Carsy

How long are owners planning to keep thir W204 C Class?

I for one keep my cars for around 15 years. My next vehicle may be electric driven with a flag on the rear

justthinking

My last car was a 96 camry and I kept that car for 13 yrs/190k miles...
I spend less than $4k total in maintenance/repair not counting oil changes & tires during the entire 13 yrs on the camry..

Don't expect MB to last nearly that long..would be happy if I can get 8 yrs/120k miles of not much out of pocket maintenance/repair expenses..
Of course..there is always the possibility of trading the c-class in for the new e-class or glk-class in the next couple yrs..

spoolIT85

i seem to trade cars very 15-16 months... not the smartest financial idea since i am buying them brand new and selling them at the point where the depreciation is just starting to slow down. what can i guy do, i get bored with them easily... ill try to hold on to this car for atleast 4-5 years- but we will see

Nuru

Hey, hey, hey, I have had me car about 5 mos and i have had to replace the AC/Heat control unit only twice sofar - and you say camry is more reliable

I am with you, my next car will be a e-Class or ML class or c-class diesel (slightly used) in all cases, as I do not plan to take the new car depreciation hit anymore.

woofwoofz

I will change mine in 36 months (on a 39 months lease). Because I can claim my vehicle as an employment expense, it is cheaper for me this way. If I was not on a lease, I would plan to keep it for about 150000km.

JimPap

My original plan was to keep it 7 years. I'm 56 and figured that I'd be good for two more 7 year cars after this one. That way I'd stay in a fairly current car.

With that said, I think it'll depend a lot on what happens in the economy and the automotive world. I see cost as being a mix of gas cost and car replacement cost. I might actually be better off keeping my C300 longer and use what would have gone into car payments towards gas and maintenance.

Mr Enigma

The plan is to keep it for about 5 years until I'm 30 then probably get something a bit more up-to-date at the time. There are loads of variables to consider though...

TB5...

when the lease is up i guess... about 36 months left.

i've been thinking about buying out the C class and keeping it around as a secondary car tho... but who knows that is way too far away to make any decisions.

tanktube67

I keep my cars for 3 to 4 years (all lease) in the other hand I purchased my C and the last car I purchased was my 87 GTI that I still have.

MBreezy

Im with you on buying out the C, think I might do the same and sell it privately if anything. But def a lot of variables to consider...i'll jus have to wait n see.

sameer13

Until the end of the lease and then lease a new car.

jeyhun77

As long as the car holds and does not experience anything major, i plan on keeping mine for a while. Had mine for over a yr and still loving it like day 1...

Egonvdv

3 year lease till august 2011

patrickkc

buy back is insanely high though

Azn_C300

7-10 years probably...or until something new and shiny catches my eye. It's paid off so off the books for now. Even when I change, I might end up keeping this car around as my new beater.

ptronus31

Until the C250 Bluetec comes to the USA.

TB5...

yea man you're right...

there is a lot to think about as some others have been saying...

i might put in a lot of money into it so i wont want to just let it go... in 4 years new models will be out and i'm the type that loves something brand new...

then again who knows how everything with the world will be after this recession is over in 2 years or so... or more importantly how financially stable i will be.

or maybe the world will come to and end in 2012

patrickkc

LOL @ 2012 hhahaha

yea, in 4 years the c-class would have had a new facelift. The recession is good for buying new cars if it doesn't affect you. Maybe another thing to consider is gas, the prices went down last 2 months but now its going back up to the 9xs.

Aachen1989

this is my first car, so i would like to keep it for 3 yrs.maybe
if the M3 or C63 is good after 3 yrs, i will say byebye to my car
absolutely need to get a V8..not v6 twin turbo

elandre

Ill probably keep my car for 4 years my guess would be the new C body will be coming out by 2013-2014

Derspeed

I paid half up front in December of 2007, and will pay the second half in March 2010. Therefore, I'll probably keep it and pass it along to my fiancee unless she wants something else. It only has 1800 miles on it, so it's basically new. Besides, I want to do all the mods first.

jstaneff

I'd like to keep it 12 years. I've sort of set up a rotation with 3 cars, trading every 4 years, so the cars reach about 12 years.

"Like to" is the operative word. You never know what might happen to a car. I've had a few totaled, one stolen, etc.

Nice thing about the MB is that it could last 30 years. If my cash runs out, I've still got a car

pnpjrm

I wrestle with this question all the time. I never know what I'm going to do. I'm addicted to cars but can be a bit of a tightwad at times!

I've had it a year and already have 21,000 miles on it. I'll probably keep it around as a third car and get a 2 seater (Merc or Porsche) for daily driving as soon as I can convince my wife we need a third car. Ha ha...

Caperone

The shortest as possible.

I tried to sell my car but depreciation is horrible.

RLE

It usually works out to be 6-7 years. When the value of the used car vs the new car drops to a certain point, then I order another. Mileage is usually around 70K. On a trade in, not exceeding the mileage allowed for a CPO warranty affects the trade-in numbers.