True Story: Money Green Benz

Having a rap backbone

A lot of people ask me about cars I drive. I’d say that this is mostly based off of growing up with a rap backbone. Biggie and Tupac were dominating the scene growing up, and over time I decided I wanted a big body Benz. My Ultimate Ride. The S-Class Mercedes being driven by mobsters and casted in music videos had me hooked from the start. For some reason I was hooked by this car.

Back in the day I had a client that was worth north of $30 million and I used to train his wife in-home for $100 per session. One day he took me out to lunch in his Mercedes S600… no shit. This was the newer S600, not the boxier one you seen in the photo. AND it was a V12. I’m sitting here thinking to myself: as many hours as it takes to work, this has to be the goal and standard for myself. To this day I believe that this is something that threw me into a higher level of focus.

Pushing the needle

Material possessions certainly aren’t the only thing in life, however they can surely push the needle sometimes. For me, cars have always been that way. So when we get back to his house he opens the garage door, and all I see on the floor is plush carpet. Mind you this is winter in Ohio. I was like, “You have carpet in your garage?” He said back to me, “Look, I just replace it every six months and when I get out of the S6 I want to put my slippers on.” This dude is about 80 years old and a straight baller.

Shortly after this happened, I would keep driving past this dealership on my way to the original gym that I worked at and kept seeing this 1993 Mercedes S500. I’m looking at this car in 2005 and the dealership has the car listed at about $22,500. Keep in mind that the sticker price for this car brand new is $109,000. The old S5’s were decked out to the max. I called this car color ‘money green’ even though the actual color was mint green ha. I ended up going to test drive and the car was sooo nice in and outside. The car was only owned by one couple, had about 127,000 miles, and looked like it was garage-kept. My plan at the beginning was to paint the car white, to have it go with the peanut butter interior.

All for under 13k

So here I am driving by day after day watching the price fall. The dealership said that basically the only two people interested in the car were me and the local dope boys. $17.3, 16.5, 16k… I had about $7,000 in cash saved up from personal training and I knew that I could get the other $5,000+ from a loan. I offered $12,500 cash in hand that day out the door. Because they had been sitting on that car for so long that they took it. I then spent about $800 on Giovanni rims to be riding on 20″ rims. For under 13k I was rolling around on my first S5 series as a personal trainer. I felt like a boss, I’m not going to lie. It was so fulfilling to hit this goal.

Coming up on Tupac’s music was significant for me. I could identify so clearly with his music: it doesn’t matter what the color of your skin is or where you are from. A struggle is a struggle. I was living in a trailer, Pac was living in the city. The same goes for Biggie’s music. I couldn’t move the car until I put in ‘Picture Me Rollin’ off the All Eyes On Me album because in the first line he says “Picture me rollin’ in a 500 Benz.” I listened to that song countless times on the way to school and on the way to the personal training studio, realizing that this is what I want for myself. That’s how I want to operate.

The new standard

Now that I’m 10 years removed from my first Benz experience, I’ve been through five S500 / S550’s and that’s just the standard. That’s what I wanted for myself and that’s what I worked hard for. The funny thing is that I don’t spend a lot of money on clothes or shoes, but I like to have a car and truck. I don’t even buy new cars. I’m not the kind of guy that buys a brand new car and pays full sticker. I make a huge effort to be smart with my money.

At the end of the day, this has been something that has been knocking at my door since a young age, and now it’s become a reality. Every day when I get up I feel just as blessed. I have a ton of gratitude. I knew that there was an expectation from what Pac was saying, what Amel showed me, and what I wanted for myself.