Huskies22

Diabolis & Bob,


Thanks for the info. Seems like you guys are pretty loyal to the brand? I've not been loyal at all. Skipping all over the place. The wife was all over the GLK as someone where she works just bought one.


Last night I stopped by the local Mercedes shop to see what they had. They had a few CPO's but nothing in the GLK lineup or ML or GL either. The sales gal was very well versed said they move pretty fast when under the CPO program but sit long when out of warranty. Those may be wholesaled to other dealers that are looking for cash buyers? Their sister shop has some, but they were not willing to transfer any inventory and they are a trek from the house and I would want to see them during the daylight vs. under the lights in the lot. I hate weekend shopping!


The local CARMAX has some too. All are still under warranty. A good thing about them is you can buy the car and return it within their grace period and get your money back should it not pan out. This is a good time to take it and get it inspected and pull your own CARFAX. They also seem to be priced less than the CPO's and you're not spending the day haggling over pennies? Adding all that marketing and cut rate financing drives up the cost for Mercedes?


I also don't want to rule out the next generation Pilot and the NX either. I'll stop at Lexus this evening they are also a skip from the house.


The original poster has not said if he bought the one he was looking at? Did the torque converter scare him off? 19K and the transmission part fails? Not a very good sign of things ahead? Sorry if I've assigned the wrong gender to you! No malice intended. Update us on your purchase if you bought or what knocked you out of the ring.


Again thanks for your comments.

Diabolis

I am loyal to my country, my wife, my friends and myself. The rest is about quality. When Mercedes was building "crap" cars in the mid-2000s, I drove Audis.

I have owned many premium/luxury/sportrs cars over the last 25 years, and have arrived at a simple conclusions: if you're buying a keeper, buy it new. In other words, if you don't intend to dump it in two years and move on, then get a new vehicle. I've bought many used cars in the past thinking they're a good deal, but unfortunately 90% of the time that is wrong. Keep in mind that this only applies to cars that YOU WANT TO KEEP FOR THE LONG TERM, i.e. 5 years or more, not something that you are also going to treat as a disposable commodity - because that is EXACTLY how the original owners treated them.

How you drive the car during the first 1,500 km of its life usually dictates how it will perform for the next 150,000 km (or 500,000 km if we're talking about a diesel). A previosuly owned car is either a lease return or a private sale. If it's a lease return, the original owner had the benefit of factory warranty, and knowing he would never have to pony up for repairs he could pretty much treat it with disdain. Driving off at -25C and pushing it to redline when the oil is the thickness of molasses is not excatly beneficial for the engine and especially not during the break-in period, but every single person that's leasing a vehicle never gives this a second thought. During the first 1,500 km they all want to see for themselves or show others just how nice their new cars is, so that's exactly when they are going to push it harder when instead they need to make sure that the oil is up to temperature before they decide to floor the loud pedal (oil warms up a lot slower than the coolant - on my C63 it takes 20 minutes to reach 100C when it finally has the right viscosity to properly flow and lubricate all engine parts), and in general treat the car like a disposable commodity, which again for them it is.

If it's a private sale, chances are that it's a higher-mileage vehicle and that the current owner is now facing the prospect of large repair bills for big items that are coming due, so they are instead choosing to part with it before they have to pony up with the cash.

Either way, you're essentually buying someone else's discarded goods that are either no longer good enough or financially viable for them to keep and maintian. What kind of value or reliability can you really expect from such a purchase?

While a dealer CPO vehicle may be a guarantee that there are no immediate issues with the car, it certainly doesn't mean that they won't develop later on, and in a much shorter time period than they would otherwise surface on the same car that was bought new and properly looked after. This is a fact. Furthermore, MB would only keep a vehicle and resell it as a CPO if they have evidence that it has had no accident history and that is has at least been serviced at the scheduled intervals. Buying a three-year old GLK form a local used car lot (not MB) by itself raises a lot of red flags - the first one being why did Mercedes themselves pass up on the opportunity to resell the vehicle as a CPO and turn a profit on it? If it wasn't good enough for MB to turn it around and they put it up on the wholesale auction block instead, chances are there are some issues with it that you may not know about. Aftermerket car warranties aren't worth the paper they are printed on. Buy a CPO car, and then only if you intend to keep it for the duration of the remaining factory and CPO warranties, and are then either going to dump it as soon as the warranty runs out or are prepared to start spending serious money on it. Otherwise it's always just a gamble, and like most legalized gambling, the odds are always in the house's favour.

My first Porsche was a 13-year-old, $90K-when-new car that I bought for new Honda Civic money (what an amazing deal!). In the next four years alone, I put over $50K in replacing various parts and in deferred maintenence, to only arrive at the conclusion that for exactly the same amount of money I could have financed a brand new Porsche that by the end of those five years would have been coompletely paid off, had a lot less kilomenters and wear and tear on it, and would have been 5 instead of 18 years old.

Then, I made a similar mistake again about six or seven years ago. I bought a three-year-old, low-kilometer CPO Audi S4 instead, and three years after that lost $30K on it when it developed a problem that required a $30K engine replacement (on top of the $8K I had already spend on fixing other not-so-serious issues) on what was by then a $26K car at best.

An interesting anecdote is that a few days before I bought that particular Audi, I was in one of the corporate-owned MB dealerships in Toronto looking for my next daily driver. What I found somewhat strange is that at the time Mercedes only had a couple of current-model-year, pre-owned vehicles that were only marginally cheaper (like no more than 5-10%) than a brand new identical car, and I asked the salesman about the apparent lack of pre-owned vehicles. His answer to me was "Mercedes is not in the business of selling used cars."

Buy new, or buy used if you only intend to keep it for as long as the warranty is valid. And if the choice comes down to a new Honda or Toyota insead of a "slighly used" GLK, I know which way I'd go.

Gt. Dane

I have a 2013 GLK 250 BT, I think the first one on this forum to buy one. It has 45,000 km on it with absolutely zero problems. I love this vehicle.

Bob338

Not likely. I ordered mine for factory delivery the first day they were available to order. Some time in February/March, best I recall. Purchase agreement signed 5/1/13.

davidjohnbamber

We went to drive both a gas, and diesel GLK a year ago. After driving the diesel, I didn't even bother. We are Costco members, and the deal was $1500 below dealer invoice ( that the dealership provided, and the sale price matched what I was able to find for invoice to the dealer online). By Mercedes standards the GLK250 we bought was a stripper. Fast forward a year later we are averaging 30.2 MPG, and diesel here in Oregon right now is almost 40 cent less per gallon than regular ($3.39.9 per gallon) our last fill up. The GLK has been a great little kar (pardon the pun). If I had to do it all over again, it would still be a Hell yeah!

Huskies22

Well stopped by Lexus last night they had a few NX's to look at. An entry level Lexus or rebadged Toyota Rav4 with a shirt on. An OK girls SUV.


The sales gal recognized me right away. My family all drives this brand. Like I said I'm not loyal to any brand. Hoping to get an end of month deal in before the stoke of midnight! She wanted to sell me what she thought I should have. Was not buying it.


Lexus has this notion that you should pay over the MRSP if you want it real bad. Why would I pay you more than what it's worth?


I told her I'd go home and think about it and I wanted to look some more at CARMAX. Her eyes rolled, by then she was tired of babysitting me and I continued to look around unattended. Waiting for the call back today or tomorrow about how she has the perfect one for me. They have an excellent CPO program as well, but again you pay for it in the price like Mercedes.


I've bought all my rides as the second owner and keep them until the 4 wheels stop rolling. I've never had an issue with any of them. I buy them with a warranty left on them and run them until they say uncle. I've actually bought several from CARMAX and have been very pleased with the buy. You do have to weed through them and you have to be the one that's educated on the one you're looking at. The good stuff goes right a way. So you have to be quick. I'm surprised at how many cars they sell. All three of the ones we currently have are CARMAX buys. All were not over 10K and someone else took the hit. I take the financing from them and turn around and hit up my credit union for their bring your note sale in late winter. That too has been good!


Still looking and the original poster has not responded either...

Gt. Dane

Took delivery of mine March 15, 2013. Order placed August 2012.

Bob338

Wow, you win! You must have taken delivery overseas as I was told the first ones didn't get to the US till June! I took delivery 5/21/13 at Sindelfingen.

Edit: I see! You're a Canuck!!

Gt. Dane

Right. And the ship unloads right here in Halifax. It actually arrived in port in February, but I was in Florida when the dealer called to say it was in.

Bob338

This may explain how and why I seem to have gotten a Canadian spec vehicle. I think all they did was give me a Canadian car.

I did NOT want a sun roof but that option to remove wasn't available when I built my car. It was a subject of negotiations in its purchase and they contacted someone up the line. They briefly allowed a $1200 credit to remove that option while I was waiting in line. While the car was awaiting the build, Mercedes allowed removal of that option for just one week and I jumped on it.

I expected to have to have runflats per US specs and had an agreement with dealer to swap out if I didn't like them. I had no objections to the ride of the tires and told the dealer thanks but I was happy. I never checked until there was a discussion on the subject on one of the forums. I went out and double checked and found no runflats, a Canadian spec compressor, and regular Continental all season tires, all exactly Canadian specs! I'm still as happy as a pig in slop with this vehicle and can't remember the last time I drove one of my others!

Gt. Dane

I had the same feelings about the sunroof. Someone on this forum had posted that MB was having problems getting the sunroof to their spec so they were temporarily offering the option of deleting it from the package without deleting the other options (on the gas models at the time), so like you, I jumped at the chance and placed my order.

My buddy drives a GL which is a nice vehicle but drives like a truck. He needs the space so this is the car for ride for him, but I like the sports car like handling of the GLK and the jump that the diesel has with all the mileage benefits to boot.