2005 Mercedes-Benz G500 W463 Grand Edition
A Grand Edition on a dealer floor, put through the same interview as everything else
Overview
Compiled by Kept from the seller's intake answers, the documents supplied and published records for the model. The seller does not write or edit this section, and nobody from Kept has inspected the car.
This 2005 Mercedes-Benz G500 Grand Edition is finished in black over black and is offered from Rivonia by , a dealer selling on consignment for the vehicle's second owner. It carries the 5.0 litre M113 V8 through the five speed automatic with the three differential locks, and shows 168,300km.
The interview was put to the dealer exactly as it is put to a private seller, and the transcript runs with the lot. Two answers are worth reading before the photographs. The front differential lock takes several attempts to engage and will sometimes only do it with the vehicle rolling, which the dealer states rather than describing the locks as working. There is rust bubbling under the paint at the bottom of both rear doors, photographed close up and in raking light.
The file is a Mercedes-Benz franchise record to 2016 and independent specialist invoices after that. The conductor plate and a gearbox service were done in 2021, the cooling system in 2019, and the sunroof drains were cleared in 2023 after water had already marked the headlining at the front right corner. A front driveshaft vibration between 90 and 110km/h was investigated in 2024, was not traced, and the workshop's note saying so is published as it was written.
One question was declined. Asked how the first owner used the vehicle, the dealer said he holds the service file and nothing else, and will not characterise seven years he has no knowledge of. That is a decline and it is published as one.
Model background
The W463 is the civilised version of a military vehicle, and the part that stayed military is the driveline. Three locking differentials, a ladder frame, live axles at both ends, and a body shape unchanged since 1979. The Grand Edition was a run built late in the life of the pre facelift 463, specified with the chrome and the darker trim, and it is the version the market here looks for.
The M113 V8 is the durable part of the package. What costs money is everything around it: the locks and their actuators, the transfer case, the sunroof drains, and the doors. The doors rust from the inside at the bottom corners, and on a black car the bubbling is visible long before the metal is gone.
In South Africa the G was sold in small numbers and used in two entirely different ways, as a game farm vehicle and as a Sandton school run, and the two wear in opposite places. Which one a particular vehicle has been is the question the paperwork rarely settles, which is why the dealer being asked and declining is worth more here than a confident answer would be.
Essentials
- Lot
- KPT-109
- Year
- 2005
- Model
- G500 W463 Grand Edition
- Mileage
- 168,300 km
- Transmission
- 5-speed automatic
- VIN
- WDB4632491X168204
- Location
- Rivonia, Johannesburg
- Seller
- rivonia_motorwerke
- Seller is
- Dealer, consignment for the second owner
- Watchers
- 288
Seller interview
Before the car went live, the seller answered a standard set of questions plus a set our tools generated for this model from its documented failure modes. The full transcript is public, including anything they declined.
9 of 10 answered, 1 declined. A high score means the seller told you more, not that the car is better.
Inferred from the seller's answers and this model's known failure points. Nobody from Kept has inspected this car.
1 question the seller declined
How did the first owner use this vehicle between 2005 and 2016?
These are used either as game farm vehicles or as city cars, and the two wear in opposite places. The service record rarely settles which.
Known flaws
The seller's own list of what this car needs money spent on.
- 01Asked how the vehicle was used by its first owner, the dealer declined, saying he has the service file and no knowledge beyond it
- 02Centre differential lock engages and disengages correctly, the front lock takes several attempts and sometimes needs the vehicle rolling
- 03Rust bubbling under the paint at the bottom of both rear doors, photographed close up
- 04Sunroof drains were cleared in 2023 and the headlining shows a dried stain at the front right corner from before that
- 05Front driveshaft has a vibration between 90 and 110km/h that the workshop has not traced
- 06Rear load area carpet is worn through where the seats fold, and the spare wheel cover is faded well past the body colour
Service record
Documents & what's included
What physically comes with the car.
- 01NATIS registration certificate, in the dealer's name on consignment
- 02Mercedes-Benz franchise service record to 2016, independent specialist invoices thereafter
- 03The 2024 workshop note recording the untraced front driveshaft vibration, published as written
- 04Photographs of the rear door corrosion, close up and in raking light
- 05Two keys and the original book pack
- 06Roadworthy certificate issued within the last six months
Note from the seller
The seller's own words, published as written. The only copy on this page they control.
We are selling this on consignment for the second owner, who bought it in 2016 with 98,300km and has kept every invoice since. Everything from 2016 onward we can account for from paper. Everything before that is the franchise record and nothing more.
What we would tell a buyer standing in the showroom, and what we are telling this room: the front lock is difficult and sometimes needs the vehicle rolling before it goes in. There is bubbling at the bottom of both rear doors and we have photographed it rather than polished around it. There is a vibration in the front driveshaft between 90 and 110 that our workshop could not find, and their note is published.
We were asked how the first owner used it and we declined. We do not know. We could give you a reasonable guess from the wear and it would sound convincing, which is exactly why we are not giving it.
Comments & offers
6 comments · 2 offers
Dealer stock, reserve not met, and the thread is arguing about door skins instead of taking his word for the condition. Whatever this makes, it will be a number somebody can defend.
The vibration between 90 and 110 on a 463 is very often the front propshaft joints or a driveshaft out of balance after a CV was done. Worth a bidder budgeting for it rather than assuming the workshop missed something exotic.
This is the first dealer lot I have read on here and the treatment is genuinely identical. Same six questions, a decline published as a decline, and a workshop note admitting they could not find the vibration. Most floors would have called that one sorted.
Not yet. Both rear door cards come off on Thursday and the inner skins and the drain holes go into the gallery the same afternoon. If they show previous repair we will say so, and if they show filler we will photograph that too.
Doors bubbling at the bottom on a 2005 463 is the expected place, so the question is only whether it has been done before. Are there any photographs of the inside of the door skins with the cards off?
A front lock that needs the vehicle rolling is usually the actuator or the vacuum line rather than the diff itself. Not cheap, not catastrophic, and it is on the flaws list rather than in a buyer's driveway in a month, which is the whole point.
Comments & bids
6 comments · 2 offersThe crowd checks the report. Offers post inline, and the seller answers directly. Most recent first.
Dealer stock, reserve not met, and the thread is arguing about door skins instead of taking his word for the condition. Whatever this makes, it will be a number somebody can defend.
The vibration between 90 and 110 on a 463 is very often the front propshaft joints or a driveshaft out of balance after a CV was done. Worth a bidder budgeting for it rather than assuming the workshop missed something exotic.
This is the first dealer lot I have read on here and the treatment is genuinely identical. Same six questions, a decline published as a decline, and a workshop note admitting they could not find the vibration. Most floors would have called that one sorted.
Not yet. Both rear door cards come off on Thursday and the inner skins and the drain holes go into the gallery the same afternoon. If they show previous repair we will say so, and if they show filler we will photograph that too.
Doors bubbling at the bottom on a 2005 463 is the expected place, so the question is only whether it has been done before. Are there any photographs of the inside of the door skins with the cards off?
A front lock that needs the vehicle rolling is usually the actuator or the vacuum line rather than the diff itself. Not cheap, not catastrophic, and it is on the flaws list rather than in a buyer's driveway in a month, which is the whole point.