Albert Einstein has been misquoted as saying “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” While we at Caronicles are not here to refute this claim, we do argue that there is some truth to looking a little insane. Let me explain, In a previous post (which you should also read) I wrote about the flood-damaged, moldy, yet beautiful Lexus GS I had won by accident from Copart. I had promised myself that I wouldn’t open up the Copart app and bid on any other vehicles until I’d done my due diligence. So I had my wife do it for me. I selected a few cars that I found interesting and enabled the alert for when they were going to go to auction. I received an email with a list of those cars a few days after the Lexus and noticed I was watching a 2006 S211 E350 Wagon. It looked like it was hit on the tail gate and the front bumper was a bit loose but that was the extent of any visible damage the vehicle had. I ensured this time the vehicle wasn’t used to find the lost city of Atlantis, it was listed as a run-and-drive, and overall, seemed intact. I thought to myself, what’s another cheap vehicle to experiment with! I redownloaded the Copart app, signed in and hawkishly waited for the auction to begin. Luckily, this S211 was the 4th car on the auction block. I had my wife bid the vehicle up to $550 thinking someone would outbid me. Surprisingly, I won the car. But this time around, I thought I had done a much better job of selecting this vehicle. Mind you, I’m aware a cheap Mercedes is the most expensive Mercedes to own. I was aware of the p0016 and p0017 (camshaft sensor) issues in this era of Mercedes. If this S211 were to have it, LKQ would have another “parts car” in their fleet. This time around the car came after 2 days. The rear was slammed, I was hoping the air suspension would lift the rear after the car started. The transporter unloaded the car, and you can take a wild guess as to what didn’t lift. After sitting in the car I was surprised at the craftsmanship of this vehicle. Even after 200,000 miles, the S211 seemed to be in fairly good condition minus the damage I brought up before. Unfortunately for me, my gawking ended as I noticed a few warning messages on the dash and a check engine light. My heart sank, even before I plugged in my OBD scanner I knew what codes I was going to be greeted with. Plugging in the scanner only confirmed my worst fear. At this point, you’re probably thinking, how dumb could you be thinking you’d get a half-decent Mercedes from Copart for $550 before fees. And to answer you good reader, pretty dumb! Wishful thinking is a hell of a drug and motivator and I thought the car gods would be sympathetic to me. I called LKQ up to arrange for the vehicle to be whisked away where it will hopefully help someone else’s S211 live to see another day.
Nice!