C200 1.5 EQ-Boost Estate - avoid or OK?

[FourCandles_UK]

I'm thinking of getting a C200 1.5 EQ-Boost Estate 69 plate that's done around 50K miles. Is this a silly idea? I'm after a petrol estate (I don't do that many miles at the moment) and don't want to spend a small fortune in a few years if the 48V battery (or other MHEV component) is going to come to a natural end of life. Does anyone have any experience with owning one of these? Are there other better options in the sub £18K area?

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

I’ve just gone through the same dilemma either buy a E43 (conventional ICE) or a E53 MHEV with a 48V ISG system. My thoughts were that the 48V MHEV cars had been in service long enough and covered enough mileage for major gremlins to surface so the E53 got my vote. Only had the car for a month and I’m very impressed with ISG, stop/start is turbine like and so smooth on start-up, the E53 also has a 48V compressor which is something you won’t have on the C200 so less complexity.

Like your username a big two Ronnie’s fan

 

[FourCandles_UK]

Thanks for the reply and sharing your thoughts. I figured the same as you in that the cars have been around a while so any inherent issues will have been dealt with already by MB (it has a full MB service history) . The complexity of the MHEV systems are the concern - if they have issues I don't think my local independent garage will be able to deal with it. Apart from my outgoing diesel I also have a MK1 MX5, and that's been a pleasure in every aspect of 20+ years of ownership.

The cunning linguistics of the Two Ronnie's was, at times, pure genius.

 

[grayb]

A friend of ours is happy with his C200 MHEV that he bought earlier this year - though he did discover this week that TfL has it listed as non-ULEZ compliant!!!

 

[FourCandles_UK]

That’s interesting about ULEZ as I just checked the reg in the TfL site and it reports ULEZ compliant i.e. no payment. Congestion Charge applies but that’s not surprising as it’s only zero emissions vehicles that are exempt from this, and only until 2025.