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Auto Flip Insider #6
Your Daily Dose of Well-Priced Automotive Treasures - Sixth Edition
Connor Lopes
April 22, 2024
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Good morning, Flippers!
If you're into finding awesome stuff and turning it into cash, you're in the right place! Our weekly newsletter is your ticket to uncovering awesome opportunities for potential automotive flipping across the country. From turbo diesel station wagons to German military vehicles, this week’s edition has the inside scoop on how to make money and how to have fun doing it. Let's make some serious dough together!
This week has proven to be another unintentional tribute to the many Deutsche Autos that have inspired flips over the years…
Warning - only elbow grease “aus Deutschland” is be required.
1987 Mercedes-Benz 300TD - Charlotte, North Carolina - $6,400
Have you ever wanted a Mercedes-Benz wagon with champagne paint, champagne seats, champagne carpets, champagne door cards, and a champagne dashboard? How about one with 7 seats, 7 seatbelts, a fully-functioning cargo area dog net, and an average highway-speed fuel consumption rating of 28mpg?
With a little bit of love and a few solid roadtrips under its belt, this 37 year-old family wagon would be an absolute hit on one of those new-fangled auction sites.
Bring A Trailer has hosted 15 examples of the W124 300TD over the years, with all of the running examples fetching between $6,100 and $25,000 at the end of their auctions.
With an MSRP of ~$41,000 in ‘87 ($112,725.46 in ‘24), these are quite a steal today…
2002 BMW 540i 6-Speed - Lake Success, New York - $7,995
With the M-Sport package, the 6-speed manual transmission, low mileage, recent maintenance mentioned, and a reasonable asking price, this E39 might be the perfect candidate for a good ‘ole-fashioned flip.
Timing belt tensioners/guides can often be the achilles heel on these V8 models, and appear unmentioned in this particular example’s description. “Split the cost with me on the timing job?” might be a reasonable question to ask the seller before striking a deal…
Over 300 examples of the 540i have sold on Bring A Trailer (not all of those have been E39 models), with the E39 examples closing their auctions with bids as low as $4,500 and as high as $72,000.
“Sheer Driving Pleasure” and “Ultimate Driving Machine” both apply here…
2002 BMW K1200RS - - Vancouver, Canada - $3,000
The 1171cc four-stroke liquid-cooled & fuel-injected four-cylinder engine produces 130hp, which is enough to propel this BMW down the Nürburgring at a top speed of 170mph. Combine that with the 0-60 time of 2.8 seconds and the stellar reputation for reliability, and this BMW Motorrad starts to seem like the low-budget bargain of the week.
With an original MSRP of $15,000+, this bike has depreciated almost exactly $0.75 per mile that is was driven. In a perfect world, this would be worth exactly $0 within the next 4,000 miles. Fortunately for you, it’s currently worth several thousand more than the asking price!
Three of these early 2000’s K Series bikes have popped up on Bring A Trailer since 2022, bringing in between $5,000 and $9,000.
For God’s sake - The Clymer manual mentioned in the ad is worth $50 by itself…
1996 Mercedes-Benz E300 Diesel - Land O Lakes, Florida - $4,700
If maintained properly, the OM606 engine is bound to last for many hundreds of thousands of miles. At 136k miles, this particular example is likely due for some regular maintenance that will dramatically boost its value after being performed.
Take advantage of that “obo” in the description, and you might be driving away with an excellent resale candidate for under $4000.
Plenty of these have sold on Bring A Trailer over the last several years, bringing in anywhere from $10,000 up to $35,000 at the end of the auctions.
I don’t think this one will ever fetch $35k, but not every flip has to be massive…
Quote of the Day
"Back in 1994, I was living in London and I got a call one evening from my mum to say that my dad was desperately ill in a hospital in Sheffield, and I needed to get there as quickly as possible. And I had just taken the chicken out of the oven and I thought, "Well, I'll take that for my mum because she won't have eaten". I had a [Porsche] 928 on test that week. When I arrived in Sheffield, the chicken was still warm and my dad was still alive. In fact, he died half an hour later. And the truth is, if I hadn't been driving a car that could sit quite happily at 170 miles per hour, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to say goodbye to my dad. So as far as I'm concerned, the [Porsche] 928 is alright."
It wouldn’t be a Flip Forecast without at least a couple items that you should probably consider holding on to…
Here’s a few potential keepers:
Imagine an incredibly good-looking sub-$30k mid-size luxury sedan with deep brown leather interior that was able to produce 400whp & 600wtq, while simultaneously maintaining 38mpg at normal highway speeds. Now open your eyes and click this link - You’re welcome!
The rebuilt title makes any potential resale prospective pretty minimal, but doesn’t take too much away from the “Ultimate Driving Experience” as long as the pre-purchase inspection turns out okay…
Park it in your driveway and rent it out as an Airbnb, for all I care. As long as this doesn’t stay on the market another day, tempting me with its portal axle voodoo magic!
For less than $10k, you simply can't afford NOT to buy this and use it to commute to your Church Universal and Triumphant meetings every weekend…
Buy this car, spend a chunk of change on Diesel Pump UK’s website, wait a few weeks for everything to get delivered, and wait a few more weeks for everything to get installed. Congratulations - you have the ultimate highway commuter!
With the 22-gallon fuel tank capacity, you’ll be able to drive over 600 miles on a single tank. That should be plenty of time to escape the Atlanta area without having to stop for gas…
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