Man rebuilds beat-up Mercedes-Benz from the ground up and sells for questionable profit

This man rebuilt a beat-up Mercedes-Benz from the ground up and sold it for a profit, but how much it went for isn’t entirely clear.

YouTuber Fade Edits shared a video in which he bought a Mercedes CLS for $38,000, refurbished it and sold it for $200,000.

That sales figure has raised a lot of eyebrows across the internet, with many expressing doubt that this car would sell for that much.

But the truth may be a little more nuanced than what it initially appears.

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This beat-up Mercedes-Benz got a new lease of life – but how much did it sell for?

This rebuild was a seriously big undertaking.

Although this Mercedes-Benz was muddy at the video’s start, it wouldn’t merely be a case of getting a sponge and soapy water.

Oh no, this would be a full-scale rebuild.

The car was dismantled, the engine and chassis were removed, and even the wiring harness were taken out.

Barely a single part of the car was left alone.

What followed was an intensive period of pressure washing, foaming, chemical degreasing, and sanding.

A nano-phosphate coating was added for corrosion protection, and the car was baked at 392 degrees Fahrenheit, autoevolution reported.

On the other end of the process was a seriously nice looking car.

All of that we can all get on board with, right?

Well, here’s where things get a little more complicated.

Fade Edits claimed that the finished vehicle was sold for $200k, an obvious profit over the $38k that he bought it for.

If this is indeed what happened, then we’d all applaud that, right?

But people online aren’t quite sure about this figure.

What actually happened here?

As noted by Elena Luchian over on autoevolution, $200,000 is a figure you’d usually see for a ‘factory-fresh Mercedes GT 63 S E Performance’.

That’s not to question how much hard work was undoubtedly put into the restoration of the CLS.

But $200,000 is a very high figure for a rebuild.

Viewers of the video were also asking questions.

“Even Mercedes cannot sell you that car for $200k, even if it puts the moon inside of it,” one commenter said.

“$200k is super car territory fella,” another said.

One person stepped forward to be the voice of reason, and provided a plausible explanation of what might have happened here.

“I think he meant to say bought for 38K RMB ($5500 USD), and sold for 200k RMB ($30k USD),” he wrote.

This seems like the most logical explanation of what happened here – a simple case of mistranslation.

At any rate, the finished product looks great and the team evidently did a great job on it.

It’s always great to see a Mercedes being given a second chance at life – we felt that way when we visited Motor Classic in Hungary to see the work they’d done on some barn find Mercedes.

And some can spend years away before they get a makeover, as was the case with this 280 SE.

To see this beat-up Mercedes-Benz CLS getting restored for yourself, head over to Fade Edits’ YouTube channel.

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