So in December I wrote about how we’d made some pretty big changes to the fleet. Well, not one to leave enough alone, over the winter and early spring I got the wild hair to basically flush everything and start over. Between short attention span and my seeming need to own one of everything, it just seemed the right time to clean house. Besides, life is short and getting shorter by the day. What if I miss something?

2025 Mercedes-Benz E450 All  Terrain

The 2025 Mercedes All Terrain wagon is the only car that made the cut from the December update, primarily because we bought it new and weren’t about to take the “off the lot” depreciation hit for a brand new luxury vehicle. And because we really like it. Station wagons are a dying breed, and there is talk that the S214 Mercedes-Benz wagon just may be the last one to make it stateside. I mean, they threatened that with V8s some time back and, lo, you can still get those, but nonetheless the 2011 E350 was getting slightly long in the tooth and we’re supposedly in our prime earning years. 

There’s really not much not to like about the new Mercedes wagons. If I have any complaints, they are 1) that they finally got rid of the third rear-facing seat and 2) the idiotic Tesla-esque pop-out exterior door handles. The third seat was what made the case for my then-carpooling-for-the-school-run wife to jettison her refrigeratorish minivan (that we owned for all of about 5 months and replaced a 5-speed manual BMW E39 528iT wagon) in favor of a wagon. Subsequently we owned a series of black Mercedes E-Class wagons: an S210 2001 E320 4Matic, an S211 2005 E320 4Matic, and most recently the S212 E350 4Matic that served us dutifully for the past 11 years. That last one was the car I was specifically forbidden from selling – and I haven’t. It’s gone to live with our older daughter in Indiana, where we all believe it will be of more use to her come wintertime than her former 2006 W211 Mercedes E320 CDI. She already misses the mileage and quirk of the diesel, but has rapidly come to appreciate the mom-wagon’s creature comforts and technology. The appreciation for the all wheel drive will no doubt come with the first big snow that next winter brings.

So, yes, the 2011 Mercedes-Benz E350 4Matic wagon – the “car that shall not be sold” – has gone to live its next life in Indiana. There will be much scrutiny about how it is cared for henceforth, but that was understood when we signed it over. I really hope we don’t have to reel it back. That wouldn’t be good for anyone. 

Incidentally, I was strictly forbidden from delivering the car to said daughter in Indiana before we made a valiant effort to find a missing earring. I tried – I really did. Ultimately, because I was having a complete service ahead of the delivery drive, I asked the good folks at Silver Star Motors in Vienna, Virginia to give it a try. It took three techs and the removal of the driver’s seat, but kudos to longtime friend Jay Huber who delivered. Yeah, I could’ve found it if I’d just tried a little harder…  Surely.

2000 Mercedes-Benz E430 Sport

I’ve recently learned something about myself recently – automotively speaking. I *LOVE* pristine, factory new old cars. An essentially new old stock car is just such a neat thing to find and to own. The issue I have is that while I’ve managed to create enough space to squirrel a decent number of cars away, I have a hard time owning cars so nice that I don’t want to drive them. That was the driving reason behind selling the S212 E63 wagon last fall, and I found that the gorgeous 45K mile 2000 E430 Sport gave me the same feeling. When I sold the 2018 Tundra I was half thinking that the E430 would be my daily driver, but it was JUST.SO.CLEAN. So I rang-up my old buddy and BringaTrailer/Mercedes guru Dean Laumbach and hatched a plan to move the E430 on to its next caretaker. At last check it was living the sparing use good life down south, having replaced a pretty cool V221 S600 Designo in the new owner’s fleet. I love that he appreciated just how nice this car is, and he wasn’t disappointed when it arrived. It was a great find, but I’m glad to no longer be stressing about ruining it. Yes, folks, I have issues.

2004 Mercedes-Benz ML500

When my younger daughter left the United States last summer to go spend a year studying in the United Kingdom, one of the last things she did was to hand-over the keys to her 2008 BMW X5, all the while imploring “please don’t sell my car while I’m gone.” My wife and I both assured her we certainly wouldn’t. And then it needed a massive influx of cash after which it still wasn’t right, so we used it as trade-in fodder when we bought the 2025 Mercedes E450. 

I think there were actual tears when she learned that we sold the car. “Rest assured” I told her. “If you know anything about me, it’s that I like to buy cars. We’ll find you something good!” And so it was that while she was home for winter break I happened upon a FaceBook Marketplace ad for a very reasonably-priced 2004 Mercedes W163 ML500. Her first car was a W163 ML320, and she always liked it. While not being quite as modern and luxurious as the X5, it was familiar and this particular one came with the right combination of equipment, history, and condition. The fact that it has the M113 5.0 liter V8? Well, we’ll just have to reinforce that she is responsible for paying her own speeding tickets. It is a great engine, though. Same as the SL500 below – read on..

The ML500 had a few needs when we got it: a bad front passenger window regulator, a leaky oil filter housing (they all go through that), faded headlight lenses, and then I broke the antenna going through a car wash. Through a combination of my limited abilities (headlights and antenna) and a trusted tech, the car is currently at about 95% waiting for her return just over a month from now. I’m thinking it may need motor mounts, but being that is a not inexpensive job I am kind of putting it off for a bit… It also came with a dead stereo (duh – neither of us turned it on during the test drive), so given the low price of entry I spring for a decent Sony double-din head unit and rear camera. That rear camera is my offering to make up for the fact that the ML500 doesn’t have the X5’s heated steering wheel. Heck, she’s lucky to have a dad who is a Car Geek, and therefore any car at all, right?

2021 Toyota Tundra Limited

Don’t say it. “Didn’t you have a Tundra like this?” Yes I did. It was a 2018 Limited. This one, as a 2021 has factory CarPlay, and because it has more miles on it than the 2018 (just north of 100K) it cost substantially less than I sold the 2018 for. 2021 was the last year of this generation of Tundra with the indestructible V8 engine before they went to the boxy new one with the troubled twin turbo V6. I regretted selling the Tundra almost immediately, so when I’d sold the E430 and started looking for a new daily driver and this one came along I showed it to my wife who looked at me with that look that comes with nearly 30 years of marriage, followed by “I don’t know why you sold the other Tundra in the first place.” Helpful, but not wrong. Anyway, there’s once again a big old Toyota truck in the fleet, and this one has CarPlay, so it’s obviously better than the last one. Shut up.

1983 Mercedes-Benz 500SEC

This was probably the toughest decision of the whole fleet flush. This European-spec 500SEC that came from the Mercedes museum in Germany, imported to the U.S. through the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in California, was truly a special car, and I knew that apart from spending far more than I paid for this one to bring another one from Europe that I’d never have another like it. I still go through little pangs of regret for having sold it, but at the same time I did everything I wanted to do with that car: I tinkered with little things it needed to make it better such as the 15″ Bundt wheels and the Coco Mats; I road-tripped in it; I showed it at a few shows and even won a “Judge’s Choice” award with it at one of those shows. Time to let someone else enjoy it, so again I called Dean Laumbach and put the car in a trailer up to him to make it that much better in preparation for auction. Through the magic of BringaTrailer, I believe it lives in Michigan now. I hope the new owner appreciates how special a car it truly is. A lot of people gave me a lot of grief about selling that car, but I stand by the decision. Besides, I emerged slightly ahead of whole…

1979 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce

One of our favorite sayings here at TTS, as long-time readers know all too well, is “nostalgia is a funny thing” – and this Alfa is that saying incarnate. It’s really quite a good little spider, made that much better with the thousands of dollars I spent on it in the couple of years that it graced my garage and that of my favorite Alfa mechanics – London Auto Service in Falls Church, Virginia. The nostalgia dial was turned-up to eleven when I managed to source the pair of Hella 4004GT mirrors identical to those on my first car, the rusty 1977 Alfa Spider that my dad and I found at a gas station just outside the Rickel’s on the Post Road in Norwalk, Connecticut in 1984 and served as his station car until he decided that he preferred driving into the city to Metro North. 

I actually listed this one on BringaTrailer myself, not being a real Dean Laumbach-ish car, and fretted over the listing until it finally closed about $5K light of where I hoped it would be and at a substantial loss from what I had in it. So much for the profit from the 500SEC, but you win some and you lose some, right? What made me happy was the story of the guy who got it – it was actually his friend and his wife who conspired and ended-up winning the auction. He was over the moon when he saw the car, and the fact that he, his wife, and his son showed-up to pick it up in their Alfa Giulia sedan gave me the warm fuzzies that he’d be a worthy next caretake for my little spider. I think I’ve sworn an oath to my wife not to buy any more Alfas, but you never know…  Nostalgia, again, is a funny thing.

1996 Jaguar XJ6 5-Speed Manual

I’ve always liked Jaguars, and I am particularly fond of the X300s, probably because my parents had one when they lived in the UK in the mid-1990s – in the same colors as the car you see here – and they let us take it and drive all over the south of England, just as long as we made it home in time to pick them up from work. What made this particular car appeal to me was the fact that it was a rare 5-speed manual – one of basically none on these shores.

The car was owned for a long time by a woman in Spain who was driven in it by her chauffeur. The fellow I bought it from was a US-based Spanish fellow who brings interesting cars into the US and sells them on. It was a sweetheart to drive, but to be honest I was disappointed in the exterior condition – just about every panel had been painted to varying degrees of quality. It was also about that time that I’d made the decision to start over, so it fell victim to my automotive whims and I listed it on Cars & Bids at no reserve to find a new home with the highest bidder. It lives in Texas now, and thankfully I was more or less even on it…..

2002 Mercedes-Benz SL500 “Silver Arrow”

For those following-along at home, now we’ve sold (or given away) everything, and added the 2025 wagon, the 2021 Tundra, and the 2004 ML500 – so what about a “fun” car? Well, folks, making a decision on this was no easy feat. I pondered all sorts of things, and came remarkably close to buying a V12-powered Jaguar XJS convertible, having sort-of enjoyed getting a little into the brand and the online community. 

Ultimately, at least for this round, I decided to go with what I know. A fellow I know through the internet and to whom I sold my 1972 Mercedes-Benz 280SEL 4.5 a few years ago posted this 2002 R129 SL500 Silver Arrow on FaceBook Marketplace ahead of listing it on BringaTrailer, and I was intrigued. 

The Silver Arrows were the very last of the R129 Mercedes-Benz SLs. produced in 2001 as 2002 model year cars. They came with a few special touches: beyond the unique bright silver finish, they had machine turned trim in the gauge cluster and on the shifter console, and unique 2-piece BBS alloy wheels. In SL500 form they had a special two-tone Nappa leather interior (SL600s were all black). The first Silver Arrow I ever drove belonged to the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center when it was still located in a basement in New Jersey, but of course that one was essentially new. Subsequently I’ve watched various Silver Arrows in various online venues, but never found myself in the position to buy one. This car came along from a known seller at the right time, so I decided it was meant to be. And so it is. This car has 61,000 miles and a couple of bruises here and there, so although it looks terrific I’m not afraid to drive it. And that’s the point, at least for me. 

(Incidentally, there’s still a rumor that we’ll be seeing the 1994 Miata again soon. You’ll be the first to know.)