3 Weeks & 1,300 miles - E 280 CDi

[Yaff]

Let’s kick off with some pictures:

As per my previous post, my last car was a BMW 330 Ci M Sport, so a very different car. Although my old car was fantastic when driven hard, with an average of 20K PA, the ride was just too hard after a long day on the road.

The new E class is fantastic. It’s comfortable, quiet, smooth, quick, economical (MPG) and it makes me smile every trip. The combination of the high build quality, prestigious (But not flash) brand and a fantastic ride makes it my dream car.

During the past 800 miles or so, I have achieved 36 MPG, with my best run at just over 40. As I am still running it in, I expect this to slightly improve when it has completed a few more miles.

Regarding COMAND, love the screen, speed of routing and the monitoring of traffic. If I don’t need the assistance of SatNav, I normally still have the map on screen, giving me an overview of traffic conditions. On the down side, no speed cameras, part postcode only and I think Tom-Tom can sometimes find a better route.

Regarding my other optional extras (Avantgarde, Phone, Leather, Heated seats, parktronic, Folding seats, Multi CD & Pan roof), they are worth every penny. This is the first time that I have not compromised on the spec and it feels fantastic.:-D

To this end I highly recommend this combination and will give you a more in-depth review in about 6 months.

 

[Rory]

Looks brilliant - glad you're enjoying it.

I read you car bio in your first post - I'm on my first car since opting out, and looked at E Class but just couldn't bring myself to spend £30K+ ! I ended up with a 5 month old C270 Avantgarde Estate, which I'm pretty happy with - apart from the ride! I guess almost anything would feels supple to you after your BMW!

May I ask how you funded it? Apart from the initial price, the depreciation prospects horrify me.

 

[Yaff]

Looks brilliant - glad you're enjoying it.

May I ask how you funded it? Apart from the initial price, the depreciation prospects horrify me.

With the Jag, I went for the dealers finance (£420 PM, 4 yr with balloon). Paid £23K and stilled owed £18K 18 months later. When I purchased the BMW, went for a straight 5 year loan (Not linked to the car) for £25K. Used this to pay off some of the negative equity on the Jag and part fund the new car (£475 PM).

When I purchased the new Merc, I had about £18K left on the finance and as you know, the PX value was only about £10K. The deal I did on the Merc was my old car + £28K. To fund the project, I borrowed £25 K on a strait 5 yr loan from the bank (£480 PM) and added £21K cash. So in summary, I paid off the original loan and have a straight 5 year loan on the Merc. The paln is that I will keep it for the duration and still have £10K equity at the end (5 year old, good spec, full Merc serv hist & under 100K on the clock). When you consider I was £8K in the red on my BMW, the majority of the cash I added was paying off the negative equity and investing the residual value of the new car.

By opting out of my company car scheme, I take home an extra £520 PM, + I get 15p per mile. Although opting out is probably costing me an extra £50 PM (Finance, service, tax & insurance), I have a fantastic Merc instead of a box standard BMW 320D.

If you purchased a car for £25K and stick with it for the full 5 years, assuming no major mechanical issues, it should cost you about £550 PM + fuel. With company car tax going up all the time, most of my colleagues have or will be doing the same. Hope this helps.

 

[Rory]

Thanks for all that - sounds like you have a similar opt out deal to ours. The company car scheme was a lot less complicated, but we were all pretty firmly pushed out of it a couple of years ago. I did enjoy the lack of stress over the car though - I think that's worth maybe £100/mth.

 

[jberks]

Ouch!

Lovely car (but then with as the proud owner of a very similar one I would say that), but I have to say that those figures would terrify me. All sounds like the slippery slope towards Ocean Finance!

I know many people would disagree, but by buying one a year older, you could have saved in excess of the entire BM negative equity in a single hit, rather than having to fund it or borrow it. Ok it takes a little while to find the ideal spec, mileage and condition, but there are plenty around to choose from. You still end up with a fantastic Merc to run around in that most people will still view through green goggles. If you are bothered, you pop a private plate on it (Looks like you've got one anyway!) and everyone thinks it is new.

I must admit, new is tempting, but I saved the best part of £10,000 by buying an 11 month old ex demo. 12 months down the line and she's better to drive now than when I collected her. No rattles, no problems and another 150k+ trouble free miles left (I've clocked up over 30k this year). I even have 2 more years of full MB warranty remaining as I extended it as part of the deal, but this way, I paid £10k cash, jobbed in my old E class (£8k) and have less than £340 a month to find for 3 years followed by 2 further years of FREE motoring, and that's assuming I bother to change at 5 years. Certailnly my last E had a hell of a lot of life left at 6 years and I only really changed because I was bored.

That's one of the benefits of opting out, surely. You can have a better car for the same money or for that matter, with today's depreciation, a better car for less. I end up wondering whether, because company car folk are used to new, they never consider used?

Not a critisism, just another way of looking at it. In any case, I hope your 280 gives you as much pleasure as my 270 gives me.

 

[Yaff]

I did look at buying second had and think that I could have saved £5K for a 6 months old (About £32K) with similar spec and about 5 k on the clock. The dilemma I had was why would someone get ride after such a short time. And if they did, how would they have treated it. If I looked at a 1 year old model, I would have probably saved about another 4 k (320 CDi as this is the closest match to the new 280 CDi), but, I would have about 15K on the clock and only 2 year warrantee.

Based on what the press have said about reliability of the pre facelift (True or fails), getting exactly the spec I desired, 0 mileage and a full warrantee, I felt it was worth the extra cash.

At the end of the day, its only money. Easy come, easy go. Life is to short and you need to do what feels right. I had £21K sitting in the bank, which was a bit unexpected, so I had some fun and spent it.

Unfortunately my wife knocked out one her front teeth moments after I took delivery of the new car and the dentist bill is going to be over £4K. If this had happened at the time of buying the car, I expect I would have gone for a second hand one (Giving some of my cash to the dentist) and would be just as happy as I am today.

 

[Rory]

I did look at buying second had and think that I could have saved £5K for a 6 months old (About £32K) with similar spec and about 5 k on the clock. The dilemma I had was why would someone get ride after such a short time. And if they did, how would they have treated it.

I bought a 5 month old, 6000 mile ex-MB management C270 Estate from MB Direct. With all its options, it would have listed at £34K and I paid £23.5K. This was about 18mths ago. To all intents and purposes, the car looked and felt brand-new.

I also looked at E Class's, but similar age E270/E320's were well over £30K, and that was without COMAND. In fact very few E Class's seemed to have COMAND, which I really wanted.


You do seem have done a pretty good deal on your car, especially without taking the dealer finance - I reckon that would have listed at around £42K, so with their higher p/x on your beemer you look like you've 'saved' maybe £4K.

(Sorry to hear about your wife, by the way).

 

[munroist]

I am new to this forum and am on my third Merc. Still own a 1998 c class which I refuse to sell and and am now the proud owner of a 2004 220cdi Elegance E Class. Had a BMW 5 series for 4 years a great car but I have got a soft spot for Mercs. I am a private owner and I thought I paid a lot for my cars till I read this post. Paid £17000 for the BMW from a main dealer and traded it in for the Merc at a Merc dealer 6 months ago. Got £6000 on the BMW and paid £23000 cash for the Merc which was 18 months old with 7000 miles on the clock so had to part with £17000. The car runs like a dream and I expect to own it for at least 10 years. Maybe I am fortunate and can afford to pay cash but its a lot cheaper than the loan route. The banks must be making a fortune.

 

[Rory]

Maybe I am fortunate and can afford to pay cash but its a lot cheaper than the loan route. The banks must be making a fortune.

I guess you can always get a low rate when you don't need it, but I made it clear to MB Direct that I would be paying cash. They offered me finance at 2.9% and with the set up and final fees, I'd have been very slightly better off taking it than using my own money (in the bank in wife's name, so lower tax).
I still paid cash though, as my work situation was unlcear then, and I didn't want a big loan clouding things.

 

[jberks]

The dilemma I had was why would someone get ride after such a short time. And if they did, how would they have treated it. If I looked at a 1 year old model, I would have probably saved about another 4 k (320 CDi as this is the closest match to the new 280 CDi), but, I would have about 15K on the clock and only 2 year warrantee.

Based on what the press have said about reliability of the pre facelift (True or fails), getting exactly the spec I desired, 0 mileage and a full warrantee, I felt it was worth the extra cash.

I always wondered why people job in cars less than 12 months old. I was a bit suspicious that they'd be duff ones. That is, until my Wife did the same. We had an Audi A3T sport, loved it and at 3 years, the dealer offered us a very good deal to change. The new one was the first of the late facelifts (so we'd only seen pics), had been updated and just wasn't the same. It was great, but far harder than the previous one and she just didn't jel with it. Plus, she'd started mucking about with horses and really wanted a 4x4. So at 9 months we chopped it in for a jeep. It had been looked after, not ragged, just wasn't for us.

Mine had probably been an area manager's as the mileage was a couple of thousand over average but had the dealership as the previous owner. I have also spent the last week doing a bit of consultancy as a leasing company (owned by GM). The manager gave me a lift in his new Saab and commented that it was going back tomorrow and he was getting a new one. I said, this one is new, surely? Apparently, they are changed every 10k or 7 months, presumably to keep the figures up and the forecourts full of nice shiny pre-owned models. I imagine MB have a similar thing with their staff.

You have a point about reliability, which is why I'd waited as long as I did. Things improved through 03 and 04 so I wanted a late 04 (Mine is a Nov). So far, she's been impeccable. A couple of miniscule niggles, sorted a couple of weeks after delivery and she hasn't been back to the dealer since. I use an indie for servicing and saved over £600 last year by doing this and in terms of warranty (the loss of 1 year) for £600 you get a full MB style warranty from the dealer so I started with 3 full years cover (plus 1 month as she was only 11 months old) , just in case I hadn't quite timed it right, though as I say, 12 months and 30k later and she hasn't missed a beat. That said, my Dad has just bought a late 2002 E220cdi from a client, and that's been excellent too.

I don't mind spending it, but I don't want to throw it away and on things like servicing, I firmly believe the indie does an equal or better job than the dealer, and charges half the cost. The warranty is no longer affected these days, so why not?

On the finance, it does depend on what you borrow clearly. I was a bit out of practice as I paid cash for the last E, but this time, I was spending more and didn't want to completely empty the bank, so took a bit of finance. I was all set to shop around and told the dealer that I could get a better apr than their offer. However, as he pointed out, with rates so low, a difference of a point came down to a couple of hundred over the life of the loan and the extra hassle of chasing round, filling in forms and chasing cheques, compared to simply signing and driving away just wasn't worth it.