Buying a C220 Sport Auto - Mileage

[Carl67]

Hi...wonder if you can offer me some advice?

I am very close to buying a 1994 C220 Sport Auto from a dealer. I have done plenty of homework on the valuation of the car, and I am happy with the asking price. My one question, though, is this...with 90,000 miles on the clock is there anything I should be worried
about in terms of any major servicing that should have taken place by now...eg new timing belt etc etc. From what I can understand the 36k mileage service is a big service. The car does have full service history, about two thirds of which is with MB dealers, however from the service history record, it last had a service at 77k miles, and so is well overdue for a full service.

I welcome any advice that you can provide.

Many thanks for your time.

Kind regards

 

[shiraz]

Buying a C220 Sport Auto

Carl, I have just bought a 98 C280 with 136000 on the clock and it runs like a dream. With Mercs (IMHO) you don't need to worry about mileage per se but the service history is important. How long ago was the last service done (in time not miles)? The later C's have a computer that tells you when to do the service and it bases it on type as well as amount of driving - but I am not sure this existed in 1994. I believe that the services should have been every 10000 but no doubt I'll be correcetd if wrong.

Has the current owner had any servicing done or are they one of these who buys the car and then realises after a few months that they can't afford the upkeep? If so i'd be very wary as they probably haven't looked after it well. However, if the owner has had it for years and just "forgot" the last service I'd probably relax a bit more.

Also, I found that a quick call to the dealer that has done the last service(s) will elicit lots of useful info as to the history - they don't seem to care that you don't own the car and are happy (or were in my case) to tell the full history as they knew it - can be handy in negotiations.

Personally, I'd get an AA or RAC inspection to be on the safe side - the basic one is about £150 I think, or persuade the seller to get the service done - at a Merc dealer - as that should uncover any nasty suprises.

Hope this helps.

Adam