Kemmy

I have been educated much by this group regarding the c300,s. I am not in an area that has many MB,s. The local GM dealer got one on trade. An '09 4matic sport,nav,media, hk sound, premium pkg. Has 109k mi. Hiway. Not a single door ding and only a few small rock chips. Drives very tight, looks almost new in and out. Needs tires, back pilots are worn on inside edge. My wife and I set a a budget of around 17k for a car before stating to shop. We seldom like the same cars. Because this car is only one block away, she looked at it and likes it, as do I. The GM dealer has just got the new tires(bf Goodrich of some series) and will mount them in the next day or two and will see if they can do a four wheel alignment. He wants to sell or move it to an area that is hotter for MB. I will derive it again when the new tires are installed and have to make my final offer. GM dealer said he had offers from two MB dealers to buy it, one offer for 17.5k. I can buy it for matching that offer. I have cash, assume the MB dealers also and not a trade, but not sure. My question is, does 17.5k seem like what a MB dealer would pay for a car like this? I found a MB servic director on the phone that would talk to me, looked up the vin, he said it looked as if all service was done, oil evey 10k, trans at 46k and another at 78k, A And B,s done. I can do all minor service and with the info from this group am sure I can do all regular maintaining of this if purchased. I have looked some on line for other c300,s, only ones I a find in that price have the same miles. If there are ones out there with less mi. And same price please direct me. Even though my wife likes the car, if it means going over budget she will want to look at another brand with fewer features and pizazz. We have no debt and way more liquid than that but have set a budget before starting our search. Do dealers generally pay cash from other dealers or trading slow moving brands more common? Would you all be scared of the hi miles? Sorry for the long post. I know most of this is a personal choice but would like to hear some opinions please.

RLE

First of all, don't let them put those BFG tires on if you are going to buy it. Insist they lower the price enough for you to buy the tires the car should have on it, not some Malibu. See the August 2012 issue of Car & Driver for the latest summer tire tests. As to alignments, a good idea but a GM dealer is not the place to do it. The MB dealers are the most capable and will be
able to recognize any related problems which would sail right by a GM mechanic.

Will they offer some kind of warranty on it? The car has just about reached the mileage and age for the steering lock to fail (EIS) which will be a shocker if you have to pay for it.

Kemmy

RLE, the BFG tires I'm sure will be going on, GM dealer is selling it out of my area and he already has the tires and won't send them back. Does the '09 have as many problems as the '08 regarding the EIS. That is a big concern for me as my wife will drive the car out of town much of the time. Would be nice to know of all the '09 models, what percentage have developed problems with EIS or related components causing a no start.

Thank you for replying.