Greetings folks-

First time poster - sorry for the LONG first post. I've been lurking for the last month here reading everything I can in the W210 forum as I am set on purchasing one as my next vehicle. I have been a VW guy for the last 8 years, leasing 3 different Passats (B5 Wagon, B5.5 Sedan, B6 Wagon) and am ready to make a move to my dream car. For some reason the W210 has captivated me for a long time and I have reached the decision to give up on the leasing game and purchase a W210 next that I could drive "into the dirt".

I typically drive about 8K miles a year due to a short commute and have always serviced my VWs according to schedule at the dealership just to avoid any issues with my leases. Having complete warranty coverage and no maintenance worries has always been one of the major pros for leasing in my mind but I certainly pay for it with my wallet. The warranty or lack thereof is the only thing that has me slightly worried about buying a used vehicle, even one with as good as a rep as the W210 has.

As mentioned, I have been reading here for the last month trying to learn as much as I can about these vehicles, getting an idea of issues to look for, what market values are, etc. I reached the decison that the E320 would be enough of a power upgrade for me from the 148hp engine in my B5.5 Passat sedan without giving up too much in the form of gas mileage. I decided to look for a low miles 2002 model, sub 60K miles, in the $13K range. I've been looking at every listing in the usual places and have a good feel for the market.

While it is slightly above my targeted price range I found a 02 E320 with 45K miles on it that has a spotless Carfax showing all service performed by MB service. It is an east coast car. It is being sold by a large MB dealer who is selling it as a CPO car - we have negotiated the price down to $14.5K. Again, while I know that is a more than market value I do feel very comfortable that the service history is documented and has been complete and that it will have a 1 year MB warranty.

When proceeding forward with the deal I was plugged into a sales manager who gave me somewhat of a hard sell on extending the MB warranty by an additional 2 years, up to 100K miles for an additional $2K. Bear in mind the vehicle has 45K now, I will only put 8-10K a year max on it. If it was a 3rd party warranty I would have shot it down immediately but I miust say I'm somewhat compelled to take it just for the peace of mind. If I take it I'll have 3 years of MB warranty coverage left on a 2002 CPO car.

What do you folks think? Am I being a sucker? I haven't done anything yet - I will be buying the car but am not committed on the warranty yet. When the smoke clears with the warranty it would be close to $16.5K for an 02 E320 with 45K miles which does seem awful high - does the CPO status and 3 year factory warranty justify the price?

Any opinions greatly appreciated. Regardless of which way I go on the warranty I look forward to participating in this great community here!

 

too much money, but i do a lot of the maintenance and repairs of my car. my advice if you really love the w210, you make this website and benzworld.org your hobby, buy yourself a nice tool set and get yourself an 00 to 02 for around 10K. 6k is a lot of repairs over three years. my 2 cents

 

Appreciate the reply meooem1 and will definately take the info under advisement!

I am no gear head, that is for sure - embarrassed to say the extent of my automotive maintenance experience is limited to changing a tire or two and perhaps swapping some fuses out. I have a pretty extensive computer hardware background so I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty taking things apart and reassembling them. I've tackled a lot of household DIY electrical and plumbing projects and have successfully repaired appliances around the house rather than calling in a pro. Perhaps there is some hope for me but for the most part I am intimidated by automotive repairs and would probably defer to a professional the majority of the time.

 

Well, I think you've done your homework better than most. A car that an MB dealer is willing to certify is always going to cost more than others. Have you seen and/or driven the car? A six year old car with 45K should have a nearly perfect interior/exterior. If it shows any abuse, keep looking.

Get the VIN (if you don't have it) and go to a local MB dealer and ask them to print out a VMI (Vehicle Master Inquiry). It's free and it's more accurate than Carfax in my opinion.

The extended warranty is a toughie. If you drove 15K a year I'd say cheap insurance since any major repair is likely to be over $2K. But at your low mileage the odds of needing it go down. Bear in mind that these sites are like the ICU of a hospital. The only people who come in have a problem (or an answer) .

Luxury car sales (new and used) are tight in today's economy. If you tell them it's a little too high and thank them for their time, chances are you'll get phone call the next day with a 'new' lower price. It doesn't cost anything and you can always go back and say you decided to take it afterall.

Being able to do your own routine maintenance and light repair is really a plus with these cars since the dealer charge is often almost the same for a oil change on an 8 year old model as a new one. These sites have plenty of trouble-shooting info, DIY's for maintenance, sources for good prices on replacement parts and knowledgeable people willing to share their experience. And those are just the E320 drivers!

Whatever you decide, I think you will be happy with the 'new' ride. My wagon is very comfortable, fun to drive and I get 29+ mpg on the highway!

 

sounds like your pretty handy, and could perform most of the issues that are very common in the w210. it is obviously your choice. as far as an intensive care unit.....i'd call it more of a walk in urgent care center.

 

First off you sound far away from being a "sucker". I don't have a lot of experience with used cars as my current '02 E430 is the first car bought used since college.

My opinion in the case of a late model luxury car, the car matters more then getting the absolute best price. If you pay $1 or $2 grand more than you might have been able to negotiate but you got the absolute best car in your price range, so what. You are out $2,000 over the life of the car. Small price to pay for the right car.

Yes, $16.5k is a little high,(not awfull high) especially in todays market. BUT, you are getting a virtually new condition $45,000 car with a net 55,000 mile 3 year warrenty. As far as the extended warrenty, I would go for it. There are sooooooo many $2,000 repairs available to you with an E class, especially if they are performend by the dealer. Also, as a hedge, I believe that warrenty is transferable should you decide not to keep the car after 1-2 years, and that will be a big draw for any new buyer.

How is the car optioned out? Does it have a lot of goodies or is it a basic car? That makes a difference in price.

Have the car inspected by a trusted independent party for the obvious reasons, even if you have a warrenty. Plus, you might be able to work in a fresh set of brakes, serpentine belt, etc if they are worn beyond 50%.

One final thought, how long until the next service A or B? Perhaps you could get them to include a free service if you bite on the Warrenty?

 

Lots of good advice mentioned above. My two cents. I bought a 99 wagon for my wife five years ago.

At the time of purchase it was five years old with 36K on the clock. No signs of abuse, clean as a whistle. It was starmarked, and I added the extra two years of coverage for $1600. I paid a bit extra for the car due to the starmark, and I went through the same motions your going through as the additional coverage jacked up the price of the car.

My wife drives probably 7K miles a year. In the first three years of ownership the starmark paid over $11K in warranteed repairs. We love the car, but had I not paid more for the coverage, both in the initial price and the extended coverage, I certainly would not feel the same about the car.

Funny thing is, once the car went out from warranty coverage, we have had only one repair. That's going to change shortly though as I can hear one of the cats going bad, but its ten years old and that's part of owning a used car.

Your on the right track. Good luck with your purchase.

 

a 99-2000 for 9 grand sub 100k miles.Private party pro inspected .If well bought,maint yearly runs no more than 200 bucks you will enjoy easy diy's to do the maint.Dealer purchased cars are over priced warranties highly priced with exclusions.If you don't diy expect to be complaining about repair costs and normal maint.Such as spark plug changes that you could do for under 100 and the shop charges 5-6hundred.
Go to benzworld.org w210 section for a list of things to inspect and watch out for
For the price the dealer is charging it is not a good deal.And clean car faxes mean nothing,many a buyer has been fooled by methods around carfax reports.

 

find a good independent mercedes mechanic and stop going to the dealer.

there's a link on mercedes shop dot com

 

Hmmm, seems the OP has vanished, but just in case:

I might have made the same "mistake" of paying too much for a CPO Mercedes, but my warranty more than paid for itself. Since mine was 5 years old, I was only able to extend the 12/100,000 to 24/100,000 but trust me, those warranties are as good as gold.

I doubt that the dealer can get you 3 more years of CPO warranty on any MY 2002 car. If it works like it used to, Mercedes draws the line at 7 years past the date the car went into service. So let's say that it was assembled very late in 2002, not sold until June 2003, and you buy it in December 2008. In this instance, the 7 years will expire in June of 2010 and that is only 19 months away.

Lastly, if the dealer does the CPO inspection by the book, I don't think you'll have to bother with another pre-purchase inspection.

 

You state that the car was inspected by Mercedes and that no other inspection was warranted.Yet the warranty you purchased sure paid for itself.Where is the logic in that?
The dealer ripped you off twice.Once in the over priced car with the assurance of its quality care.Twice with an overpriced warranty That you still believe was a good deal in light of all the expensive issues it took care of.
I will let you guys sort out the value of paying too much for your whistle.

 

Original poster here, checking back in. Thanks to everyone that responded - there is some VERY good advice here. I ended up purchasing the vehicle last week and just this morning got home with it after driving almost 1500 miles over the course of 3 awesome days. To begin with, I am absolutely thrilled with the car and am blown away with how it is leaps and bounds above my 05 Passat in virtually every category I could think of. The smooth quiet ride, the substantial feel of the vehicle, the very peppy V6, the fit and finish of the interior - I absolutely love the car. I averaged 30MPG the entire trip and was floored that I was able to get 520 miles out of a tank of gas before the refuel light came on.
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While I'm sure that ohlord and meooem are cringing while reading this I did go ahead and purchase the additional 2 years on the Mercedes warranty. As to musikmann's query about the 2002 model year being eligible to extend the warranty until 2012 I can only say that from my experience it is possible - I have the official Mercedes warranty paperwork showing November 2012 or 100,000 miles as the expiration. My understanding from the dealership was that I would only have the opportunity to extend at the time of purchase as they could only CPO a 2002 car through December, after that it would not be eligible.
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I did take the comments from ohlord and meooem under great consideration, especially ohlord's after seeing so many great DIY and helpful posts that he has made in this forum and elsewhere. As I explained in my initial post I know my current limits when it comes to automotive maintenance - I hope that through the information gleaned here I can perform many of the maintenance tasks on my new W210 I couldn't base my purchasing decision on this plan. Furthermore, I have a very practical and cautious wife who was very much in favor of the warranty and that was a big factor in the decision as well. She felt much more comfortable with the purchase having 3 years of warranty on the car and after reading the handful of comments from folks here who had taken advantage of warranty covered maintenance it just iced the deal.
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The car is in perfect condition with the exception of some very minor curb rash on one of the stock wheels, a small (~3mm circular) black spot on the headliner, and a 4cm scratch on one of the exterior trim pieces that covers the B pillar which can probably be buffed out or I could buy a replacement part if it bugs me that much. Cosmetically it looks as if it is brand new. After driving it pretty hard for 3 days everything is in perfect working order with the exception of the AM radio antenna - in the city it works OK picking up stations but in the sticks it is useless. While I have already read here that it is a known issue (before you ask there is no tint on the windows) you can be guaranteed that I'm going to be taking it by my local MB dealer to give my spiffy warranty a go and will not let this go until it is fixed. I listen to too much AM radio (was needing my NFL scores yesterday!) to go without and I'm going to get my money's worth out of paying extra up front. While I could probably tackle it myself for the next three years anything like this that comes up will be done by MB.
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THANKS AGAIN to everyone that posted - I knew when I posted originally I was going to get a variety of viewpoints as everyone has their opinions about these type of things. I appreciated all of the input as everyone made valid points. I'm thrilled to have joined the MB club and look forward to many years of happiness with my W210 - I drove my Passat this afternoon to the office and it felt like a go-cart in comparison!<o:p></o:p>

 

ohlord,

Since your post immediately followed mine, I'll assume you were addressing me.

1) The problem areas that my warranty covered could not be foreseen by the thorough 150+ point CPO inspection and did not occur until after several months of ownership. I suppose you know what the squeaky steering wheel issue is, and that was first problem I had. That job was worth several $hundred.

2) I later had problems with the NAV/COMAND and they replaced it with a brand new $4000 head unit.

3) Then I had some phone problems and they upgraded my analog TeleAid unit to a dugital one. I'm told that job is an $1800 upgrade.

4) I squeaked by, barely under 80,000 miles, and they replaced all the catalytic converters under that federal law. Had I been beyond 80,000 the warranty would have covered that.

5) There is no co-pay or deductable, so I paid nothing for the several SDS hook-ups, no labor or parts, nada.

Are these enough reasons for someone with considerably less automotive skill than you have to buy a little insurance? If that's not logical, I don't know what logic is, and maybe you don't either.

 

You're more than welcome from my end and I think you made a wise decision. Thank you for explaining the current CPO situation. In my opinion. MB has made an already good system better.

Welcome to the sometimes frustrating, but usually rewarding, world of Mercedes-Benz ownership!