Means a lot to me when readers and fellow unicorn snipers email special cars to me, although when this one showed up in my inbox it gave me pause. But a reader who goes by Cannon G (how cool is that?) wrote me last week, “Hi Chuck. Hope you are doing well. I came across this color combo and had to share it with you. Is there a worse color spec than this car? It reminds me of the Metallic Pea station wagon in National Lampoons Vacation – Cannon.” He had a point. I night call it the color of a sinus infection.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (I didn’t make that up) and to this beholder, it’s an ugly car. That said, on every car forum or Facebook page I belong to, when someone says a car is ugly someone else says they kinda like it. And I’m the guy who loved my 1977 AMC Spirit and 1986 Merkur XR4ti, so who am I to judge? And that led me to make the offer to invite anyone and everyone to send me what you think is an ugly CarMax unicorn!
As a bonus, Cannon also sent me the 2020 Porsche Cayenne above. Got a chuckle out of his email. “Here is another wonky color combo. Silver/ light blue? with metallic rose gold racing stripes added. One mirror rose gold and the other silver. With acid yellow brake calipers as the cherry on top. Who would do this?” I didn’t even notice the two different mirrors at first! I’ve searched the web and cannot find any references to the significance this color scheme.
So I made a brief search for my own ugly unicorns. As you can see below, most CarMax cars are black gray, brown or white on the outside and black or white on the inside. Intrigued by the seven green interiors and the handful of purple exteriors and started poking around the website.
What I found was a whole lot of cars that were not the color identified by CarMax. I don’t know whether the cars were identified in documentation or CarMax is using some sort of AI to visually choose the colors, but many are wrong. Most “orange” and “green” interiors are really brown or tan.
The Dodge Charger above popped up as a “Purple” car, although I’m seeing more blue than purple. Just me? The yellow stripes, yellow wheels, and yellow air intakes in the grill caught my eye. However, it’s an example of an “eye of the beholder” car – on my bolder days I could actually see myself tooling around Virginia in this! Big ole’ V-8 motor matches the brash exterior. (Unfortunately, the car has a unique crash history, too. Have never seen a more wrecked car at CarMax! See below.)
Back to ugly cars. The 2023 Toyota bZ4X XLE below, I found to be ugly (or cute?) with its racoon like face, with an ugly name to match. How do you pronounce it? “Bee-zee-four-ex-ex-ell-eee”? “Bee-zee-4”? No idea if it’s a good car – the packaging don’t work for me, but then again, I’m probably not the demographic Toyota is looking for anyway. They want to sell me an Avalon.
Below we have a true orange interior in a Camaro, and below that what CarMax identifies as a green interior in a Honda, although it doesn’t look green at all to me.
Finally, I tried to find some oddballs with the same exterior and interior colors. Best I could do was orange inside and out on the Volvo (although it’s more copper or brown, to me) and yellow all over the Chevy Spark. Can you really have too much yellow on a car, though? I think not.
I’ll stop there. Welcome any ugly car colors, trim packages, or appearances that puzzle you. Thanks again for reading, and thanks Cannon!
I might have pushed it a bit on a few of those 2013’s over the weekend, so felt compelled to offer up this totally legit CarMax unicorn – a 2015 BMW 760Li V-12 for only $40,998 $39,998. Luxury. Exclusivity. Affordable. And plenty fast.
The 2015 BMW 760Li sold for maybe $141,000 new and has dropped a good $100,000 in the last eight years. This one has been on and off the CarMax page and I sort of ignored it thinking I must have already written about it. Wrong. Looks like the last 760 I covered was in the spring of 2020 (we all remember that spring) – this similar 2015 760Li for a few thousand more.
The 2015 long wheelbase model (G12) was new for that year, and just over 10,000 7-series of all kinds were sold in the US. Lost an hour or two trying to find out if there was a 2016 760, before they became M760’s in 2017. Not finding any for sale.
The 2015 BMW 760Li is loaded – even has night vision (above)! Automatic cruise control, seats that heat, cool, and massage, heated steering wheel, heads up display, ands the M Sport Package that I read somewhere allows the top end to hit 190 mph. Rear seat room looks damned generous below. No DVD entertainment system though. Had it in my Mercedes S600 and not once did I use it.
The heart and soul of the BMW 760Li is the 6.0 liter twin turbo V-12, making 535 horsepower. The sedan runs a mid-four second 0-60 mph time, which isn’t spectacular, and yet it is plenty fast for a 2 1/2 ton luxury car. About the same as my S600 was. That said, the Alpina B7 of the same year, albeit a V-8, had a few more horsepower and was a bit faster. But c’mon, wouldn’t you really rather have a V-12? Just once?
Check out the autobahn run below. Quite a rush. Not me. (The most I’ve ever done was 155 mph, governed, in a brand new BMW 540i with about a thousand pounds of dudes – four of us – hauling down the Frankfurt autobahn back in 2002.)
This is a three owner, accident free car that began life in Miami, went to Phoenix in 2021 for a few years, back to Fort Lauderdale and now is on the lot here in Roswell, Georgia. I’d be wondering what NFL or NBA player got traded from Miami to Phoenix then retired back to Florida? It’s also pretty low mileage, and since I started writing this two days ago, the price just dropped $1,000. Again, the car has been on the market quite a while and I have no idea why it isn’t selling. If this isn’t a unicorn, don’t know what is. Of course, MaxCare is a must and as I’ve noted in previous blogs, for some reason the 7-series BMW warranties seem to be a bit more expensive than others. Might be worth it.
CarMax has 58,745 cars on the lots as of today, represented by 33 makes (when did RAM become it’s own brand?!). CarMax limits the fleet to 11 years old for European makes and 12 years old for all others. That means the oldest European cars available are 2013 models. And there are only 428 of the 2013’s spread amongst the 11 makes carried. Overall they have 2,226 2013 cars of all manufacturers. (CarMax still has 882 non-Euro 2012 models, for what it’s worth.) I thought I’d take a stab at the bestest most unicorn 2013 car from each the European manufacturers in rank order of nothing but my personal preference. Right up front I have to point out some makes didn’t have much to choose from. Check these totals out and then I’ll jump right into my top 11. There’s a bonus ringer at the bottom if you make it that far.
Audi 46 BMW 105 Fiat 16 Jaguar 3 Land Rover 4 Mercedes 83 Mini 64 Porsche 5 Smart 4 Volkswagen 73 Volvo 25
The 2013 Audi S6 actually deserves its own blog piece as a legit unicorn regardless of what’s on the lots of any year. This is a well equipped, low mileage, low price, sleeper.
The S6 has automated cruise control, heads up display, front and rear heated seats, a heated steering wheel, Bose sound, and you can see below….night vision! (I miss having that on the GLE63, even if it was only good for showing off to friends.)
The Audi S6 sports the 4.0 liter V-8 motor making 420 horsepower. With AWD the car rockets to 60 mph in an incredible 3.7 seconds! The S6 model before this has the Lambo V-10, making a little more horsepower but a little bit slower. I’d still opt for that if I could.
The web page below shows the very low price and very low mileage, and with MaxCare thrown in you’re looking at a very special sleeper for maybe $35k. It’s a three owner car that tagged a parked car in 2017 for a minor accident, if that matters to you. Find it here in Boynton Beach, Florida.
Stockno: 25211874 VIN: WAUJ2AFC8DN033789
Next we have another unicorn that deserves its own page. Wait a minute, it had its own page! Anyone recognize this 2013 Mercedes C63 AMG? Maybe Hans?
Wrote about this car almost a year ago when it sold in St. Louis for $1,000 less than it’s offered today. Here’s the link to that piece, and here’s what I said:
Blog reader and CarMax sniper Hans sent me this beautiful red 2013 Mercedes C63 AMG unicorn weeks ago, and prompted me to start a massive piece on the four naturally aspirated C63’s that were available at a wide range of prices on CarMax. Hans got me interested in these C63’s because they are powered by the 6.2 liter M156 V-8 motors – the first motor completely designed by Mercedes-AMG and put into use across the AMG line of cars in 2006, and went extinct in the 2015 C63. I had one in the 2010 Mercedes E63 I bought from CarMax and owned for….almost 48 hours. Sigh. It’s a legendary powerplant that pumped 451 horsepower in the C63 and 507 in the other AMG applications (also 507 hp in the 2015 C63 AMG 507. Covered one here!). It’s not without issues, and that’s why there’s MaxCare!
Everything you need to know about this powerful motor is above. This vehicle spent its first four years in Honolulu, of all places. The car is now in Jacksonville, Florida at the moment. Here’s the link.
Stockno: 25037880 VIN: WDDGJ7HB3DF988796
What’s in third of the 11 cars? Well, it’s another retread. Wrote about this 2013 BMW X5M just last month, and it vanished from the inventory when it was being transferred to Newport News, Virginia. It was back briefly and is now on reserve. Never know if it will sell. Here’s the piece from last month.
For just $32,998 (price is still visible in my saved links!) this 555 horsepower SUV can be yours (Matthew!). Low miles, heated steering wheel, automated cruise control….and fast as hell. It’s still here in Newport News.
Stockno: 24371907 VIN: 5YMGY0C54DLL15796
Number four on my list is a 2013 Mini Cooper. I don’t know Minis and this one is a base model – not an “S” or the coveted John Cooper Works (the “S” models were high mileage and no 2013 JCW available at this time) . But it’s damned near new for 11 years old, reasonably priced, and reminds me of my late 70’s Ford Fiesta days.
The Mini has seat heaters….and not much else (it does have an aux jack for the iPod and a CD player). But with under 7,000 miles it really is a new old Mini.
Here’s a funky new feature on the CarMax website I haven’t seen before. An option to click on a photo titled “See Cosmetic Imperfections” linked to a CarMax colored picture of a dime (for scale) up close shot. Honestly, I couldn’t see the imperfection in the shot at all. Bet folks are happy this feature isn’t on eharmony?
Both my 1977 (and 1980 – had two!) Ford Fiesta and this 2013 Mini were German made, and sported 1.6 liter motors with manual transmissions. Mine was a four speed – these six speeds weren’t invented yet, I think (although my 1971 Fiat had a five speed!) The Mini makes 121 horsepower and ain’t fast at all, and yet it’s nimble and just plain fun.
This is a one owner car that has spent its whole life in Seattle, Washington. It’s coming soon a few hours south in Vancouver, Washington and can be tracked here.
Stockno: 25131893 VIN: WMWSU3C50DT375491
Back to back hatchbacks. The loveable and raucous Fiat 500 Abarth. CarMax has just over a hundred Fiats nationwide, but only 500’s for 2013 so no 124’s, and besides, they’re really just Miata’s. And I adore this toy. Have since before they were for sale in the USA. Rented one in Norway in 2010 and drove to the Arctic Circle in it and fell in love. If you want that story, it’s all here in my Tripadvisor report from back in the day. The short version is I drove from Oslo 14 hours straight with one stop and was not at all uncomfortable. Back to this Abarth.
It’s got three pedals and a 170 horsepower turbo four. The exhaust note makes me giggle. It’s not the fastest car in its class by any means, but it has attitude. Style. I remember when I attended the annual nationwide Fiat gatherings in my vintage 124 someone said, “the Germans invented the automobile, the Americans turned it into an appliance, and the Italians taught it to sing and dance.” Never forgot that, although I cannot find who originally said it.
To complement the peppy exhaust you get an Alpine audio system, Bluetooth, and CD player. Not much else. No heated seats even. The seating position is just a little higher than most hatchbacks that are not crossovers, why I was so comfortable for so long.
There are a lot worse ways to spend fifteen grand. And a few more for MaxCare – you’ll want a warranty since there is no Italian word for reliability. True story. The old and talented mechanic in our DC Fiat club once worked in the Fiat factory in Italy. He said we could ignore the color coded original wiring schematic diagrams for our vintage cars. In the factory if they ran short of say blue wiring, they would just use red. Fiat is no longer importing these wonderful little cars, but they still have over 300 dealerships in the USA (Texas has the most, by the way). That’s more dealerships than CarMax has. You can find this little guy here in Hartford, Connecticut.
Stockno: 25164586 VIN: 3C3CFFFHXDT514317
What to pick for Porsche? CarMax has over 300 of them, and over half are Macans. Filter for 2013 cars and you get five cars; a very expensive 911, a decent Cayenne S with a 400 horsepower V-8 that’s cheap, a Panamera hybrid making 380 horses that’s also cheap, and a pair of Boxsters. If we can’t get the 911, we must go for the almost as good Boxster. There’s a pretty blue over tan one with only 31,000 miles, and yet I’d choose the one below instead. Higher mileage, but it has a stick. And it’s cheaper.
The Boxster was introduced as a mid-engined, convertible-only sports car way back in 1996. By 2013 we were on our third generation. Still a pretty basic sports car, with a heated steering wheel and, well, a manual six-speed transmission. Not even steering wheel controls for nothing.
What the Porsche Boxster has, though, is a “Boxer” engine. A six-cylinder flat motor with opposing cylinders just like the 911. Wiki told me, “Most flat engines use a “boxer” configuration, where each pair of opposing pistons move inwards and outwards at the same time, somewhat like boxing competitors punching their gloves together before a fight.” The advantages are low center of mass, they’re short, and they don’t vibrate much. The Boxster runs a 2.7 liter engine making 265 horsepower. (Stole the photo below from the web.)
Oh yeah, the Boxster is topless Porsche fun. With a manual transmission. That motor must sound wild with the top down.
The price is actually $35,998. There are better Boxsters out there, although for 2013 this is the best I could do. It wouldn’t be a bad day in good weather ratcheting through the gears in this car. It’s currently on the same CarMax lot as the Fiat in Hartford! Find it here.
Volkswagen didn’t give me much to work with for 2013, with just a handful of very high mileage GTI’s. And yet here’s a surprisingly good VW that would have passed me by if not for a blog piece long ago.
The 2013 VW Beetle 2.0T is pretty much a convertible GTI anyway. It’s got the same motor at least. Reviews suggest the Beetle has “style” and is “playful” and the GTI is an enthusiast’s car. Probably accurate.
The Beetle has a Fender audio system – didn’t know that was a thing. Other than that, like the Boxster, it’s got the basics made better by the top down. It is a pretty blue over tan, my favorite color combo of all.
Back to the motor. The VW Beetle 2.0T has the 2.0 (duh) liter four cylinder turbo shared with more than a few VW models, including the GTI. It makes 207 horsepower and coupled with the DSG transmission will get you to 60 mph in the mid-six second range. The GTI gets there a half-second quicker.
The 2013 VW Beetle 2.0T sold for maybe $25,000 new 11 years ago and hasn’t depreciated much at all. It does have only 36,000 gently driven miles. I’m assuming that because the car spent its early years in the Villages down in Florida, America’s premier retirement community. At the moment this adorable bug is here in Augusta, Georgia.
Stockno: 25003341 VIN: 3VW7A7AT0DM817594
Well seven down and four more to go. The quality of the cars is dropping and so is my enthusiasm for this project. So we will soldier on quickly with some “good enough” 2013 European makes. We still got Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, and a Smart car to go! And the bonus car, don’t forget!
Volvo had me choosing between an $18,000 XC90 3.2R SUV, a $16,000 base mode, last-year C30, and this $19,000 respectable S80. I chose the S80. The SUV and the C30 are a bit underpowered and other than extinct, unremarkable. The S80 comes across as a legitimate upscale bargain. Did I mention I’m a sucker for blue over tan?
With only 33,000 miles the car looks quite fresh and elegant inside. Not much on creature comforts other than the climate package, though. Under the hood is a not shabby 3 liter, 300 horsepower turbo six. The car also has AWD for those Scandinavian seasons. Maybe someday I’ll do a post of my University of Maryland college class on productivity that took me to the Volvo factories in Göteborg and Malmö, Sweden way back in 1983. I’ve always wanted to like Volvo….until the Chinese bought the company.
At the moment this one-owner car is reserved here in Danvers, Massachusetts, not far from where it’s spent it’s whole entire accident free life.
Stockno: 25163214 VIN: YV1902AH5D1171229
CarMax you could have done me better on Jaguars, too. After being tempted by badass 500 horsepower XK, XF, and XJ “R” models for so long I’m disappointed not a one V-8 cat is on the market. Only three to choose from so I went with this 2013 XF 3.0 Supercharged. Supercharged always seems….super.
This car really is a British sister of the Volvo S80 above, I guess. Good looking. Seems expensive. But only $19,000 and low mileage. Again, unicorns are about “driving rich” without paying the price, and this was once a $70,000 car new, so I guess this fits the bill quite nicely.
This sedan has Bluetooth, Meridian audio, seat heaters, navigation, and a rear view camera. Surprised how few 2013 cars had them. I’ve test driven maybe a half-dozen Jaguars so far, and I don’t recall one of them having a shift knob with that “Hell Cat” logo. Scott?
Also struck by the complete lack of leg room in the back seat. Yes, the front seats are all the way back where I would put them (at six foot four my head is behind the B-pillar in every car I drive). There’s absolutely no room for passengers this way.
On a positive note, the Jaguar XF has a supercharged 3 liter, 340 horsepower motor that will scamper to 60 mph in the mid-five second timeframe, about the same as the 2012 5.0 liter V-8 according to Autoblog. That makes it a not too shabby tabby. Couldn’t resist. Getting late.
This 2013 Jaguar XF Supercharged spent its whole life in Louisiana and Tennessee, and somehow ended up for sale here in Los Angeles.
I wanted one of these Land Rover LR2’s after driving the first gen Toyota RAV4 for two years overseas and realizing I liked cute-utes. Drove the LR2 and found it to be the right size and a decent baby Land Rover. The LR2 is pretty good in rough terrain and was revamped in 2013 with some more luxury features inside only to be killed off after 2014. The SUV got the axe because it was unreliable, so much so that the Land Rover dealer I visited way back when would not offer and extended warranty on the car! But that was before I ever heard of CarMax and MaxCare. Now I think it could be an acceptable small backup car for winter. (There were no 2013 Range Rovers or LR4’s when I wrote this.)
Unfortunately, the Land Rover LR2 (Freelander everywhere else in the world) is a bit of a Frankenstein SUV. Platform by Volvo, motor by Ford, and built by the British. In fact, the chassis is the same as the Volvo S80 above!
The motor is the 2.0 liter four cylinder turbo making 240 horsepower, about the same as the previous six cylinder model I drove. It’s also the same motor as in the 2013 Land Rover Evoque, a far more sleek and modern offering the same year by the same manufacturer. Hard to justify, but for the price tag I kind of went old school with this 4X4 LR2 over the Evoque. Something almost vintage about its boxy shape. Might be tough to defend this choice when the Evoque is only $5,000 more, though?
The 2013 Land Rover LR2 is definitely a MaxCare must. It’s a three-owner West Coaster that’s available here in Palmdale, California.
Stockno: 24749962 VIN: SALFR2BG4DH381177
And then there was one. Plus the bonus car. Mercedes has had a good run with the Smart Fortwo worldwide since its introduction in 1998, but in the USA it only sold from 2007 to 2019. Fuel efficiency and tight parking struggled against the idea of F150’s in the rear view mirror, I guess. I’ve never been in one, although I still see them on the road.
Smart Fortwo doesn’t give me much to pick from. CarMax has 11 in the country and 3 from 2013. Not even a stick, or a special Brabus model. Yes, there was a Brabus-tuned model and thanks to Hans (again) I got to write about one here. The best things I can say about this car are that it’s yellow (love yellow cars) and it’s cheap. Only seven of CarMax’s 58,000 cars are cheaper. That’s something.
I also have rarely seen a “1” score in CarMax features. It has no power steering. But it does have a 1 liter, three cylinder motor in there that makes 70 horsepower. Top speed of 90. For an 1800 lb car I would have expected something better than 10 seconds to 60 mph, and yet that’s all she wrote.
Hell, this micro-car has survived an accident in Oregon so maybe it has a story to tell. Despite my moaning, this car will be just right for someone. It that someone is you, it’s here in Clackamas, Oregon.
Stockno: 25209845 VIN: WMEEJ3BA1DK658271
THE BONUS CAR!!!!
Over a half-dozen years of blogging about CarMax unicorns I’ve learned (and others have taught me) to be persistent searching the inventory. Cars that were sold are returned or traded in, and here and there an unexpected model shows up. I’ve been compiling these cars for a few days, and with each of the 11 European manufacturers I’ve double checked the inventory as I wrote just in case something better got added. (Unfortunately, Smart never got better.) Tonight this pristine 2012 – yes, 2012 Mercedes surfaced on the CarMax website. Just as I say there are NO 2012’s….here we go. One. The lesson is to keep checking – there may be something else out there that makes it back on a CarMax lot!
The C250 isn’t a bad car. Revamped in 2012 it got a 1.8 liter turbo four and hustles to 60 mph in about seven seconds. Inside and out it’s a handsome car. It’s a Luxury model, but not much in the way of modern features. Lovely gray over tan. And with only 24,000 miles it’s hardly broken in. And not a bad price – about half what it sold for new a dozen years ago. This one owner (never been out of Houston until now!) car is here in Fort Bend.
What we have here is a basic retro Pony car that takes me back to my childhood. Introduced in 1964 per Wiki “the Mustang the most successful vehicle launch since the 1927 Model A” – selling 400,000 units in the first year. The 1968 fastback is my favorite of all time. The 2012 Ford Mustang GT Premium unicorn offered here is a fifth generation model and a pretty basic muscle car with a V-8 motor and a six-speed manual transmission. Clean lines, pretty color, and a racing stripe.
With only 3,171 miles on it, this two owner, 12 year old Mustang has hardly been driven. Two owners, no accidents, and ready for the next owner to finish breaking in this car. Not sure it’s MaxCare worthy, but fascinating that you could get a warranty for another 146,829 miles and drive it until 2029 with no financial risk on repairs. How many burnouts would that be?
Front seat heaters, rear view camera, Bluetooth, and a Shaker sound system. Period. I really didn’t figure out what the GT Premium gets you over the regular GT.
But you do get three pedals and a six-speed manual transmission. You can squeeze out 26 mpg on the highway! Less doing burnouts.
The 5.0 liter V-8 is rated as 412 hp and pulls (?) 390 ft-lbs of torque. Car Throttle described the Mustang GT as “…..superlative performance for the money and a slice of pure Americana, but no longer do you have to suffer a broken-chicken-leg shifter, Taurus steering wheel, and a Tupperware interior to get it.” They were able to pull off a 4.5 second 0-60 mph run.
The car is selling for about the same as the first owner paid for it way back when. It has held its value, and not just because of the low mileage I guess. I looked for comps on Autotrader and could not find one with this low mileage. The closed I came was the white one below with 11,000 miles, for the same price, and a pretty cool Roush with 5,000 miles, for $10,000 more! Both pictured at the bottom. My friend Jerry is a Mustang fan and looking to drive cross country this summer with his son. I’m thinking he needs to buy this as a graduation present for the young man. Find it here in Kansas City.
Last summer I strayed from CarMax and bought a 2021 Mercedes GLE63s AMG, a Certified Previously Owned (CPO) hot rod SUV I found in Santa Fe, New Mexico after a nationwide search that went on way too long. The whole saga was posted here. I’ve now put 8,000 miles on the car despite only one short road trip to North Carolina, and the experience had left me undecided on whether I love the car or whether I should sell it and start anew. Some unexpected repair expenses had me leaning towards selling, and will get to that later.
First, I want to document (in case any of you are IRS agents) that this is in fact a work “truck” and I frequently use it as such! Even my drive to Fort Liberty, North Carolina was for work! For the record, I only refer to it as a truck to make my family cringe.
That said, it’s a performance SUV first and foremost, and the fat summer tries have caused me some trouble. In July I picked up my first giant nail in one of these beefs and had to replace it – for $600. The tire was only available at the Mercedes dealership. Thought that was unfortunate since I’d really rather have all seasons on the vehicle but now I’ve got sunk costs. It got worse. Picked up another nail in the opposite rear tire a month later, and sunk another $600 for a new one. Thinking these high performance tires attract nails I started to explore just replacing all four with all seasons, only to find out nobody, but nobody, carries them. Pirelli makes a set sold through Mercedes dealers, but they are out of stock until spring (at least). Turns out the 22″ diameter is the problem. There are options for 21″ rims, and the GLE63 was sold with them too, but that means I gotta buy four new rims and four new tires. That’s a $3,600 proposition. Seems silly, but so does an AWD SUV I can’t drive in the snow. No room at home to store the summers. Still negotiating with Tire Rack on 21″ tire and wheel combos, and the weatherman is calling for our first snow this weekend. Looks like my BMW M3, with all seasons, will be my go to car?
Twice when I had the GLE63s at the dealer they’ve tried to fix the clamshell center console doors. A single button triggers both opening, except in mine only the left side opens regularly. Mercedes said it’s a known problem. The fix, not so much. The third time the dealer replaced the entire center console storage bin. Likewise, when I pointed out a fender flare was loose and the rear bumper molding had a 1/4″ gap on one side, the service manager agreed to order completely new pieces, have them painted to match, and installed. These fixes were done at no cost under warranty. In two weeks the GLE63s heads back to the dealer for Service A and a recall to replace the fuel pump (Mercedes learned the plastic fuel pump impellers fail). We shall see how that goes.
Back in 1993 I attended the US Air Force War College in Montgomery, Alabama, and while there the State of Alabama was courting Mercedes to put their first US assembly there. Alabama won the competition over rival states by donating the land and using the Alabama National Guard to clear it. We joked at the time that the new ML SUV’s to be built there would come with optional gun racks. I drove a Merkur XR4ti at the time, never imagining that 30 years later I’d own a luxury Mercedes SUV from the same plant.
Anyway, I wondered if some of these misfit parts were the result of assembly in Alabama, and not Stuttgart. Then I wondered about the hand-built AMG motors – were these shipped in from Germany or were they being made in Bama too? The service rep said he’s visited the Alabama factory and yup, motors made there. Disappointed. But not convinced. So I popped the hood all by myself and found the signature plate below. The engines are made in Germany. The umlauts say it all.
In early December the front brakes began to screech. Thought that’s a problem and had the Mercedes dealer check it out. The first answer was we could replace the front pads and rotors for $2,600 and the problem would probably go away. But they also said the pads still have 6/32″ and don’t need replacing right away. No wear indicator on. Maybe they’ll talk to the shop foreman and see what’s up. But they don’t and instead suggest maybe the brakes were glazed when I bought the car. My experience is the service techs are hit or miss on expertise and communications. Ryan the CarMax service rep is so much more conscientious. Replacements by Mercedes are warranted for 12 months, 12,000 miles. GLE63 owners on the forum say they sometimes replace brakes EVERY 10,000 MILES! Not for me, although I am looking into FCP Euro pads with lifetime warranty. Even my local Goodyear store warranty is 24 months/24,000 miles!
The tires and brakes are normal wear and tear items not covered by warranty and expenses are escalating. Before I commit to doing them, I decided to take a shot at selling the GLE63s to CarMax. I figure if they give me something close to what I paid last summer I might just cut my financial loss and start over. Besides, the car was not deeply depreciated and so I don’t feel like I got over on the dealership like I have in the past with CarMax. I miss that, too. CarMax has not had a current generation GLE63 (they have a few 2019’s). The appraisal below tells me they don’t want one. It’s $30,000 less than what I paid just few months ago, and $25,000 less than comparable Mercedes CPO GLE63s’ are selling for right now. CarMax prides itself on offering to buy anything customers bring in, and they will. That said, they can make the price such that no rational seller would ever take them up on it. I’m not.
Pretty sure I’m going to keep the car and love it, although I don’t have a course of action for the tires and brakes just yet. What helps make up my mind is a spirited drive through the rural roads of Loudoun County, Virginia. The audio in the video doesn’t do it justice. I think I’m going to lean into this car and enjoy it. I haven’t seen another one on the roads in the six months I’ve owned it, and that helps me feel a little special. Maybe when I take it to Daytona later this month for, uh, some business meetings around the same time as the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, it’ll feel like a unicorn.
History repeats itself. On New Year’s Day 2024 I tested positive for Covid again, so I went for a rural Loudoun County drive to the John Lewis Memorial Bridge to clear my head before checking into my hotel refuge (my goal this time is to not infect my family). The bridge is on a remote road that crosses Catoctin Creek. Built in 1889, according to the county it’s “a rare surviving example of a wrought iron truss bridge—one of only five still standing bridges built by the Variety Iron Company.” It’s peaceful here. And not unfamiliar.
Three years ago almost to the day – New Year’s Eve 2020 rather than New Year’s Day – I took a short road trip diversion to the same bridge in Etta, my 2008 Porsche 911 CarMax unicorn, after getting the devastating news that I had tested Covid positive. Things were much scarier then, with no vaccines and no Paxlovid. Tomorrow I will load up this Mercedes GLE63s with all the crap I brought with me to my isolation hotel and head home, and if the worst I have to deal with is finding brakes and tires for a badass 600 hp SUV, I guess I’m in a pretty good place after all.
Happy New Year’s! With winter storms approaching the east coast I thought I’d open with a “practical” AWD SUV. My New Year’s resolution is to write more because I’m so frustrated unicorns show up and sell off before I can write. It’s easy to make that declaration this week as I’m holed up in a local hotel with Covid for the third time (despite being uber vaccinated) hoping to insulate my family, and I’ve got nothing but time. I’m also out of the market for my own unicorns in 2024 – will stick with the M3 and GLE63 for the time being – so there should be fewer distractions.
Three years ago I wrote about an eerily similar 2013 X5M here, priced about the same, mileage about the same. Are used car prices returning to normal? The X5 made its debut as a 2010 model and doesn’t look all that different almost a decade and a half later. And if we’re going to be nostalgic, it was a friend’s CarMax X5 that got me into the unicorn business in the first place. I drove with a junior coworker on a business trip in 2012, and he had a BMW X5. I asked about repair costs and he told me about MaxCare and all the repairs that he enjoyed at no cost. The following year I bought Guenther and the rest is history.
The second generation (E70) X5, and the first M model with a turbocharged M powered V-8 made its debut in 2010. This 2013 BMW X5 is decently equipped with adaptive cruise control, heated steering wheel, panoramic sunroof, and a rear view camera. Seems silly, but my 2013 M3 does not have a rear view camera. Not extravagant, but it is good enough. The 2013 BMW X5M probably sold for more than $100,000, so this is a nicely depreciated example.
I’ve never been a fan of red interiors, and yet my M3 has this same color (oxblood?). I kinda like it, and I’ve gotten compliments from others on the unique color. I am vain. It’s not quite whorehouse red, and I’ve learned over the years that as soon as I criticize something about a car I learn that I have a reader that loves the thing I’m ragging on. I get it. The interior is nearly new.
The X5M is powered by a 4.4 liter twin turbo good for 555 hp, and a 4.5 second 0-60 mph sprint. It’s got an eight speed automatic SMG transmission and if you’re lucky you can pull off 20 mpg in tempered highway driving. This particular 2013 BMW X5M is currently being shipped to Newport News, Virginia and can be tracked with this link. I’d be all in on MaxCare thinking for less than $40,000 you too can own a unique Euro-SUV!
Holed up in another hotel on a business trip splurging on Popeye’s fried chicken and thought it’s time to revisit the mild and spicy post from August. Here’s the link if you missed it. The theme was just like Popeye’s, there are some pretty good cars out there in a reasonably fun version and the same car a bit hopped up – spicy. Well, here’s two more – a pair of Mercedes hardtop convertible unicorns! “Super Leicht”…or SL’s.
Above we have the relatively mild 2013 Mercedes SL550, with a ridiculously low 6,927 miles on it! Ten years old and hardly driven. Below, a spicy 2013 Mercedes SL63 AMG with more mileage, but cheaper than the SL550.
These are sixth generation SL’s, R231 models which were made from 2012 to 2020. The SL550 sold new for at least $106,000, the SL63 for more than $150,000.
The cars are similarly, but not identically equipped. The cheaper SL63 has adaptive cruise control and massaging seats, and the SL550 does not. The SL550 has the Harman Kardon audio and the SL63 the Bang & Olufsen (although CarMax lists it as having both the Harman and the Bang!)
That’s the SL550 wheel above, and the SL63 controls below.
Both convertibles have the wonderful Air Scarf neck warmers below.
What distinguishes the two the most are the motors – both twin turbo V-8’s. The “mild” motor is the 4.7 liter, 429 horsepower one in the SL550, with the SL63 sporting the “spicy” 5.5 liter, 530 horsepower engine. The SL550 takes just over four seconds to hit 60 mph – the SL63 just under four. Both have seven speed automatics and are governed to 155 mph top speeds. Reviews suggest the SL63 has an almost marine engine sound to it. Interesting.
At the moment, the 2013 Mercedes SL550 is on its way to Salem, Oregon and is selling for $41,998. Again, it has less than 7,000 miles on it and of course MaxCare is available up to 125,000 and another five years. Makes a nice sleeper. You can track it with this link.
Stock No. 25135608 VIN WDDJK7DA6DF019221
For me, the 2013 Mercedes SL63 AMG is the menu choice I’d make. It’s only $37,998 but does have 56,000 miles on it – and one minor accident involving the driver’s door. It’s currently reserved here in Sacramento, California. Of course, I’d rather have the best of both world’s – a low mileage SL63, but Isaiah bagged that one over a year ago! Here’s the link to that story.
This is a bargain BMW unicorn on so many levels. It’s cheap, low mileage, lovely blue over tan, decent motor, and lots of options. It looks like a German police cruiser. If you were screaming east at triple digit speeds on the A8 autobahn towards Austria folks might get out of your way – there is still a speed limit in sections there. But here in the US nobody is going to pay you any attention, unlike similarly decked out Ford Taurus and Dodge Charger sedans. And unlike the Alpina B7 from last month, it’s well within my unicorn price cap of $35,000 (I really need to increase that to $45,000.)
This car has the Cold Weather Package, Driver Assistance Package, and Executive Package. That includes adaptive cruise control, blind spot and lane departure warning, heads up display, massaging air conditioned and heated seats, heated steering wheel, and a Harman Kardon sound system. With 39,000 miles on it the car looks pristine inside, at least from the pix.
The 2014 550 (F10) is right in the middle of the sixth generation 5-series and got the beefed up twin-turbo 4.4 liter V-8, making 445 hp. With an eight-speed automatic it should hit 60 mph in the mid-four second range. The car also has X Drive (AWD) making that sprint and bad weather driving sure footed. It is a one-owner, one accident car with no details on the accident. The price seems reasonable and if you don’t want or need self-driving and CarPlay like I do, this car is a bargain. Even with MaxCare it’s a great example of how to drive a unicorn enthusiast car for the price of a new Camry and not worry about repair costs much. It’ll even fit in garages that won’t hold an Alpina B7! Find it here in Albuquerque.
There aren’t a lot of BMW Alpina B7’s in the USA, maybe 500 a year are imported. Finding these unicorns on CarMax lots always surprises me – the only real specialty tuner they carry that I’m aware of. Clearly more rare than M-cars and AMG’s, even if performance is not all that different. Think of it as the almost M7 that doesn’t exist? This 2014 Alpina B7 L was maybe a $130,000 car new nine years ago.
Interestingly, to me, I wrote about this exact car when it was offered for sale by CarMax in North Carolina in July 2020. Here’s the link to that write-up. Three years ago it was offered at $39,999 and had only 41,000 miles. It’s dropped $9.000 in that time, was driven 14,000 miles – not much for three years, and best of all MaxCare is available for a fresh five years and up to 125,000 miles. That said, every BMW 7-series I’ve ever gotten a quote on the MaxCare was quite expensive – sometimes $9,000 or more. Would be worth it to be out the door for $40,000 for this very special car.
The interior is luxurious, but muted. There’s an Alpina logo on the steering wheel and the dash display but otherwise resembles a long wheel base 7-series. It’s fully loaded for 2014 with adaptive cruise control, heated and cooling massaging seats, heated steering wheel, and much else, all part of the Cold Weather Package, Driver Assistance Package, and Executive Package. The rear seats below are spacious and includes the DVD player. It’s not lost on me that most of these features are available on new Mazdas and Toyotas for about the same price, but there’s a real sense of “driving rich” in a car like this for the same price.
And long time readers know, I love no blanks or dummy switches where features should be, and not disappointed here. Has my beloved night vision assist, for spotting deer or ferrying Navy SEALS on night time raids in stealth.
The trunk is massive. Old school Cadillac large. This a car for road trips.
What makes the B7 roar is the 4.4 liter twin-turbo V-8 beefed up to 540 horsepower, almost a hundred more than the 750i of the same year and a few more than the V-12 M760i. It’ll hit 60 mph in the low four seconds and maybe push over 190 mph at the top.
Reviews don’t surface any shortcomings for the car and most mention the performance is in line with other luxury sedans from BMW and Mercedes. And yet if you like BMW’s, the nuance and exclusivity of having an Alpina B7 for the price of a Camry, and with MaxCare to shift repair risk from the owner to CarMax, then you might be interested in this high-performance low cost luxury liner. It’s coming soon to Norwood CarMax in Foxboro, Massachusetts. You can track it with this link or by the stock number and VIN below.
First, thanks to blog reader and fellow CarMax enthusiast Cannon for sharing this 2022 Land Rover Defender 110 S TReK Edition, a one of 70 factory special edition off-roading unicorn that has already proven itself in a competition of sorts. And been auctioned off by Mecum in Florida. And discounted. And available with MaxCare for another five years and up to 125,000 miles (or 116,000 more, even in the mud?. By CarMax standards this is a find.
I’ve tried and tried to find how this particular Defender fared in the competition, without any luck. It didn’t win. Land Rover of Rochester took those honors. This one still has an interesting history beyond the competition, though. It sold and was first registered new with all of 8 miles on the odometer in late December 2021 for maybe $90,000 in Tampa, Florida. But that was after the September 2021 competition. Apparently they didn’t drive very far off-road? Then the was auctioned off by Mecum in Kissimmee, Florida in January 2023 for $82,500 according to Classic.com. Fast forward to the fall of 2023 and here it is back in Asheville, North Carolina, on a CarMax lot not far from the competition site for $17,000 less than the Mecum sale. What happened? No idea.
The “competition” is an annual Land Rover sponsored event for media first, then teams of Land Rover sales, service and technical staff run a series of off-roading obstacles in these 70 SUV’s, winching, mudding, driving, and navigating across some uneven terrain according to the team from The Drive. The celebrity (professional?) team, if you will, “consisted of Olympic skier and Land Rover ambassador Lindsey Vonn, high-altitude ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson, and ESPN journalist and experienced navigation rally competitor Alyssa Roenigk. They called themselves Team Rocky Road and put in a strong effort in the competition.” – according to winning team “No Time To Cry”, from Gear Junkie. The 2021 competition was at the Biltmore Estates in Asheville, North Carolina – not a place I’d think of for off-roading. I think of touring the wealthy estate followed by touring a brewery, and that I’ve done.
Motor Trend reviewed one of these, and noted ….”for gear and equipment, our Defenders each had a powered winch and winch controller, which ended up getting plenty of use over the weekend, as well as a winch kit with pulleys, straps, and gloves. Each SUV was also dressed with Land Rover’s available Explorer Pack which comes with a raised air-snorkle-like intake next to the windshield, improved wheel arch protection with tougher body panel materials, and a waterproof side-mounted lock box which we used to store a jack and tire iron. Land Rover also outfitted black-painted side tubes, a spare tire cover, a fridge in the rear cargo area, a retractable awning, and an available roof-mounted collapsible tent that one of the team members ended up sleeping in over the weekend.”
The 2022 Land Rover Defender 110 S is nicely appointed inside, with a heated steering wheel and seats, Meridian audio, automatic high beams, and Apple CarPlay. The cabin belies a real off-roading capability. Not sure about the rear cargo area below, more like a paddy wagon or K-9 hold. Looks way functional.
The Land Rover Defender only has a 2.0 liter four banger, although it’s a turbocharged I-4 gas engine good for 296 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque with an eight-speed automatic transmission and of course four wheel drive. It’ll do 60 mph in about seven seconds and tops out at 119 according to Land Rover. Probably not buying it to sprint.
This 2022 Land Rover Defender 110S is currently reserved here at the CarMax in Asheville, North Carolina. You can still track it by the stock number or VIN on CarMax’s website even though it says not available, should it not sell or get transferred again. Not sure I’d want to commute in it, and yet it seems all of the competitor teams thought it was a worthy off-roader for the Land Rover brand. It still has four years and 40,000 miles of manufacturer warranty, so not sure I’d get MaxCare for just one more year of warranty, unless you plan to burn through those 40,000 miles soon. Enjoy.
