05Css

Well markseven im glad your wife knows what she is doing. At least I hope so for your sake. I will still stand by my statement that most women do not know much about cars and problems that exist may be thought of as the norm. For this matter many guys do not know what they are doing either. You and some others "minority IMHO" have had close to no problems. However the odds are against gameson.

Sorry gameson, I forgot to reply to your question, yes it would say either Brazil or Germany on the sicker, drivers door, like you posted. Good luck to you.

GGM

Yours says Made in Germany. Stuttgart is the headquarters of DaimlerChrylser. Mine says Stuttgart on the top line but "Passenger car Made in Brazil" on the second line. I never thought to look to see if the car was made in Germany or not. Oh well, live and learn. Last MB for me.

GGM

S_kLaSse

markseven's 02 and my 01 are doing well, but GGM's 03 seems to be having problem. So, its all depends. Not EVERY 01 and 02's production has issues, and 03 up has less issues.

Saprissa

S_kLaSse,

the thread is about C240's not C320's !

05Css

I agree with Saprissa, thanks for pointing that out. We all know that not every model during those years did not have an issue. However the chances of gameson getting a good reliable one is worse than playing cards in las vegas. Any way this post isnt about us. Its about gameson, so if you have any questions or need help please post. Sorry for the extra posts

gameson

no problem with the extra post. actually it's quite informational as i havent purchase it yet. but i havent seen it yet. if it's made in brazil, i'll back out no matter how good the price is, but lets hope it's made in germany so i can actually buy one.

Xquisite

Hi all, I need your expertise when it comes to reeling and dealing here since you all have been through the mercedes purchase experience. This is my first MB and I've decided to go for the C320 sports sedan after narrowing the decision down from the A3, 3 series, TL. The options will include auto, spoiler, sunroof package, lighting package. After reading and noticing that many on this forum have done some form of research or another, the million dollar question is.... which is a better deal, going through the traditional bargaining table or going through an auto purchasing program? Please elaborate on your experience and if possible give me a ballpark figure on how much should I expect to pay for this car without tax/licensing (or even "out-the-door" price if that's what you've remember). I live in the San Diego area so if anyone has gotten a good deal at a certain dealership in this location, please share the experience or recommendation. Thanks in advance.

Buellwinkle

I like carsdirect.com as you know up front, instantaneously what you'll pay and no finance guy to try and suck the last dime out of you. I used the carsdirect price and made my dealer match it only because I knew the sales guy, otherwise I would go straight to carsdirect. I've tried Costco and I got 2 quotes on a Jeep Wrangler, one higher than carsdirect, one slightly lower so go for it, what do you have to lose.

amdeutsch

Funny how many times the same question gets asked. Over and over and over again. :v

Xquisite

Thanks Buellwinkle. Sorry amdeutsch.

05Css

I dont mind reading the same question over and over, some times u get different feedback from people who never saw the first or second question. Keep it up people

mick1

my friend got a 05 C320 SS with those options (except for the spoiler). he paid $40,673 before tax and license by bargaining with the dealer.

see240wag

Get the Costco price through one dealer and take it to another dealer and make them beat it. Car buying services are for people who do not wish to or do not know how to negotiate. Negotiating is difficult, especially when pitting yourself against one who does it every day. As to what a car should sell for, sometimes the online services such as Edmunds.com can be dead wrong about a True Market Price. It is best to consult a wide range of sources on sales prices, incentives, rebates, etc., before sitting down with your salesperson. We bought our car on December 11th after 2 trips to the dealer. Before we sat down, the salesman had already offered a price $6,000.00 under MSRP. During our negotiations on a Friday night, the sales manager interjected himself and tried convincing us that they could not (i.e., "would not") sell the car for less than "X" when we knew that he could. We came back Saturday afternoon with a newspaper ad from a competing dealer offering the same model for "Y" and they finally caved. Our refusal to accept high pressure sales tactics and returning to the dealer the next day saved $1,000.00 off of the ultimate purchase price.

TNblkc230wz

If you have access to multiple dealers, determine a fair price and make the same offer to several dealers. Take the first one that accepts it. If they don't accept it immediately, give them you phone number and have them call you when they are ready to meet it. I would definitely low-ball them if you have multiple dealers.

cracker123

was i not supposed to make a page about pricing and financing , well lazy me, i need to get cracking on it.

raunen

I'm curious if there's a thread where owners post what they paid for their MBs. I've tried searching with different strings but nothing definative has returned.

Wouldn't such a thread help people in their negotiations? Essentially have a centralized, formatted database of what incentives owners have information about along with their agreed upon price, before tax, license, and other fees.

I'd like to know for example if what I paid for my car is competitive. Sometimes I feel that I got a deal within my expectations and sometimes I feel I could have done better. This was my first car purchase, one year out of college. I didn't have much experience and found the process (of research and negotiation) quite draining.

Thoughts?

Buellwinkle

I paid the Carsdirect price of just over $25K for my 2004.5 C230 SS with metalic paint and sunroof as the only options from John Maxwell of MB of Laguna Niguel. Of course a C320 will be considerably more as well as one with more options

Redsand187

Hey everyone,
I've wanted to get a C-class sedan for quite some time now. I think I've decided that now is a good time, it will be my 20th birthday present to myself. ... This is going to be long.

Anyways, the local GMC/Mazda/Isuzu... dealer has a 2002 C240 they took on trade in, in black, my prefered color. So naturally I took notice. I went and checked it out a few nights ago, just did a walk around as it was after hours. Everything looks good, other then the chrome on the front passenger corner is peeling, and it doesn't appear that they detailed it. Maybe they did and it just looks like crap. I guess I might be biased as I grew up with my family owning a professional detailing supply company.

The window tag says it's loaded. I guess that it is from all the stuff they listed it had, but it didn't appear to have navigation, which I kind of want. (did they even offer it in 2002 on the c240?) It says it has ~65000 miles on it. And they area asking 20999, they advertised it at 19999 a couple weekends ago, and I know they processed it on the 21st of January, so it's been out there for a while. I went in again a little bit ago, to look at it and try to test drive it, but no one would even come talk to me.

I'm wondering a few things. One, what kind of problems are common on these cars? What should I look out for at 65,000 miles and up? What would be a fair price?

I'm kind of mad that they wouldn't even come talk to me, so I was thinking just talking directly to the sales manager and making the deal short and simple, offer something like 19000-19500 out the door with Tax and License, put in on Amex (so I can rack up the Air Mile's) and drive away. They can cut out the whole commision since no one will sell me the car. I figure if they see 500-1000 bucks profit they should be happy.

Oh, by the way, the VIN is: WDBRF61J42F162521 and is there anyway to tell if it's got Xenon headlights from the option pack or VIN, since those are a must for me. Car Fax is showing 7 records on the VIN, but I haven't bought the report so I'm not sure what they would be.

TNblkc230wz

The price seems high for that many miles. if it has clear head light lenses, it should have xeons. This assumes someone didn't put standard 05 headlights in it. If there are seven records on Carfax, I'd check them first.

Most problems with the early C classes were electrical in nature. The 02s seam to have fewer problems than the 01s and the 03 and newer are pretty good.

Outland

Find a C230 if you can. Coupes can be had for less than the Sedans, and are more fun to drive, IMHO, thanks to the standard Sport package. At any rate, avoid the C240 if you like the drive. The C230's pack another 25HP, making them significantly faster. And they get a lot better mileage to boot.

Redsand187

I'm not a fan of the C230. I don't like the back at all. I want a C Class Sedan. I figured the price was kind of high for the milege. That is quite a few miles for an 02. 30,000 a year.

My biggest contimplation on the car is the power. I like to drive, and drive hard. But I know for my daily driver that isn't the smartest thing. If I got a fast car that I could build, it would always be apart getting some new goodie added. I already have a Jeep as a project, I don't need a Benz as one too. It will be more for cruising. I figure I'll go and drive the hell out of it before I make my final decision. I figure either way it will have to be better then the 00 Eclipse GS that I currently drive every day. But I do enjoy my dad's 04 Maxima, that is a nice amount of power for a daily driver.

Also, I went to School for Automotive Technology and am ASE certified, so I'm not too worried about any problems as I can fix most of them myself. (as long as I don't need MB tools... just trying to see what common problems there were) Electrical and Driveablity are my specialties.

What's your opinion on an aftermarket warranty? I was thinking if anything did go wrong, at least the warranty would cover it, and I could do the work myself at my shop and get paid to work on my own car. But I haven't really looked into those that much yet.

Buellwinkle

Sounds like a great car but only get it if they give you the Starmark warranty. Also, have a body shop look it over as even Starmark cars may have been in accidents or have them sign that it has never been in an accident, that way you have recourse if it has. Also, have the dealer show you the carfax report or order one yourself online, it's worth it.

Nav is easy to get, figure $800-1,500 depending on where you get it (ebay, europimp, forum classifieds). It was a rare option as most dealers didn't equip them on that lot that way unless it was special ordered.

amdeutsch

Nope, in MY02 Xenons looked the same as halogens. Clears ones didn't come about until BIX and in the case of halogens MY05.

rockintunes23

That price is WAY tooo much for that! Its only worth, say, 13 or 14 grand! Try a different car, like a BMW or Acura. You won't like the pick up or the way the car handles in the rain. Go to www.kbb.com and look up the price for yourself. In 10,000 miles things will start to go in a benz, trust me! And when things go in a benz, they aren't CHEAP.

Jim Banville

Rockintunes23, what have you been smoking?!
KBB private party price on that car is $18K. KBB Avg. retail price is over $21K (and he is buying it at retail, right? - not that he shouldn't try to get it for a grand or so less if he can ). I got $21K for trade-in on an '02 C240 about 1 year ago, and it only had the sunroof package. And where is the data to show that an '02 C240 will start to fall apart at 75K miles?