Anyone know about the R500 Merc's

May have the opportunity to get one for a very good price (we are talking close to if not at challenge $$$).  It has a couple of little problems.  I have been told it needs a steering rack (there is a small leak) and there is a leak in the brake system someplace.  They have to top it off every couple of months.  Other than that they are telling me that it runs and drives fine and all systems work fine.  Interior is good exterior is very clean.  Good tires, all switches, and systems seem to work fine.   It is either an 07 or an 08 but doesn't know for sure.  I know they dropped the v8 in 09.  

So other than the usual MB stuff (gas mileage, parts pricing) what is the deal with these?  I don't really need this car but at the price being discussed, it is hard to pass up.   I have never driven one of these or even ridden in one so I don't even know if it is like the MB sedans or more like there SUV/CUV things.  

Internet reviews are a bit weird in that they are either a 1 star or a 5 star.  It is very little in the middle and there are only two things that I an find that are typical problems and that is potentially a valve body in the trans, rear air suspension and there is an issue in the wiring harness that kills the rear tail lights.  On the car, I am looking at I think all of this has been addressed (I am going to verify this if I can).

As far as I can tell the motor should be bulletproof, the V6 can have issues.  Does it have the air suspension? If so the bags will leak at some point.  We have an 06 350 and really like for long trips but be prepared for small things to be wrong a lot of the time.  The steering wheel has stopped adjusting which is annoying but at 160+  K miles I took it over the Tail of the Dragon twice without any issues. With the suspension and trans in sport it actually was not too bad.  

If you pass pass on it I would be interested. 

I drove a nice R500 with some kind of amg package with nice wheels and some sporty trim stuff while we were shopping for a baby car. Nice place to spend time. I also drove Mazdeuce's old R63 years back. 

We ended up with a Cayenne. The R class is a unique creature but not really for how it drives (63 amg excepted). We ended up preferring the sporty demeanor of the Cayenne.  But, if the R500 i drove was <3k i would have bought it on the spot, so there's that. 

I fixed the rear light issue on ours so if you do end up with it I can show you, it’s easy.  

Aaron_King said:

As far as I can tell the motor should be bulletproof, the V6 can have issues.  Does it have the air suspension? If so the bags will leak at some point.  We have an 06 350...

Oof.  We had an 06 350 that lunched it's chain guides.  I threw everything I had at that beast and barely got passed the ancillaries before I threw in the towel and gave it to the first person I could find that was willing to take it away. 

I still wake up screaming at night... 

In reply to Hungary Bill :

Ours is at 163K so I hope we dodged that bullet, though I did have to put a new intake manifold on it   That was not much fun at all  

From what I read, the 500 is probably the best motor with the least issues. They are very much parts bin cars and share a lot with the ML of the era. Your biggest issue is going to be air suspension and labor costs. It's very easy to need $4-5k in small jobs at dealer rates on a car that is worth less than that. Long term it's the electricals that will doom them. They have miles of wire and several computers that are all talking to each other. If it has nav, it sucks, but if it has distronic cruise, it's awesome. 

If you have kids keep in mind that the back doors are quite long and you need to stay vigilant to keep them away from neighboring cars in a parking lot. 

My mom drove a 2006 R500 from new until late last 2018 (when it was replaced with a Panamera after my brother and I moved out) and put 220,000 miles on it.

Here's what had gone wrong at various points over the car's life:

- Transmission solenoid wiring thingy (which they all eat) somewhere around 100k.  They replaced it and never had another issue with the transmission.

- Various standard Mercedes electrical gremlins, none too serious

- Some mystery power steering leak that was far cheaper to keep adding fluid than to fix.

- The rings were getting a bit tired (starting to burn oil), but it had been driven hard and had 220k.

- Air springs leaked, replaced (to the surprise of nobody)

- At least one limited slip diff was getting tired and was starting to chatter a bit around tight corners

For a 5500lb "minivan", it drove really well.  Enough power to be able to get out of its own way, the AWD system worked really well, the transmission would actually do what you wanted in sport mode, and it was ultra comfortable (most uneventful 130mph I've ever seen).  The interior wore extremely well over the 14 years we had the car, with zero rips or wear-thrus on the seating surfaces.  It's largely the same drivetrain as the other 4matic 500 vehicles (E/S/ML/etc), and shares most of the suspension with the ML, so parts aren't unobtanium even though the car itself is rare.

On the rear doors: That's part of why we got one.  My family is tall, and my brother and I were 9 and 12 respectively when we got the car, knowing that we were both going to end up tall.  Probably the only back seat my dad actually fits comfortably in, at 6'7".  The actual trunk space isn't particularly cavernous, but it makes up for it with the spacious back seat (which folds down).