KJ6897

So i'll be getting my first car soon and I was considering a 2013 C300 4Matic with around 30k miles for $20K and from what i've read from some threads it seems like buying the car without a CPO is a bad Idea. I plan to buy the car with whatever factory warranty is left and drive it for atleast 4-5 more years. Should I be worried about the car breaking down over time and the maintenance cost rising? My dad has a Jag XJL overseas and once had a maintenance trip which costed him around $3500 (basic maintenance + new brakes) I dont know if its because it's overseas or what that makes it so expensive but i would be OK with spending around $1000/yr for maintenance. So... is the 13 C class manageable to maintain when it runs out of warranty or should I look at a Honda Accord or something?


Thanks in Advance, K

NaBenzo8

Hi K,


I just picked up a 2013 last week, if it's a certified used car you'll get the remaining warranty + 1 year. In my case that means I have warranty/maintenance through Dec 2018. Many 2013 cars are sold in 2012 so make sure you verify, for me an extended warranty made sense in the event of something costly it will be covered but also I can sell the warranty back(at a pro-rated amount) if I want to discontinue it. I do a lot of my own repairs on other vehicles but that was some peace of mind for me.

KJ6897

So it's best to pay extra for a CPO. But will maintence be manageable after warranty runs out is what's bothering me.

michail71

Do you mean routine maintenance or breakdowns? Most of the regular maintenance can be done DIY at a big savings or through non-dealer specialists.

I've never bought extended warranties before but I'm thinking about it with this car.

NaBenzo8

Everything that I've read and heard say that with regular maintenance these cars will treat you well. Oil changes on your own are pricier than another car, 8 quarts of full synth is $$ but only every 10K miles.

toobrokeforC63

I have my c300 since early 2014. I bought it with 14k miles on it. I now have 41k miles on it. Absolutely no problem with it yet. The dealer says my brakes are still good for 2 years and I often drive it like I stole it.


I'm VERY far from being a mechanic expert. But I like to think that almost all the major problems on this gereration of c300 have been fixed on the 2013 since it have been pretty much the same mechanic since 2008.

nelson g

I purchased a 2011 C300 with 24k miles. It came as CPO car when the warranty was about to run out this past February I purchased an extended warranty for $1900, it is a two year unlimited mile warranty from Mercedes ( I purchased it from Jeff at Austin Mercedes he beat my dealer price by a grand).

I do my own oil changes and brake work. I keep a record of when I did the oil change and I keep the receipt for the oil and filter. And I buy Mercedes oil, air and cabin filter from an online supplier. I have the dealer do the transmission this way if there is a problem down the road I won’t get hassled.

If this is your first car I would suggest figuring out how many miles you think you will put on, then you can estimate your cost of maintenance for a year. Brakes and tire would be a separate cost factor. Depending on if the car you get is a sport or luxury; I have a sport with staggered wheel sizes so the tires wear at a different rate. Brakes will depend on the type of driving you do, but they are inexpensive to do and I always feel better knowing I did the work myself and saved a ton of dough.

I have 72K miles on the car now and have had zero problems. I love the car and it is my daily driver it is a nice car and drives well.

KJ6897

I mean gotta consider both when it's runs out of warranty. I've never did any hands on work with cars but I plan to do basic stuff like oil changes and what not.

cvx5832

Working on the W204 is easy. If one is willing, the know-how and tools are out there.

KJ6897

Planning to get a 2013 C300 4matic sport. Probably 13,000 miles a year. Not thinking too much about the tires but more of the regular maintence. Like how often it goes into the shop for maintence and repairs. This is going to be the only car in the family so it would suck for it to be sitting in the shop a lot.

Alfadude

Maintenance is probably no worse than any other car. As for repairs, who can say? There are people on here that have said their cars are extremely reliable. Others, not so much. If you are buying a car that only has 13K miles on it and is still under warranty for a couple more years you should be good. If you see a pattern of breakdowns you can always sell it before the warranty runs out. I think these are generally reliable cars if maintained, but overall would need more attention than a Toyota would. If absolute reliability is your biggest priority then buy a Toyota or Honda.

cvx5832

^ This. If reliability is priority #1 a Toyota may be the better bet.

If you want specifics, I've owned our C300 since new. I find it reliable, more so than my 2 BMWs, and cost me about $68 on average per month for EVERYTHING except gas since April 2008.

Click on my signature to see my log since new and see what your ownership may involve. I've done everything myself except the first transmission service and everything else I don't have equipment for (tires, warranty work, software upgrades, etc.)

Put another way, I find it reliable enough that I still haven't been turned off by the brand to remove it from my choices on my next car purchase.

Alfadude

I agree with you. I was being kind of sarcastic I guess. I just said that because generally when I see posts asking "how reliable" a car is either because they "heard" is was problematic from somewhere or someone or read a few posts on here where someone had some kind of issue and they are kind of spooked about buying one. They don't seem to read (or at least remember) anything where someone posts how great the car is.

For some people having to replace brake pads every X number of years means a car isn't reliable. Before I bought my C300 last fall I owned a Jaguar X-Type for almost 7 years. If you read some of the reviews on that thing you would run. Was one of the most reliable cars I ever owned and it was dirt cheap. Loved that car and that is on some lists of the worst cars of all time.

No one can tell you how reliable a particular car is. For every person that loves it there is usually another saying all the issues they had.

cvx5832

What has always kept me with Mercedes and BMW is the availability of WIS/EPC (or TIS/ETK for BMW) and a robust DIY community. I almost tried a Lexus recently, but couldn't find sites like realoem.com. Documentation is king when it comes to DIY projects.

Take my last starter change on my 3-series. $130 bucks for a brand new, original part and just 4hrs of my time. My neighbor recently replaced his for $1300 at a dealership. You can just guess what his opinion was of BMW after that.

michail71

I've had a whole mess of problems with mine but I attribute it to some random bad luck. I have a theory that if anything does go bad with newish cars it's often under the 30K mile mark anyway.

I don't have a CPO but I'm going to try to purchase and extended warranty of some kind just because I like this car.

ezshift5

Two years back - when my C250 coupe made me a "purchase pushover" - the finance guys told me that there are two types of M-B owners: "Those with a warranty and those who live in fear".....................

Sure, it's salesmanship (but i put away my checkbook - as he asked - and we proceeded: first two payments on the house, first two 10k service ditto. CPO 1-yr factory warranty extension. I returned the favor - - - got the extended warranty to 100k.

It's a beautiful car.

all the best, ez.........