This 1989 Mercedes-Benz 300E 3.2 AMG was ordered in Japan and modified by AMG Japan when new. The car was imported from Japan to Germany in 2014 and later acquired by the seller in 2022. Authentic AMG modifications include a complete body kit, Aero I wheels, suspension, 300-kph gauge cluster, M38 AMG steering wheel, additional burl walnut wood, exhaust, a M103 3.2-liter engine upgrade which was a Japanese specific high-output motor, and an AMG certification. Finished in Anthracite Gray Metallic (172) over Anthracite Leather (271), power is provided by a bored and stroked 3.2-liter SOHC inline-six mated to a 722.3 four-speed automatic transmission driving the rear wheels. The seller acquired the car in 2022 and has since reconditioned the car with new tires, refinished wheels, brake overhaul, fluids, and a completed engine rebuild which is documented in the gallery. Factory equipment includes power adjustable front seats, power sunroof, automatic dual zone climate control, headlamps washers with wipers, and cruise control. The current owner is selling it on behalf of his father who has logged 7k kilometers during their ownership and is located out of Bielefeld, Germany. TÜV paperwork shows the AMG conversion as authentic and the car is backed up by AMG certification paperwork. Now showing 143k kilometers (~89k miles) from new, this 300E 3.2 AMG is offered for sale with records dating back to 2016, German TÜV documents, spare wheel, jack, AMG certification, a clean German title.
The car received AMG bodywork shared with the 6.0 Hammer which includes a sculpted front air dam, side skirts, lower door cladding, rear bumper and a three-piece trunk spoiler. The body kit is original with TÜV paperwork and the car carries a custom fabricated stainless steel exhaust molded from the original Sebring AMG exhaust. The original exhaust is shown in the gallery and was replaced because of condition. The bodywork is finished in Anthracite Gray Metallic (172) with all painted chrome and trim including the grille surround and side molding with the grill insert being done in black. The driver side door lock piece was replaced and is unpainted and the passenger side front door lock is broken. Exterior equipment includes front fog lights, a power-adjustable passenger door mirror, a power sunroof, an automatic antenna, and central locking. Paint meter readings are included in the gallery and there are no signs of rust present on the body. Some paint chips and wear are noted in the gallery.
The 17” AMG Aero I wheels come fitted with a set of new Yokohama Advan Sport tires which measure 235/45 on all four corners and show 2023 date codes. The wheels were professionally refinished in 2024 along with the installation of new brake pads, rotors, fluid, and hoses in July of 2025. White AMG springs are pictured in the gallery with the W124 part sticker visible on the coil spring and Bilstein B8 shocks at all four corners.
The front and rear seats are trimmed in original Anthracite Leather (271). AMG trimmed the interior with additional Burl Walnut wood which adorns the center console, gear selector, dashboard, and door panels. The wood appears to be in excellent condition. An adjustable toggle for the passenger side mirror is available below the shifter. Additional interior appointments include automatic dual-zone climate control, cruise control, and a Mercedes-Benz Audio 10 head unit. Power windows are factory optioned on all four doors. The sunroof is fully operational, the pinned head liner is not sagging, and the B pillars show some wrinkling common on all W124s.
The Momo M38 AMG leather steering wheel fronts an AMG-specific white-faced gauge cluster with a central 300-km/h speedometer along with an 7k-rpm tachometer, an analog clock and gauges for fuel level, coolant temperature and oil pressure. The six-digit odometer shows 143k kilometers (~89k miles). The steering wheel was recovered with new leather prior to the owner's acquisition.
The original 3.0-liter M103 inline-six uses a new crankshaft based off the OM603 3.5-liter crankshaft that strokes the engine – it is also bored to 3.2-liters along with a new head that uses hydraulic lifters and AMG camshaft which help the engine produce 231 horsepower and 200 lb-ft of torque. Compression is up from 9.2:1 to 10.0:1. Power is sent to the rear wheels through a 722.3 four-speed automatic transmission. The seller performed a full top and bottom end engine rebuild which is documented in the gallery. The headers are known to be unique to the 3.2 and have been ceramic coated during the engine rebuild. Valves were cleaned and seats cut, new brass valve guides were installed, and new pistons installed. Photos include the bottom end disassembled and cylinder bores being rehoned. The seller states a major service was performed upon import to Germany in 2014 which included an overhaul of the KE-Jettronic fuel system, but records started in 2016 onwards including TÜV paperwork. AMG stickers denoting the engine modifications are found on the radiator support and a plaque can be seen in the door jam. Underbody photos provided by the seller show no signs of leaks or corrosion.
The current owner is selling the car on behalf of his father who has logged 7k kilometers during their ownership and is located out of Bielefeld, Germany. TÜV paperwork shows the AMG conversion as authentic and the car is backed up by AMG certification paperwork. Now showing 143k kilometers (~89k miles) from new, this 300E 3.2 AMG is offered for sale with records dating back to 2016, German TUV documents, a spare wheel, jack, AMG certification, and a clean German title.
A cold start, warm start, driving video, and exhaust note video are provided below.
The M103 3.2 AMG engined cars are so rare that there is not a lot of information available. This has resorted to us digging through our pre-merger library to hunt down printed information. The 3.2-liter in the W124 was a Japan-only powerplant that was available from 1988-1991 before the M104 cars took its place. This AMG Japan engine is bored to 89.9mm and stroked to 89.5mm where the 3.0-liter Mercedes-Benz engine was a 88.5mm bore and 80.25mm stroke. The “Baby Hammer” 190E 3.2 built by AMG Germany was a thing while this example existed, though sources say AMG Japan built the engine in this car and is unique to that market. The way we see it, this 300E 3.2 is similar in both engineering and collectability to the Italian Market E30 M3. That makes this car so damn cool. A high compression, bored, stroked, cammed M103 is wicked to see and it’s paired with the exact same body kit as the 1987 Hammer we sold back in August. The M38 steering wheel and additional wood on the interior is a huge plus not to mention the condition of the veneer. The hard part of the engine rebuild is done and seems to be done right by a talented machine shop. The refinished wheels, new tires, and refreshed brakes are all huge pluses that add value to one of the rarer AMGs we have seen in a while. We love it.
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37 Comments
@ubergruber not that one sir. Vehicle from private seller. Imported from Japan about 15 years ago but was never registered in US. Very excited to bring it back to excellent condition and put some miles@spyder360 congrats on a great purchase!@OGAMG that’s kind but @gsxr and many others know loads as I’ve seen from other auctions… I’m just playing catch up. Lovely choice of car… not the recent bring a trailer one? I wish I could help but I’m a UK based enthusiast but maybe others can help?Thank you!! Thanks to @niklas32 for being an excellent caretaker of this machine! It will go great next to its sister car, a 1988 300E 3.2 AMG!!@ubergruber @gsxr Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with the rest of us! I just recently acquired 1990 3.4 AMG with 5-speed manual. Vehicle sat for a few years and can use tune up and some engine work potentially. Would you know of any shops on east coast US that have experience with these unicorns? Your feedback is highly appreciatedWhat an auction, congrats to @spyder360!! So happy to see my car in good hands!Congrats to both, buyer and seller! Great car and great result !!$40,000 bid placed by @spyder360
$39,500 bid placed by @Newsflash
$39,000 bid placed by @HRVca
$38,500 bid placed by @spyder360
$38,000 bid placed by @Newsflash
$37,500 bid placed by @spyder360
$37,000 bid placed by @Newsflash
$36,500 bid placed by @spyder360
$36,000 bid placed by @HRVca
$35,500 bid placed by @spyder360
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$34,000 bid placed by @HRVca
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Here for any last-minute questions. Thanks to everyone for the interest and kind words.$31,000 bid placed by @spyder360
$30,000 bid placed by @Newsflash
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$27,000 bid placed by @HowardM
An additional video of the exhaust note has been added to the listing.$25,000 bid placed by @spyder360
$20,000 bid placed by @HowardM
@Mbeamdream Thank you, I really appreciate your kind words! I genuinely loved working on this car and enjoyed almost every second. And just to clarify: the wood trim is in fact refurbished, but I sourced a new shifter panel to replace the old one, as it was warped and not original anyways. As you said: finding burl wood trim (or any trim) for these cars is quite tricky if you actually care about matching color and condition. I am really glad this kind of detail is getting noticed and appreciated here.@Niklas32 You did good work on this car, dude. Lots of love an attention to detail. The most impressive thing to me is the burl wood sourcing. It is near impossible to find here in the Americas. I've been looking for replacement wood for my OM606 300GE for a while now with no luck. The only options were refurbishment.@Mbeamdream Great deductive work! That is in fact my thread of the car. Please keep in mind that all information covers work that, in some cases, goes back almost three years. But everything you read in the thread and here on MBM did in fact happen and is part of this AMG´s journey. Also the listing here focuses primarily on the car as it sits today, on the 500E-Board thread I focused more on the mechanical side. I really appreciate you pointing it out and I encourage everyone to read the thread and maybe even ask some questions!Gents I found the rebuild thread on this car. Doesn't exactly jive with the mbMarket description but this young man put in a significant amount of work to get this car to the condition it is in. https://www.500eboard.co/forums/threads/niklas32-300e-3-2-amg.22039/@Niklas32 thanks, n Finland, there is coming car import taxation even if it is inside EU, but that is not much considering the age of this vehicle. Thanks!@Osku Hey, you can message me privetely and we can work out a shipping estimate. Shipping should be possible to anywhere in the world, just depends on the price. The car is registered in Germany, so since it´s all EU you shouldn´t have to pay any import taxes. A direct COC doesn´t exist, because the car is built for the Japanese market. This car is a bit special though, it has German EU-confirmity and is registered as normal W124. That should make it easy for the finnish Traficom to register the car, because they have to accept the German registration documents. If the buyer wishes, I can request a technical data sheet from the TÜV that should include all neccessary information.Is there coming original registration papers with 1-2 sides and COC document as well?Is it possible to ship it to Finland?@Mbeamdream $10k seems extremely high, I have done some research and asked ChatGPT aswell and Ro/Ro should be about HALF of that on the high end, even with insurance. Container shipping would be more expensive of course. We can talk about it privately, I would like to know how you calculated your shipping. You could contact me here or on Instagram :)Queried ChatGPT it will cost about $10k on the high end for RoRo to Orlando.@Niklas32 I sent a private message two days ago when the listing came out asking for a shipping quote and haven't received a reply. Did you get my message ?@ubergruber Let me answer the inevitable question even before it comes up :) Shipping is an important part of the buying process and of course, I will be happy to assist in any way! The car is located in Bielefed, which is about a 280km drive from Bremerhaven. That is the nearest major seaport here. Overseas transport is quite straightforward and there are a lot of companies that can arrange everything. In general there are two options: Roll-on/Roll-off and container shipping. Ro/Ro is the cheaper option, the shipping inside a container is more expensive, but safer. both take about the same time. Costs can vary significatly depending on where you live, which shipping method you pick, which company you choose and how you insure the car. A rough ballpark would be mid four-figues USD from door to door. If anyone wants to work out a more accurate estimate, feel free to contact me privately and I will be happy to help.Am very curious about the complete cost to import this to the US. This will inform many of our bidding decisions.Anyway..back to the lovely car here! Surely time for the questions about the cost of shipping to the USA?!This is why I love this site. Loads of respectful knowledge sharing. @Niklas32 I understand (but would welcome someone who knows correcting this) that 990 cars had the code stamped on the chassis designating the standard car on production line to be shipped by MB to amg for conversion. Later (around 1993) 957 cars were specced/ordered completely through MB dealerships so MB had greater control. The exception of this was the w202 C55amg from 1998 I think. @gsxr the baby hammer debate is fascinating. My personal take is that the term ‘Hammer’ is a magazine (not amg) term adopted by enthusiasts to refer to an upgraded gen1 bodykitted w124 E class with a m117 DOHC engine shoved in to. As with the term Hammer it seems that a lot of the media and enthusiasts are using baby hammer to means an upgraded gen1 bodykitted w124 e class with a tuned 3.4/3..2 engine. Certainly not a hammer (and without the super special engine) but looks a lot like one… much like a Ferrari 348 is often called a baby testarossa.. because they look similar. I’m comfortable with this as they are both made up terms but all please be gentle with me and leave my family my remains! :)@gsxr Great to see you here! And many thanks for your kind words! I put the breakpoint in Sept 1989, because of the transition to MoPf1, after which the AMG Option codes started to appear in the VINs. If the agreement was signed in Oct 1990, like @ubergruber said, we could have a rather exact date. The term "mid-merger" is actually quite a good idea for this gray area :). Also btw: my car is a MoPf0, it has the AMG specific side planks, that look like the sacco-boards. The interior gives it away, it doesn´t have the MoPf1 wood trim. What is actually the difference between a 99X car and a 957 car? I think 99X cars are only with the complete AMG package and 957 cars don´t have a bodykit or the wheels for example? I can understand why ppl call the 190E 3.2 the "baby Hammer", it is the small chassis with the biggest engine that AMG offered. But as @gsxr said, it doesn´t really catch the Hammers spirit of gigantic engine in rather small chassis.The pre/post merger debate is quite the interesting topic. In general I agree with @Niklas32 that any genuine AMG-built car without code 9xx in the datacard would be pre-merger. I don't know the exact cutoff date but it somewhere around 1990, or 1991 at the latest. If the cooperation agreement was signed in October 1990 as @ubergruber stated below, that seems like the logical breakpoint. On the flip side, any car with code 957 in the datacard is absolutely post-merger. This includes the E36, E60, S60, and SL60 which all arrived in early/mid 1993. Cars in between late 1990 and early 1993 are sort of in a gray area. "Mid-merger" perhaps? ;) Might depend if the datacard code is 99x or 957? But, anyone saying cars as late as 1998 are pre-merger is just silly. All the factory-built, 1994-up AMG's have code 957 in the datacard except the M120's, which appear to be an anomaly. (Post-delivery conversions are a separate discussion.) On a totally separate note, I disagree with the term "Baby Hammer" applied to a W201 with 3.2L engine. The real Hammer is any 124 with a DOHC M117, where AMG stuffed a completely different engine into a chassis that never was intended to have that engine. The W201 received the M103 as of 1985, and boring/stroking the same engine is nothing like putting a V8 into a car that wasn't designed for a V8. Anyway. This pre-merger 3.2 is absolutely beautiful, and the photos / presentation are excellent. GLWS, Niklas!@Niklas32 I think 1993-ish onwards (with the exception of a few remaining 990s and privately built or non affalterbach cars) the amg offerings were stamped 957 like e36, sl60 and e60. Only exception to that I’ve found was the w202 c55 which was still separately made by amg only. The cooperation agreement was signed in October 1990 with 990 being stamped on chassis after that. For my learning, why would 1989 and before be considered pre-merger and not pre October 1990? (I know there are way smarter people in the background reading this and hope they weigh in to correct my mistakes!) Either way, your car, to me, is a lovely thing. GLWTA!@ubergruber as far as I know the 990 code did come in '91! But those cars just had the AMG after the model designation like 500SL 6.0. The later fully AMG-named cars were mostly 990 codes I think. (But the C36 and E55 are different I think).@Niklas32 it’s the romance or a tuner, tuning your car! I thought the 990 code came in in 1991 but happy to learn otherwise from smarter people!@ubergruber thank you for the kind words! I personally think that the cars before 1989 without a code in the VIN are the true true pre-merger cars. 1989 to 1993 is really debatable. After 1993 I think should be post-merger, but that´s just my opinion. For example the SL60, E36 or E60. Is AMG in Affalterbach working on customer cars that are 30 years old? I think I saw that they are working on some Hammers there.@Majdaqel93 that’s an interesting debate and am sure more learned people will weigh in with opinions. As the owner of a 1990 3.4 I personally prefer the idea of owners taking their own car to amg rather than MB. I’ve heard people say pre 1999 are pre-mergers, based on merger date, pre 1993 and pre 1991 cars as you say. Either way.. this looks like a lovely thing!@ubergruber I forgot about the manual part. But i would consider this to be more of a pre-merger than the one on BAT. since that car had the AMG option code in the build sheet, it almost feels like a merger car.@Majdaqel93 this looks a lovely car and like you excited to see where it lands but the BAT premerger amg was very different. A 3.4 rather than 3.2, European market/affalerbach build and this a Japanese market/japanese amg build. it was a manual and this an auto. Still a lovely looking thing with great paperwork and hope it does wellThis is an awesome car. very nicely documented and perfect images to show it off.This is going to be interesting! Just saw a 3.4 do 115K on BAT last week. This is a Pre-Merger AMG.Very well-maintained vehicle. I was allowed to take a ride. Nothing to complain about!What a beauty$8,932 bid placed by @Singlestage