I've always been a fan of the W202 and have been thinking about picking up one as a project/commuter car. After a lot of thought, I think I have settled on wanting a 1998 C230 (I want the newer interior and auto climate control, and am not really interested in a supercharger or 6 cylinder - I'll drive the C250 if I want to go moderately fast).

I've been scouring here and am trying to put together a list of things to look for when I go looking at cars - aside from rust in the usual places, making sure the A/C and everything works - what else should I be looking for? Is there anything in particular with the 722.6 transmission to look out for? Is the EIS an issue in these early smartkey cars?

I'm trying to stay below 100K miles. I found a relatively basic '98 C230 with 68K about 165 miles from here for $5,500 that I really like. I am thinking about going to look at this weekend - I'm reasonably certain I could get them down to $5,000 on it.

 

I'm driving a 98 c230, my first foray into the world of MB. From my experience and everything I read, these are the simplest and most reliable of the late 90's MB's with the 4 cylinder non supercharged engine. Things to look out for would be any rust, and whether the transmission has ever been serviced. I bought my car a year ago for 4000 with 68K on the clock, but the interior was pretty trashed. The car had belonged to an elderly lady who really had no business owning a Benz from the way she treated it.

Other items to look for are operation of the the AC. They use vacuum operated bellows that leak with age and that causes the system to switch its outputs with changes in engine speed and vacuum. There is also a sensor located under the dash that fails fairly often, it will make the system think the evap is freezing up and cause the car not to cool. Fairly cheap part and easy fix.

I spent about 1000 going through my car and changed all the fluids, redid the brakes and rotors and had the transmission flushed at a local shop. Pretty happy with the car, have put about 10K miles on it and for the most part it runs great. Every now and then the idle dips down and occasionally it shifts hard going from reverse to forward when cold. I'm probably going to have to recharge the ac as well, its not been cooling well when its in the 90's.

HTH, good luck with the car. I'd take it to a MB mechanic if you are serious about it just to be sure. And be wary of all the Sandy flood cars that are hitting the streets again.

 

It does help a lot - actually. About a month ago I read through all of your posts about your car - it's inspirational for what I want to do. I want something that I can tear into if needed with a minimal amount of special tools or things to have to fight with.

I found a nice White/Grey 1998 with 100K miles on it for $3,995 at a dealer in New Jersey. About a month ago on a trip to NYC, I took a detour to see it, and as I rolled up I saw it sitting out front shined up with a temporary tag on it

The car I am looking at is in Chesapeake, VA (my 165 mile estimate was off... it's more like 211 miles from where I live in metro DC), so the Sandy thought did cross my mind. I'm probably gonna carfax it tonight and see what that shows.

I'm picky about color choices (green, white, grey, silver exterior, no blue interior and parchment only with green). The one I found is Emerald Green over Parchment - almost my perfect color combo. It seems there are a glut of "Desert Silver" C's around here for sale.

 

Chesapeake is right next to Portsmouth, let me know if you need some help with it. There is a good indy mechanic at European Autowerks over on Virginia Beach Blvd. in Norfolk. They do mostly MB and he did the work on my car.

 

So I just got back from looking at another '98 that I found.

128K miles. Newer brakes, tires, just had the AC fixed this past spring at the local MB dealer (could see a new drier under hood) - very clean underhood, quiet - drives and shifts well. Very clean inside - not well equipped but that doesn't bother me. A/C is cold, carpets are clean and it just got a new right rear window regulator. Wheels are in okay shape except one which has some gnarly curb rash - from the service records it looks like it got a new tire out of the deal from that one.

Negatives - the hood has a bit of a bend in it. It looks like either someone lightly tapped another car or they tried to close it from all the way up without pushing the release buttons. At any rate, it's minor and I can deal.

The worst part - the car has rust on both rear fenders. It's right at the edge where the bumper meets and I would say is 1/2 dollar sized. It's bubbled - not broken through. The undercarriage is clean and rust free, and it makes me wonder if the repairs for the rust wouldn't be that major.

It's carfaxed and checks out. Nothing on record, regularly serviced at the local MB dealer here.

The guy wants $4,500 out the door with a 90 day warranty on the powertrain. Honestly, I'm not that worried about the powertrain - it drives like a softer version of my new C.

He won't come down on price any, but he just got the car in/it just showed up online. I am thinking about offering $4,250 and tell him to keep the warranty as a final.

I guess the takeaway is this - should I be concerned with the rust - or is it not going to be that expensive to have repaired? The car has obviously seen a few automatic carwashes in its day - so the quality of the paint they would have to match is not that of a new car. The car is white over ash MB-Tex.

 

Body damage and rust, run away. Too many low miles cars out there to take one like this. Are you that hard over on a late 90's C series? I'd look at E class as well as some of the coupes for around the same money.

 

I got him to come down on price some, but after more poking around I decided to pass on this one for now. The body work scares me more than anything - but having a full maintenance history and clean carfax along with a lot of wear items being recently replaced, it's tempting.

If he ends up dropping the price some I may still bite, but he's gotta come down at least another $500 over what I had negotiated.

And yes, I am that particular in wanting a 1998 C230. I don't want a 6 cylinder or supercharger, and I want the updated interior. The E or coupes don't interest me much at all.

 

Good luck in finding one. I'll keep an eye out if you want. I've had mine for about a year, and honestly I'd like to move up a bit, but have been holding off since I recently started a new job and have only put 10K on this one. I get about 26 to 27 average around town on a mix of driving and close to 30 on a trip. Its a nice car, but the engine is a bit buzzy, especially when its cold.

Unless I get an offer I cant refuse, I'll probably hold on to it till next year when I'll look for an E class or maybe even an SL. Even then it will have way less than 100K on the clock.