Before I morph into a MB owner

[matth]

Can someone give me a bit of advice?

I am looking at trading my M3 Evo (boo hiss) in for a more refined E240 and I have my eye on what I think is quite a nice example.

The only fly in the ointment is that I spotted some bobbling around the keyhole in the boot. The dealer said that they would fix it before it left the garage and that they would guarantee the work for a year. He even went so far as to say that they would offer an 'unofficial' warranty for a year or two after that.

After reading the various threads on rust problems with the 1996-2002 models his assurances don't do anything to make me feel any better and I feel as though I should just walk away - it's not as though we are short of 1996-2002 E classes.

Any advice?

Ta
Matt

 

[LiamMcL]

My dad had an e class with the same problem. The merc garage had it sprayed twice before replacing the bootlid altogether. A common fault as far as i'm aware.

 

[e220man]

Seems to be a common prob with this make and the yrs u mentioned,same bubbles with my E220 95 only mine are around the edge of the back number plate,remember reading somewhere that this model and these yrs mentioned they never put enough coats of pre-paint or primier or something to this effect, read the articels reguarding rust and the posts put forward on this subject in the fourm. good luck...e220man..

 

[matth]

Thanks for the replies. I have read most of the articles that mention rust and they seem rather scary, what happened to the idea that a MB would last longer than the driver?

I might pass on this one then.

Matt