2019 E450 4MATIC wagon through pace ace, Houston lender yard, picked it up in Karnes City myself

wagon people will understand, everybody else can skip this one. i have been hunting an S213 E450 4MATIC wagon for a year. they made very few, the ones on the dealer lots in Austin are 44 to 48 with 40k miles, and every private party one i drove had either curbed wheels or a smoker.

one showed up on paceacemotors.net in september, sitting in a Houston lender's yard. 2019 E450 4MATIC wagon, 33,600 miles, Selenite Grey, AMG Line, the rear facing third row seat that only the wagon has. bank repo.

i bid 36,400 sealed. won. delivery would have been free, Houston is well inside their thousand miles, but i asked whether i could collect it from the Karnes City lot instead, because i wanted to see the car before i signed the condition report and i wanted to drive it home. they said sure, they truck units to Karnes City for pickup, and it took about a week to get there from Houston.

so on a saturday my wife and i drove down from Austin, I-35 to San Antonio, I-37 south, US-181 to Karnes City, about 2 hours 40. the place sits along TX-123 as you come into town, gravel behind a chain link fence with a small office out front, and behind the fence our wagon, a handful of trucks and a bass boat. the guy in the office had the packet ready, walked the car with me, i started it, ran the third row up and down, opened the pano roof, signed, and we drove it home up US-87 through Nixon and Seguin instead of the interstate.

what i would have missed with delivery: the pano roof sunshade is slow on one side. it works, it is just slow, which on the S213 is usually the shade motor or the guide rail. i noted it on the condition report and they noted it too. indy appointment is next week.

rear self leveling on mine, no full Airmatic. it sits right with the third row loaded. on the sunshade, the pace ace listing carries their 6 month limited warranty, mechanical defects at the time of sale and failures under normal use, and i asked the question by email before i drove down. the answer was that a slow shade that still works is not a defect at the time of sale, but if it stops working inside the 6 months it is covered. fair enough, i saved the email. the indy in south Austin cleaned and lubed the guide rails yesterday, 90 bucks, and it is a lot better. not perfect.

december check in. 36,900 miles now, so 3,300 on the wagon since Karnes City, including a Thanksgiving run to my in laws in Lubbock with the third row full and the roof box on. averaged 27 on the highway, which for a 4MATIC wagon full of people is fine.

money since pickup: 90 for the sunshade, 340 for the B service at the indy because it was due by date, and 210 for wiper blades and the cabin filter because Austin cedar season starts next month and i have allergies. nothing warranty related. the sunshade is still slower on the left than the right and i have stopped caring.

the guy in the office in Karnes City told me most of their buyers take the free delivery and never see the place. i get it, but for a car you have been hunting for a year the drive down was worth the day, and the drive home up 87 in a wagon i had wanted forever was the best part of the whole thing. that is all from pace ace land unless the 48V battery does the christmas tree thing.