Considering an E320 cdi - Help needed

[Merco]

Hi people
I am very interested in buying a E320 cdi, can anyone advise me against this, my budget is 25k. I would like Auto, Sat nav, & split fold rear seat, Cruise control etc. I like toys. (what are my chances?) also when was the v6 engine first introduced, and is this within my reach. any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Seeker_UK]

25k will get you a very nice 55 plate 320CDI avantgarde or 06 plate 280CDI (which is as powerful as the outgoing 320) with 7Gtronic box (but no COMAND / Park).

To get COMAND & Parktronic (most other toys come as standard) you'll be looking at an 04/54 plate avantgarde.

All from the dealers.

However!

Check with your local dealer, using PCPs you may be surprised how cheap you could get a new 320CDI for at the moment - MBUK are offering 320CDIs for the price of a 280 CDI.

 

[Blobcat]

For that money you should be able to get an IL6 late 05 early 06 W211. The facelifted E320cdi with the V6 came in in October 2006. You could look at an E280cdi as it has the V6 just in a lower state of tune.
A V6 E320cdi will be ~£30K with an E280cdi slightly lower.


I would recommend getting the brochures and making yourself as knowledgeable as possible on all the standard and optional equipment. Then make a must have list and just keep looking. I spent 9 months looking for my first E320CDI and 6 months looking for my current one.

 

[jberks]

A friend picked up a 55 plate V6 320cdi for £26k from a dealer a few months ago. P'd me off as I paid £27k for my 54 plate 270cdi 16 months earlier but there you go.
No command or split seats but it does have full leather, dual memory, digi climate, 17" alloys, phone, esr etc etc so hardly poverty spec and it came from a main dealer too.

So, there are bargains to be had if you're patient, but you'll need to be a bit flexible on spec and shop around. He found his at a dealer 200 miles away so the transaction was tricky (met 100 miles away for a test drive and did the rest over the phone) but he's highly delighted with it. The straight 6 is a great engine but the V6 is something else entirely and well worth searching for.

 

[Merco]

Thanks all for your very informative comments, keep em coming, looks like
I need to be patient and wait for a bargain to come my way

 

[Rory]

Have a look at MB Direct http://www.directmercedes.co.uk you can pick out the key features you need.

I think you'll struggle with the folding rear seat - I doubt many people would think to specify that when new.


I should also say: I bought my car from MB Direct B'Ham - it was listed at £26995 and I paid £23500 (and I think they might have gone further) so they clearly can move if they want to.

 

[Rory]

Check with your local dealer, using PCPs you may be surprised how cheap you could get a new 320CDI for at the moment - MBUK are offering 320CDIs for the price of a 280 CDI.

The basic PCP prices look good, but adding a load of options tends to really bump the price up - same with company car lease deals, which is why MB have done a special E Class for company car users. The finance companies seem to want to recover the whole cost of the options within the finance period.

 

[Gordon R]

Good Choice

The E320 Cdi Avangarde is spot on. Late 05 for the money you are talking. Check options. The fold seat is a handy option. Luxury Climate a must and would recommend full electric passenger seat as I have not got this and it drives the wife mad. Get the full command with colour screen. Good luck. Discs and pads likely around 45K. Service intervals typically 9.5 to 11 K however lightly driven.

 

[jberks]

The E320 Cdi Avangarde is spot on. Late 05 for the money you are talking. Check options. The fold seat is a handy option. Luxury Climate a must and would recommend full electric passenger seat as I have not got this and it drives the wife mad. Get the full command with colour screen. Good luck. Discs and pads likely around 45K. Service intervals typically 9.5 to 11 K however lightly driven.

Its interesting different peoples takes on spec. To me, command looks great, but effectively its higher maintenance and no more effective than a £150 tomtom. Factor in speed camera databases etc (or their absence) and it becomes less useful. For the vast majority of us, we need sat nav maybe once every couple of months (last used mine last week to find a resturant but before that ..can't even remember - suffice to say the battery was flat) - so maybe used in anger 24 times over 3 years or £100 per address!!!. It does look amazing in the dash, especially with a movie playing, and I still fancy upgrading to one, but in the old business cost/benefit analysis it doesn't come close.

Drivers memory seat - to anyone whose wife drives the car, a truly brilliant feature and one of the few that I'd actually pay a premium for. The fact that the mirrors and wheel also slot back to their original position is really useful and saves a lot of adjusting as you drive along. Things like the easy entry feature again look great to those that don't know your car, but honestly - it still falls into the 'gadget' category - you could easily live without it. Passengers memory - just can't see the point. Passengers seats rarely get adjusted, and the key aspects of the seat are electric anyway. f its there, great, but I wouldn't paymore that £50 for it.

I am surprised how many leather clad cars don't have heated seats though - I'd say heaters should be mandatory and I'd consider ventilated seats too (sadly almost unheard of on an E in the UK)..

Luxury climate again looks good (love the extra vents and digi readouts in the rear) but in terms of actual usable functionality...nah - the standard climate is already very good and whilst I know the luxury system well (the old man has it as do several friends), I've yet to sit there and think "that would be really useful just now".

The prewire phone to be honest I wouldn't bother - it's a bit of an expensive pain and done better by the likes of parrott. Again, dialing from the dash and seeing the numbers come up on the screen looks great but in 'must have' terms - take it or leave it.
I'd swap it for folding seats or a sunroof. (though not luxury climate!)

 

[benzo]

In my case:

comand - now that I have owned a car with one, I can not imagine buying another MB without one. One advantage over Tom Tom -it's always in the car, you don't need to charge it and if you need a quick diversion or have gotten lost it knows where you are immediately. First have to hook up tom tom, switch it on and then wait for it to 'find' your location.

Leather seats - Love them, wouldn't be without them. Mine are not heated and it doesn't matter to me as (1) I don't wear shorts in winter (2) When I tried a mate's one out it took roughly the same time for it to heat up as it took my own behind to warm the seat up.

I agree lux climate and passenger memory seats are a waste of extra cash

One thing I don't have and wish I had is split folding rear seats.

Pre-wired phone. Have one in the e-class and have a parrot in the c-class. Advantage of pre-wired is the fact that your phone gets charged also - bluetooth really drains your battery. If I had to pick between the two the pre-wire will just about edge it.

 

[verytalldave]

Agreed.....COMAND is excellent. Glad I bought a Merc with one installed. However it pays to keep the nav disk updated. One further consideration - IF you do see a car with a COMAND unit, pray it has a multichanger CD unit as well. Some dont. If it hasnt, then you have to eject the nav disk every time you want to play a music CD which is not only a pain, but its something I wouldnt want to do too often to my expensive nav disk.
If it hasnt, then budget for a mutichanger to be added - allow around £500 for one to be fitted. Dont even begin to think about doing it yourself unless you are EXTREMELY expert with car wiring and fibre optics.

 

[Rory]

Luxury climate again looks good (love the extra vents and digi readouts in the rear) but in terms of actual usable functionality...nah - the standard climate is already very good and whilst I know the luxury system well (the old man has it as do several friends), I've yet to sit there and think "that would be really useful just now".

I thought it coped better with the sun going in and out (and general temperature variations) that the standard system?

That's one aspect of my C Class that I'm pretty disappointed about - the climate control on the Peugeot 406's I had before worked much better. You could set the air direction manually but the fan speed still worked automatically. A real 'set and forget' system.

 

[dolmen]

Just to give this one a little bump again, please.

I'm needing some helpful advice please...What in your opinion, is the best buy either a '06 E280cdi or a '05 E320cdi?

Both are stretching me a little further than I really wanted to go, but to get the six cylinder seems to be important? I normally drive my cars into the ground, so long term reliability is important.

Or is their any model in an '04 that stands out?

Thanks.

dolmen

 

[marctilling]

how does this sound?:

E320 CDI AG Auto
Sept 05/55 plate
Brilliant Silver Metallic, Anthracite Leather Upholstery, COMAND APS Navigation System, Telephone pre-wiring aerial - including hands free for Nokia, Parktronic system, 6 disc CD autochanger, Panoramic glass sunroof, Heated front seats, 1/3 to 2/3 split folding rear seats, Electric driver seat/steering column/door mirrors memory

29,000 miles

£26850

 

[marctilling]

Just to give this one a little bump again, please.

I'm needing some helpful advice please...What in your opinion, is the best buy either a '06 E280cdi or a '05 E320cdi?

Both are stretching me a little further than I really wanted to go, but to get the six cylinder seems to be important? I normally drive my cars into the ground, so long term reliability is important.

Or is their any model in an '04 that stands out?

Thanks.

dolmen

In terms of longevity and how much of a joy to drive I would go for an older 320 CDI.

 

[marctilling]

Pic of the E320 mentioned above by the way

 

[jberks]

Just to give this one a little bump again, please.

I'm needing some helpful advice please...What in your opinion, is the best buy either a '06 E280cdi or a '05 E320cdi?

Both are stretching me a little further than I really wanted to go, but to get the six cylinder seems to be important? I normally drive my cars into the ground, so long term reliability is important.

Or is their any model in an '04 that stands out?

The engine of choice is the V6 cdi. The 280 is a V6 (as they didn't do a 280cdi in a straight 6), the 05 320cdi may or may not be. The tell tale is the cc. The V6 is a 3000, the older straight 6 is 3200. The straight 6 is a very good engine but nowhere neart as refined as the V6.
The 280 and 320 are basically the same engine (3lv6), just with different states of tune. The 280 is very acceptable but the 320 has the extra umph to play with the quick stuff.
mid 05 is when they updated all the cdis and the newer ones are more powerful and a lot more refined so well worth the extra.

 

[dolmen]

how does this sound?:

E320 CDI AG Auto
Sept 05/55 plate
Brilliant Silver Metallic, Anthracite Leather Upholstery, COMAND APS Navigation System, Telephone pre-wiring aerial - including hands free for Nokia, Parktronic system, 6 disc CD autochanger, Panoramic glass sunroof, Heated front seats, 1/3 to 2/3 split folding rear seats, Electric driver seat/steering column/door mirrors memory

29,000 miles

£26850

Beautiful car, but out of my reach I'm afraid! I don't have a Co that will pay for it on my behalf, have to fork it all out myself!

Cheers,

dolmen

 

[dolmen]

The engine of choice is the V6 cdi. The 280 is a V6 (as they didn't do a 280cdi in a straight 6), the 05 320cdi may or may not be. The tell tale is the cc. The V6 is a 3000, the older straight 6 is 3200. The straight 6 is a very good engine but nowhere neart as refined as the V6.
The 280 and 320 are basically the same engine (3lv6), just with different states of tune. The 280 is very acceptable but the 320 has the extra umph to play with the quick stuff.
mid 05 is when they updated all the cdis and the newer ones are more powerful and a lot more refined so well worth the extra.

Thats very informative, thanks. Just to clarify, is there any tell tale signs of the updated cdis in '05 or is it that so long as the E320 is 3000cc its a V6 and so the better choice?

Cheers,

dolmen

 

[marctilling]

Beautiful car, but out of my reach I'm afraid! I don't have a Co that will pay for it on my behalf, have to fork it all out myself!

Cheers,

dolmen

Would you be willing to put a bit in yourself if the price came down a bit closer to £25k?