A fancy car goes missing after a trip to a Wichita detail shop? Yes! so a local car guy has a collection of cars he calls the hoop. Defleet this rare Mercedes SUV Was last seen here at the Quick Cleanups detail shop in East Wichita A thief saw a crime of opportunity stealing it without anyone noticing. Walked in brazenly while sitting in the garage running while there's several men in the Next Room and drove off with it at the business in the middle of the day. Welcome to Hoovie's Garage! The dumbest Automotive channel in all of YouTube And this is a very Infamous vehicle from my past. It is a 2000 Mercedes Ml55 AMG that I bought about six years ago, owned for about a year and then I was getting ready to sell this car and well it got stolen from the detail shop. For those of you that haven't seen or remember those old videos, well here's a little refresher. Just got a phone call from my detailer who was cleaning up my 2000 Mercedes Ml55 that I just made a video on and he asked me if I had picked it up already I said no what's going on and he told me that it's gone is where it was I Just finished the police report and I only have liability insurance on this Ml55 with no luck finding the car for two days I became desperate and went on a social media blitz I created a Facebook page and sent press releases to the local media pretending to be a famous YouTuber and it worked. A fancy car goes missing after a trip to a Wichita detail shop. Yes! so a local car guy has a collection of cars he calls the hoop defleet. He says most of his cars are fully insured, but the one the thief made off with is not. Walked in brazenly while sitting in the garage running while there's several men in the Next Room and drove off with it at the business in the middle of the day. Hoover is a columnist for Auto Trader, but most people recognize him for his YouTube videos. It's just pretty much about my cars and what I do and the things I do with them. He says this model was one of the first Hot Rod Mercedes ever made and what really distinguishes it is its brown color sticks out. anywhere it goes, everybody sees it. Wichita Police are on the lookout and so is Hoover I'm just yeah. I'm driving around at night pointlessly just looking for it and he hopes it's in one piece watching those early videos. It's just so so super cringy for me. I Don't know how you all sat through those early hoobies garage videos, but I am very appreciative I don't really know why you sit through them now, but I'm also even more appreciative because obviously I have my dream Mercedes now SLR McLaren SLS AMG So many others but the Hubble beginning started with this right here. this Ml55 of course I was able to recover it after doing a social media blast with my measly 50 000 subscribers of the time pretending to be a big shot. YouTuber Got on the local news as you saw and that made the car very, very hot because it is a pretty unusual car. an Ml55 and this color bourbon metallic I mean it sticks out just about everywhere. so the police were looking for it. It actually went on a brief Pursuit which was broken off because the car was going too fast, like 60 or 70 miles per hour in small city streets. They broke off the pursuit and the car disappeared for several days and then popped up deep deep deep into a tree row. Unbelievably, this thing was used as a plow with trees about well, that thick to basically hide the car to ditch it. And because these guys are thieves, crackheads, complete jerks, they wanted to do as much damage as possible I imagine as well. So they, well, they did their best. but the car withstood all of that abuse. and then after coming out of the woods thanks to some chainsaws, it went through another detail and came out looking well, pretty darn nice. But then I did end up selling it I sold it to somebody in New Orleans and actually it didn't have a very nice life down in. New Orleans It spent five years doing well, even more strange and interesting things. But before we dive, head long into the Ml55 I'd like to thank Shipstation for sponsoring today's video. 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I actually bought three cars from this individual. two of them I had owned before and sold to him, one being the S500 sedan in the previous video, the 140 which was in beautiful shape, very well taken care of. very much garaged this one. on the other hand, well, it wasn't as well taken care of, but it did get a lot more use as a TV production vehicle as well. so the previous owner would loan his cars out in New Orleans to TV shoots and this one was very, very popular. The Ml55 is still a very popular camera car as well for the big rigs with the cranes on top because of the power and the smoothness. So I imagine it was used a little bit for that, but also on screen. So for those of you that watch CSI New Orleans say around 2018 or 19. apparently this car was in that show and driven by some bad guy and it had the windows shot out of it I Don't know if anybody wants to go through and watch all those episodes with Scott Bakula I Just know that because he's Captain Archer and Star Trek Enterprise But if anybody wants to go back and watch that and find that scene I would forever be in your gratitude. but this car saw a lot of action and that's why. Well, there's a lot of damage that can be explained. So this front bumper yeah, you can see that is somebody's amateur repair right there. I Was told that holes were drilled into it in different places, so maybe that explains why there's this kind of terrible Bondo job here with the paint job the bumper. Well, it doesn't feel all that great either, but it was a little beat up from being used as a bulldozer in the trees, so the front bumper definitely needs to be repainted again. You can see there's some corrosion starting here underneath the grill at the bottom of the hood. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that unfortunately, but also you can see there's remnants of some adhesive so I'm not sure if some bracket was on here, but also the car had been wrapped matte black a time or two. I'm told to make it less visible on camera as a camera car, so that's somewhat interesting, but it still has some of the remnants of the damage from the tree. Run the dent down here, you can see there's a dent and a scrape that's kind of hard to see up here. There was a tree resting on it that scratch, well, it's never going away probably. I'm not sure about these wheel caps. I Probably prefer the Mercedes are to be back on there, but maybe they needed to hide the logos and that's a little more vague you can see on the back still says AMG loud and proud I can't Mount the plate unfortunately because the bolts are stuck or broken off in here so that's definitely going to need to be addressed. This has been rattle canned a time or two and uh, not very well. It looks, well, quite bad and the tires I put these on I Believe they were a little bit used six seven years ago and they are definitely passed it this one. Well, it looks like it's losing air now in 2016. I Bought this thing when the getting was still good when it came to cheap used European cars these were Dirt Cheap I Bought this thing for 3 500. it's a little over a hundred thousand miles. These things definitely popped up in value and had a little bit of a Heyday recently. When it comes to prices and we'll pop the hood and you can see the wonderful M113 V8 under here. 350 horsepower and actually it doesn't look too bad under here. There is one big issue. one big drivability problem that will need to be addressed. but overall it does look pretty tidy in here. Oh, the hood struts are weak though. it just tried to take my head off. We'll save a thorough inspection for the car wizard who we are going to visit today now. I Bought this car back intending to keep it. My wife now has this awesome Bentley Bentega that is her daily driver but this was the first car I ever gave her to drive this 2000 ml55 and when the weather gets really bad outside when they salt the roads and the paint would get all chipped up in that Bentley probably we shouldn't drive it just to preserve it, the undercarriage and all that. So I thought well wouldn't it be fun if I got back the original car that I gave her and in the few days of the week that the weather is really bad in Wichita which doesn't happen all that often I can throw over the keys to this and she can rock it and we can haul the dogs in it. We can just not care about this thing, but it's a little rougher than I thought it was going to be. And the inside, well, you can see, uh, needs a lot. a lot of work. and it seems like somebody smoked in this thing because it smells and there's Ash everywhere and you can see the beautiful wood in this car interior. Wise It's actually held up really, really well and they call these things the Alabama trash cans. but now in retrospect, starts right up. No warning lights. These things are simple, robust, reliable. They're an old school body on frame kind of build old school SUV with a low range, no air suspension to break. So there is so much good going on with this thing as far as a long-term ownership Prospect which why is that taped off anyway, but this one? I Was very happy to get back the idea of it, but now that I see it, maybe it wasn't such a good idea, but I'm going to reserve my judgment until we get up to the car. Wizards And he gives me his inspection and estimates because drivability, it does have some problems with that. Let's go. So the first big problem with this Ml is the power steering is virtually non-existent here. It's weird because it's not making that much noise when it's really cold. it does, but uh, it just seems to not be working and there is some fluid in there. It's low, but it's not gone so I don't understand why it doesn't work at all. Another big issue. Well, every time you accelerate hard, listen to this. It's a a big clunk seems like the front differential. the mounts are completely blown in this thing and I did put air in the tires I Know there was a very low tire, but despite doing that and all the tire pressures being normal, this thing drives like a big laundry boat like a Cadillac from the 70s and these were pretty sharp. Good handling SUVs of their day. so I have no idea what's going on other than probably all the bushings shocks. I Don't know. Something is very very shot in this thing so she looks old and tired. She drives old and tired. except the engine. This engine. a wonderful, wonderful sounding, great performing thing that will last forever. The car may be falling apart around it, but the engine transmission very very solid. So we'll see what the car wizard has to say. wizard hello. you find this thing. Well it's back. it's back again. Didn't this thing get like stolen and thrown in the bushes somewhere? Yes yes it was at the bushes then I sold it now. I've bought it back and uh I'm kind of regretting it here. Listen to this. You hear the the thunk yeah something's bad. a diff mount motor mount I don't know. Also, the power steering is really hard to turn. Yeah, cosmetically, it's not very nice. So I brought some work for you. Yeah, we definitely need some work. This thing's been around the block like seven or eight times. Yeah, so Not only was it stolen, but the person that I sold it to he would loan it out to film Productions including CSI New Orleans and they shot out the windows and stuff. Really? yeah. and what's the forest service there I Have no idea you got me. Is that somebody part of the filming they were doing? Or or maybe he's a volunteer for a service member? I'm not sure. but uh yeah, there's a big thunk and then the power steering is fubard. I Mean it is. It is almost non-existent There's like hardly any fluid in it. Yeah, but there's some because normally I think what happened last time, the seal was broken between the reservoir and the pump. I think the pump itself may just be dead. All right. Well it has had 30, 40, 000 miles to put on it since the last time we saw it Oh That many that many? Yeah, you see, this isn't this. Uh nice. Oh wow. So anyway I may not want to spend a lot of money on this thing. It was a much nicer car before even after it came out of the bushes. but yeah, man, the stories this car has if they could speak I mean I bought it for only 3 500 bucks way back when I bought it this time for a little more than that because these have gone up in value. but maybe we'll save it one more time. Well that's always nice to see when they spray paint your fog light. Brown Oh there it is. Yeah yeah, that fog lights tinted now. Yeah. tinted. So in addition to the power steering being bad and then that clunk, the suspension is not inspiring very much confidence either. So something to look out for the front suspension. and I do see like the cooler oil cooler up there with the oil filter? there's a drip. Okay I mean it's not causing you any major issues or anything. But all right. I think your power steering pump is just dead. Wonderful. Oh yeah, look at that. that's a jiggle. What do you got there? a tie rod end? well that won't explain. and the outer? okay. let's check this one. Oh that's worse. Okay, yeah. oh, that's your steering. That's your yeah' feeling there. Yeah, it feels very big. like it's a 70s land yacht once. I Get started to get a rear main seal leak here. Oh well. I'm gonna pretend like I didn't see that look inside of there. the access hole open your hole? Yeah, Yep. I mean it's not bad just getting started. Yeah and that transmission pan looks like it came from Chicago What is that? It's like a an alien except kind of nest and there's like dead bugs in it. Oh what is that some Louisiana bug? I Guess huh? Ew. Gross. That feels okay. Let me check these mounts. Oh yeah, look, they're completely torn on my front diff. Mount Yep, that's clunking around. That's your clunking noise. Perfect. Yep, completely separated on the front one. here. you can kind of see the crack. Oh yeah, well that explains it. So every time I get on it, it clunks, the steering goes all over the place and when you try and make Corrections you have no power steering so it's It's an experience to drive this car right now. Yeah, I bet the old tires too. Just a cherry on top. Here's the transfer case. A little seepage, but nothing. Yeah, that's not bad. Not bad. Let's see if these things are wobbly. No looks like a wire got wrapped up in it or something. Fishing line. Yeah. fishing line. Interesting. They're out in Louisiana fishing? Yeah. Oh whoa. The same thing here. Man, this thing probably steers crazy. It feels like a boat. No, it's like an alien invasion on this thing. Okay, yeah, that axle feels spitting a little bit. Yeah, that's not worth really tearing apart. All right. Brought you decent projects, huh? It definitely is. Really, it wouldn't take a whole lot to get this thing driving better again. but I don't think it'll ever be what it was when you had it last. It's it's changed. It has. Well, shall we step into your office? Let's do that. Sounds like a good plan to me. You need to clean your lips. You've got I got stuff all over me. Oh the wizard is watch shopping that is not good. A Rolex GMT no A Timex yeah just a 129 bucks for the time extra I Just don't think I'm gonna get very much out of this car. It's not gonna I'll get you a Timex in exchange for all those repairs. Certainly not in exchange for all the repairs. but it'll help me buy it. Yeah, you can help me buy it. So what you're saying is, it's not that bad. No, it's not I wasn't able to look for an Omega C Master this time. That's wonderful. Yes, Okay, so I guess the suspension first, right? Yeah, so in the front we'll do both inner and outer tie rod, the tie rod ends and the tie rods themselves and then in alignment driving around 600 bucks. Okay, yeah, that sounds about right. the rear. We might as well just do both sides because we can see it's been beat on pretty bad. the other side's already starting to get floppy. So basically the same thing again in the rear. another 600 bucks. Okay, geez yeah, makes sense. Then the Power steering. Power Steering Pump 550 Half of that is the cost of the pump, right? but still very reasonable. Yeah, it's very reasonable. that's why I was looking at time matches and not omegas. You know a lot of people knock those cars as the Alabama trash cans, but not that bad. They don't have air ride or weird brakes or any of the common Mercedes foibles all the little Sam modules all over the car. It's a very simple thing that if you can find one in nice shape, you'd recommend it. Yes, yeah, I actually would. It's totally doable. Someone can fix a lot of it themselves. unfortunately I don't fix things myself and I didn't get one in very nice shape. but uh yeah, anything else. The last thing I probably should go ahead and cross it off. now. you probably are not gonna do it. The rear main seal the train yeah does have to come out 1100 bucks. no thank you thank you. and it's not even dripping yet. Yeah, so we'll wait. Cross that one out. Yes, eighteen hundred bucks. Okay for everything. Okay and I need to put tires on it as well. So tires are smoked so that's probably going to be about another 800 000 bucks. So almost as much as you paid for it when you first bought it. I did. and I only spent a thousand dollars to sort it out the first time and now I'm spending yeah. Oh geez. Okay, well times have changed. That car has changed a lot. We have aged like fine wine. That car. Um, well. you've had a little bit of a glow up with the beard and the hair and all that. Any more lack of it. Anyway, he's a much sexier man than he was five years ago in my opinion. But anyway, we're getting off on a tangent there. Thank you for watching.