webada

What is your opinion? What are your experience of resale value on your c-class?

I had this conversation with my buddy and can't seem to agree. He believes Lexus has much better resale value. Obviously, I'm already biased by coming to MB forum...

TruTaing

I agree w/ your buddy when it comes to c classes at least. :x

webada

forgot to mention its c-class vs IS

Danny_W

In the UK you get far better prices when comes to resale MB - when comparing C-class vs IS and E-class vs GS (am talking about cars 2000 or newer). Not sure about LS though, seems to keep pretty well.

zoomie

yeah, i think lexus has a higher resale value.
i'm only guessing that because from my extensive research I found BMW too has a much higher resale value than mercedes. This is one of the reasons i picked a mb because of the great prices on used ones. aparently mb lose around $6k as soon as it's driven off the lot.

one reason why BMW has holds is value so well and may be somewhat inflated is b/c there's a cult following for that car. There's less of that phenomenon with the benz. The LEXUS IS though doesn't have quite as high of a cult following as the BMW's, it too has more enthusiasts than mercedes.

Ianbiz

i personally think both brands hold their value well. Right now, the used car market isn't so hot.

Shake

I know Mercedes resale value (most of the models) are crap. Lexus has a very high resale value.

Buellwinkle

Resale value is missleading as it's shown more often than not as resale value from a list price. For example, my 2004.5, I figure it's worth 20K or so. I paid $25K new but list price is $32K. I looked at the baby lexus, it was about the same list price, but discounts where less so maybe it would have been 29K, so unless a 2004 baby Lexus sells for 24K, which I doubt, I would assume the MB has better resale, at least for me but it's close. My Chevy truck had the better resale than MB or Lexus. List price was 17K, I got it at year end blow out in 2003 for $7,900, sold it last month for $8,100.

sanf

bmw, lexus then benz.

according to kbb anyway

but get this. on kbb. my friends 06 TL msrp at 35k, my 07 C230 MSRP at 35k

his trade in value is 28000 and mine is 24000

wtf

Tangerine

I bought my IS250 for the resale value also, that and I didn't want 2 C classes in the garage.

People want to buy a used car that are not known to have problems down the road. You can buy a used Lexus without a warranty and be safe, but the same may not apply to a used Mercedes.

FrankW

resale value only matters if you don't know how to find a good deal on a used car or don't know how to privately sell your car.

bumpnzx3

also- years past, MB was plagued by all sorts of reliability issues (especially the c-class). in just recent years, have they started to get those issues straight. i think once the c-class is able to rebuild it's name,the resale price should go up. maybe not drastically- but it should still rise none the less.

much the same reason a guy i work with sold a 2000 honda civic with 150k+ miles for a pretty good some of money- those cars have built a name for themselves as being able to go forever/be reliable.

zoomie

Unfortunately it's not do too much to the quality of the car. It's more image than anything else. The bmw's were known and still are known to be less reliable (e.g. driver side weather stripping falling down all the time, etc.), but people still want those things. cool factor...or whatever you wanna call the cult act.

another example. if 100 people had 30k to buy a car, there's bound to be tons who would buy crappy ones for whatever reason. quality of the car unfortunately doesn't make up for sales.

yeuchau

I believer Honda/Acura has the best resell value right??

Tangerine

yes and toyota/lexus is trailing behind, i wonder why....

that is somewhat true. but take a look at the s classes and cl. after the first year their value drops a lot (new or used). same with the maybachs. the 7 series is also a good example

alpinweiss

Almost no really high-end car will be able to hold its value well, regardless of quality or reputation. This is mostly a function of the market.

Example (round numbers). You buy an S-Class (or CL-Class, etc.) Mercedes for $100k. You decide to sell it a year later. Unfortunately, retail book value is only $50k. Why? because you are trying to sell an ultra high-priced USED car. Most people who can afford a $50k used car can go ahead and afford a $100k new car. Or will buy a $50k new car. So your potential market is very small. The dealer knows your car will be hard to resell (and likely stay on the lot a long time), so he will only give you $40k for trade-in. Hence, your depreciation is really terrible through no fault of the car, other than price.

Lower priced models from Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, etc. depreciate less due to better affordability. Many people can afford a $25k used car.

webada

That's a really good analysis, makes alot of sense to me.

I did do a 2004 IS300 vs 04 C320 with similar mileage, omitting packages. They are about the same. However, pull up a craiglists and you will see most c-class going below similar IS300....

Buellwinkle

It all has to with discounts. For example, start off low end, you go to a Honda dealer to buy a Civic, to some kids Civics are cool, they will pay a premium to get the cool car, hence Civics sell for very close to list price. Corollas on the other hand, not as cool, don't get a good a fuel mileage, hence they sell for much lower than list price. These two cars have very similar list prices. When you go to sell you are also competing against new, so if a new Corolla can be had for much less than a new Civic, you won't be able to sell the used Corolla for as much. So resale compared to list price would lead you to believe the Honda has better resale value, in reality, the Corolla does. So in cases where dealers are blowing out American cars for below cost, you may have better resale with an American car. Take the large SUV's that sell for 8-10K below list price. 2 years later, you lose 15K in value over list but in reality you only lost 5-7K. Like my painter, bought a Avalanche for $25K, loves it, in 3 years it may sell for $20K used, it was $35K list price. So going by list price it would be really bad resale value, in reality it did better than many Hondas.

powa

IMO lexus have better resale value, simply they are better in reliability, and that is the main concern as for resale value.

Look at Toyota and Honda, their resale value is higher, since they don't have much problems then BMW and Mercedes

Tangerine

Yep, you basically said it better than I could

yeuchau

not to mention that c320 is more expensive when new

BlackLiquorish8

if you want a good resale value get a honda civic or accord

capecodkev

I can't believe how low the resale value is on these vehicles. I recently bought my girlfriend a 2005 C230 with 50k miles for just under $18k. The options on it were what made it an absolute steal. Navigation, heated seats, harmon kardon package, tiptronic transmission, ipod adapter with steering wheel control, power memory driver's seat, lighting package w/ bi-xenon lights, rear seat fold down, $2k MB installed subwoofer, and to top it off, an extended 2 year 100k mile warranty. Clean carfax and the stealership gave me a print out of the service. What is up with the resale???

Since buying I installed new pads all around and front rotors myself for around $330. It's a pretty easy car to work on.

Since I can't believe the price, I've decided to look around for one myself. My last 4 cars have been Porsche 944 Turbos, but those are getting old so it's time for a change.

I have now found another MB and I'm once again blown away by the price. It's a 2005 C230 SS with manual transmission, 65k miles, navigation, heated seats, lighting package, harmon kardon sound, ipod adapter w/ steering wheel control, power memory driver's seat. No fold down rear seats, no subwoofer, and no extended warranty like my girlfriends. All for under $17k.

My girlfriend loves her car, and I think it's pretty cool, especially with the navigation. I prefer the manual transmission, so I think I'm going to jump on this car.

I find the workmanship to be quite good on these cars and I'm blown away at how quickly they have lost value. I've specifically looked for a 2005 over other years since it includes the AMG sport package with the 4 cylinder engine for better gas mileage. I've driven a 2007 and didn't find it to be any faster and it gets a couple miles per gallon less. Perhaps the V6 non-supercharged engine will last longer, but who knows.

What a crazy resale market for everything right now, but MB seems to have been hit harder then most.

Kevin

Tangerine

Yea, the coming out of the w204 chassis isn't helping the w203 much.

The 2004.5 C230 SS has the upgraded 4 piston brakes.

The lower resale value is good for the buyer and not for the seller.