At a local dealership was a black 2002 c230k with 41,000 miles for $13,999. Drove great and nice looking inside and out. I currently own a 94 e420 and will be selling soon because it's time for a newer, less mileage car. If I buy the car what will I be getting into?

All input good and bad please.

Thank you,
Sharlene

 

the earlier years of the w203(c-class) have some minor electrical issues. after the facelift it has gotten better though.

 

02 c coupe shouldn't worth more than 9k

 

if your not a diy'er. BUY EXTENDED WARRANTY.

it'll save you a lot of money in the long run.

 

kbb private party is higher than that and kbb is always lower than market price and way lower than the dealership price. that being said 12k maybe 12.5 should be the highest price even though the miles are low.

 

Auto or manny?

 

First off try to get the price down to KBB private party price since the dealer paid trade in for it. I think their asking price is pretty high, but they always are. Just off the top of my head (which is not much) I would say a price aroung $11K is good. Another way to go would be private party. The dealers are only good for new cars or used cars that are 1- 2 years old after that they are a ripoff.

As a previous poster wrote, if you cannot do much of the maintenace yourself I would probably avoid these cars the maintenace is very expensive. A warranty is also very expensive too, so you lose both ways. Some cars are very problematic some are perfect. Hopefully this one is not a problematic one. Since it is older all the problems may have been worked out. The low miles worry me. It could be a sign that it has been moved from one owner to the other. If you need a realibale inexpensive car you would be better off with a Honda or Toyota, but they are not as nice looking.

The dealer can give you a history of all repairs done. That would be repairs at dealers of course and not repairs at an independent shop. Alot of repairs would worry me also. Also check Carfacts, that will give you a good idea of the amount of owners it has had. Too many owners could indicate recuring problems.

Sorry to ramble on I hope this helps.

 

I love my car, but it hasn't been without it's problems.
Most of those problems were covered under the extended warranty,
and also until 2005 MB gave free maint. too.

So, you could take the car for in for any little thing, and they'd fix it!
Often those little things resulted in major work being done, as a service bulletin had been issued,
and some times that work wasn't done right and that resulted in many more problems.
Since my local dealer owns their own fleet of loaners, they often gave me a loaner for a week, and one time due to an issue with the seatbelt having the wrong connector, they kept it for 1.5 months!

Funny thing was there really wasn't anything wrong with the seatbelt, but the
clasp has a bad habit of getting caught in the door and punching a hole
in the speaker grill.

The SA put down that the seatbelt was sticking so I could get a new speaker grill. But when they got the part the connector style was different and
thats when the fun started.

That problem came back yet again, and was finally resolved at
the dealer in Sac. I had good luck with them the one time I went there.

So here I am at 123K miles, and it's finally running pretty good.
I'm completely on top of the maintenance, and doing most of it myself.
Since I got all the bugs worked early on, I'm crossing my fingers for many more trouble free miles.

I just flushed the transmission, which MB says isn't required, but
most people here find it to be beneficial, making the tranny run smoother,
(yes it does!) and longer life.

I'm pretty mechanical and use the net and sites like this to help diagnose any problems, but yeh, it's not a japanese car.

The engine in the 2002 C230 is better in my opinion as it had been around for a long time and it's been pretty solid.

 

The moral of the story is that it could be a great car if you get a warranty to 100K miles, and check for the more common problems, a big one being oil in the wiring harness?
Something I need to check myself, and have never been completely clear on.
The fix or prevention is just a small cable that put some distance between the source of the oil, and the harness. There's a similar issue with the newer engine as well.

Another common problem is the coil packs, which sit right on top of the spark plugs and seem to have a lifespan of 50-80K miles.
This causes the car to run on less than 4 cylinders.
They only cost about 35 each, but if you take it the dealer they replace them one at a time, which means, you end up visiting 4 seperate times!
The good new is that there's only 4. On the 6 cyl, there's 12 of these buggers!

Once I realized that these were a problem (when the 2nd one went bad)
I replaced all of them at once. These are super easy to replace, anyone could do it. I keep a spare in the car at all times and a code reader.

I had a an Italian car before a Mercedes...I think the Italian car had less problems.

One other things, as I mentioned I liked the Sac dealer.
Their service prices were much more reasonable than here in the bay area,
and while at 1st they didn't give me a loaner since I was having just
maint. items done, (oil etc) but then they found other items covered under the extended warranty they gave me a loaner for almost a week, and went way above and beyond on what they did.

Most dealer don't provide free loaners after the initial warranty expires.
I was very impressed.

 

Thank you everyone for your input. On sunday my husband and I bought the car with a warrenty good for 5 years or 111,500 miles. Walked out the door wth car, warrenty, tax, dmv, ect. for $17,500. We love the car and the fact that it's an auto and manual, sports model with TC. My husband knows how to work on them and what to except which is a bonus. We have a 94 e420 at home that has had it's issues but were able to take care of them ourselves. My husband drives a 97 Grand Cherokee and it's had it's own issues that were a headache. In my opinion no matter what car you buy the car is going to have it's issues.

 

You should be very happy with it, then.

I was going to say "avoid it like the plague", but seeing that you bought it, you did do the smart thing and get the extended warranty.

As someone has said, the early C's either are fairly problematic or have at worst minor issues. Hoping that yours is the latter. Good luck with the new car.

 

Wow. 17.5 for a 2002?
Thats a lot.

Whats "TC" ?

Post pics!
Does it have leather and the sunroof?

 

The car was a leased vehicle, seems to be why the miles are low. The carfax report showed that the original owner didn't drive that much, so it may have been the night on the town type of car. The retail value for it on kbb was $15,500, private party was $12,500. We bought it from carmax so there's no real price hagling and if a car comes to carmax to be sold with any problems, (worn tires, ect) after the full inspection they fix things. We had a comfortable experience there. I've been looking for a newer car for a while, did my research and was pleased to come across this car. My husband and I test drove other cars and the MB was the car that didn't make him car sick. I very much hope she is a good car to me and will be alert for what lies ahead.

I'll post pics of her when I get home from work tonight.

 

Ha, thats funny. I felt the same way looking at cars back in 2002.
Nothing "did it" for me, as in didn't get me excited about ownership, and the thought of spending 20-30 grand on a car that didn't inspire me, well you know.
When I 1st saw the C230 coupe, I thought, now this is a cool car.
Especially with the pano sunroof, which was the 1st of it's kind, and
I had to have leather, and the sport package. It took a while to track down the exact car.
It really does it all. Comfort, fun, 4 seats, and with the seats folded down, you have 5' of unobstructed hauling space and 25 mpg.
The 2002 has more power than the later 4 cylinders, which I really enjoy also since I travel on hilly roads, and not having to constantly downshift is cool.
Probably a little early to talk about mods, but a set of thicker sway bars will make the car drive a lot better, for only about $200, from the C32 C class,
direct bolt on, right off the parts shelf at MB (and then springs, and then an ASP pulley and so on ... ;-)

Congrats!

Does it have a sunroof and leather? What color?

 

The color of the car is black. It has the pano sunroof. It has heated sharp looking cloth seats. I'm enjoying the cloth seats. My 94 e420 at home has leather and they do look nice but in hot weather I'm going to appreciate not burning my rear in the summer or freezing it in the winter waiting for the car to warm up so the heater puts out something. The sport suspension is quite nice TC-traction control, and someone getting into the back seats isn't has challenging as I though it would be. She can sure move as well, never thought a 2.3 I4 would be so nice after having a v8.

 

i also got my car from carmax, and bought the extended warranty! thank goodness a lot of the problems came early on during hte summer, actually most within the first month, which let me get a free loaner and saved me over 2k in repairs. i also had to get my coil packs done, but after that my baby runs like a champ! although i am paying close to 21k for mine, just knowing that carmax will take care of me gives me comfort.

 

Yup. It moves. Well sounds like you're happy so thats all that matters.
You'll be happy with the gas savings too!
I drive nearly 2K miles a month lately, and average in traffic about 20mpg.
Every 1mpg more I get is $20 a month less in gas!
Do, if you're going from a v8 thats averaging 13-18 , you'll be saving
quite bit even if you drive a lot less than me.

Well that job just ended so not so much driving for me.

Well, when you're ready to really make it move, invest in an ASP pulley boost kit. Over 100K miles on mine and still running great. Adds 30hp for about $600.

 

i wouldn't buy anything but a 2002-- the 1.8s are anemic and underpowered as well as untuneable due to a headder attached to the KAT and the boost on the supercharger is already set higher to compensate for the .5 liter of displacement loss----regardless of the issues on both, I have 165,000 worry free miles on my 02 coupe now~!

my fiance's coupe is another story however, my advice is to change the cam sensor out ASAP (search for m111 cam sensor)

 

MB girl, you should have your husband check this though...easily done.

 

Thank you for the upgrade sensor information, I'll defenitly let my husband know and get it ordered. I'll first check with my warrenty, since last thing I want to do is void my warrenty for modifications. Does anyone know where I can buy the cargo cover for the back of the hatchback? I've searched ebay and various internet sites but haven't been able to track one down. Would be nice for the world to not see what's in the back.

 

Geez, I'm spending WAAAY to much time online.

As you'll see in the this thread, I checked and found I had the upgraded
cable, or rather it's a piece that goes between so the real harness doesn't get oil in it.
Just have him check it...if the harness has oil in it, that would be something for the warranty. (read the whole thread)

Re: cargo cover. Didn't one come with the car?
Should be a cover that opens and closes in the back with the hatch.

Aside from that, tint works well. But you have to be careful...search on some threads. They have to put the tint on the hatch with the hatch down, from the inside of the car. (Watch them! don't trust them)
If they don't, and have the hatch open, water gets into the top of the hatch, where the antenna for the radio as well as the door locks resides, and it requires replacing the whole window to repair it. And costs about 1 grand I've read.

 

I'll have him check the harness. My car didn't come with a cargo cover. I mentioned that to them but the warrenty won't cover it since it isn't hurting the car. Can probably make one somehow. I'm not a big fan of tinting and rather keep things out of sight.

 

not bad not great...as long as you like it...enjoy and welcome

 

Lol, tell me about it. Almost every other car I have driven, I get dizzy in. I also hate being a passenger in someone else's car, and when they step on the brakes the car leans forward, which seriously messes with my equilibrium or whatever it is that makes us dizzy

But when I drive my C230 I don't get dizzy, even when I slam on the brakes I'm fine...