Benz-O-Rama

Purchased this car as a dealer buy-back with 29,000 miles on her. She's still running as close-to-new. Wonder if I can get 200K out of her.

Diesel Benz

Well done. I don't think you have reached half-life though, at least if you are going to keep her for the next 100k.

tbone

I'm at 118K. The engine feels just as strong today as it did the day I picked it up in 2002. 200K should be easy.

Silly_me

I had 300k miles on my Audi V8, it still ran like new when I got rid of it. I would think a well designed modern V8 should be able to do that if not more.

novae500

nice to see 100k !!! I picked up mine w/27,383k and at 40k miles now. Hopefully it'll reach 100k without a problem!

SZMB

No doubt that the engine will last beyond 200k mi. But will the transmission and all those parts attached to the engine last?

AmazinglySmooth

Or any of the electronic stuff?

220S

Yeah, no surprise with the motor. No worries there.

Real question is: how many times has it been in the shop for electronics, sensors, software updates, and airmatic?

Benz-O-Rama

Actually, it's been a pretty sound car. **knocks on wood**

Stuff I can remember:

Right front ball joint/thrust arm bushing
Front wheel bearings
Rear airmatic shocks (found not to be bad, but swapped for troubleshooting - Dead body in trunk thread)
Dynamic seat switch module
Transmission valve body and software updates
Motor mounts
Various squeaks/rattles

All were covered under warranty except the wheel bearings. That was done outside of the 50K warranty. Since the car was pretty sound up until the 4/50K, I decided to roll the dice and not get an extended warranty. Gamble has paid off so far. However, currently, the car appears to need a new shifter (keyless-go issue) and driver side keyless-go receiver/antenna.

Of course, all maintenance has been done out of pocket, since the 4/50K, including spark plugs that I changed myself.

kl07rph

Nice!! What was the issue for it being a buy back?

Benz-O-Rama

"Shift quality" is what's on the buy-back statement.

When the 7G tranny was first put in the 2004s, they did have some rough 1-2 shifting as well as rough 2-1. On this very forum, I found the information needed to make an educated decision about what the probably culprit was. I called my local dealer with the VIN and they confirmed that the car did not have the updated valve body and had never had the TCU flashed with latest software. I purchased it, had the DTB performed, and it's been fine ever since. Well, as fine as the 7G can be, anyway. These 7Gs are finicky, even the new ones.

220S

Yeah, I have a 2009 and even though it's all updated, it gets confused once in a while. None of that 1-2, 2-1 slamming around sort of stuff, but just a computer confusion on rare occasions. It's like it's not sure what gear it's supposed to be in. But in full manual M mode and in S mode it behaves just fine.

starbrite

Hey Benzo....is that mostly your wife's driving now and you in the SL for the most part ?

Benz-O-Rama

Actually, no. She was driving her R500 up until 3 weeks ago when I sold it and put her in a supercharged Range Rover. Well, she got sick of driving the R500 a couple of months ago and stole the E500 from me, but 90% of the miles are mine.

I still run around in the E500 mainly, and drive the SL once a week at most. I drove it this past weekend for the first time in 3 weeks. But, in the Spring and early Fall, I do drive the SL more as the temperature is more conducive to top-down driving.

It's been 90+ here in the DC area for a couple weeks in a row now and that's just too damn hot for me to drop the top on the SL.