Car and Driver once called Mercedes’ E55 AMG ‘the mother of all wagons.” Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe 2006 is a rare opportunity to own that bad muthah. We’ll just have to see if its price oedipally wrecks it.
Do you know how hard it is to get upwards of 90% of people to agree about anything? We nearly made that happen with yesterday’s 1985 Subaru GL wagon, and its 87.93% Nice Price win was validated by the fact that the ad was pulled down half-way through the morning.
That means it was either so good a deal that someone bought it, or it was a well-positioned scam. Either way I think it proves you guys made the right choice! Yay you!
So tell me, have there been too many wagons this week? Maybe too many Benzes? Let me know, help me help you. If you haven’t had enough, if you’re one who says fill it to the rim with Brim, or only goes whole hog when pigging out, then let’s do one more of each of those categories with a car that’s a monster no matter how you slice it.
This 2006 Mercedes Benz E55 AMG is the ultimate soccer mom ride, if that soccer mom were actually a bad-ass superhero in suburban homemaker disguise. We’ve seen a couple of E55s here before, with Tavarish opining that it’s a better deal than a new Toyota Milquetoast and that warranties are for people with no sense of adventure.
That earlier car was a sedan however, and as you might all know, we like us some wagons around here. Whether your call them that or Estates, Touring Editions, Kombis, Variants, Longroofs, Avants, or roof rack support systems, we like them for their utility, inherent good looks and the fact that our mom’s all probably drove wagons and we’re still trying to live up to her expectations. Ain’t that right, mom?
Okay, so this 72,000-mile Benz is a wagon, so what? Well it’s a wagon with a romper-stomper of a motor under the hood and a bunch of ancillary upgrades made by the magicians at AMG to make use of the copious amounts of power that its beast of a V8 makes.
How much power? 500-bhp or so it is said. Actually I think the number is closer to 470, but what the hell, that’s still a lot, right? The 5,439-cc all-alloy V8 makes those ponies, along with 516 lb-ft of torque by way of intercooled supercharger (der Kompressor’s in town - oh,oh,oh) and 24-valve deep breathing exercises.
The engine is backed up by an AMG-imbued five speed automatic transmission, and before you start getting all Veruca Salt on me here, none of these ever came with a stick from the factory. Get over it.
Brakes are huge Brembo six pots in front and four in the rear, all on display through handsome five-spoke star alloys.
What does that all mean? Well, CandD clocked the wagon at 4.1-seconds zero to sixty, and said that the estate’s better weight distribution (49/51) gives it improved handling numbers on the sedan version.
This one, in Silver over sheepskin, looks pretty serviceable. There’s only three photos of the car, and even though they aren’t the best quality you can tell that the headlights are showing their age, and of course who knows what evils (if any) lurk under those seat covers.
The ad does note that the car ‘looks and drives great’ and that the miles were mostly applied on the highway. It comes with a clean title, a claim of having been well maintained, and has had no accidents in its past, just as you’d want it.
These are extremely rare to come across, and in fact the only other one I could find was this Canadian ad, that one seems to be a scam based on it having pictures of two different cars in it! This one seems to be the real deal, and it comes with a $28,900 price tag.
What’s your take on this mother load of a wagon and that $28,900 price? Does that seem like a fair deal for the ultimate wagon? Or, does this silver bullet’s price demand you asking mother may I?
You decide!
AutoTrader out of Woodland Hills CA, or go here if the ad disappears.
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