Luthian

I recently bought a high-mileage 2007 S550 4MATIC; the only (reputable) aftermarket warranty coverage is "power train" and pretty expensive, to boot. I've read numerous comments here about the cost of maintaining this car sans warranty and a lot of them make it sounds pretty horrendous.

A local Benz dealer has a 2011 E550 4MATIC CPO (with P2 and Driver Assist packages) for about twice what I paid for my older S550. I checked it out and drove it and it's pretty nice; it has the fancy DISTRONIC PLUS and Active Lane Assist, etc. AMG styling and, oddly, in the same Designo Graphite Grey!

The part I found surprising is that it has 60K on it and is still CPO'd! The dealer informally quoted me about $2000 for 2 more years of CPO and claimed that the included year of CPO coverage doesn't kick in until the first service visit (which I find odd).

The ride is tighter than the S550 but some of the accoutrements feel cheaper; smaller COMAND screen, massage only on driver's seat, stiffer seat, different drive-dymanic mechanism, etc. But it's 4 years newer, 1/2 the mileage and CPO'd. And a bunch more money.

So, any opinions on switching to the E550?

Mike5215

On the trade, a personal choice. The W214 E shares extensively with the W204 C. There was no cross platform sharing between the E and S. Two totally different animals despite the star on the hood.

CPO kicks in when the 4 year/48000 mile factory warranty expires and lasts 12 months with no limit on miles. Adding one additional year is $2200. Adding two years is $4500. Your dealer is a retard.

Not sure what the dealer is trying to sell you but it doesn't sound like CPO. Can you post a link to the car?

Luthian

Perhaps I wasn't clear; the 2007 S550 isn't eligible for much beyond an after-market power train warranty. The 2011 E550 is CPO'd and that is, as you say, a factory warranty; that is one of the main attractions of the 2011 E.

The confusing things to me are the statement about the CPO coverage not starting until the first service visit and the cost of $2000 for the extra 2 years of CPO.

If the CPO coverage starts when the factory warranty ends, then it is just about up and, thus, isn't worth much. Is there a way to independently verify when the CPO coverage ends?

Does CPO cost vary between dealerships; I remember reading something here about the non-CPO Benz extended warranty varying between dealerships and so shopping around was a good thing.

Link to car (on CarGurus): http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/m-Merce...ting=132682459

Mike5215

Got you on the power train being on the S. On the E, CPO starts either when you take delivery of the car (the in service date) or if on the in service date there is still factory warranty remaining, you get the remaining time/miles on the factory warranty and then CPO kicks in.

Since the E is outside the factory warranty it's all CPO. You'd have 12 months from the day you take it home, or 24 for the extra couple grand, or 36 for around $4k.

Some dealers may discount it a bit but nobody is selling two extra years for a grand a year. Does the car show up on a CPO inventory search on MBUSA.com?

DaveW68

Cheap feeling is an understatement on that E. Low grade garbage IMO and the worst (and ugliest) sedan Benz had to offer at that time. I'd take a nicely optioned C over that thing in a heartbeat. I had no idea that the E offered Distronic Plus. I find that very surprising as I had always believed that was an S-class only option.

If they are trying to sell it to you for double the cost of your car, than I can only assume they are giving you low teens for yours, which seems ridiculous. That E is a mid $20k car.

If the car is currently CPO'd, then I don't believe that the next owner can do that again. It would have to be some other type of warranty if it's going to be extended again.

Spend around $8k more and buy a newer S with similar miles.

Mike5215

Right. If it was traded into the dealership as a CPO car, it's no longer and will never be a CPO again.

1bad540

Not gona lie that's very high for the pre facelift e. That being said Ive found locally to me 2014 facelifted e350s for 32-34 with around 20k miles on them. The new body is coming out and if if its an e class you want theres plenty of them. definitely 2 different animals a high mileage 07S class and a newer e.

Luthian

I checked the MBUSA.com site and this car does not show up so something is going on. It could just be that it is sold but they certainly claimed it was CPO'd and it showed up that way on CarGurus.

If I may rant a bit, the mypreownedmercedes.com site is really annoying. When I was looking at the end of last month, it just wouldn't respond; the spinner just spun. This morning, from home, all the distances were "undefined" so filtering was kind of useless. It's working now and that car doesn't show up as CPO.

It's listed as CPO'd on the dealer's site but the CarFax shows 2 owners and only says "vehicle offered for sale." The second owner bought it in June of 2014 so it might still have been within the original factory warranty.

It sounds like I should just keep my '07 S550 and budget for repairs. There are a couple CPO'd '12 S550s around $45K but that's out of my price range.

Thanks for the help!

DaveW68

You can pick up a sub 50k mile 2011 S in the $35k area.

Luthian

CPO'd? In the Boston area? All the hits I get are from out of state for CPO'd vehicles.

If you can point me at some, I'd appreciate it!

DaveW68

Look at this one! Definitely worth the drive to grab it at this price.

http://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/de...5110/overview/

1bad540

wow that is a good deal...

Luthian

Wow; thanks! That car does show up in the MBUSA.com CPO list with the $29,880 price but the AutoiPacket.com description says $61,880. Time to give them a call.

Called and yes, it's "...been priced wrong. It was fat-fingered when the price was put in..." It should be $59,880 but he's willing to let it go for $58K.

GT854T5

My 2cents on this is: that '11 E550 is overpriced for those miles; $28-30K sounds more reasonable WITH the CPO included; but that S550 MY13 for $30K is a smoking deal. If the logistics are not too crazy, OP should consider it. I drove 4hrs from NYC to MD to get a sweet deal on an Audi B8 a few months ago; sometimes the best deals are not in your local market. As for CPO, the Audi I bought was from a Lexus dealer and the car still had Audi CPO warranty left (but No original warranty) and I was able to pay a fee to Audi and have the remainder of it available to me, the 2nd owner. So, some dealers/manufacture allow transfer of CPO agreements. In my case, it helped that a bunch of paper work was left in the car...-

DaveW68

Sounds fishy. Perhaps some bait and switch to spur interest?

Nuru

Way, Way too high, even with low miles.

KNBS550

Yes, that is too close to pre-owned W222 territory. I'm starting to see low mileage 2014 W222 base models going for about $68K-$70K now.

1bad540

Guys the car was coming up as 29,995 not 59995. hence the good deal comments

Jason B

That car can't be $29. It's $59, right?

I am not a fan of those 19's for 2013, like the 5 star's better:

Luthian

The dealership sales guy called again; they've dropped the price of the car $1K and he's now quoting me $2800 for 2 additional years CPO. He's willing to show me the CPO paperwork but the car still doesn't show up on the MBUSA.com CPO list.

I put him off again. While it might be nice to have the coverage for 3 years, they'd have to drop the price significantly to really make it attractive.

Mike5215

I have never heard of:

-CPO that doesn't start until the first service visit.

-A CPO car that does not appear in the MBUSA CPO search results. The dealer must buy the CPO certification from MBUSA. They always then add it to their database.

-A CPO two year extension that costs half of the $4500 retail price.

Something is up. Ask him to fax or email the CPO paperwork as well as the part of the contract that indicates the coverage begins with the first service visit.

-

Luthian

He's now backed off of the "starts with the first service visit"; when I asked about that, he said it starts when I take possession of the car. But the other issues still stand. I'm tempted to call another Benz dealer and ask them to verify the VIN as being CPO'd.

DaveW68

The best way that I can describe going from the W221 S to the W212 E is like this:

You are somehow dating a Victoria Secret model for a while. You have all of the sex you can handle and it completely blows your mind. Your friends are very jealous of you and wonder how you scored such a beautiful woman. Then out of the blue she drops you like yesterday's news and you're looking for someone to fill the void. Then you start dating Amy Schumer. Yeah....she's OK, but you've gone from the top of the world to someone who's just so-so. And you're hoping her nice personality and good sense of humor will carry you over for a couple of years. But all the while you're yearning for what you once had and wondering where it all went wrong.

Mike5215

Or get the certification report the dealer had to generate to get the car certified.

1bad540

hahahahahah


In other news just extended my 2 yr cpo coverage thru Jasons benz dealer.