Looking to Buy Diesel E Class In the Next Couple of Months

[Matt_EClass]

Dear all - I joined this forum before Xmas as I knew I wanted to upgrade from my...... should I say it on this forum......Vauxhall Astra DTI to a Diesel E Class. The spec I have in Mind is Avantgarde / Elegance - Auto with Leather. I should have a budget of approx £8k, originally I only wanted a 220 cdi (best economy) but I have also driven the 320 cdi ..... I know which one I want now, the 320cdi. Been looking around, doing my homework and watching this forum, I have a question though. Originally, with the budget I had I thought I could get a Sub 100,000 miler, I have seen the odd one or two, but not many, assuming a diesel E Class has been serviced correctly and been looked after, and doesnt suffer from the dreaded tin worm, like some mentioned on this forum, is a diesel E class (320 cdi) OK to buy with over 100K on the clock, I do about 25,000 miles a year and plan to keep it for a while, at least 6 to 7 years.

Let me have your comments

Many Thanks

Matt

 

[Blobcat]

If you want some idea of running costs pls take a look at this thread; http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t=22234
My car is running better now at nearly 122K than when I first bought it and everything still works perfectly.
My company have recently realised that I have had it for >4yrs so they are mumbling about me changing it. We are not supposed to have cars over 4 yrs old. (I omitted to tell them it was 2 when I bought it...;-)) I don't want to change it as it is not costing me anything and it is is well in the flat part of the bathtub curve.
However if your interested PM me and I may be persuaded to sell it :-(

 

[deejaybee]

There can't be many cars that you could seriously consider buying with +100k miles on already and then running for 6-7 years and expect to run it to over 250k miles, but an E-class 320 diesel is probably one of them.

Whilst I'm sure that it will be no problem to service and repair it over this period, it's up to you to decide if this is the most cost effective way to do it. Of course you have the reward of driving a Mercedes so it is worth paying something more for this compared to say a Vauxhall!

One thing you need to bear in mind is that as you run the car for longer and it becomes older you will start to incur some extra running costs that are related to aging component as well as those that wear out with use. As another comparison I have a 1995 E280 (W124) which has done 175K miles and I have almost a complete record of service and repair costs. To date since new around 13000 has been spent which is a much higher cost per mile than say Blobcats data. I think this is because once a car gets past about 8 years old there are a lot of quite expensive things that degrade with time that can need replacing.

If you are hoping to keep a car for 6-7 years and are buying anything that is currently 4 years old (or more) you should expect to get age related repairs by half way through your period of ownership.

Anyway, good luck and if you buy one you will find this forum very helpful.

Dave