If you are Rich enough to afford a Merc, don't complain when it goes wrong...

[stumpy]

I don't think this applies to the lower end of the spectrum, as people have said, there are more expensive cars than Mercs. But if you've bought any car and struggle with the running costs then it's not the car for you. Using Merc as an example, I think I would be less tolerant of problems with the car because MB price, and market themselves on quality.

You don't need to be rich to buy a Merc. Banks are throwing money at people like confetti. Because these are aspirational cars, people take the finance. My mate has 41 grand on credit cards!!!

 

[television]

Lets compare this with other best in the world goodies,

From 1973 to 1980 I was the sole service for Nakamichi for the UK who built top end Hi Fi cassette recorders. some cost back then £1400
You could tell people till you were blue in the face that you could not use BASF or 3m scotch tapes, they did, and in they came with the tapes jammed in, in the worst cases they had tried to get the tape out themselves doing several hundred pounds worth of damage in the process, people would twiddle with the pre set controls and then complain that the machine was faulty.
No offence to the guy here recently who stuck his car into reverse while still going forward breaking a half shaft in the process, the strain and damage to the drive chain is enormous, other people go up and down kerbs with wheels set up on a laser, others belt their car from cold, its a minefield out there with what people do, as some have no feeling for what they are driving.

Malcolm

 

[Uncle Benz]

I have worked in the motor trade almost all my adult life and have seen cars come and go over the years. Todays cars are so packed with electronics, (and particularly Mercedes, who have strived to be at the cutting edge of this new technology) compared to 20 years ago that an increase in faults and glitches is to some extent almost inevitable. The Ford Cortina never had electric windows, but in my Merc I can select the length of time I want the lights to stay on for (only if its dark) after I lock the car. Oh, and I can select which of the lights I actually want to illuminate to do this!

From experiencing all makes of car over the years I have seen many of the faults that afflict all of the manufacturers. No car is perfect - it is the expectations of the owners that differ, it seems to me.

I have chosen Mercedes-Benz as my form of transport and they have always been good to me. Perhaps I have been lucky. Perhaps my expectations were low.

 

[psmart]

Are we all still arguing.......

Ill play the devils advocate.........

Mercedes Benz are the best, probably not the most reliable, probably not the cheapest, but there great motors.

Who gives a damn how rich you are, Mercedes are for all, and even the most wealthy can be made poor overnight.... by the taxman!

If your down on your pennies, learn to mechanic, or use a good indie, if youve got your nose in the air, there are many a dealer to service your whims....just keep on smiling....and merc'ing

 

[hawk20]

I have worked in the motor trade almost all my adult life and have seen cars come and go over the years. Todays cars are so packed with electronics, (and particularly Mercedes, who have strived to be at the cutting edge of this new technology) compared to 20 years ago that an increase in faults and glitches is to some extent almost inevitable. The Ford Cortina never had electric windows, but in my Merc I can select the length of time I want the lights to stay on for (only if its dark) after I lock the car. Oh, and I can select which of the lights I actually want to illuminate to do this!

From experiencing all makes of car over the years I have seen many of the faults that afflict all of the manufacturers. No car is perfect - it is the expectations of the owners that differ, it seems to me.

I have chosen Mercedes-Benz as my form of transport and they have always been good to me. Perhaps I have been lucky. Perhaps my expectations were low.

No, I don't think it's low expectations. You probably have been lucky and I probably have too. I think I've had ten Mercs and never been let down.I've had niggles but no more than that despite doing 30/40k miles p.a. And I think this is the problem with saying, 'If you can't afford to run it, don't buy it'. It is pretty easy to predict running costs -well the order of magnitude- while under guarantee but if you buy a 3 or more years old car it is very difficult to predict. One person's car goes to 100k with hardly a bill outside the normal wear and tear items. Another person's has many bills and some can be very large. These things are not predictable. Many could afford to run a good one BUT not a bad one. Should they stay away or take the risk? Not easy. Made easier now though by Merc offering Service Plus to cover virtually everything from 3-6 years old up to 120,000 miles. And the quotes for doing that seem very reasonable. So perhaps the answer is, if money is a bit tight, and you cannot afford major repairs or do them yourself, then check out Service Plus and get some peace of mind.

 

[littlebrooklyn]

My mate has 41 grand on credit cards!!!

Wow does he sleep at night with such a lot of debt?

I have a real problem with owing money. I have a credit card but it's set up with a Direct Debit from my bank so it's paid off in full every month.

My partner on the other hand sees nothing wrong with having about half a dozen credit cards on the go at the same time and at one point this year I worked out that he owed nearly £30,000

By selling the Mercedes and half of his train collection, then cutting up his credit cards we've managed to pay it all off. When any new credit cards come in the post now I just hide them :wink:

 

[jberks]

Ill play the devils advocate.........

Mercedes Benz are the best, probably not the most reliable, probably not the cheapest, but there great motors.

Who gives a damn how rich you are, Mercedes are for all, and even the most wealthy can be made poor overnight.... by the taxman!

If your down on your pennies, learn to mechanic, or use a good indie, if youve got your nose in the air, there are many a dealer to service your whims....just keep on smiling....and merc'ing

couldn't have put it better myself. Some of us run new 120k AMGs some 1980's E200s worth a few hundred. There is a Merc for every pocket and you can run them on a similar basis. In the old days I would bob down to the dealer for anything I wanted. As money has got tighter, I now use an indie and do a bit myself. If it got tougher I could use a mechanic I know whose cheaper than the indie - but so long as I can manage the payments for the next 2 years and can fuel and insure it, I'll keep it. Even then, if everything hit the fan and the for sale signs went up, I'm sure I could find a nice cheap W202 to keep me smiling.

As I say, wealth and 'class' (whatever that is) have nothing to do with it. There is a Merc for every pocket and whether new or old, they all have that same feeling you just can't get from anything else.

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

No, I don't think it's low expectations. You probably have been lucky and I probably have too. I think I've had ten Mercs and never been let down.I've had niggles but no more than that despite doing 30/40k miles p.a. And I think this is the problem with saying, 'If you can't afford to run it, don't buy it'. It is pretty easy to predict running costs -well the order of magnitude- while under guarantee but if you buy a 3 or more years old car it is very difficult to predict. One person's car goes to 100k with hardly a bill outside the normal wear and tear items. Another person's has many bills and some can be very large. These things are not predictable. Many could afford to run a good one BUT not a bad one. Should they stay away or take the risk? Not easy. Made easier now though by Merc offering Service Plus to cover virtually everything from 3-6 years old up to 120,000 miles. And the quotes for doing that seem very reasonable. So perhaps the answer is, if money is a bit tight, and you cannot afford major repairs or do them yourself, then check out Service Plus and get some peace of mind.

well Hawk20 old buddy, you may not believe this but I agree with that statement 100%

 

[stumpy]

The hassle and time off the road is more of an issue than the cost.

 

[Shambolic]

The hassle and time off the road is more of an issue than the cost.

Agree with this as, although dealer has been excellent the car has been in 6 times in the 2 months I have owned it, we live 35 miles from nearest dealer (car under warranty).
My wife drops it in on way to work and dealer arranges a drop off at work for her and sends a taxi to pick her up when sorted which is great service.
The car was bought as a second low mileage car for weekends and evenings and my wife to train station for work but in 2 months that is and extra 400-ish miles (fuel costs etc).
Also means I can't go to railway station pick up car and go for a wee sneaky blast up the A82 for half an hour when she is at work
But all in all the car is a great wee drive although last night with traction off in the rain had too much opposite lock coming off roundabout and found out my heart is ok the hard way

 

[stumpy]

A few years ago a friend of mines car was off the road so much that he got the dealer to pay some of his monthly payments due to the fact he didn't have the car. Out of four months, it was in for 3 months. Botched repairs and waiting for spares.

 

[Shambolic]

A few years ago a friend of mines car was off the road so much that he got the dealer to pay some of his monthly payments due to the fact he didn't have the car. Out of four months, it was in for 3 months. Botched repairs and waiting for spares.

Should have done that with My wifes 206cc was told week to ten days for a new Ecu that they droke doing a download, told them I would drive to ****** France in their hire car and pick one up in 2 days myself (service manager was not amused but I wasn't joking though)ARGGGHHHH
Nine times in garage had to sell at 12 months old as the hassle was a complete nightmare(lost a shedload of money on it too)

 

[Birdman]

Wow does he sleep at night with such a lot of debt?

I have a real problem with owing money. I have a credit card but it's set up with a Direct Debit from my bank so it's paid off in full every month.

My partner on the other hand sees nothing wrong with having about half a dozen credit cards on the go at the same time and at one point this year I worked out that he owed nearly £30,000

By selling the Mercedes and half of his train collection, then cutting up his credit cards we've managed to pay it all off. When any new credit cards come in the post now I just hide them :wink:

My handful of cards ran up a mere £25,000 between them and after playing hopscotch on interest rates for a few years I got fed up and paid them all off. Now I just bin the letters offering all those special deals and laugh. It was real fun taking money off the banks at near zero interest rates. But you need to run it like a business operation or you get can get caught on savage loan rates. I could open a business surfing debt on other peoples cards for them and take a cut!

 

[jon_harley]

You don't need to be rich to buy a Merc. Banks are throwing money at people like confetti. Because these are aspirational cars, people take the finance.

I wonder how widely true that is. Does the average Mercedes owner take on debt to get a Merc because it's an 'aspirational' car? It'd be interesting to run a poll on that...

 

[stumpy]

Most of the people I know see mercs as aspirational cars, and 2 of them are paying 1200 a month to run SLs. It doesn't stop there either. One of them has a £1.4m interest only mortgage so he can have a big bling house to go with the cars. He also has a Rangie, Mini Cooper S and a DB9. All on finance. I will admit though, this is 'keeping up with the Jones's' in a big way.

But I read stories on other Forums about people getting stung on car finance, even on more affordable cars.

 

[Blobcat]

I wonder how widely true that is. Does the average Mercedes owner take on debt to get a Merc because it's an 'aspirational' car? It'd be interesting to run a poll on that...

I do notice that when I go to surrey there appears to be a lot of competition between people to have the newest and the latest car. Now even in Surrey not everyone can be on top $, so I think there is a large element keeping up with the jones's (I would have thought that would be more of a Welsh saying ). As credit is available everywhere then the temptation is to spend spend spend.

 

[stumpy]

I was offered an SL55 at TP Guildford. A 53 plate with 3000 miles on the clock!!! The reason it was there was because the owner has ordered an 07 SL55.

 

[television]

There are certain cars in the range that some folk will do anything to get their hands on, when it comes to cars. I think this has always been the case.

Malcolm

 

[Birdman]

What's the true depreciation on the big luxbarges? By the time they're fully specced you've added £10K to the price while a basic 'poverty spec' car depreciates far quicker than book.

 

[Blobcat]

What's the true depreciation on the big luxbarges? By the time they're fully specced you've added £10K to the price while a basic 'poverty spec' car depreciates far quicker than book.

If you think you can only add £10K then you are well under. Pls take a look at the Mercedes web site where you can 'configure your dream car'. Without too much clicking it is possible to add £25K to an S class Mercedes, which to start with is as loaded as they come. When it comes to second hand though very few options make any difference to the price, they just make the car more saleable.