So Long, And Thanks For All the Help!

[Paul Goff]

It's just over 4 years since I bought my 2002 W203 C220CDi Aventegarde Estate, aka Zer Black Panzer, for the princely sum of £500!
Suffice to say that she's proved the old "there is no such thing as a cheap Mercedes" in the form of about £6500 of bills for non routine repairs in the excellent hands of Avantegarde in Clevedon and more locally to me, Coverdale in Newton Abbot (both highly recommended)
In that time I have added some 21,000 miles to the 127,000 already on the odometer and the wheel arches have all become steadily more rusty!

I have now turned my back on the Darkside, looked towards the Rising Sun and now have a VERY red Toyota GR Four Yaris hot hatch on the drive despite being more than old enough to know better

I would just like to say thank you to all that have assisted with my many W203 questions over the last few years.
The Panzer sold for my asking price to the first person to come and see it ;-)

All of which leaves me hoping to keep out of trouble in the Red Terrier and thanking you all once more, enjoy your cars.

Goffy.

 

[vtaylor78]

Good luck with your new car .

 

[JBell]

Good luck with the Yaris, they are supposed to be loads of fun.

I was at Coverdale last week for my service, excellent service as usual

 

[Ron240]

When I read the thread title I couldn't help thinking "So long, and thanks for all the fish"
The GR has gained a massive following in a short space of time and by all accounts is awesome to drive, so I'm sure you will love it.
Couldn't be more different from your previous car though.
Did you get a circuit pack car?

 

[Wighty]

Mother of God , £6500 on the C class , what happened?

 

[mioba]

Enjoy the toyota. Very good cars and reliable.
My sister had a Yaris a few years ago. It by far the easiest car to maintain with a great accessible engine layout.

Hope you dont totally lose faith in MB. Sometimes they can hit you with big maintenance items coming in one go.

 

[Ron240]

Enjoy the toyota. Very good cars and reliable.
My sister had a Yaris a few years ago. It by far the easiest car to maintain with a great accessible engine layout.

Just want to point out that while the GR does have the Yaris name, it is a world apart in just about every other respect.

GR YARIS | GR | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing

GR YARIS 2024 SPRING DEBUT.

toyotagazooracing.com

 

[sonic]

Thanks for the post, my sister in law has a Yaris she is very pleased with it.

 

[Paul Goff]

When I read the thread title I couldn't help thinking "So long, and thanks for all the fish"
The GR has gained a massive following in a short space of time and by all accounts is awesome to drive, so I'm sure you will love it.
Couldn't be more different from your previous car though.
Did you get a circuit pack car?

I did, there was was never any alternative in my mind

 

[Paul Goff]

Mother of God , £6500 on the C class , what happened?

Conductor Plate, closely followed by 2ndhand gearbox.
All suspension arms.
Both thermostats.
High pressure diseasel pump.
AC condenser etc.
Steering rack.
Starter motor.
Gear selector.
Full discs, pads & parking shoes.
Not to mention normal MOTs, tyres and a major service because everything needs those.

 

[grahamcol]

My mate recently bought a Toyota Corolla, Y reg, 4k miles. Not a typo, Y reg 4k miles. It's just got us to New Quay and back with absolutely no hassle and it'll go on for many years l expect. Not as comfortable as my CLK but good enough and it didn't cost very much to buy either.

 

[SmartAmg]

Goffy, how about some pics of your new motor.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience with a W203 and totally agree with your comment regarding ownership costs. When I left school in 1970 Mercedes were a truly aspirational brand and many people considered the marque ‘built to cover a million miles’ and in some respects this may have been true but as with ‘Trigger’s Broom’ the reality is only if they are maintained properly. Since 1995 MB have gone from being a low volume manufacturer of prestige cars to a high volume manufacturer of cleverly marketed medium quality vehicles with many parts no better than their competitors.
BMW are no better they struggle to match up to their slogan of ‘the ultimate driving machine’ now that they are fitting runflat tyres and electro-mechanical steering racks.
I think MB models bought during the dark period of 1995-2003 tested many owners with their lack of quality (including myself) they were quite an enigma really with some good and some very bad engineering aspects.
From my point of view the thing that Mercedes did get right is the E estate I’m on my third now it really does cover all bases there is nothing out there that comes close.

 

[Paul Goff]

There you go

 

[onefortheroad]

Id of stopped at the gearbox ,knowing I bought the car for £500 .

 

[th3h1ghlander]

Conductor Plate, closely followed by 2ndhand gearbox.
All suspension arms.
Both thermostats.
High pressure diseasel pump.
AC condenser etc.
Steering rack.
Starter motor.
Gear selector.
Full discs, pads & parking shoes.
Not to mention normal MOTs, tyres and a major service because everything needs those.

Irrespective of the cost, I hope you enjoyed the experience while the car was working! I have to admit, my 2002 w203 270cdi is probably on its way out too at 130k miles, after 5 good years of ownership, however I don’t think it has cost me “that” much over the time I have had it.

Bought for £2500 in 2016 at 88k miles, with very small patches of rust on arches and bottom of doors, 3/4 alloys corroded, 4 bad mismatched tyres.

At the time I didn’t know it but didn’t take me long to realise that it had had an accident at the front right wing which has been repaired and badly resprayed along with the bumper (I believe) due to transmission issue most likely when someone pulled out onto a road or roundabout and lost power as the trans went into neutral safety mode, it does this when engine/trans is very hot (driven hard) and hard accelerating between 30-40mph with a thump instead of dropping into second gear.

Other than MOT, cleaning and normal servicing, here is what I have done to it since purchase, a healthy overlap with what you have seen on yours:

£80 for 4 temporary Conti-Sport tires - March 2016
£60 replacement injector seal 1/5 - Sep 2016
£300 for Air-con pump & re-gassing - Oct 2016
£70 for replacement MAF (was putting car into limp mode) - Nov 2016
£30 for seal kit for HP fuel pump, reconditioned myself after a failed seal inside caused it to leak in cold weather, not enough pressure to start the car - Dec 2016
£300 for 4 new Michelin CrossClimate tyres - Dec 2016
£1000 for special Service, all fluids and filters, inc changing the trans fluid and filter, and the connector to the trans which was leaking, 4 of the suspension control arms/links, one injector seal replaced 2/5, all discs and pads - Feb 2017
£120 replaced broken rear-right spring, replaced suspension mounts at front - Aug 2017
£80 - Replaced rear sway/ARB bar mount/bushing - Apr 2018
£190 replaced front shocks and 1 x engine mount - Aug 2018
£60 - replaced another injector seal 4/5 - Jan 2019
£60 - replaced air charge link conduit - cracked due to extensive movement due to broken engine mount previously (caused hunting and rough running) - Jan 2019
£346 - 4 more Michelin CrossClimate tyres after 2 with nails/screws and 1 was slashed down to cords - May 2019
£60 - Final Injector seal 5/5 - Jan 2020
£170 - Replaced intercooler - Mar 2021

Probably about £5k all in for parts and labour, and original car cost. I don’t think that is too bad, but not far off of your cost. I had avoided touching the trans for any other costly work to fix the issue, as it is most likely the transfer case or board therein, or maybe the solenoids. I just drive it in a way I don’t trigger the issue.

I really hope you enjoy your new ride! I admit though, I have been bitten by the Mercedes bug, and I want another


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bembo449]

Mother of God , £6500 on the C class , what happened?

and only 21k miles in that 6500 quid , blimey