Currently got a 15 plate tdv6 vogue with 73k. Although it’s a great car and for a 3.0 I can’t believe how much quicker it is than our old discovery. I’ve always had kind of performance cars as weekend toys and we’ve had a separate family car ( discovery) the L405 came up and I brought without knowing much about them and decided to sell the disco and my weekend toy to just have the one car ( the L405 )
Bad move really!! Although I managed to sell the discovery private I’ve now got the weekend toy ( Mercedes c63 amg ) that won’t sell private. Had it advertised for around 4 months at an average price that similar cars are up for and not even a single viewing.

This is where my question comes in. If the L405 is going to be our only car I would really like to go for a 5.0 supercharged L405. Would it be worth finding one at a dealer and seeing what they’ll give me on a px against my L405? If this is the case I’m not really bothered if I get a slightly older reg as long as it’s a good spec. What sort of money difference would it be after I’d pulled my pants down?

Second option is try n sell our L405 first. Then px the merc ?
Third. Find a 5.0 L405 and see if dealer would take merc and L405 in px. But then I would be expecting cash back. Can’t see this happening.[/code]

Go for option 3

Have you driven a 5.0 ?

You need to be sure it will make you happy as a single car or it's going to be expensive.....

I would have thought a dealer is likely to just bang the Merc in an auction and PX price accordingly - have you tried We Buy Any Car ? How old is it - worth approaching a local Merc dealer as a straight sale ?

any dealer is going to rape you horribly on a trade. You either sell private party and risk the liability of selling that way/time, or trade and just be done with it. Also I'm told some of the earlier model l405's suffer from timing chain issues (maybe that's just a NAS issue) either way do your research.

I figured I could get about 8k for my l322 and decided to just trade it in for $3000 (of course as soon as the sales manager went to appraise my l322 the dash lit up like an xmas tree which killed the value as far as they were concerned). It has no trouble codes the entire time I owned it (7 years). I traded it on a 2016 AB (NAS spec = loaded) you will not be disappointed by the power for the blown 5.0

Provided that you’re happy to get trade price on either, or both, there’s no reason why a dealer shouldn’t give you an alternative L405 and cash back (if that’s how the figures work out). The Mercedes valuation will only get underwritten by another dealer anyway.

I’d love to try a 5.0 SC. I never have, but I know I could never live with the fuel costs Have you tried an SDV8?

It’s got to be worth trying a few options

5.0L Supercharged will make you smile. It will make you want to wake up and go to work and come back. You will try to find excuses to buy grocereis. You will take longer routes so you can get the M roads. It is fast, it is fun. And, you will never ever drive diesel after that.

I highly recommend to go for speical paint ones as they stand out. And look for ones that has never been smart repaired. These are something I have learned. Good luck!

Red Merle wrote:

I’d love to try a 5.0 SC. I never have, but I know I could never live with the fuel costs Have you tried an SDV8?

I have to say, whenever I see such sentiments I simply don't understand the logic. Why is it OK to do £20k (more?) a year in depreciation but not £10k a year on fuel? Indeed much less really because that's total cost, not the net uplift from diesel. I'm guessing you do about 30k miles a year Red? So probably £10k in V-Power in an SVA or maybe £5k (or more?) in an oil burner? Yes it might be nearly twice as much...but you can get a nice comfy much more efficient car for much less than running any sort of Fatty if saving £5k is the priority.

I know someone who has a barn full of very nice cars, but hardly ever uses them cos its so much cheaper to drive the scruffy old Diesel Focus. So he spends the big money Depreciation/Tax/Insurance mainly to just have them available, but wont spend the last 50p to actually use them. Seems Bonkers to me.

Yeah I know.....we're all different  Mike - MPx

2017 5.0 V8 Supercharged SVAutobigraphy Dynamic SVO Palette Grey (2021-...)
2012 5.0 V8 Supercharged Autoboigraphy Orkney Grey (2017-2021)
2007 4.2 V8 Supercharged Vogue SE Tonga Green (2012-2017)
2002 4.4 V8 Vogue Bonnatti Grey (2008-2012)

It’s a very fair argument that you make there sir!

However, in my case, I do about 35,000 miles a year, absolutely love the power delivery and torque of the SDV8 (so there’s no hardship there) and by the time it’s no longer viable to run (350-400,000 miles?), it will have saved around £40,000 - £60,000 in fuel (standard supermarket Vs V-Power, assuming no price increases), while the depreciation will be near total - whatever engine it’s running

The argument that I enjoy hearing is “Why spend so much money on a car that you’re going to put so many miles on (and destroy it’s value)?”. There’s an easy answer to that - “Why spend so much money on a car and not use it?!” 😆 But then we’re back to your mate with a barn full of nice, but unused, motors!

Firstly I would advise concentrating on selling the C63. You will need to undercut the price of similar cars on Autotrader to achieve a sale. I had a similar issue with an R230 SL. As suggested try a valuation on "We Buy Any Car" for an idea on rock bottom price. Then advertise approx £1000 cheaper than similar examples on Autotrader with some decent photos and description. Consider an advert on the Mercedes Owner forums also. They're free and you may attract an enthusiast buyer. Car and Classic website is also a free advert which may reach an interested party browsing for sometiming nice. Part Exchange route would result in you loosing dramatically!

Next with regard to your current L405, a similar approach can be used......work out a realistic price, comparing to those on Autotrader and again undercut the competition! An advert in this forum is a good way to go but price realistically . Bearing in mind a private sale does not offer the purchaser any of the usual protections and warranties etc and prices seem in free fall at the moment.

Finally you can approach a 5.0 as a cash customer without clouding the deal with part exchanges and take advantage of the falling market, Christmas period, dreaded Brexit uncertainties and negotiate a favourable deal. It allows you to exploit the market for a private buy rather than solely dealers. As you will read on many occasion the service provided by dealers, standard of vehicles prep etc is woeful so you could factor in purchasing a warranty and vehicle service and detail from what you're saving by private purchase.

Just my humble opinion on the way forward. Whichever route you go, best of luck and please keep us posted! Current
2016 MY L405 SDV8
2018 VW Golf GT EVO
2001 BMW Z3 2.2
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2002 L322 TD6
2004 Mercedes R230 SL350
1994 993 Carrera
Range Rover P38 x3
Range Rover 3.9 EFI

Last edited by Bigfella70 on 17th Nov 2019 10:11am. Edited 1 time in total

Try Arnold Clark for selling both cars.

I've no affiliation with them but prior to buying my 2016 AB I had a Mercedes.GLC43 AMG that I had for sale privately for months, put it through Arnold Clark and ended up getting more than I had it advertised privately for!!

Worth a try, you don't need to sign up on their website to get a price either so you don't get loads of spam emails like you do with Webuyanycar.

It can sometimes work the other way with selling “niche” cars, why is it so cheap? Whats wrong with it?

Might be worth pulling the ad and redoing it at a higher price with comments highlighting the cars strong points, also concentrate on super cleaning some parts and take close ups showing just how “mint” it is rather than the generic half dozen 20 feet away shots.
Make the ad stand out with detail.

Thanks guys. Some good advice I’ll take on board.