Is a high mileage car a good buy

[mattsurf]

Should I consider buying an E320CDI with almost 200k on the clock - Car drives well and has full MBFSH, a bit of rust is begining to show, I think that it will be covered by the Mobilo Life policy so Mercedes should repair the car.

I think that £6k would be a fair price.

Has anyone else had experience of running a very high mileage E320CDI

Anyone have any idea how much my E280 estate is worth, 1996 "N", immaculate condition, 97k miles, fsh, leather, 7 seat, air con. I can't find anything around to compare it with

Matt

 

[stumpy]

Should I consider buying an E320CDI with almost 200k on the clock - Car drives well and has full MBFSH, a bit of rust is begining to show, I think that it will be covered by the Mobilo Life policy so Mercedes should repair the car.

I think that £6k would be a fair price.

Has anyone else had experience of running a very high mileage E320CDI

Anyone have any idea how much my E280 estate is worth, 1996 "N", immaculate condition, 97k miles, fsh, leather, 7 seat, air con. I can't find anything around to compare it with

Matt

Matt,

I can't really comment on the 320 CDi question though I suppose it depends on how many miles you will add to it. As for your W124, drop Bolide a pm - he is the guru with these. Yours has a nice spec, I may be interested myself........

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

how old is the E320?

I sold my Audi at 160k because I was worried about it going wrong but the sad truth is I have had far more go wrong on my 3 year old, 33k Merc than I did on the 7 year old 160k Audi. Based on my experiences with Mercedes so far I would be dubious of a high-miler if it is one of the models made during their "troubled" period, i.e. 2000-2004. Having said that, you may get another 200k out of it with little problems. Unfortunately, when Mercs go wrong they can be very expensive to fix.

Sorry that's not a very straight answer. Hopefully someone who actually owns an E can give you more details. Again, I think the year of manufacture is quite important.

btw, before anyone complains, I'm sure there have been plenty of people who have had Audi's and had loads of problems with them too. I'm just basing this comment on my experience.

 

[jberks]

The price is hard to gauge without an age and spec but 200k is past it's best I would have said. Sure it may well go on and do another 100k, but you are already into the 'not surprised if it lets go' territory. Certainly, you could reasonably expect something expensive to need attention in the relatively near future.
Personally, unless it's a great deal, I wouldn't do it.

 

[mattsurf]

The price is hard to gauge without an age and spec but 200k is past it's best I would have said. Sure it may well go on and do another 100k, but you are already into the 'not surprised if it lets go' territory. Certainly, you could reasonably expect something expensive to need attention in the relatively near future.
Personally, unless it's a great deal, I wouldn't do it.

Its a 2001 320CDI Elegance, with grey nappa leather, 7 seats and mercedes towbar (which are the important options as far as I am concerned). No rust, excellent paint. EGR Valve, MAS sensor and a couple of injectors have been replaced - all injectors tested. The one area I am not certain of is the gearbox - The owner does not know whether the gearbox oil has been changed - It has full MB service History, however, it is possible that Mercedes would not have changes the oil as it is supposed to be sealed for life - my local garage says that if the oil has never been changed, then budget for a new gearbox in the near future. The exhast might be original, so will probably fail soon. The history shows that the car has been run for 40k per year.

So far the feedback that I have had from the local independent Mercedes specialist is that they have the most problems with low mileage cars - they service a number of E320CDIs with between 150k an 400k on the clock and they report very few problems with them

 

[Blobcat]

I would stipulate getting an ATF change done as part of the purchase and I would want to see it being done. There are guidliness on what the fluid should be like on the forum so it would be worth having a search around. depending upon the condition of the ATF the gearbox may be fine.
High mileage IMHO is much better for a car than low mileage.

 

[jberks]

High mileage can be better than low admittedly. It all depends on use. Clearly a 200k car that has done nothing but sit on the motorway for 5 years should be excellent mechanically, though I'd expect it to be suffering from the odd stone chip. A 200k car that's taxied it's way around town however, will be a bit tired but may well look perfect.
Assuming it's a motorway car, then the engine has been running at perfect temp at relatively low engine speeds and should be perfect, and even the gearbox is likely to have done very little actual work, having spent most of it's time in 5th (though I guess 5th gear may be a bit worn). I'd be more concerned about the diff, prop joints and back axle to be honest.

 

[rio678]

200K long driving miles is much better than low miles with stop start journeys, with long driving which does clock up the miles but the engine is kept at a steady temperature which overall is better and will in the end lengthen the life of the engine.