Welcome back! I hope you all brought your eagle-eyes today, because we’re going to be looking at little details in photos. We’ve got two cars that are both said to run and drive well, but the photos hint at some potential issues. Are you ready to check them out?
First, we should wrap up yesterday’s truck battle. I honestly thought this one would be a bit closer, but the Nissan seems to have taken a fairly decisive win. Lots of support for the Avalanche in the comments, but it didn’t translate to votes.
For what it’s worth, I’m on Team Nissan here. I had a 720 pickup in college, and a WD21 Pathfinder when my wife and I moved from California to Oregon, and both were excellent. I have no doubt that this truck would be the same. And as for the comments that it would be “slow,” well, yeah, it’s a truck. I don’t want a fast truck; I want just enough power, and nice deep gears to make the most of it. Torque and leverage – that’s where the magic happens.
All right, ready to look at some janky rides? These two may be better than they look, but I doubt it. Get ready to zoom in; we’re gonna study some details. That’s where the devil is, I’m given to understand.
2004 Infiniti G35 – $2,800
Engine/drivetrain: 3.5-liter dual overhead cam V6, five-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Richmond, TX
Odometer reading: 179,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
All right, let’s just go photo-by-photo and see what there is to see. First thing I see is some terrible shutlines and panel gaps; I know Nissan didn’t let it leave the factory that way. Also, it could be a reflection, but it looks like the bumper cover is a different shade of silver than the fender above it. It looks to me like some badly done collision repair. The Plasti-Dipped wheels and grille are just tacky, not really a problem, but it does make one wonder what else was messed with.
Moving to the inside, we find dangling wires under the passenger’s side of the dash. What’s over there? Well, an airbag, for starters. Not something you want to disconnect, or even mess with the wiring of. It could be from a stereo amplifier, or something HVAC-related, as well, I suppose. It actually looks like the entire glovebox is missing as well. The leather is torn, but it’s a twenty-year-old car for under three grand; I expect some upholstery issues.
There’s more torn upholstery on the other side, and a missing sun visor. Again, not a huge deal, and a quick trip to a junkyard could probably score you a visor and a glovebox door pretty easily. The multiple vent-mounted air fresheners aren’t a great sign; hopefully they’re not covering up any really horrible smells. And of course, the tinting is turning purple, because they used the cheap stuff.
It’s banged up in the back, too, but no worse than you’d expect, I suppose. I’m not sure why it was de-badged, though. Is that a thing?
2004 Mercedes-Benz E500 – $3,750
Engine/drivetrain: 5.0-liter overhead cam V8, five-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Berwyn, IL
Odometer reading: 170,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Moving on to a W211-chassis Mercedes, we find some really bad aftermarket wheels. Those aren’t a crime, of course, but they’re also ill-fitting, which isn’t great for the suspension. But worse, if you look closely at the driver’s side door, you’ll see rust along the bottom edge, and a line of – something – coming down from the mirror, some kind of stain. Could be more rust. And we all know the rule with rust is that if you see some, there’s a lot more in places you can’t see.
This one doesn’t look terrible inside, actually. I see an aftermarket stereo with a screen, and the ad does mention a backup camera. But the seats are in nice shape, as is everything else, except that wrinkly armrest cover. The ad says that everything works, too, so that’s a good sign.
Yeesh. Another painted grille. But worse than that are those headlight covers. Why would you put smoked covers on lights? Their whole purpose is to provide illumination. And those half-covers on the low beams make the car look stoned. There’s damage to the bumper cover; the whole bottom lip is missing. And I have absolutely no idea what that red thing is behind the lower grille; if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know in the comments.
In the back, we find the biggest, dumbest exhaust pipes ever fitted to a Mercedes-Benz. I know it’s a V8, but come on; there’s no call for those things. It’s also badged as an E55 AMG model, but for some reason they have crossed out the AMG logo in the photo. Very strange. I have no idea what’s going on there. The rear bumper shows some damage as well; the left side has been touched up, and badly.
I don’t mean to pick on these two cars, or sellers, necessarily; they’re not really much worse than other cars out there. But they’re both described as being in “Excellent” condition and clearly, that’s not the case. Obviously sellers exaggerate and talk up cars; we all do it, but when it’s so easy to find flaws in photos, it brings into question the condition of everything they’re not showing you. The only sure-fire way to know what you’re looking at is to look at it in person. Which one of these is worth going to look at?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
I wouldn’t touch either of these with your ten foot pole
They both scream “No maintenance in 30K+ miles”
Definitely the Merc- it has the V8, looks better and in better shape, and isn’t so janky. I’ll fix the rust
…This is the first Showdown since they started that I actually chose neither. I can’t find anything redeeming about any of them. The closest I can come is maybe the Infiniti could be a tossable track toy, but even then that depends on it being structurally sound enough to not immediately pancake you in the event of a crash and its frame fail from being MacGyvered into something it can’t be.
The cars have enough red flags to form a Soviet reconstruction.
Terrible decision twins. Run far, run fast.
Infiniti for me. The owner of that Benz looks like they routinely make bad life choices and I don’t want to find out how that translates into how it was maintained.
No doubt some teenager in both of those areas is working overtime at Wendy’s to get a sweet first whip. I’d take the infiniti if only because enough dipshits around here crash them that I could more or less ship of theseus it into Something
“And I have absolutely no idea what that red thing is behind the lower grille; if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know in the comments”
The tongue. I’d keep my distance if I was you.
I’m not scared! I’ll spend my fake money!
No disrespect to the good people of (in the voice of Svengoolie) Berwyn, but I have worse feelings about the damage done to that Benzo than the G35. We’ll take the Infiniti and see if we can score some Skyline badges.
No, thanks.
I buy all my cars for around $3000. w123, e36, e46. Shitboxes in general don’t scare me, but I would run away from these. I’m sure the G35 was “drifted”, and I doubt proper maintenance was done on either.
You would really hate the tinted windshields in Brazil.
VQs are easy to fix, especially compared to the VG that came before it in the Zs. I can’t even imagine doing some simple repairs on that Mercedes. I’ll take the Infiniti for sure
You know me; I’d much rather have the Benz. We’d have to see about that rust, but the M113 is perhaps one of Mercedes-Benz’ most solid, serviceable engines, the 5.0-liter variant of the same has gobs of power, and it’s otherwise a lovely vehicle.
I’m curious whether the air suspension–standard on the E 500–was deleted.
As an owner of a 2004 G35x (that I purchased from a charity for $1000), I can attest that they are incredibly serviceable. A terrible car for sure, but cheap to get parts for and keep running. It does have horrible HVAC/Radio controls and the seats/seating position is also terrible. I’ll take the Merc.
Strange, I have the same year and model, and even though I have a bad back I actually find the seats comfortable. Not as nice as my Volvo V70 but I’ve done 5 hour road trips with no issues.