gt_stunner

I bought it in June 2012 @67,000kms for $25K CAD, but ONLY spent roughly $9K CAD on maintenance. Spent almost $5k alone this year for Engine misfire and front shock replacement. Currently have stored codes for left&right Camshafts Adjustments but the engine has been running smoothly at all RPMs for the past 2 weeks (crossed fingers).

Replaced parts:

Blower Motor (113553km)
Idle pulley and Poly V belt (122462km)
Thermostat (128602km)
Passenger side lower control arm(129897km)
MAF sensor, 6 Plugs, 6 Ignition coils, Purge valve, O2 sensors, Purge valve, Throttle body clean out, Fuel injector clean and reset. (132263)
Front Shock assemblies (133013km)

Despite replacing those parts I don't feel much of a power boost. I still love the car, it drives and handles awesome. Stock exhaust note is perfect! But if a week goes by without something breaking, thats an awesome week. I now believe the rumors of not owning a Benz after its warranty. I'm leaning towards selling it because I don't see repair bills getting cheaper until I replace everything. What's your opinion?

dudeitsmattx

Maybe trade it in for another one? That's what I ended up doing.

95_993

Try to purchase a 3rd party warranty or sell it. The PROBABILITY is high that repairs will drain you more than the added cost of getting another car under warranty.

FFM

Love my german cars... but I don't own them without a warranty. Whether factory or 3rd party. In case you weren't aware, Carmax warranty is as good if not better than factory in some ways. My uncle works for BMW of Seattle and says between Carmax and whatever the hell one I bought for this car they have never seen a denied claim and is pretty hassle free.

shotgun_banjo

You will spend more money later on but you will grown and get attached to your car more. German cars are expensive to maintain. If you have the $ to get another car and dont' mind the idea of another financing burden then trade it in. I always consider financing to be a burden when I will be living paycheck to paycheck every month. So think and look at your books first before you make a decision. I bet you will only get no more than 10K canadian on your car as I tried trading in my car and that is what the MB and BMW dealer is willing to give me.

gt_stunner

Thanks for the all helpful advice guys, appreciate it! I'll look into the 3rd Party warranties. Yeah, I've already bonded with the car after doing majority of the maintenance myself. I'm just disappointed to know that after a 100,000km your Mercedes will fall apart. I'm an apprentice aircraft tech and have seen the bills owners pay for these high maintenance machines. Basically Parts manufactures are the ones bringing in most of the profits and I see the same for Mercedes. Components are failing in an unreasonable period of time. And we all know we pay an extra 50-100% for the OEM parts with the Mercedes stamp. I still love German cars but from a mechanic's perspective Mercedes needs to improve their reliability. Like I went to the Dealer first to solve the misfire and they were booked out for 2 weeks then basically told me just get a rental car. I know so much about this car and have the tooling its hard to switch to a different brand.

95_993

Gr_stunner,

I understand your how much you like your car and how conflicted you are about keeping it.

I too have have the same conflict as I typically buy a car and expect to drive it for years and put 150k+ miles on it. The issues are not a German car thing, they are a Mercedes thing.

I have a Porsche 911 and have had it for 8yrs, putting more miles on it than my C300....other than normal maintenance (oil, filters, brakes, etc) it has never needed anything other than an a/c charge due to a leaky fill valve. Bulletproof.

The C300 replaces and Audi A4 Avant as a daily driver/winter driver. I had the A4 for 14yrs and put 180k miles on it with NONE of the type of parts failures is have already had with the C300 ( alternator, thermostat, power steering hose,etc) in less than 30k miles. Somehow I just don't think the C300 is going to go the distance like my Audi.

I do all maintenance myself, but picked up a 3rd party warrenty to cover major items IF they fail.

So in short, it's not a German car thing. My other GERMAN cars have been far more reliable.

I love driving the c300 and I am just hoping I am not driving a financial ticking timebomb from all the major issues I have tea about. These kind of things should not be failing.

FFM

Reason I say German is because both Audi and BMW get ripped on for high cost of ownership. Porsche is not exempt either, not because they fail ALL the time, but a single repair could be 3x what you would pay for an Acura or Lexus. Thus 3k for a warranty which potentially could cover ONE repair lol is definitely worth it when driving cars like these.

When we went to pick up this car, and I saw the headlights do the initialization process, I immediately thought "oh **** that looks expensive to fix" haha.

justaguy

Get rid of the car . I have the 09 C300 luxury . Worst car I ever owned and I owned over 30 of them . Don't buy third party warranties .

edgalang

Reading this made me laugh...since at the time I though the same thing.