Which S Class to buy?

[kheath74]

I used to own a 1990 E200 and few years back and loved the car, never put a foot wrong in 3 years, so I have now finally decided to have another Merc. I want to use this is my car for work and I travel about 75 miles a day on my commute so need some decent economy, I have been looking around and it looks like the S320 CDI will be about the right happy medium between the fuel economy and the high spec of the S500 models.

I have a budget of around 10K and was thinking do I buy a 2000/01 model for around 7K and keep the extra 3K for fuel or do I go for the full 10K on a 2004/5 model and get the newer toys and improved economy?

I heard Merc has some build issues in the early 00s and I was looking for some advice or experience on those who run an S Class as their work car?

Cheers

Kyle

 

[television]

Hello and welcome to the forum. One of our moderators "Blobcat" runs the 211 320cdi and had it from new,and uses doing a high mileage, many others too, the 04-04 car on should be the one to go for

 

[eGuru]

Go for the facelift model, '03 onwards. Some earlier models had rust problems.

 

[carnut13]

I think Malcolm has suggested the 04-04 car as it has nano paint and thus much better stone chip resistance:-D

 

[deejaybee]

How about a 140 S-class as an alternative?

Kyle,
Hi, if you are looking for an s-class for < £10K you should seriously consider the 140 model as an alternative. In the current market you should be able to pick up a late '98 car in very good condition for £3-4K, or one in exceptional condition for no more than £5k. At this price range you should be getting a car with full service history that is in excellent condition with <100k miles. If you will be doing up to around 20K miles per year then a car like this wiil give you at least 5 years of trouble free motoring and will still be worth £1-2k at the end of it.

If you go for something like a petrol 320 you should get around 25mpg on your commute, possibly more if you are a smooth driver. Maintenance wise a good 140 could well be cheaper to run up to ~200k miles than the latter models which have more electronics and more sophisticated suspension. Either way you should probably budget for an avergae of £1000 / year service & maintenance, so don't spend all your money on the car without allowing for this.

If you do decide to go for a 140, I have an S320 and can give you some more detail information about these if you wish.

Good luck,

Dave

 

[stumpy]

I'd get as late an S Class as you can afford. They simply aren't as well made or reliable as they should or used to be. A warranty is a must as these can rack up huge bills very easily. Mine was a 500L which I loved driving but it had a few issues with Comand not switching off, or being stuck on mute. No rust though and the suspension was fine but it was a 53 plate with only 40k. These cars may be cheap now but they were expensive when new and cost accordingly when they go wrong. I was told a headlamp unit (Xenon) is a grand!! Perhaps Cole can confirm or deny.

Bought wisely though it is one of the best cars you will ever own and I do miss mine. I prefer it to the 221.

 

[MSG2004]

320 cdi

Buy from a MB approved car - 12 mov ths piece of mind

 

[hawk20]

Go for the later car, 2004 will be fine. Many, many improvements compared with earlier models. Fully galvanised from 2003 production onwards.

Fabulous car. The diesel has excellent performance (7.6 seconds 0-62) yet does high 30's to the gallon on a run. Magic carpet ride. Xenon headlamps cost a packet to replace on an E class too but rarely go wrong.

Complex cars. Buy from an MB dealer with approved used warranty. And full MBSH. Lots of updates are done by dealers (free) when cars are serviced. Good search engine on MB website.

 

[jberks]

Normally I'd say that dealers will be expensive but currently I'm not so sure. Yes, teh S320cdi is fabulous. Post 04 will be better built and better specced too.
When looking for an E 3 years ago, I was always looked at the S's on the forecourt and wondered whether I should buy one. A lot of the S's I saw were a bit ropey in the stone chip department (screen / roof edge and leading edge of the bonnet etc) though. Certainly not the mint shiny bodywork I had expected to beware. Hence, post 04 with nano paint and galvanisation are well worth having.

There is one on ebay with something I should warn you about though. If you choose to buy an earlier one and the seller tells you than MB will fix a rusty wheelarch, get them to seek approval from MB prior to the sale. MB may or may not do it for him (if he's a long standing dealership customer) but they WON'T do it for you. Lots of people are getting burned on this one.

 

[kheath74]

Thanks for the comments, I have been concerned about the servicing costs, would I be right that some aspects of the service you cannot do yourself due to the electronics that only the dealers have?

 

[deejaybee]

What ever s-class you decide to get you need to remember that it represents the best that Mercedes produces and it was never designed with ease and cost of maintenance as a high priority!! Having said that if you are a keen diy home mechanic there are a range of tasks you can do yourself with the right tools (and you will get plenty of help from people on this forum), but it will still be necessary to go to a dealer or indie with diagnostic equipment for some things.

The bottom line is that you can reduce the cost of service and maintenance on an s-class if you do some things yourself, but you must still expect and allow for servicing by a good indie, especially if you are doing 15-20k miles annually. Unless your mechanical skills are well developed I don't think you can expect to save more than £2-300 / year on service costs.

Not sure what service costs on a latter s-class are likely to be, but if you are intending to keep the car for any length of time and run it to a higher mileage the cost per year is likely to be at least £1000/ year. This could increase depending on what mileage you buy in at and if you are unlucky enough to need to do anything major such as a gearbox overhaul.

If you have a look around to see what is available for your budget and then get back to the forum with specific examples of model / year / mileage you will probably get some more specific information on running costs.

 

[hawk20]

Thanks for the comments, I have been concerned about the servicing costs, would I be right that some aspects of the service you cannot do yourself due to the electronics that only the dealers have?

Servicing is the least of the things we need to worry about. My S320cdi did over 15k miles between services. The A service cost £235 inc vat and the B service after 30k miles cost £444. That works out at little more than 2p per mile. You can save that easily by just being gentle with your right foot. And when you get an MB service you get free breakdown cover here and in Europe. And a thirty year rust guarantee. And 'ggodwill' contributions if you need repairs out of warranty.

Brakes, exhaust, batteries, change ATF etc can all be done by an 'indie' or by yourself.

BTW my services were at full price as the car was nearly new, but on older cars most dealers now do healthy discounts (20% for over 3 years old and as much as 40% off for over 6 years old).

I would save on lots of things but not on FullMBSH.

 

[kheath74]

Thanks for the head up on the servicing, there are a couple of good indie garages in the West Midlands I used to use for my E200 and the general maintenance of the simpler issues I can handle myself, my plan was to use a portion of my car allowance and save that for servicing costs.

I must admit to being torn between finally owning the S Class I have always wanted against saving on fuel costs and getting a E220/270 CDI, if I can get around 30-35 mpg from the S Class then I should be fine, from what I can see the insurance on the E and S Class tends to be 16 and above once you get into the premium models so this will be the same irrespective.

 

[stumpy]

Go for the S. You'll kick yourself if you don't

 

[hawk20]

I must admit to being torn between finally owning the S Class I have always wanted against saving on fuel costs and getting a E220/270 CDI, if I can get around 30-35 mpg from the S Class then I should be fine, from what I can see the insurance on the E and S Class tends to be 16 and above once you get into the premium models so this will be the same irrespective.

I had an E270cdi and it did hardly any more miles per gallon than the S320cdi.
The S class has a combined figure of 35 mpg and my E220cdi estate has a combined figure of 38.6mpg. Not that much of a difference.

 

[Stu_CDX]

May I suggest this?

 

[hawk20]

May I suggest this?

Might be OK but I wouldn't. No service history -there are plenty with full MBSH as is quite normal with S class. Also 93,000 miles is way high for a 2005 car. Plenty have 30-50k at that age. No memory seats and no parktronic. I would use the search engine on the MB website. The best ones are with dealers as most S class owners part ex for another. What other saloon can match it?

Direct Mercedes have a few: -
http://www.directmercedes.co.uk/veh...iant%3d%26startdate%3d%26perpage%3d%26page%3d

 

[kheath74]

I think my budget will really be about 10K for the intial outlay and I have 2K to keep for servicing and insurance, so Ill look about but my feeling is the MB Dealer network may be just a bit out of my budget.

As has been suggested I think I will have a checklist of the electrical items to test and confirmation of a FMBSH, the most important aspects to me are that it is reliable in the time, 3 yrs, that I plan to own the car.

I understand that Im probably right at the limit for a post 2004 car for this money but I shall give it a shot! Would you expect a 1 year warranty from a indie dealer on a car of this calibre?

 

[msharif911]

Keith, spark plugs, oil, air filter etc can all be done very easily yourself (I always get my stuff from German Swedish and French - they are very cheap but there may be somewhere else cheaper). If you hunt around on the internet, you can get the codes on how to reset the service indicators. On my previous C-Class it was turn the ignition key to a certain point hold a button down for 10 seconds and do something else - I cant remember exactly.

I have just bought a 1999 S320 for £4000 on Autotrader. It just needs all brakepads changing and the Satnav CD was missing. Otherwise a fantastic buy with 116k miles. My brother paid £13k for one a year newer but much lower mileage. So I am delighted with mine. The bits and bobs needing doing are quite minor and a technically minded person can do them him/herself.

###########################################################

Just found how to do it. I havent tried it yet though!

Service Light Reset – Mercedes C-Class, E-Class, S-Class, CLK
Using the button located on the left hand side of instrument cluster.
Switch ignition on and immediately press button twice.
Switch ignition off.
Press and hold button while switching ignition on.
After 10 seconds the new interval will appear in the display.
Release button.

 

[hawk20]

I think my budget will really be about 10K for the intial outlay and I have 2K to keep for servicing and insurance, so Ill look about but my feeling is the MB Dealer network may be just a bit out of my budget.

As has been suggested I think I will have a checklist of the electrical items to test and confirmation of a FMBSH, the most important aspects to me are that it is reliable in the time, 3 yrs, that I plan to own the car.

I understand that Im probably right at the limit for a post 2004 car for this money but I shall give it a shot! Would you expect a 1 year warranty from a indie dealer on a car of this calibre?

Dealers give 12 month warranties on approved used vehicles. Well worth having.

You may be able to do brake pads, filters etc etc, but there are plenty of other things on complex cars that can go wrong which need expert help and equipment.