Shill bidding on a 2.5-16?

[neilrr]

Mercedes 190 E 2.5-16 Cosworth (1989) | eBay

For a 150K mile car it seems unusually pricey at £6,800 with an unusual frenzy of bidding activity, considering there are nearly 8 days to go.

Car doesn't have AC, heated seats or ESP as listing claims. May be that he's confusing ASD (which all 16vales have) with ESP (which no 16 v has).

 

[Deleted member 37751]

And it's an auto...

 

[neilrr]

Autos are pretty rare & have a following. On the fly with with an open road kickdown is quite exciting. Driving a notchy dog in London or anywhere with heavy-ish traffic is a complete PITA.

 

[John Jones Jr]

I'd be suspect about the bidding history too, well isn't that nearly always the case with eBay?

Having said that they are undervalued imo. As for the mileage a bit meaningless now a days, low mileage examples are not always the best cars, one important aspect of this era of Merc they need driving on a regular basis. The best 2.5 I've ever seen & driven has about 233K miles on it and it's only serviced & repaired as required.

I wouldn't be concerned about lack of A/c or heated seats as that shouldn't affect values as there's very few if any with all the goodies (£44K in total iirc on the last one's), condition & service history with paperwork to support, is what it's all about. The only negative I see about this particular car is that's an auto, good that they are, the real demand is for manuals so the a/box won't help the sale price. But, it's not a £12K car as the seller suggests.

 

[John Jones Jr]

. Driving a notchy dog in London or anywhere with heavy-ish traffic is a complete PITA.

I'd suggest them there's something wrong with box/linkage.

 

[stwat]

It must be the Ford badge on the boot that people are getting into a bidding war over.

 

[Dee-124CAB]

Thats pretty sus.... I hate to say it (being a 2.5-16 owner myself), but theres just not a huge demand for these to correlate with the bidding frenzy being seen here, couple that with the high price already and the fact that its an auto and seeming generally unremarkable, the bidding here is highly dubious....

These cars come with a pedigree, are rare (now), were amongst some of the cars to be seen in back in the day, MB havent really come up with anything before or since thats similar to a 16v'er, its contempories have risen in value quite steeply (E30 M3 being the main rival), has been predicted as a future appreciating classic by almost everyone .... Yet the poor old 2.3/2.5-16's remain undervalued and the market for these quite small

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Autos are pretty rare & have a following. On the fly with with an open road kickdown is quite exciting. Driving a notchy dog in London or anywhere with heavy-ish traffic is a complete PITA.

I imagine it is, but...

Every owners review I've seen refers to how much the car loves to be revved and you can't really rev an auto, hence the manuals being the 'better' car.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Private listings automatically make me wary.

 

[Bluebird]

Private listings automatically make me wary.

Me too, I always ask myself 'but why?'

 

[mct_cars]

Me too, I always ask myself 'but why?'

Worst thing e-bay ever did was to allow Private Listings. Previously it was blindingly obvious when shill bidding had occurred and really easy to report it (not that e-bay does much about it anyway - not revenue generating for them!)

 

[John]

(not that e-bay does much about it anyway - not revenue generating for them!)

No, and it's the same as Autotrader having lots of adverts for cars which are say £99 but in the advert it says "car actually £999".

After highlighting this to AT, they were going to be speaking to the advert placers and dealing with the issue.

Over the next few days, bugger all changed and I can still see lots on there some years later.

What a surprise.

 

[mct_cars]

No, and it's the same as Autotrader having lots of adverts for cars which are say £99 but in the advert it says "car actually £999".

After highlighting this to AT, they were going to be speaking to the advert placers and dealing with the issue.

Over the next few days, bugger all changed and I can still see lots on there some years later.

What a surprise.

I remember those ads - "price includes £1000 part ex in price". False advertising at best. People don't realise they could be taken to court and fined.... but that means companies need to report it which cost money... so they don't.

 

[neilrr]

£7,500 now.

 

[Deleted member 26392]

What that on the resr parcel shelf and should the parcel shelf not be black?

Scott

 

[John]

Looks like a subwoofer and custom shelf from MDF to me.

 

[ss201]

Autos are pretty rare & have a following. On the fly with with an open road kickdown is quite exciting. Driving a notchy dog in London or anywhere with heavy-ish traffic is a complete PITA.

Got that right!

 

[neilrr]

It's back on ebay.

Mercedes 190 E 2.5-16 Cosworth (1989) | eBay

 

[Charles Morgan]

Well there's a surprise.

Buyer never completed?

 

[John]

I feel a Tom Jones song coming on.

"It's not un..."