G
gustep12
Guest
Dear MB Group Members,
I am an engineering Ph.D. grad student in my late 20's and expecting to get my first well-paying job within the next 12 months. With that important event coming up, I am thinking about buying a new car, or rather, a used but better car than what I am driving now.
I am seriously considering buying myself a Mercedes as my next car, specifically a station wagon, because I like the extra room, for example to transport my (small) surfboard conveniently inside instead of having to strap it to the roof. The E320 looks like my favorite, especially the more recent (years '98-'05 ?) version with the round headlights. It looks very classy for a station wagon! If I buy a used E320 wagon here in California, they frequently seem quite reasonably priced - e.g. 86k miles, year 1999, for around US-$ 12k. Unfortunately they sell almost exclusively gasoline ones here with the 3.2L motor and automatic transmission, otherwise I would get the CDI. Of course they will soon have the new Diesel BlueTecs, but given that they are new and rare, they will most likely not carry a reasonable purchase price in my opinion.
So what do you think? Will that kind of E320 be a good first Mercedes buy? What are the issues to consider? For example, I'm hoping that as with my old car, I can continue to do some of the easier repairs myself, like changing disk brake pads and rotors, replacing coolant system components, or maybe the alternator etc. - things that are relatively easily accessible and which work without recalibration. I am hoping that on the E320 this will cover most of the issues.
What I would like find out from this forum is what big and costly repairs I might expect or check for in terms of symptoms. Specifically, cylinder head, piston rings, and transmission troubles are the things I worry about - at what mileages are these usually due for an E320 of the newer generation? Also, the prior model generations with the square headlights (e.g. E320 1995), which I find a little less attractive - are they any better in terms of reliability?
Many thanks!
I am an engineering Ph.D. grad student in my late 20's and expecting to get my first well-paying job within the next 12 months. With that important event coming up, I am thinking about buying a new car, or rather, a used but better car than what I am driving now.
I am seriously considering buying myself a Mercedes as my next car, specifically a station wagon, because I like the extra room, for example to transport my (small) surfboard conveniently inside instead of having to strap it to the roof. The E320 looks like my favorite, especially the more recent (years '98-'05 ?) version with the round headlights. It looks very classy for a station wagon! If I buy a used E320 wagon here in California, they frequently seem quite reasonably priced - e.g. 86k miles, year 1999, for around US-$ 12k. Unfortunately they sell almost exclusively gasoline ones here with the 3.2L motor and automatic transmission, otherwise I would get the CDI. Of course they will soon have the new Diesel BlueTecs, but given that they are new and rare, they will most likely not carry a reasonable purchase price in my opinion.
So what do you think? Will that kind of E320 be a good first Mercedes buy? What are the issues to consider? For example, I'm hoping that as with my old car, I can continue to do some of the easier repairs myself, like changing disk brake pads and rotors, replacing coolant system components, or maybe the alternator etc. - things that are relatively easily accessible and which work without recalibration. I am hoping that on the E320 this will cover most of the issues.
What I would like find out from this forum is what big and costly repairs I might expect or check for in terms of symptoms. Specifically, cylinder head, piston rings, and transmission troubles are the things I worry about - at what mileages are these usually due for an E320 of the newer generation? Also, the prior model generations with the square headlights (e.g. E320 1995), which I find a little less attractive - are they any better in terms of reliability?
Many thanks!
