R63 AMG The Unicorn of my Destruction

The internet tells me Mercedes built 180 R63 AMG's in 2007. 30 were supposed to stay in the USA, but records seem to show that 44 did. I've never seen one.
I'm a stay at home dad with four kids. Over the years I've had a Volvo wagon, a first generation Honda Odyssey, and for the last few years, a crew cab truck as my dad-mobiles. The need to seat six negates the overwhelming majority of cool cars, with the glaring exception of the bizarre and poorly considered R63. Why make make a 505hp AWD minivan? I don't think anyone beyond the engineering department had a good answer to that, and as quickly as they were introduced, they were gone.
But I found one, in Florida, and on Friday I'm going to grab a friend and we're going to grab a rental car and we're going to go get it.
This is going to be more of an ownership log than a build thread. Common wisdom says buying a ten year old AMG Mercedes out of warranty is certain to cause immense pain and maritial strife. I don't doubt that for a second, though I harbor a hope that I'm the one guy who gets away with it.
I just can't not buy it, even knowing how stupid the whole thing is.

You really have quite the fleet of ridiculous people movers.

Looking forward to your impressions - I'm pretty anti-minivan in general, but I could be convinced if it had 500hp. Good luck on the trip!

Oh lord. You already have the ctsv!! Should be an interesting ride, but god they look ugly. Maybe I just haven't seen the AMG treatment.

This is great, and I expect some pics. Congrats.

Are you ditching anything for it or just adding to the group?

You suck in the most awesome way possible.

Your life is what I always dreamed being an adult would be like.

I wanna grow up to be just like you.

java230 wrote: Oh lord. You already have the ctsv!! Should be an interesting ride, but god they look ugly. Maybe I just haven't seen the AMG treatment.

I thought the exact same thing! An R63 and a CTS-V?!?

In case you want some design ideas...

I'm pretty excited. The plan is to keep this for the next five years or so until I kick a couple of kids out of the house and get to more normal kid hauling levels. I was planning on selling the truck but Mrs. Deuce pointed out that it only costs a couple hundred dollars a year to insure and at 10 years old and 160k miles, the bulk of depreciation has already happened. She thinks we should just tuck it under the overhang and use it when we need to. We'll see.
I'm looking forward to the CTS-V Wagon R63 AMG photo. It really is an absurd level of awesomeness.

according to cargurus.com one just got posted in WA too within the day. 29995 with 115k and no pics

Damn that looks pretty good as far as minivans go.

I'd never heard of it until this post. This should be fun to watch.

They seem to be trading for $30-35k and have been for a couple years. I'm hoping we're on the cusp of people deciding that since 911's are too expensive they should move on to AMG cars as the next big thing.
In reality I'm just hoping that maintenance doesn't end up costing me more then depreciation would over five years ownership of a new minivan. I've tortured logic every way I could and it's very hard to have a car like this makes sense. 10 year old me wants 505 HP in my minivan and 10 year old me has a very loud voice.

Have you totaled up the overall horsepower level at your house?

It's best not to fight it....

The only other logical option would be a E63S and those things are something like 100k new.

Woody wrote: Have you totaled up the overall horsepower level at your house?

Because of the Civic and the RX7 it wouldn't be that impressive. What IS impressive is 1061hp for the two kid haulers, or if you add the '68 Ford Wagon in you have something like 18.8 liters of displacement in long roof people movers that weigh close to 14k lbs. Apparently I have a thing for very large motors in very large cars.

Am I wrong or aren't those rebadged caravans? They are nice looking just not sure about 30k large on a 10 year old vehicle even with a AMG bag on it.

They share the chassis with the ML and GL of the same generation. The W251 chassis, not a caravan. The price premium over the big 63 engined cars is is little bonkers, but there isn't really anything else like it and there are precious few of them. Like I said, not logical. Going to cost me money. You guys get to follow along and see if it's worth it.

Edit: it might also be worth pointing out that these were something like $88k-$96k depending on options. Holding 1/3 of sticker after 10 years is pretty odd for a Mercedes, but other manufacturers seem to do it.

Wait...What ever happened to "With oil prices being almost zero and the family income being tied to oil, we maybe should tuck our financial heads into the turtle shell for a while"?

Not that I object in any way to such a purchase, just pointing out that there may be more "kids" running around the house than you admit to.

In case there is anyone else who is wondering what is causing this behavior:

Ctsv, r63, 911, fergus, civic track car, and the truck. I think you might have covered all the bases.

In reply to NOHOME:

My wife knows me well. When I said "there's an R63 for sale" I might as well have said "Natalie Portman wants to sleep with me" except I'm slightly more excited about the van. This money is basically year three of our three years of savings just in case. It's supposed to be sitting there in case we need it, but instead I'm going to drive it around. If there were an R8 in our price range she would be driving that to work instead of me getting the van. Hopefully those two will cross in value sometime in the next five years. If at any time any of you want to trade your R8 straight up, let me know, I'm in.

mndsm wrote: Ctsv, r63, 911, fergus, civic track car, and the truck. I think you might have covered all the bases.

RX7 rallycross car and my wife's FJ Cruiser as her rainy day beater too. We might have problems.

Awesome!!!

I always wanted to get one but they held value pretty well. I think I'd take any large AMG product. E63 wagon, R63, G63.

mazdeuce wrote:

mndsm wrote: Ctsv, r63, 911, fergus, civic track car, and the truck. I think you might have covered all the bases.

RX7 rallycross car and my wife's FJ Cruiser as her rainy day beater too. We might have problems.

I completely forgot about those.

As an aside, if you have time and like beer, stop at cigar city brewing in tampa. Is good.

Huh... I see one of these all the time near work. Never realized it was that rare.

You'll pass through Gainesville coming and going. Sounds like you'll be making a banzai run, but I'd love to grab a beer with you guys if possible.