford, knows a lots of dodgy MOT testers....I shall be watching the MOT history of the old girl with interest for many years I am sure.....My wife will have to do the handover, there may be tears....