MinnBenzDriver

Hi everyone. Before making my recent purchase I was a frequent visitor to this site and a lot of what I had looked for was pricing.

In all fairness, I felt it would be fitting for me to list my price, both on the vehicle, and the ELW that I slapped on the CPO.

The vehicle is a 2007 E350 4Matic, P2, Auto Trunk Closer, Back Seat Side Sun Screens, Sirius Radio, and most importantly, CPO. On the original window sticker it calls this the "Elegance Edition". Sticker pricing was $60,395.

I paid $26,500 out the door, and the vehicle had just over 22,000 miles, prisitine condition. No dings, dents, tears, scratches, etc. Only thing it needed was an updated NAV disc, as the one that was included was the 2006 version. Found a 2010 copy on Ebay for $80 shipped.

About a week after purchase I found a few threads talking about the option to extend the CPO coverage for an additional 1 or 2 years (120k, 135k, respectively). Knowing that any problem is going to result in $1,000+ out of my pocket, it made looking at these options a no-brainer.

I put on about 5k miles per month, as I cover a large territory for my sales career. The question was to add 1, or 2 years to the CPO.

I found the pricing to be extremely negotiable. I was able to get the 1yr/120k extension down to $1041, including tax. The 2yr/135k extension was $1595 including tax.

Both of these prices were $500-$700 below what the suggested pricing is. I tend to flip my cars every 6-12 months, but thought that I may pass this on to my wife to replace or 2006 3-Series that will be out of warranty next summer. Should I decide to sell this vehicle prior to the included 12mo/100k CPO coverage expriring, I can get a full refund on the ELW. This verbage is in the contract, so there is nothing to debate.

I opted for the 2yr/135k extension, figuring I could even sell or trade the vehicle 2 years from now and still get a prorated refund for the 2nd year of the extension. That brings each year of the extension to about $800, pretty cheap for some peace of mind on this vehicle.

So it works out like this:

CPO goes through 5/26/2012, or 100k.

Then the 2yr CPO ELW kicks in and goes until 5/26/2014, or until 135k miles.

The 2yr CPO ELW is fully refundable until 5/25/2012, and then would be prorated if cancelled after that. It effectively starts on 5/26/2012. So any pro-rata refund would be effective using the 5/26/2012 as the start date.

I feel pretty good about the deal, how do you guys think it turned out?

rolex11

I purchased a 2007 E350 w/sport package, no P1, P2 package, minimally optioned car, MBtex seating no heated seats, no sun shades, but is the harder to find platinum blue paint.

Bought 05/12/2010 w/ 22,700 miles, mint. Had 1 year new car warranty. Price was $28,200 plus tax & title. Out the door $30,600.

You got a great deal, your price out the door is right given I bought mine a year ago (3 year old car) you got yours recently which makes it a 4 year old car when you bought it.

Mine was not a CPO, but a week before the new car warranty expired a negotiated a 3yr/75,000 ELW and wound up paying $3,165 for it. So I have 3 years of peace of mind driving up to 75,000 miles (currently has 29,000 miles).

All in all I think you got a great deal on a great car and did right by extending your warranty.

MinnBenzDriver

Good taste my friend, I did not mention colors. My purchase was the platinum blue metallic over ash MBTex. The color was not my first choice, but it has certainly grown on me over the past few weeks. The first owner also did a smart thing and had a 3M clear bra installed in the front end, as well as the lips of the doors to prevent some door ding damage.

Now the challenge is to keep it clean.....dark colors can be a royal PITA!!

rolex11

Make sure you look into the following, have your dealer check them:

Check all your rims for bends or cracks, especially if you have sport package w/18' wheels.

Check the cam plugs on the rear of the engine, they start leaking around 4 year mark, there are redesigned plugs they will replace with.

Check your engine serial number and make sure you have the updated gear sprocket. IMPORTANT!

If your A/C smells, get it clean by the dealer. If it returns they will drill a hole of water to drain and replace heater box with a new one that is made of a different bacteria resistant material and that is slanted to allow water to drain.

Have dealer run a VMI and make sure all recalls were addressed.

Borderline

I've been looking for a 2007 E350 and all I can find (CPO) are cars with >50K miles that are close to $30K. Every now and then I will find some multi-pre-owned car with 50K miles for ~$25K, and a few used ones from non MB dealers for a bit lower. Any tips on your search and how much lower your price was vs. the listed price?

duckguy

I too am new here and just purchased a 2007 E350 4Matic with about 70K miles. I paid $22k including a 2 year/24k warranty. I was a little worried about the mileage except it is actually for my wife and she put 12k on her last Jaguar in almost 3 years, and most of all - it's a Mercedes. The great part is that this baby is fully loaded - the window sticker was around $63k. Not to hi-jack your entry, but one question I have is, there are no badges on this car - nothing on the back or sides. Is this an option or something the previous owner had done? The paint job is flawless and the car is black on black. I look forward to gaining a great deal of knowledge about this vehicle from this forum. Thanks - Rob

MinnBenzDriver

I cover about 5 states for work so I have a nice array of shopping choices. I had actually bought a BMW 5 Series from this BMW/Cadillac/Mercedes dealer that had some undisclosed title issues that arose after the purchase. They bought it back at full purchase price and I believe this definitely helped with the negotiating on the E350. "one price" asking price was $29,998 which was fair given the CPO and extremely low mileage. Took it off the lot for $26,500 after some negotiations regarding the issues with the BMW.

MinnBenzDriver

As far as mileage I look at things a little different. Your purchase had about 50k more miles than mine. I get paid .51/mi for mileage and drive a solid 4-5k miles a month. So 50k miles to me is worth about $25k of reimbursement minus gas and maintenance. So call it a net of $18k. So not saying your deal was bad by any means, I just usually look for a vehicle that is 3-4 years old with really low mileage, drive the heck out of it, an then move on to the next feeling like I truly got money out of the car....as I usually do.

As far as the debadging goes, I think there are 3 possible explanations.

1). E550 envy....this happens a lot on BMWs and Mercedes models that have multiple engine options. On this forum you'll find people that might like to badge their car as something that might not be quite accurate.....or pull off the badging so it leaves some lingering doubt as to what model it is.

2). Some people believe that debadging gives a cleaner appearance to the car.

3). Possibility of prior body work.

I would guess that 1 or 2 would be the most likely, but only a carfax, paint meter, and professional inspection could rule out 3.

Bottom line, enjoy the car and keep up on the maintenance.