motoadve

Its a 2001 with 42,000 miles
I live in Costa Rica, I called the dealership here and they told me the car has been taken to the service everytime scheduled, regular services and the major repair has been new shocks, and new bearings.
Apart from oils , tires, brakes, nothing else.
Not any major repair or damage has been done to the car.

I have no pics but is silver and looks very good, has dvd player, and 6 cd changer.
Today I drove it and felt perfect, the suspension felt nice, not rattly or anything loose.Costa Rican roads are mountaneous and windy.

Car has no mods

Asking Price is $44,000
Here in Costa Rica the cars pay 50% import duty plus friegth, so in order to have the car here at this price is like saying it costs $28,000 in USA.
Is this a good price?

I have been reading a lot about this car and seems that the super charger needs to be changed at 70,000 miles or so, is this a case with seldom cars or most of them?
Here we dont have extended warranty.

So what do you guys think?
For me is a big investment , so thats why Im worried that maintaining this car could be hard if its high maintenance.

Is it as reliable as a C320?

Fifth Ring

I've not heard anything to indicate that the supercharger will fail at 70,000 miles. You will lose an intercooler pump at 40,000 miles. But other than that, I've seen no indications of predictable failures.

That said, any German car (other than VW) is going to be complex and expensive to fix and maintain.

ScottW911

Having owned 4 VW's over the years, I can say that even VW's are complex (somewhat) and expensive to fix also. Brake pads for my old 02 Jetta ran $400, for a freakin Jetta!

Fifth Ring

True. VWs are basically Audis, and I can attest the Audis are expensive to maintain and fix! And they need a good deal of both!

Motoadve: You need to separate maintenance from repair. Maintenance is VERY low, as is the case with most cars. Repair is another story. In addition to using up rear tires pretty quickly, an AMG is likely to be as reliable as a C320. BUT, when something breaks, if it is an AMG-specific part, it's going to be very expensive to fix.

Where in Costa Rica are you? I spent a wonderful week in Tamarindo this Spring. I certainly wouldn't drive a C32 on those roads! I'm assuming you are in one of the cities.

Bif powell

Here's some advice I posted on another forum for a user looking for buy a C32 and wondering what to look for/have the dealer fix:

To see if it's a Valeo Radiator, pop the hood and look along the top of the radiator, you should see it there - I think it's along the driver's side, but it's just a sticker - not too hard to spot if you look up under the radiator cowling there. If I had to do it again, I would do the following:

I would make the glycol test a condition of sale - then obvious warranty work if it's positive.

In either case, IF it has the Valeo, I would make a replacement of the radiator a condition of sale - I think they're recommending a Behr (sp?). Get the one MB puts on when they replace these.

If they don't want to do all that, have them give you a drive-train warranty and make sure it includes problems with the radiator and tranny. Basically, if you have the Valeo radiator in this car, I would assume that at some point it's going leak into the tranny.

For the jerk at 1500 rpm - drive the car very slowly, so that your rpms are very low after it shifts into second (under or around 1500). Continue on the slow acceleration (sometimes you need it to be REALLY slow, but on my car, I'm getting the jerk at increasingly higher acceleration rates). You might also find that it's more pronounced if you put it in winter mode (W on the shifter plate - it will show W in the instrument cluster). If you have that (and it will really - it almost feels like a shift sometimes, so count the gears off as it accelerates)

Drive over some bumps, it will feel a little loose up there and in the wheel - make them repair that.

The front seat heaters might not work - this can actually be good since you get new leather seats Turn both of them on. The *** AND the back should heat up.

Try moving the windows up and down with the auto-up, auto-down and if they reverse direction make them replace that stuff.

Start the car, let it run for a minute or so, then turn it off and quickly go up to the front pass side. If you hear an electric motor, it MIGHT be OK, but if you don't hear an electric motor running for 10-30 second, then the Intercooler pump is bad. It might be shorted/bad anyways, but this is a good thing to look for.

Tell them to store it up on a lift for the night before a test-drive. Then go there and drive it. If there is a vibration between 30 and 50, get them to address that - it's up on the lift overnight so they can't blame it on tire flat-spotting.

Go on a cruise for at least 20 minutes - take it home if they will let you. See if the side-view mirrors wander and drift - also note whether the pass side mirror stays pointed down after you've put the car back into drive, when you're done backing up.

Let the car idle for a while - if you hear a tapping noise from the front driver's side, that's a purge valve, and although it's working normally and can't hurt anything, that noise is a common complaint and get them fix that - it's like a $10 bracket, so they should.

Check the roof line around the doors for paint bubbling - it will look like small rippling/bubbling. You have to look close, but many of these cars have this problem.

Check the various campaigns and makes sure it's been updated - the most recent one (2006-030011) has reported caused many problems. If it's had that one, make sure to check how it idles at a stop (with the brake holding car at a stop).

Make sure the Cruise-control operates.

Cycle the moon-roof a bunch of times - it should go back and forth smoothly and not be locked.

I'm sure others will chime in, but these are the things that have gone wrong with my car since I got it last Nov (30k then miles to 42k now)

Good luck. It's an AWESOME car. It's just in the shop about once a month or more since I got it.

motoadve

Really thanks a lot for the advice, will follow it to the letter (spanish expression).

Im located in San Jose Costa Rica, we have some fun windy roads in good shape.
The road to Tamarindo is the worst in the country, a flood destryed the pavement.

I have fallen in love with the C32, if it passes all the tests and get a warranty for radiator /transmittion will buy it.

Will post.

eLTURCOamg

hey motodave, what have you been in the shop for? thats an awfull lot of times to be in there? also how many miles is on your c32

motoadve

The one Im looking to buy has 42,000 miles

eLTURCOamg

the i/c pump should be replaced if not already, its about to **** out if it hasnt been changed

eLTURCOamg

biff how many miles on ur c32?

Fifth Ring

Beautiful country with wonderful people.

I bought my C32 at 30,000 miles and got a warranty. You simply can't buy a car this fast and secure for the price. It's a little too conservatively styled for my tastes, but I'm getting used to it.

Bif powell

It's got 44k now.

eLTURCOamg

true, what have u been in the shop for

Bif powell

All of it, plus a new torque converter which did nothing (although it shifts nicer, and...hey...new torque converter, so whatever).

motoadve

Biff Powell how do I or the dealer makes the glycol test ?

Bif powell

I've heard the glycol test is free if your car meets some requiremenst and the 2002 C32 is one of those. Of course I heard this after I had paid to have it done.

You should have the dealer do the glycol test as a condition of sale. It cost me about $100 - there's a reason they're called stealerships...

Basically they will bleed a little tranny fluid out and put it into some tubes from a testing kit. Then it will be either negative (no glycol) or have varying levels of glycol which require varying levels of work - all include a tranny/torque converter flush - and can include a new radiator all the up to a new tranny, torque converter, etc... although my tech told me that MB has told them not to replace any more trannys.

BTW - new valve-body, new torque conveter, etc... and I can feel the 1500 rpm tranny jerk coming back.

drallafi

FWIW, I've had my C32 for just under a year, and there's absolutely no way I'd buy this hunk of junk again.

Hellz *******g no.
Run, my friend... run!

bganson

^ ^ ^ ^

Base your decision on actual facts and not some stupid comment like this one.

silver_metallic

Bif - did you get the updated Transmission Control Unit as well? I bought a $60.00 TCU off of ebay. 10 minutes to install and the jerk is gone!

Fifth Ring

You actually found a C32 TCU on ebay??? We you looking or just lucky?

eLTURCOamg

how much is a tcu at the dealer?

Bif powell

I've wanted to, but I need more information, do you have a part number?

Edit: Nevermind, here's the original post by silver-metallic all.
https://mbworld.org/forums/showpost....4&postcount=25

Bif

amgmark

I assume you bought your car used.. How many miles? Did you get an extended warranty? I didn't know too much before buying mine besides the fact that a warranty is almost a given on all Mercedes.. Having said that I still plan on keeping this car past warranty until at least 110k-120k miles..

Sucks for you dude..

silver_metallic

I got lucky and found the TCU on ebay for about $60.00

Remember, YOU NEED A TCU for a 2003 C32, not a 2002

• Dealer (new) = $500+
• mercedesshop.com (new) =$489 delivered
• salvage yard (used) = $200-300
• ebay (used) = $60-100

ScottW911

Was your car out of warranty? If is still covered, is this not something that the dealer considers covered? Will a dealer even do an upgrade from an 02 to an 03 software program?