Ditch, repare or replace and E320 CDi?

[Kallisti]

That is the question. I've had it since it was about 3 years old. It's now over 8. In that time I've had the following problems, which to be honest are beginning to increase in number and wear a little thin.

1/ Rust, rust and more rust. Although this has been repaired/replaced by MB, I still find it disconcerting. I guess it lowers my opionion of the build quality.

2/ Electrics. Two problems here. First is that I've had 4 brake light switches to stop the computer from turning off the ABS/PAS randomly. Second is that since they replaced many panels, I get intermittent exterior light faults (mostly brake and one of the headlights), and chew through bulbs at an alarming rate. The MB dealer that did the panel replace/repair that preceded this fault have fobbed me off repeatedly.

3/ Just had one of the road springs crack and fail. Looking at the remains, it looks as if it rusted then failed. Spent £210 sorting that out.

4/ MB reckon my high pressure fuel pump has failed. They want £620 for the repair.

5/ Nearside wing mirror folds really slowly

6/ Driver display left/right segments have failed.

7/ Rear bench release cable has failed and because I've got a dog barrier/luggage cover which appears to be bolted on, short of stripping the upholstery it's not easily repaired.

8/ Gearbox leak

9/ Probably more that i've forgotten about..

Am I being unreasonable in thinking that this many faults is a little over the top? This car has been fully serviced by MB and they've only caught one of the problems at that point (the leaky gearbox that I didn't notice).

Something that really annoys me is that looking at these forums, 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7 are all very common faults with this model, though not something MB take warranty responsibility for, except the rust which was a battle to get done.

Anyway, what do people think, should I

• bite the bullet and spend another £620 fixing the fuel pump (or probably less if I go re-con/independent)
• trade it in and get a newer E320. This is if people think that list of repairs was unlucky and that I should get a more bulletproof one next time around.
• dump the E320. MB's reputation for good build is horse manure and I should go buy a Honda?

Advice welcome! Oh, and requirements for a new car are 7 seats and good mpg.

 

[Kallisti]

oh yeah, another silly fault, the original MB locking wheel nut sheared. Cost me over £100 to get it removed and get a new one. Worse still, my suspicion is that it failed while it was with Ascot MB's bodyshop. This happened when putting it back on and they fixed it by glueing it in place. They deny all responsibility.

 

[Mrtibbs]

I suspect that you already know the answer
I have no real knowledge of the vehicle in question, however I am "hearing" the dealer doesn't care much, or am I wrong? Has the car been serviced by the same dealer all along?
Personally I would get it changed for a newer model and start taking it to a different garage. What do others think?

Keith

 

[jberks]

To be honest, there is nothing there I find that alarming, especially in an 8 year old car.
I'm a bit surprised at the number of brake light switches - I replaced one in 5 years on my 210 - are they dealer supplied? ( I thought parts had a decent warranty).
Brake lights are commonly connection issues that simply need a contact clean up.
I've frequently found that once I replaced a bulb, they never seemed to last. The first one lasts 4 years, you replace it and it's gone again in 9 months. I did wonder about the quality of after market bulbs over the ones fitted by the mfr. Maybe try an 'original MB one?'

Springs can break on anything to be fair. Its actualy a far more common issue ion later E classes (My dad's just had both rears replaced on his 2003 E class). Sits a lot higher now ;-)


The high pressure pump is a pain but without knowing the history (accidental petrol fill up etc) and mileage it's a hard call.

The wing mirror simply needs lubricating (they all do - even the newer ones).


Dash display - I'd be surprised if it didn't need doing.

etc
Nothing there that would have me losing sleep. Sure there are common faults but nothing there thats fatal to the car IMHO. Sometimes it's easy to focus on the bad points and ignore the good ones. After all, the engine is good, interior doesn't rattle, handles well, runs nicely, changes gear on the button.... etc etc
It comes down to budget. To mint the car would probably take arund £1k-£1500. For that plus the value of your car, you aren't going to get anything close to what you have, so on a hassle/reliability basis, keep it.
But if you're bored and if you're honest, looking for an excuse to change, (it only took the dash issue to push me over the edge ;-) ) and you have the budget, hell, go for it, the 211 is lovely and prices right now are gr8.!

As for buying a Honda - don't be silly!

 

[Mrtibbs]

As for buying a Honda - don't be silly!

I wanted to say that but thought "better not"
Agree totally with your comment on lamps (bulbs), on Volvos an aftermarket lamp would last no time and cause the fail indicator to come on even when the lamp in question was still working???? Don't ask me how or why they just did, and it seemed that Volvo service were aware of the issue because when I asked them they told me to only fit "Volvo" lamps, which I did and had no further problems.....

Keith

 

[mattsurf]

The rear seat cable failure is pretty common, I think I saw a thread describing how to fix it.

The rear dog guard slides off when the seats are folded

I can't say that the problems are unusual on an 8 year old car - brake light switch, seat folding mechanism, springs and pixel failures are very common looking through other threads.

Rust issue asside, I think that few other cars are as economical to run and maintain at this age.

By all means buy a newer car, because you want a change, or you want a more modern car, or a better looking car or a smarter car; however, don't try to justify the purchase based on saving money - depreciation alone will massivley outweigh any costs that you might incur unless your car has covered mega miles or has been badly mistreated (which seems unlikely given your description)

 

[Kallisti]

Just to fill in the blanks, it's been very well looked after (except for cleaning it, I rarely do that!), never had any mis-fuelings and done 110,000 miles or so, about average I'd have thought. My hope when I bought it was to run it and run it and run it until it didn't run anymore. I bought a brand that I expected to be bulletproof for that reason. In fact, I've joked that I indent to drive my son to university in it and drive home in a sports car, he can have it. He's currently 3.

I don't want to change it for change sake, I'm not really a big car person. To be honest, if I could justify the annual fuel bill, I'd go out and buy a Land Cruiser Amazon 4.7 V8 tomorrow. I can't though and the E estate gives me roughly the same load area (if not height) for much better MPG.

Feeling above seems to be that these are the level of faults that should be expected in an 8 year old car. Is that right? If so, I can grin and bare it, but an extra £600-900/year in costs in repairing randomly failing parts seems a bit unusual to me in well built cars (if I still had my Citroen Xantia I'd be unlikely to bat an eyelid).

Looking at the other 7 seater options, none really appeal (maybe the Qasqai-2 or the Mitsubishi Outlander). Incidentally, by no means had I made up my mind, I was just trying to get a full list of major faults out.

Oh, and I can't fold the seats down because the offside release part is broken. The dog barrier therefore prevents me from lowering the nearside seat-back as it crosses the offside seat back. As a result, the guides are useless!

**Edit** PS, I'm most worried about it being an annual, which £600 bit needs to be replaced this year. That quickly wipes out residuals benefits.

 

[television]

You can get the back off the seat without too much damage to fix the cable release

 

[Juddian]

Not trying to pick holes, but you mention rarely cleaning the car.

Over the years almost every car i've bought has had years of crud caked around the wheelarch lips and in the nooks and crannies, the neglect is staggering sometimes, but then most folk who buy a new car are ony planning a short ownership so don't bother.

I've got a thing about this and i'm convinced that cars that never get cleaned properly (especially a really good underbody cleanout when the salt has finally gone in April) are the ones we see with serious rust issues years down the line.

If the salt sits in recesses and round wheelarches and trapped under door seals etc cooking nicely in the summer sun its highly likely those cars will be riddled with tinworm in the future.

Roadsalt i'm convinced holds the key to rust and many electrical glitches too, travel to warmer climes and see many supposedly poorly built cars running quite happily at 25 or more years old.

 

[Kallisti]

My E320 rusted to bits because Mercedes had temporary amnesia on the subject of painting it correctly.

 

[Mrtibbs]

Roadsalt i'm convinced holds the key to rust and many electrical glitches too, travel to warmer climes and see many supposedly poorly built cars running quite happily at 25 or more years old.

I have to agree on the above point. Just as an example, cars that are imported from the USA southern states command a higher price than if they are in the northern half, this IMO is due to the lack of rust. No salt is used in the south.
Also agree about the washing bit too. I always feel under the lip of a wheel arch when buying a car and always find several pounds of crud on it, this as said causes rust to eat the wheel arch away.....

Keith

 

[meanie]

Do you like the car itself?
Because the harsh fact is thatpost 2000/ish cars,no matter what make,are all a potential drain on your wallet.
Coil springs are common on all modern cars,pick one up & weigh it,you'll understand why.
Electrical faults & bulbs blowing-normal.A modern car has several kilometres of wiring & a dozen ECUs all talking to each other.
The rust issue I believe is now a lot better.
High pressure pumps on all makes seem to have a finite life,and will not tolerate poor quality or contaminated fuel.

Two examples of parts that I priced up yesterday;
1-53 plate Renault Espace diesel alternator;£344+vat
2-05 plate BMW 5series diesel particulate filter;£1060+vat

So my point is that do not expect modern motoring to be any different.