balthus

I have posted a few times about this vehicle and am looking for opinions about when it time to move on and get what we can on private sale or trade although a replacement vehicle will likely not be MB for a number of reasons most significantly cost.

Our car was placed in service in 12/03 so a bit over 8 years old and has about 59K miles.

It was a CPO vehicle when purchased in 2005 and we did not purchase MB extended warranty. By the time it was out of warranty, I waited a bit too long and car had just exceeded 50K miles so could not get an exclusionary warranty.

Purchased after-market warranty in January 2011 and got about $2K of usage from it in 2011 but also spent thousands on items not covered primarily replacing 3 struts (2 rear and one front).

Knock on wood, past 6 months, all has been well. Had 5K oil change Saturday (warranty requirement), transmission seal leak repaired and car passed inspection. Will likely need tires & battery soon.

NADA trade-in value ranges from $14-18K but Edmunds says $10K-$12K. Not sure what is best site to look for approximate value and I realize it is just a number.

Looking for opinions about when do you decide to take what you can get on a sale or trade and move on or do you just wait and see.

I am now taking care of aging parents 2,000 miles away who I moved into assisted living last summer which has taken a lot out of me on many levels and which will not get better in time so I am taking to be somewhat proactive and start thinking about a plan for this vehicle before something major happens that is costly particularly if warranty does not cover it.

Thanks.

mrbdm99

Wagons command a higher price that Edmunds and Blue Book (at least last time I checked) don't really count into consideration. The NADA sounds reasonable. You could look at ebay and do a search on past auctions to see what they have sold for. For what it is worth, our local MB dealer has an 04 Wagon that they are trying to sell for 19.9, which is about on par for what I have seen for them. I lucked out and found a very well loaded 04 that I picked up for 16 back in October from a dealer that liked to keep 07 and newer cars on the lot.

My logic is that I can spend 8k in repairs (which I'd rather not, of course, but I understand they can get costly, especially if you insist on visiting the dealer) and still be quite a bit ahead vs. if I had spent 25k for a CPO'd newer wagon. That being said, if you are planning on not replacing it, then I'd say try and sell it for about 18k yourself and you would probably have decent luck. If you are wanting to replace it, you have to ask yourself if it makes sense to go spend xxx on a new (or used) car or just spend a bit on repairs. Might make sense for you to do it, might not.

One last way that I look at it... Before I got the 04 Wagon that I have now, I was looking at a number of things. I found that Mazda had a .9 financing offer on the CX-9. I looked at one, optioned the way I wanted and found it would be about 41k. I'd have a nice, new, under warranty SUV, paying next to no interest, etc. But, at the end of the day, I'm still paying 41k+ dollars vs 16k, even with some crazy 20k in repairs (absurd, I know, just making a point) I'm still ahead, at least in my mind. haha.

balthus

Thanks for your thoughts.

I figure I am at my break-even point with paying for the warranty and non-warranty repairs versus not having a car payment since we paid off the wagon.

Good to know that wagons command a premium but not so sure in Dallas versus other areas although that does also make them rarer.

I am thinking that (hopefully) anything major would be covered or partially by the non-exclusionary warranty up to a point where the repairs are worth more than the car however they do valuation.

We are using a good (we think) indie MB shop now so that has provided some savings this past year.

I long for the days when we owned a 1965 190 that my husband bought in the mid-80's that we kept until 1994 when it retired with over 300K on it and repairs were relatively reasonable!

Thanks.

jimbo1763

The only thing I will add to this thread is this-if you are worried about the car and already have your "worry bucket" full, maybe it is time to think about something with a warranty, not so old, that you have confidence will run when you need it to and get you where you need to be. At the end of the day, it is only a car. Life can put enough on us all by itself without a machine adding to it.

balthus

Good words to ponder and thank you.

I realized as I paying bills tonight I just paid payment 31 out of my 39 month 2010 GK lease and maybe having think about 2 cars in the not so distant future.

Ouch!