Need a cheap Merc!

[Adamki83]

Afternoon people,

a friend of mine is in need of a cheap car and I said perfect got an old Merc!!
Budget is pretty tight though looking at £1,200 really which I know is a bit of a low ball price but I’d thought I’d ask anyway!
Has to have a decent length of MOT be rust free (small ammounts okay) millage under 120k. Also be under 20 years old!
The only cars that he doesn’t want is an A class as he’s doing a fair bit of motorway driving!
Any leads would be amazing!
Thank you!

 

[grahamcol]

Good luck with the rust free requirement.

 

[sonic]

Interesting challenge. I was in the army in Germany in the 60's & 70's, I knew guys who bought older high milage Merc's for pence the vast majority were very reliable, but that was 50 yers ago.
I was not that brave, I bought newer more expensive cars.

 

[bembo449]

Good luck with that

 

[Dean Fletcher]

What about this beast
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202005209433562?atmobcid=soc3

Just a small amount of rust

 

[MJJ]

I bought a 2009 S211 E220CDi Avantgarde back in December for £1,250, and I have been very impressed with the underlying engineering and lack of issues. Mine was cheap because it's specification was completely unloved by the potential customers, a manual gearbox, no options at all, and 170k miles.

You have a 211 yourself OP, so you know how good they can be. I would recommend as a cheap car, and personally, I would actively seek out higher miles. A lot of components have a life of around 120-150k miles, so buying one after that means a very good chance they have been replaced, and the price is low as people are put off by the miles.

If your friend is happy to change his own gears, and live without stuff like heated seats and Command, there are bargains out there. Such poverty spec manuals are unloved, so major haggling is possible.

One example on eBay - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes...907440?hash=item288f99b670:g:Ra8AAOSwOhxd3To7. I would want to know that the SBC pump has been replaced on any pre-facelift though, as that will cost as much as the car to replace.

Martin.

 

[Jimbo1959]

Is it just me or is the OP's mate being a little optimistic?


Just answer my own question now.



Apparently not, I just had a quick scroll through a couple of sales sites and was surprised at how much is available.


Good luck in getting what you need.

 

[A.J.]

Is it just me or is the OP's mate being a little optimistic?


Just answer my own question now.



Apparently not, I just had a quick scroll through a couple of sales sites and was surprised at how much is available.


Good luck in getting what you need.

There's plenty of options on Autotrader Jim

 

[Jimbo1959]

There's plenty of options on Autotrader Jim

I know, I was quite shocked at the choice available, there's a few on E-Bay too.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes...831245?hash=item3da4ea6acd:g:laEAAOSwumle4U33

This was another one.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

As said the 211 E220cdi in 2006-09 guise is the best Mercedes secondhand buy out there

 

[RhodieBill]

Well, to give you an idea, with the exception of the CLK430, my last 6 Mercs were all less than £1400.00 - most under £1100.00!

 

[Blobcat]

Well, to give you an idea, with the exception of the CLK430, my last 6 Mercs were all less than £1400.00!

Is that "in total"...

 

[RhodieBill]

Is that "in total"...

I WISH...!!! More like just over £4700.00

 

[Adamki83]

So the big reveal is that he bought an Audi TT!
it’s actually quite nice 1.8T 225bhp version! Budget went up slightly but not by much.

 

[Adamki83]

I have a feeling I paid way over what a going rate for a w211 E270 goes for but I wanted a good example

 

[Adamki83]

I bought a 2009 S211 E220CDi Avantgarde back in December for £1,250, and I have been very impressed with the underlying engineering and lack of issues. Mine was cheap because it's specification was completely unloved by the potential customers, a manual gearbox, no options at all, and 170k miles.

You have a 211 yourself OP, so you know how good they can be. I would recommend as a cheap car, and personally, I would actively seek out higher miles. A lot of components have a life of around 120-150k miles, so buying one after that means a very good chance they have been replaced, and the price is low as people are put off by the miles.

If your friend is happy to change his own gears, and live without stuff like heated seats and Command, there are bargains out there. Such poverty spec manuals are unloved, so major haggling is possible.

One example on eBay - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes...907440?hash=item288f99b670:g:Ra8AAOSwOhxd3To7. I would want to know that the SBC pump has been replaced on any pre-facelift though, as that will cost as much as the car to replace.

Martin.

The link you sent was one of the options, I think the only thing that put him off was the SBC unit and in general the insurance.

my W211 is on 126k Miles now and I’ve literally not had to do any serious maintenance work on it last major thing was injector seals back in early 2019 I think!
The only outstanding thing I’ve been meaning to do is the roll bar links which I still haven’t done yet.
But I couldn’t recommend a better car than a W211 if you’re looking for a cheap route into the brand! Brake fluid changes though are a must to preserve the life of that SBC unit.