S Class Mercedes Out of Warrantee

Big Ed · 05:09 AM

Would I be crazy to pick one of these up? I love the S Class, but don't want to put myself so far into hock to get a new one. Seem to be plenty of off lease cars, 2002-2004 vintage, with 40-50K miles.

Dream ride or nightmare?

audi2.7t · 09-28-2007, 12:19 PM

Which model?? 430, 500, 600 ??.. an '04 would/should qualify for pre-owned warranty of 6 years/100k miles(total).. NOT a car you would want to own out of warranty.. average bill for minor CEL seems to be around $1500+ . My friend has the '04 600 twin turbo (that he wants to sell to me) and just a tune-up is north of $1500..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Ed

Would I be crazy to pick one of these up? I love the S Class, but don't want to put myself so far into hock to get a new one. Seem to be plenty of off lease cars, 2002-2004 vintage, with 40-50K miles.

Dream ride or nightmare?

HardDrive · 09-28-2007, 03:21 PM

I looked this overr top to bottom last year and ran screaming in the other direction. I wanted an E-500.

I was amazed at how solidly negative the feedback was from MB owners.

They are beautiful cars, but the electronics are just not solid, and VERY expensive to fix. And that assumes that a fix exists. There are tons of cars that pop us on E-bay that are basically new, because they were bought back under lemon laws.

ChemMan · ChemMan's Garage

Check the owners on benzworld. With MB, like porsche, a ppi is a must. My personal feeling would be to avoid this model. The cost of repairs on mercedes are not cheap as I am sure you know. I am still of the opinion the last good s-class was the w126. I know that w140 owners would say otherwise.

mattdavis11 · 09-28-2007, 04:08 PM

Have them change the evaporator as a condition of the sale. You guys must not turn wrenches for fun. Easy cars.

audi2.7t · 09-28-2007, 04:25 PM

And you must not price out MB parts on a regular basis..! I work for a Daimler dealership and I wouldn't own one..( I would only lease)..in or out of warranty.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattdavis11

Have them change the evaporator as a condition of the sale. You guys must not turn wrenches for fun. Easy cars.

the · 09-28-2007, 07:30 PM

I have one, in extended warranty. The warranty has already paid for itself.

There are some things that are very difficult to diagnose and fix on these things, at least on the electronics side. Can be hard to get all the "fault warnings" gone. This module goes bad, that module goes bad, funky false warnings, not particularly fun or cheap to fix. Had some juice-filled suspension bushing stuff go bad. Power steering pump went out. Some other stuff that I've put out of my memory.

I think the quality of MBs, at least in the early 2000s, was sketchy. I'm sure there are particular cars that will go 200,000 miles with "normal" wear. But there are a lot that are going to need thousands and thousands of work, IMO. It's a crap shoot, are ya feeling lucky, punk?

nota · 09-28-2007, 08:24 PM

newer gas motor? NO WAY

OLDER 5 CYL DIESEL SURE [no computers or other fancy/failing el-trick bits]
and they run on waste oil fine
BTW most of the body , int , and drive train bits swap off the gas cars
and the local pick and pull yard is full of dead gasers
avoid the 6 bangers diesels unless rebuilt under warranty esp the 350 S

newer cars are not built as well as the older ones
and 1990 to 1999 cars are crap
2000 + cars are a little better but still crap