Bought a car sight unseen... Mercedes eBay content

So I just bought a car in New Jersey based off of the photos and a Russian Vin decoder.

Auction

I'm satisified with what I paid, but nervous to be honest. I have to get the car shipped across the country, and I've never done that before. No idea how helpful the seller is going to be in getting it loaded either. I hope it is as described.

Recommendations for car shipping from Caldwell NJ to Tacoma WA? Fly and drive isn't totally off of the list of possibilities, but only if the seller doesn't mind holding it until the second week in August. I'm not too keen on driving across the country to save $200.

Oh dear me, you are copying my playbook. I bought a merc on ebay from Queens and had it shipped to near Seattle my ownself a few months ago. I used an outfit called 'MB transportation" and they got it here when they said they would...

This doesn't help much but it looks nice from the pictures..............hope it all works out for you.

Looks like a good car. The stick is super rare.

Nice car. I loved our 190e 2.6, it was a great car. One of the best we had. Finally sold it with over 260k on the clock. I tried, but missed purchasing a manual sportline a year and a half ago.

I had an auto of that car. Add decent tires and shocks and it was a great handling little car. I think I put Tokio's sports of some sort in it. They were a great match to the stock springs and bars.

InterCity or Reliable are good car transporters

Those must be going up in value due to age. Find a reputable shipping company; I've read that shipping companies aren't regulated very much so it's relatively easy for bad companies to scam consumers with little penalties/liabilities.

In reply to Mr_Clutch42: They have been climbing in value- a 2.3 16v and any sportline or limited edition has about doubled in value in the last five years alone. I kick myself for not buying what was basically the twin of this car for $5k a few years back.

I've wanted a 190e with a manual for years, and I'm thrilled to find one with the sportline package and the 2.6 engine. The timing was right.

Good news: the seller contacted me and seems to be very reasonable and willing to help load! I'll be spending much of the day working on getting shipping lined up just as soon as Air Canada gets me a flight home.

Add another tip of the hat for Reliable.

Hey, how about a "drive and drive"? I'll pick you up in my Toyota, and we'll run across country and get it ourselves and drive back!

Nice score by the way

Shipping is booked. I should have a new 22 year old car in around two weeks. :)

Thanks for the recommendations. I got three seperate bids, two were really close. Reliable transportation was nearly double the price of the vendor I selected, and their sales guy was very grumpy on the phone.

Nice car. What does the Sportline package consist of on those things?

Sweet car. That looks like something a Russian mobster would drive.

In reply to Woody: The Sportline is one of three different packages that MB offered that were all pretty similar: the other two were the 2.3-16 (and 2.5-16), and the Limited Edition. Sportline was a 2 year only option that basically had the same suspension of the Cosworth car, less the self-leveling rear suspension and some small alignment tweaks.

All three packages got a much different suspension package from your regular 190, including different bushings, control arms, shocks, springs, hubs (on the cosworth for larger wheel bearings), sway bars, sub frame bushings, etc.

The Sportline had the heavier 2.6 straight six engine, so it has slightly more spring in the front to take the weight.

Regarding the rest of the package, MB cars were very often customer orders and as such there is a huge variance in equipped options from one car to the next which is where the Russian Vin decoder comes in. Punch in your vin number, and it spits out all the options that your car shipped with, including a bunch of other info like color codes and delivery date.

My Sportline has the sport seats in a light gray color. These are the same sport seats found in the Cosworth cars, complete with much bigger bolsters. The Cossies were usually cloth in Europe, and usually leather in the US. The LE cars had the same seats but were black with red piping and are definitely the most desirable of all 190e seats. Note that the 500e/e500 also had these seats front and rear, as did the W124 Sportline cars. Sportline was only an option on W124 and W201 cars.

The cars could be ordered with just the front or both front and rear sport seat option. In the rear you got a deep bolster and two seating positions- no third seat as this is no longer a bench style seat.

Externally, the LE cars had a "Sportline" badge on side skirt just behind the front wheel. It was an option on the Sportline cars and mine does not have them. The LE cars were also badge delete from the factory. Just the three-point star emblem is on the back. The 2.3/2.5 16 cars had a different aero package from either the Sportline or LE cars, and it included a spoiler and a pretty low drag coefficient.

That my car has the Sportline package with most every option AND a manual transmission makes it really quite rare.

TLDR: The Sportline cars had really nice seats and improved suspension. .

Thought I'd park this here. NMNA

Never seen one of these or even heard about it until this thread.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/5076133914.html