To ML500 '05 or not and late summer pricing
 

Greatly appreciate any thoughts on the following...

My wife and I own a 2001 ML320 and have been very happy with it. It currently has ~34k miles and we were planning on holding onto it for at least another year so with the plan of replacing it with a newer ML (my wife is the primary driver and really likes it as a kid hauler) but with a third row. Realizing that the '06 is not available with a 3rd row, we decided to try and find a leftover '05 with a third row just for fun. As it happens we found one.

Local dealer has an '05 ML500 with third row seat and is asking $44k (includes comfort package, entertainment package, and sunroof package). From what I can find, this seems to be a pretty good price but value advise on this point.

I'm also concerned about buying the last model year before the changeover (we'll probably keep the 500 for ~5 years) and whether the '05 would have any reasonable resale value thereafter (assuming gas doesn't go to $4 a gallon).

Thanks for any thoughts on these issues.

Scott

RE: To ML500 '05 or not and late summer pricing
 

My wife drives ML and I bought for my business 99 E320 wagon 4-matic.
Those vehicles share the drive-train, but wagon is giving much better ride control and even I didn't need it, it come with 3rd seat.
Now when we go for family vacation I have to clean my work wagon, because nobody wants the truck-like ride in ML.
Wagon gets 2, or 3 more MPG as well.