Foreign the dumbest Automotive channel in all of YouTube in reality is beginning to set in a little bit that I own this amazing 2008 Mercedes SLR McLaren It's the most expensive car I've ever purchased in my entire life. It cost even more than the original Hoovie's garage that I started filming in a few years ago moved out of that house. This cost more than that. a little over three hundred thousand dollars with fees only three thousand miles on it, but still a fraction of its original 500 000 MSRP So I thought I got a great deal, but being typical Hoovie, even at this scale of money, I bought it impulsively without doing too much research and now I'm doing more research after the fact. and you all the people of the internet actually helped me with my research by sending me clips and videos including one of the direct aftermath of this car on fire which we shall review today. Along with the history of this car, you got a lot more details. Also, we're going to talk about the one card that I bought that I actually play land and budgeted and actually stuck to the budget. Very reasonable for a legendary car and well, I did a lot of research. It's actually right behind me. The third car that I bought at the Barrett Jackson collector car auction. Yeah, another. Mercedes But first, let's review what: I did know about this car before I bought it at auction. It was clearly disclosed that this thing had a Carfax damage report of fire damage on it before it crossed the auction block. I knew that I also knew that it sold for four hundred thousand dollars a few years prior at a Gooding Auction in Scottsdale and apparently there was a fire in the trunk area or a thermal event. The battery shorted out, melted down, and it actually melted some wiring with it. A lot of smoke as well. smoked out the tail lights apparently, which caused those to need to be replaced. That's at least what I guessed. And the bill was somewhere around fifty thousand dollars because of all the work involved: replacing the wiring harness basically throughout the entire car, removing the interior, removing the rear axle, dropping the fuel tank to get to all the wiring harness to drop it out and replace it. They did not want to splice the wires back together. they wanted to fix it appropriately, which makes a lot of sense on a very, very nice car like this. But a long wait for the parts meant that the previous owner the one that bought it at the Gooding auction for 400 000 didn't want to keep it. So the insurance company bought it, apparently fixed it, and then sold it at auction. I didn't know how much and this is all stories that I'm being told by a few degrees of separation, which is mostly accurate, but I got a clear VIN on this. This video isn't sponsored by Clearvin or anything, they're just very handy, especially if you're buying cars from a salvage auction and you need to know how many times it's run through the sale and who's selling it because you want to buy it directly from the insurance company. you don't want to buy it from somebody who's already given up on it or put lipstick on a pig like leader. Mix Keter recently bought a Turbo S that had a bumper just Loosely put on it to make the damage look less on this. Turbo S when it was really hit so hard in the back that the engine and transmission were cracked and completely destroyed. Thankfully he was able to send it back to the auction, but if you he had gotten this report he probably would have passed on it because it shows the auction photos as well. Now there's nothing surprising here in this other than the sale price of this car which is absolutely insane and it makes me wonder if the story wasn't quite right. I'm sure the car got fixed by Mercedes two OEM standards in Mercedes of Michigan but maybe after it was sold at the salvage auction by Hagerty because this thing sold for only 158 thousand dollars in January 6th of 2020 which is ridiculously cheap. Clean title showing as running and drive verified so maybe it was fixed, but it showed an estimated repair cost of 45 679.95 which is right on what the wiring harness repair was so it makes me think they probably took it to Mercedes to get an estimate, gave an exact estimate, and then put it up to auction. But since the car ran and drove, they just sold it as is. So somebody bought it and then fixed it and then sold it for I Imagine a pretty decent profit that if they're under two hundred thousand dollars into it or a little over two hundred, but prices were certainly lower back then. The pandemic was just this funny thing in China that nobody was following yet. but obviously I got some great deals in 2020 cars that have doubled and tripled in value. So really I can't feel too bad What? What did make me feel bad was this video that was sent to me which was actually this car on fire. which? uh yeah, take a look at this three firefighters in the trunk of this. SLR McLaren And then they start hammering away. Oh which? I Imagine that's the battery. They're trying to bust the battery terminal off the battery because it's shorting out, so they're hammering apart the plastic battery because there's no chisel damage or anything else like that back there. and you can kind of see the tail lights look smoked out like it was almost intentional, but obviously a lot of smoke got in there and probably ruined them, which is why they were replaced, but no other damage, but you see the firefighters working diligently in there for about a minute in the video and then there is one comment from the owner in the video. Someone asked him how much work did he think this car needed to get back on the road and he said I really have no idea I know to restore it as it would would be hundreds of thousands of dollars which is obviously not true. But besides the electrical damage, there was serious smoke damage and heat damage. There's some smoke damage, but no heat damage. The SLR is all carbon fiber so everything is super expensive. He's right about that, but there was no damage to the carbon fiber of the car at all. We can see some remnants of some smoke and things getting hot around the brakes in the SBC we saw that in the Wizard video but nothing really got damaged. So do I feel stupid for spending this much money on a car with that kind of story? The most money I've ever spent in my life on a car on a car that is notoriously, uh, difficult to resell, let alone one with a story. Um, well, maybe no, no, certainly not because I really really wanted one of these. I Never thought I'd be able to get a roadster and I'm absolutely thrilled to have one and the fact that it had a story certainly made it cheaper and put it in Striking Distance for me. and since I was getting rid of a bunch of other cars, if someone told me hey, would you trade your super bird and four or five other hoopties for an SLR Roadster Well absolutely. which is what I did at auction so I am absolutely thrilled. but of course that wasn't the only cars that I bought at the auction. There is the My Box 62 which is up at the Car Wizard getting fixed as we speak and then well this beautiful thing over here. Yes, I went for three Mercedes at the auction despite all of the variety I ended up buying three, but this was the first one on Friday that I bought. it is a 2002 Mercedes SL500 the last year of the 129 chassis Mercedes but also it is the Silver Arrow Edition This is a tribute to the legendary Sterling Moss race cars of the 1950s, somewhat like the SLR McLaren but at a much more reasonable price. There's about 1500 of these in existence and there are so many special touches to this car. Mercedes was coming out with the new SL the hard top convertible, a radically different car and this beautiful Bruno Sacco design car even though it did get a facelift, was getting a little long in the tooth so they decided to do this special Silver Arrow Edition and charge a pretty penny for it. and it was a major hit Now, despite the low numbers and this one being a very, very nice example, depreciation has hit these pretty good. I Bought it for only twenty thousand dollars with fees 22 thousand dollars which was a pretty good price especially since I Thoroughly researched the history on this car and it's kind of funny how it ended up at a barrette accident and with that let's start the tour. I'll put my fancy doors down to save the battery of the SLR but look at the beautiful Silver Arrow which paint wise, very very close when it comes to Colors The Silver Arrow metallic was what this color was called and it was special and exclusive to this car and they may have completely copycatted it for the SLR McLaren because it is darn near identical except for maybe a little bit of pearl to it. There's certainly some more Pearl than what I see over here, but you see the special badge Silver Arrow Edition Not only did you get the sports the AMG kit on this car, but you got exclusive Silver Arrow Wheels which are actually multi-piece as you can see here with a polished lip looks fantastic. The grill I believe was also special to the Silver Arrow and when you walk around this thing it just looks so stunning. No offense to my first car my gram there's SL that she gave to me but I think this is the most attractive generation of SL right here. This is my my favorite I think the best of the best when it comes to special editions or any style of. Mercedes SL From this generation they made a hundred Silver Arrows 600s with the V12 That would be awesome. They are a lot more money and a lot more maintenance. So I like these because the simple V8 under the hood which we'll show in a little bit and no active suspension, no hydraulic, no armatic. it won't break on you other than in the old-fashioned way of getting worn out. Very simple Replacements But as far as special things go, there's really not a lot until you get inside. Originally, you would have gotten a briefcase with this car. The Silver Arrow briefcase that matched it. this one, like most of them, is long gone. sitting in somebody's closet. The original owner probably. but you have plenty of room in the trunk. You have the mount for the wind deflector here CD Changer Here's the tools kit. You even get a full-size spare tire which I just now discovered is missing on this car. Unfortunately, that would be nice to have. But inside if you take a look, this is where it gets really really special. So you get the two-tone interior not just in the seats but also the steering wheel. You also get a special dark wood finish here. It's in the center console as well, which you look at the shifter. They have a machined turn finish in the shifter. on the ashtray cover. You have the Vintage Silver Arrow race car with Silver Arrow written Underneath It All the normal Mercedes goodness up here up until the instrument cluster which is also a vintage looking engine turned finish with I believe a unique font as well. It just all looks so insanely good on this car and this one is showing only 65 000 miles now when I saw it I thought oh man a silver o this is so special this was before the auction I do live coverage for Barrett Jackson on history and FYI so I was researching the cars anyway I researched this one Googled the VIN and actually it had sold on bring a trailer earlier this year it's sold in July fly for thirty thousand dollars with fees. It had an incredible service history you can see in here. The engine is absolutely Immaculate gorgeous in here and even all the Troublesome hydraulic soft top stuff had been replaced and serviced. so that was a big deal. So thirty thousand dollars! That probably was the Fair money for the car, but for some reason a dealer bought it and thought he could flip it at Barrett Jackson in Houston which there are a lot of people at. Barrett-Jackson buying at the auction. A lot of informed buyers, a lot of dealers, but you need two people at least to know what a Silver Arrow is and to actually want it in order for the bids to go up. and uh well, I was one of those two. So I bought it for twenty thousand dollars. That means the seller with his fees because he paid eight percent. uh, took an over ten thousand dollar haircut on this thing to own it for four months. which no judgment here. I've taken bigger losses than that. but I feel like I got an amazing deal now? like I said I bought this car on Friday very very happily my very first car ever bought at Barrett Jackson but now it was kind of overshadowed by the other two so it kind of went to the background. But I absolutely love these cars! It is an amazing emerging classic value that is really easy to live with and really, really nice to drive and something. Well if you're looking for a nice car on a budget, it's definitely one of these and with that let's take it for a ride. Oh this thing is so nice and much like the Maybach originally some big mover and Shaker bought this thing new and thanks to them for taking a lot of depreciation. So I got this car for over 80 percent off in the my box case. over 90 percent off and you get so so much for the money. It's just insane now. I Was introduced to these cars first by a music video ludicrous at the height of his Fame coming from Too Fast Too Furious did his video roll out. you know, roll out that that song and he was cruising around in a 2002. Mercedes Silver Arrow Edition Just like this I wanted to be Luda so bad and now, well I kind of am. let's hit it. Oh yeah, I mean it's not 500 600 horsepower, but plenty of motivation there. Feels fast, sounds amazing. but these are Grand Touring cars. So this is smooth, quiet, comfortable. even without the actual suspension and all the nannies, it does have traction control and abs. It still feels like a very solid planted vehicle. Just look at those beautiful gauges and the noise. I mean other than the supercharger and they're not coming out of your feet, it's pretty similar to the SLR McLaren That's because this is the same family of engines. so you get kind of the same engine. You get the same paint job, you get the same Silver Arrow Heritage All that for a lot a lot less than an SLR McLaren Man, you don't get the fancy doors though. I Guess you could probably make some work from some Mustang kit or something. but please please don't do that if you buy one of these Now back when I was a car dealer I came across one of these very similar condition. Bought it for fifteen thousand dollars. that was over 10 years ago and I thought this car is a keeper for life. but life happened I ran out of money I was a terrible car dealer and I had to sell it So many cars I bought then that I wanted to keep but then ran out of money and had to sell the crown jewels. but now, well I have one again. What I'm gonna do with it I have no idea. the soft top. even though it's all been replaced, the hard top is kind of stuck on it. it won't come off. Maybe it just needs a little bit of motivation, but otherwise I am not that worried about it now. I just need a round of the collection with the 300 SL but the chances of finding me one of those hoop do you end up making sense for YouTube Well that will never ever happen. Unfortunately I would have to sell off way more than a Superbird and a bunch of other cars in order to get into one of those and show some Financial responsible ability which I never do. Speaking of: I bought three more Mercedes three more are on a truck on the way because I'm a complete idiot. Thank you for watching.