ron54

Just test drove E500 4matic wagon at dealer. Its a 2004 with 45,000 miles in prestine condition. Its original window sticker was 68K. The dealer is charding me $29,000 certifed for 1 year 50K power train. Is this a good deal, or too much?

Is this a good car for another 150,000 miles in 5 years, as I do 30K per year?

Thanks

paulybagadonuts

Not a bad price for retail but you know you're paying for that certification and warranty

The guy that traded it in probably got around $21k for it.

It's only money.

dac01

For what it's worth;

I just (six weeks ago) picked up a '04 E500 Wagon for 30k --
57,000 miles, one owner, no damage, locally owned, no salt, no rust
purchase price included the CPO 1 year warranty and an additional 2 years
for a total of three years and up to 100k miles.
also got 1.9% financing through the dealer

The dealer did a bunch of work for it to meet the CPO standards this included
a couple of new seals on the transfer case
new pads & rotors ( all wheels)
replace the a/c compressor pulley
new tires -- pilot primacy
replace broken front cup holder
Flex service B
New windshield - hair line crack and would not pass state inspection

Car has the premium package
heated/ventilated front seats
drive dynamic front seats (very nice)
DVD Command Navigation
and with the software date it plays MP3 DVDs but only in the single slot
Bi-Xenon Active Light system ( which I think means curve following ?)
Heated steering wood/leather wheel (only the leather part gets warm )
Power liftgate (though this was overkill but turns out it's very handy)

Was very happy with it for the first two weeks and 2k miles. I did slide
it off the road, into a ditch and across two rather large rocks after a long
snowy drive. Did $10k plus in damage, two wheels, exhaust system, lots
of steering parts and one cross member, along with some body work but
not too much, fortunatly the no one was hurt, mental anguish aside, and the
airbags did not deploy.

Next winter there will be a set of studless snows on the car -- all season
radials just don't do it.

Just got it back from the repair shop / dealer, drive just fine and still
rock solid on the highway at speed.

I agree with the prior posters comment about the mark up -- the dealers
do get their share -- but with a car this complicated I wanted the warranty,
and the support. I also know they spent some non trivial amount of
money getting to meet the CPO specs

It went back to the dealer after the first week and they fixed a
number of small problems with no questions. They updated the command
software, enable the puck w/ a tail for the phone, and they did split
the cost of the nav data update disk.

For what its worth -- on the highway, w/o cruise control I'm seeing 21mpg
on average -- 70+ with cruise control, at 70 it's more like 25mpg which
for full time all wheel drive and V8 at 4,200lbs is pretty good.

WEBSRFR

You should be able to get that vehicle for around $25K. Your current offer is good but you can do better. A friend recently bought a 2005 E500 Wagon with 34K miles for $30,200 (Nav, HK Audio, and Xenon). So for a 2004, I wouldn't pay more than 27K.

Untertürkheim

For 29, get him to give you the MB extended warranty until 100k miles.

skip2929

Check ebay listing #300207369862......This was or is my personal car that I gave to New Hope Auto Sales to sell on consignment.....auction ended when buy it now and reserve of $29995.00 was not met. The car is PERFECT and is probably the most loaded E500 wagon produced.....close to $79,000 list price. Car has transferable MB warranty until Feb. 2009 or 100,000 miles. Please post on this thread or send PM if interested. Price is negotionable. Check autotrader or ebay as listed above.

cyclrder

make sure you get the MB warranty!!!
I bought my 05 with 7,500 miles on it a year ago.. was the dealers wife's car .. I paid $45K for a car I considered in "new condition".
Upon rolling it out of the Cherry Hill MB dealer in NJ …. And 15 miles up I 95 … the crap wrong was starting to unfold:
*two bent wheels (probably from a slide off the road)
* sunroof that wouldn’t open
*shot windshield wipers
* numerous other things that I am too lazy to go and pull the file on to list here for you that you would have expected to have been sorted that weren’t..

Cherry Hill Mercedes Benz sucks ***!

It just hit 26K miles yesterday.. and a Porsche dealer said they would give me $25K trade on a new Cayenne GTS stick.

I've never seen more than 21 mpg.. ever!!! more like 10 mpg in the city.
warranty work has included:

* new transfer case (turning in a parking lot.. the car would feel like it was binding)
* new steering column (if it sounds like it is binding when raising and lowering)
* air suspension fixed twice (probably the same fix.. but only did one side at a time)
* tons of little things that were screwed up while at the dealer by the dealer when they were fixing something else!!! (broken seat adjuster switch, misaligned dash pieces, broken trim, and so on.. all broken parked on the dealer's lot while fixing other crap!)

now the flipside... after putting my summer tires on within the last week.. I have had 5 people stop me and comment on the car..

with Dunlop D3 snows.. the car is unstoppable in 18in of snow

it will smoke a mustang GT off the line and a ton of other cars too

love the car and the dealer has fixed everything and I mean everything under warranty without one complaint or fight...

buy the car and enjoy it.. but get the warranty!

WEBSRFR

Good advice! Their offer of $25K for the car makes sense because they are selling at dealers for around $30K, which is why I think $29K is too much for a 2004 E500 with over 40K miles. For $1-2K more you can buy a loaded loaded 2005 E500 wagon with about 30K miles. I would then spend an additional 4K for a 7 year 100K mile warranty.