Bought another W211 yesterday

[Steve Taxi]

3 months ago we bought our first W211 E220cdi 04 estate, it was cheap £11900 with 130kmiles and no warranty, big mistake, after 3 weeks it went into limp mode got it checked out at Andy Gayles and it needed both cats, blocked, they did that and it went ok for 100miles and into limp again, took it back and they informed us the turbo was knackered, they fitted a new turbo and its been ok since apart from rear shocks and front ball joint worn out £5000 in the first month. We were faced with the decision of staying with Mercedes in our business, been using them for 10yrs but are these new models too risky second hand, anyway we bought another 211 yesterday, 53reg E220cdi estate 75k miles with 3 months warranty, dont want to fall into all that again, is it true that the new VV turbos are going wrong at quite low miles and is it true that the 53reg car we have just bought might have the old type turbo?

 

[Steve Taxi]

Update, here we go again! new car went back to have leaking rear shocks replaced yesterday after a week, they should have been replaced before selling as it should have failed the MOT that it had 3 miles before delivery, anyway I almost got home and it went into limp, I suppose i was waiting for it to happen but thought it might go for longer than a week, its going in to be diagnosed today, I seriously thought about leaving Mercedes this time after 10yrs using them, I dont think my business can cope with these new models and their problems.

 

[jberks]

sadly they are very complicated these days .
We've just spent over £1k sorting out electrical issues on our 2003 E220cdi and I'm on the waiting list for a steering angle sensor for my 2004 E270cdi.

 

[A210AMG]

Hello,

Sounds like a run of bad luck there, my dads had his since new 2004 E320cdi estate and its needed only the recalls and servicing.

Its true though that when brand new with all the toys they are great but a few years on when they start to pack up its big bills they are too completcated for their own good. No more DIY on most fix's now.

 

[jberks]

I do think the post 04 ones are better. This is the first issue I've really had aside from recalls and servicing ... if you exclude the barmy situation that you have to replace the entire dash cluster to replace a bulb (warranty I'm glad to say).

 

[Steve Taxi]

Excellent service from Worcester Mercedes, fixed the car today, intake manifold servomotor replaced £387, lets hope thats it for a bit.

 

[hawk20]

When buying secondhand there still seems to me to be a strong case for approved used from an MB dealer. You get 12 months guarantee and usually a car that has been properly looked after with FullMBSH. Not everyone's view I know but the more I hear about problems the more sense it seems to make.

 

[jberks]

When buying secondhand there still seems to me to be a strong case for approved used from an MB dealer. You get 12 months guarantee and usually a car that has been properly looked after with FullMBSH. Not everyone's view I know but the more I hear about problems the more sense it seems to make.

Both of our cars are ex MB fleet!

I do agree though, a warranty is well worth having. I just throw the keys over the counter and I don't care what is wrong or what it will cost. Nice to abdicate responsibility, though cash wise if this is all that goes wrong (as I hope) I'll be out of pocket by the end of the year.
If Steve had bought his as an approved car, he'd have paid a lot more for it so to some extent the lower purchase price does reflect the fact that you'll have to spend a few quid getting it up to scratch.
I bought 2 cars from the auctions over the years. One I was lucky with - cost £10 to fix up, but the other, bought for £1500 less than forecourt, looked ok initially but cost me over £800 to get right in the end. Still a good deal though.

 

[pomm001]

Update, here we go again! new car went back to have leaking rear shocks replaced yesterday after a week, they should have been replaced before selling as it should have failed the MOT that it had 3 miles before delivery, anyway I almost got home and it went into limp, I suppose i was waiting for it to happen but thought it might go for longer than a week, its going in to be diagnosed today, I seriously thought about leaving Mercedes this time after 10yrs using them, I dont think my business can cope with these new models and their problems.

Sorry to hear of your bad luck so far, it just got me to thinking that my company use a private hire compant to ferry people to and from leamington to heathrow on a regualr basis. I have been taken a few times in a W211 2.7 on a 53 plate, it rides well and so far had approx 270.000 miles
the firm have had the car from new and was serviced in the dealer network while under warranty and then a local indie.
Talking to the drivers the only major problem was a new auto box under warranty, its up for sale now and there is a que of interested people.
he is replacing with a new one, i must admit it was riding in this car that got me thinking that a 211 wasnt such a bad bet, but keep my fingers crossed, they should be so bad as half of the taxis in germany are MB
lts hope your woes are behind you now

 

[evdok]

Steve is your car dark blue or black & were you waiting for a customer to get his chips on tuesday about 7ish?

 

[Steve Taxi]

Steve is your car dark blue or black & were you waiting for a customer to get his chips on tuesday about 7ish?

No we dont do chips! only corporate work mainly airports these days, there are a few local taxis using Mercs now in Malvern and Worcester.

 

[Steve Taxi]

When buying secondhand there still seems to me to be a strong case for approved used from an MB dealer. You get 12 months guarantee and usually a car that has been properly looked after with FullMBSH. Not everyone's view I know but the more I hear about problems the more sense it seems to make.

I would love to be able to buy cars from the MB dealer but I would pay much more. I would like to buy new but a £40k E Class estate would loose £30k in 3yrs because of our mileage, If I ever have to spend £200 per week, per car, on repairs I would need to look at another make. Dont get me wrong we have had some good service from Mercedes cars over the years but have been able to do a lot of servicing and repairs in our own workshop, now it seems we must rely on the main dealer more to diagnose these problems.

 

[Dinnie]

When buying secondhand there still seems to me to be a strong case for approved used from an MB dealer. You get 12 months guarantee and usually a car that has been properly looked after with FullMBSH. Not everyone's view I know but the more I hear about problems the more sense it seems to make.

Selling via a main dealer with FMBSH does mean it has been serviced but not necessarily driven with care. People do rev the nuts of their engines without good oil top ups and ram up curbs and speed over speed bumps.

 

[hawk20]

Selling via a main dealer with FMBSH does mean it has been serviced but not necessarily driven with care. People do rev the nuts of their engines without good oil top ups and ram up curbs and speed over speed bumps.

But you do get a twelve month guarantee on approved used vehicles. Plenty of time to get any problems sorted.

 

[jberks]

But you do get a twelve month guarantee on approved used vehicles. Plenty of time to get any problems sorted.

True Hawk, but lets be honest, we do pay a lot for it. A dealer price will be at least £1000 - £1500 above any other trader or private sale. A good warranty costs around £600 so its still a fair premium.

 

[Rory]

True Hawk, but lets be honest, we do pay a lot for it. A dealer price will be at least £1000 - £1500 above any other trader or private sale. A good warranty costs around £600 so its still a fair premium.

£1-1.5K is small beer though, in the land of MB repair bills. The OP may have been unlucky, but he spent £5K.

Plus a dealer wouldn't be selling 130K mile cars - can you get any kind of 3rd party warranty on a car with 130K miles?

 

[Steve Taxi]

True Hawk, but lets be honest, we do pay a lot for it. A dealer price will be at least £1000 - £1500 above any other trader or private sale. A good warranty costs around £600 so its still a fair premium.

If I could buy a W211 cdi avantgarde estate for £1k to £1.5k more at a main dealer I would do so, its more like £4k more, the one I just bought was £13k with 74k miles.

 

[hawk20]

If I could buy a W211 cdi avantgarde estate for £1k to £1.5k more at a main dealer I would do so, its more like £4k more, the one I just bought was £13k with 74k miles.

That may be true of an individual car at auction but it is certainly not true of Merc dealer prices versus independents dealers or than car supermarkets at least never when I've been looking. £1000 to £1500 is more like it.

 

[television]

That may be true of an individual car at auction but it is certainly not true of Merc dealer prices versus independents dealers or than car supermarkets at least never when I've been looking. £1000 to £1500 is more like it.

The mark up on a car worth around £12-£15k at the MB show room is around £4k and can easily be bought on a trade basis.

I used to do that

 

[hawk20]

The mark up on a car worth around £12-£15k at the MB show room is around £4k and can easily be bought on a trade basis.

I used to do that

Yes. It is around £1000-£1500 less than the mark up at most independent dealers and car supermarkets.