Im new here so a big shout to everyone

As in the subject, Im looking to buy an E500 2004 (maybe 2005?). This will be my first MB so I have no idea what problems to look for or if Im not making a mistake for the money here.
Im looking to spend around $35 K, Im prolly going to buy either in Germany or Switzerland (I live in Poland)
Im looking thru mobile.de / autoscout24.com / etc
Im fairly sure that I want a silver exterior with white leather interior plus some nice 18" wheels.
My questions are :

- What shall I look for when buying this car, what faults, any tips ?
- What craps out in these cars ? I hear that these new E classes are not as fault free as the old ones (all the taxi driver here drive the old ones and that mostly say that the new E class is a financial nightmare)
- What max mileage should I look for ?
- What REAL fuel consumption am I looking at here ?
- Do they make these nice silver exteriors with white leather interiors ? So far I could only find <black exterior/white interior> or <silver exterior/black interior> and I want <silver/white>
- Prolly not the best place to ask but...how does the E500 compare to BMW 545i as far as driving pleasure, cornering and overall ?

Id realy appreciate answers to these...Im an IT instructor so I dont realy know much about cars and what I do know, I learned from the internet so go figure...

cheers all
koti.

 

thanks for the detailed input everyone

 

If you are buying a car from Germany, just bring it to a MB service center and ask for a complete inspection including TÜF certification. If it comes back clean, the car is probably perfect.

Have you considered buying a car from the US, with the dollar being so cheap now, you could buy a much newer model and just have it shipped.

The closest thing MB has to a white leather interior is the designo Porcelean leather. There is also the savanna leather with black interior, savanna being very light leather. Every other color is much darker.

Fuel consumption depends completely on how you use the car, but I would plan on 12l/100km.

 

Thanks for the leather tips Untertürkheim.
12L/100km sounds like a dream but seems a little abstract

As for buying from the US, Im having a serious dilemma here.
The price difference of a 2005 E class in some cases is even up to 35%
I mean I can see the prices of cars on ebay and believe me, they are EXTREMELY atractive for me comming from Europe.

But...

Heres a sample car import offer from one of these local companies we have here:

Cost of transport to the port in New York City - $1,2 per mile of transport.
sample costs of transport :

New York - 0-300$
East USA - 200-400$
Central USA - 600-800$
North & South USA - 800-1000$
West USA - 1000- 1400$

Cost of shipment of the car in a container to Poland - Gdynia
Small car - 1300$
Average car - 1400$
Large car - 1500$
VAN or TRUCK - 1800$

Cars are transported in standard sea containers - 20 feet or 40 feet

Duty tax costs:

Duty fee: 10% of the car & transport costs.

Excise (I dont know if I translated this properly, its like a second duty tax) - 13,6% cars above 2000 cm3


VAT - 22% of the car price + Duty + Excise (f*****g theves)

Cost of Duty formalities in Poland
about $700

Cost of the transaction (what I pay to the company)
Between $1000 - $1500 depending on the model, etc.
They charge You this for :
- Finding the car for You according to Your specs.
- Reserving the car.
- Preparing all the documents.
- Duty formalities in the USA.
- Sea transport to Poland.

Looking at the above, its not quite as sweet as it looks for me on ebay.
Seems it all comes down to lowering the price of the car on the invoice cause I aint paying Duty 10% + Excise 13,6% + VAT 22% + hell knows what else from an invoice of $30K +
But Im not sure I want to get into "lowering the invoice" stuff.
Anyways the above would probably make the price higher then buying in Germany or Switzerland or Belgium or wherever in Europe.

Or am I wrong here ? Help ?

Anyways...I do have some friends in Michigan that I could ask for help but ther'e not realy fit to buy me a Benz as all they drive up there is John Deere

 

Hey!! That's not right.

So many taxes you all have to pay. I think it'll be rather difficult to find a silver/white combination E-Class. I think the white interior is already rare enough, but to have that with the silver exterior.

Good luck anyway.

 

Keep in mind a couple of things...you can probably buy the car you want for between 20-25k euro, and then transport a west coast car from a west coast port. The only shipping cost should be the container from port to port.

 

Transport is not an issue, its pennies compared to :

- 22% VAT
- 13,6% Excise
- 10% Duty

Thats 45% I have to pay form the Invoice (even more cause I think the 13,6% Excise is payed from Invoice + transport + Duty)
However I look at it it doesnt add up unless the invoice will be extremely minimal.
Am I missing something here, anybody ?

Edit : Im sory if Im out of line here with my "questionable questions"
Maybe someone that knows this business can send me a private messege explaining all this ?