Junkyard Find: 2001 Mercedes-Benz ML55 AMG

by Murilee Martin

September 14th, 2020 7:00 AM

junkyard find 2001 mercedes benz ml55 amg

Since trucks, truck-shaped cars, and generally truck-influenced vehicles dominate American roads in the present day, it’s about time I started paying attention to high-end luxurious German truck-like machines in the vehicle graveyards I frequent. Such machines have been easy to find in such places for quite some time now, due to the notoriously quick depreciation of large-dollar German cars that don’t get the meticulous maintenance they deserve, but prior to today, we’d just seen a single BMW X5 in this series. Let’s go right to an AMG for our first Mercedes-Benz SUV: this 2001 W163 ML55 AMG.

The price tag on this truck, soon after the turn of the century, started at $65,900 (about $101,150 in 2020 dollars). That was better than twice the cost of a loaded Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer.

But Ford wouldn’t sell you an engine like this in your Explorer back then: a 5.4-liter OHC V8 rated at 342 horsepower. This engine made the ’01 ML55 the fastest SUV in the world at that time, and it could run the quarter-mile in the high 14s.

As you might expect, no manual transmission could be had in this truck. Five-speed automatics went in all the ML55s.

You know Full Depreciation has arrived for a vehicle when its owner feels comfortable slapping stickers from cannabis dispensaries on the windshield. Such stickers have become very prevalent in the junkyards of weed-crazed Colorado, and I even find junkyard cars with bags of wacky tabacky still inside.

There’s also a sticker from a firearms silencer manufacturer on the dash, because why not?

Plenty of the AMG interior goodies had been grabbed by junkyard shoppers prior to my arrival, but hints of this M-Class’s once-opulent high-speed luxury remain visible.

Like getting together with four friends and shooting yourselves into a Wile E. Coyote mountainside with a giant slingshot!For links to more than 2,000 additional Junkyard Finds, check out the Junkyard Home of the Murilee Martin Lifestyle Brand™.

#2000s #2001 #AMG #DownOnTheJunkyard #Junkyard #JunkyardFind #LuxurySuv #LuxurySuvs #MClass #Mercedes #Mercedes-Benz #W163 #Mercedes-BenzM-Class

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Jerome10 on Sep 14, 2020

This first-gen M-Class was garbage. Plastic overpriced junk, even when brand new.

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- Lie2me on Sep 14, 2020
  
  Yep, the "Bama Benz" had a bad reputation
  
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- Jkross22 on Sep 14, 2020
  
  Agreed. The 2nd generation ML is when things got good for this vehicle. The Cayenne followed this trajectory, too. 1st gen wasn't very good, but 2nd and beyond improved. Opposite for BMW. 1st gen of the X5 was the one to have, but every one of them since then has been a dumpster fire. The Audi Q7 could probably be considered a push. They all appear to be about the same without dramatic improvements or declines.
  
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- Dukeisduke on Sep 14, 2020
  
  The chassis was decent, and fairly off-road capable. But yeah, the rest was garbage. Our former next-door neighbors had a ML320 for awhile (he sold used cars for a living, before moving on to selling boats for Cabela's), and it didn't hang around for long, being replaced by a Buick Enclave. The ML320 had all kinds of weird issues, like the alarm system going off at random times, and stranding his wife (it was her ride) when the immobilizer system decided the vehicle should be immobilized in the middle of around-town trips. And oh yeah, he was from Alabama, and a rabid Crimson Tide fan, which was one reason that he bought it (it was built in Vance, Alabama).
  
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- MRF 95 T-Bird on Sep 14, 2020
  
  @dukeisduke I remember just after the Alabama Mercedes-Benz ML plant came on line in the late 90’s. Everyone from the governor to other elected officials and business leaders were tooling around in them. You wonder how those early production models held up. I had a neighbor with one here in NYC. They no longer own it but it had the optional third row that flipped over to the side. I don’t think many people ordered them with it.
  
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- Inside Looking Out on Sep 14, 2020
  
  Cannot agree more. They did not look like luxury cars. You might think it is something made by Hyundai or GM. I felt pity for the people who bought these cars. Who they wanted to impress with that junk?
  
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Superdessucke on Sep 14, 2020

"Like getting together with four friends and shooting yourselves into a Wile E. Coyote mountainside with a giant slingshot!" As a former owner of a Mercedes AMG of this era, I can assure you that maintaining this after the warranty expired was a lot scarier than that slingshot ride!

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