Since I've had my E320, I had to replace a battery module, both batteries, crankcase sensor, SBC pump, ball joint, control arm and now the a/c compressor (and yes I know some are normal items that need replacing). I have spent over $4500 on a car I bought for $7000 not even a year ago. It was, what I thought, in really great shape and only 85000 miles for a 12 year old car.

Why is it these luxury cars are so horrible mechanically? I've known people to have Honda's, Mazda's, Toyota's that last for 200K+ miles and all they do is change the belts, hoses and tires. Why is it when you buy a luxury car EVERYTHING dies at 100K? They aren't built to last, they are built so you spend even more money 6-8 years later. In the early 90's I had a Ford Taurus and the only thing I didn't replace on it was the actual motor. Everything else under the hood was pretty much replaced and in some case more than once. Because of that car, I will NEVER buy Ford again. And because of this E320, I will never buy a Mercedes again..

At this point I really have to say I absolutely hate this car. There is nothing good about it.

Finally, MB has a commercial "Best or Nothing". Well, sorry to say, my car is really "best" at being "nothing" more than a POS.

Sorry for the rant.. Frustrated...

 

Dear Frustrated,
Please let me tell you we all have felt some type of what your feeling now. As i cannot speak for every one, I only speak as for me. Unfortunately, I would agree with the basics of your storm, and I have spent money on my ride and I've owned her nearly 1yr come September. To honestly tell you the truth i would purchase another MB, but for me as always I will diligently do my homework before. Since I've been a member of this brother/sisterhood I've been treated well with any type question, though, idea, and everything in between. So to say I'll never buy another Mercedes Benz is to me two-fold , I guess everyone wont be happy. Just my opinion.
R,
2merks

 

What kind of research did you do before you spent $7000? Did you just buy it or come on the forum and ask some questions and do some homework?

Does it drive well now?

You essentially have paid $12,000 for a luxury car that current runs well. At least you did not spend the $60,000 msrp for this e320 ... You're still doing well in the big picture. You have saved thousands over new and now have a car that runs well

Benz makes no assertions of their used cars ... And the best or nothing doesn't necessarily refer to reliability it could just refer to the feel and drive of the car

I'll never buy a 6-8 year old car, period

 

Several years ago I paid $12,000 for a used Mazda Tribute. For the longest time all I did was change the tires and normal maintenance. I finally paid it off, luckily, then I lost my job. Since I am an Armed Forces Veteran I decided to use my situation and try to better myself so I used my GI Bill to go back to college. During my time in college I could not even get a part time job. I am guessing due to my 8 years in the service and 7 years of experience doing Field Service Work on industrial equipment, overqualified for Walmart and target I guess.

Then my paid off Mazda started falling apart. It was almost like it knew that I was not in the best financial situation. In order to keep the thing running I had to use my student loan money to fix it. Exhaust system, radiator, alternator, battery, front lower A arms bushings were shot on both sides, tires were worn out again, wiper motor went out, 3 spark plugs blew out of the cylinder heads, I had never changed them myself. No one in town would work on it at that point to much a liability for them I guess. Everyone tried to sell me a new engine or 2 head-gasket replacements, and send the heads to the machine shop.

I took on the task myself using a heli-coil and fixed it myself. After this both headlight lenses started leaking and the bulbs burning out. They were so old and yellowed at this point the only thing i could really do that made sense was replace both headlight lenses for $500. did the work myself. Then I got hit by a rock on the interstate and my windshield cracked. Had to replace that. The very next month a terrible grinding noise and vibration in the steering wheel. Took it into the shop for that and found out that the wheel bearings in the front had gone out and because it was 4 wheel drive it was going to be about $1500. I did not own a press so i could not do it myself. At that point I got rid of it.

I feel your pain. I put way way more money than my Mazda was worth into it and still lost. It sucks and it isn't right. I am still paying on that Mazda to this day every-time i look at my student loan bill.

In a way some of the other posters are right. You in a sense had it easy.

It happens to the best of us and sometimes lightning does strike two or even three times in the same place. As in my case. I had 2 C300's. The first was a loaner and I found out after it wore out a complete set of tires in 6 months having less than 10k miles on it that the spindle was bent. I knew it wasn't me who did it but Mercedes wanted me to fork out $4500 to fix it. instead i called Mercedes USA and complained. The best they could do is offer me $1000 towards a new one. Rather than fork out the money to have mine fixed i took the deal on a new one. That bit me in the butt too. Search my posts I am sure you will have a good read with all the issues I have been having.

If the problems you have had are the only problems you have I would consider yourself lucky, regardless the brand of vehicle.

Best of luck to you friend

 

All very well said and completely true.

 

i feel sorry for the OP. but thats just how it is especially when youre buying used and without proper research. but Peter is right, now that youve replaced all you mentioned. most likely youll have a car thatll last you for a long time.

 

There is a reason why you can buy originally $60,000 car for $7000 while the car is not even 40% wear out.
You spend $4,500 on it and you have good car for another 10 years for less than 20% what original owner cost.
Strictly economics.

 

....And your car won't depreciate significantly compared to the brand new e320 at $60,000; and insurance will be less than a brand new Benz, and many expensive milestone services have been done already .... The list goes on

 

Here is the bottom line with ANY used car. Remember this phrase and keep it in the back of your head when looking at any type of goods, new used etc...caveat emptor which means BUYER BEWARE.

The key to these car's is maintenance and how much and well it was preformed. I'm about to go on to my 5th German car, 3rd pre-owned and I always bought from a reputable dealer and had a 3rd party bumper to bumper warranty out the door. At least when u buy on a trade from a high end dealer they have done some homework on the car and chances are maintenance records are available.

Not everyone is like me. I just sold my 08' e class with 106,000 miles for $12,000. Why? because it was in fantastic shape and I had all the service records from the day it was originally sold. I got one call from a guy who was looking for a while and as soon as he and his mechanic saw it he wrote me a check on the spot. A guy like me is maybe MAYBE 1% of the population. The other 99% suck.

If you are gonna buy off the street ask for service records. Take the vin# to a MB dealership and try to get a history, run a car fax and get a PPO. Other wise chances are you will be here crying some tale of woe about how MB sucks. When the truth is that you the person(s) that start threads like these suck.

 

What my wife and I have learned is to find a loaner car with low miles on it. Because we live near work we have the option to lease. If you do that they will ask if you want the pre paid service. My advice tell them NO. Why?

If you have a 3 year lease you can trade at 2.5 years thus losing out on that third service that you paid for already. Otherwise our cars are always under warranty and rarely have we had to replace tires. Im referring to her cars not mine. I wont get into my experiences here. My wife has never had a problem with any of her Mercedes Benz so far and she is on her 3rd lease.

What we look for are the rare loaners. Around here most dealers only ever get in base model vehicles loaners. IE halogen lights, hard top, base stereo and so on. However I managed to find one that was close to loaded. It was a 50k car new and only 1 year old. We saved a ton of money just because it had 5k miles on it! Heck it still smelled like new on the inside! Its new enough for me! The car leased for 38k at 1 year old. There is another way to save if you can lease.

oh and if you happen to be an Armed Forces Veteran like I am go with USAA insurance. USAA gave us $2500 cash for a down payment towards (My car) $399 a month for a 1 year old 50k car... not a bad deal in my opinion.

Edit: I take that back USAA only gives you the cash if the car is new. I forgot about that. However if your getting a new car and your a Veteran... who wouldnt want a free check for $2500 bucks!

My 2 cents.

 

Sorry for your rant, but you got a really awful year. I got a 2008 about 2 years ago, spent under 1k in the 2 years on maintenance. The W212 is better, nothing really major to complain about. You really need to do research on a model before buying it. I was originally interested in a 2006 til research revealed the balance shaft problem. I'd avoid all 2003-2006 models.

 

I'm on the fence about how i feel about this OP.I Feel pain for the owner who's dropping bread into a 14yo car. However I don't feel bad for obvious reasons. Proper homework was not done prior to purchase, we know this because ball joints, cps, a/c compressor, sbc pump, main/aux batteries and bcm ect are all known issues in the early w211's. So unfortunately you can join the early w211 club.

Did you do your homework prior to purchase? I'll assume no since you are so "surprised" at the cost of repairs...
Did you purchase a 14yo European car? YES! You get what you pay for, you wanna ride in style, you gotta pay to play. It has nothing to do with the fact that it's a Merk, but simply with the fact measures taken prior to purchase were weak/lack-luster/insufficient. Lesson learned though correct?

Also, Mercedes aren't made to keep continuously dig in your pockets 6-8 years after being built. They are simply made for those who have deep pockets.
There is a fine line between people who own Mercedes.... Some can afford to PURCHASE a Mercedes, However it's a entirely different type of person who is able to maintain one.... If you take nothing from this thread take that.... Anyone can buy a Merk, but repairing it is a completely different story.

If it makes you feel any better I religiously provide estimates for customers exceeding well beyond 4500$. By that I mean here's a estimate of everything that's wrong with you car, deal with it as you please. I'm just doing my job...

 

Isn't the poor build quality and constant issues are part of the fun of owning a W211? I've learned so much in the time I have this car, and have undertaken 90% of the repair jobs myself it's been a huge learning curve with a lot of satisfaction.

I know when I purchased the car it was going to cost me $$$ to maintain so it's no surprise to me when things naturally fail, if you know where to source parts and have the right tools and the knowledge with forums such as this you can carry most the repair work out yourself. I hate to think how much I would have paid the dealer or even an indi to address all the issues I've encountered.

 

Then think how reliable the dial-phones were?
No buttons to come off, no touch pad to scratch and fail, no drop-outs, no slow website......
I can keep going for several pages.....
Our neighbor has one for like 50 years.
Still works like on day 1 and the neighbor swears all new cordless phones are junk.

 

Actually after re-reading the OP's post, I think the conclusion should be that he shouldn't buy a car again. I think the OP fell into the trap thinking that those who brag about not doing anything to the car except for tires are either lying or are just lucky in that maybe they bought a well maintained car and got rid of it just before major systems failed. Or they're trying to maintain the myth that you don't have to do maintenance, but are driving around in a car where the struts are shot and the whole front end is loose. I see cars on flat beds all the time where the tire is folded in, those are the people that didn't replace their ball joints or tie rods. There are certain parts that just aren't engineered to last 200k and those are maintenance items. After about 60-80k that's about the point where certain systems will fail. The real key to savings on an old car is to have a cheap indy do the work or to DIY. Otherwise it can get expensive fast at the dealership.

 

You just got an absolute crap model year that is well documented to be expensive. The general rule of thumb is to NEVER buy a new generation chassis or engine/transmission on ANY car manufacturer. Wait 3-4 years, or buy the last model year and you'll have a rock solid car.

The only solid thing about your model is the 3.2L engine, which was completely solid by then (one of the last engines before the 3.5L switch) and its documented to easily do 300k. Not many issues with it at all.

Also you definitely didn't research the car before purchase otherwise you'd have known ahead of time. Research every car you buy, always.

 

I look at it from a different angle. I deliberately found two older MBs at great discounts specifically because I saw the work they needed and wasn't spooked by doing the work or getting the parts and having the work done. Granted, buying a ML63 that that needs front end bushings (all) replaced or another car with leaking springs feels like the wrong thing to do, but saved a ton of cash and now can drink Turkish coffee for free at several shady parts of town any time I want.


Some problems I never did find... an intermittent start problem on my wife's E500 (W211) that seemed seasonal for example. A mechanic told me it was the ignition switch and elaborated how it was temperature related. Well, wife finally drove the car into rainwater accumulated in the middle of the road without slowing down enough and sent a now broken connecting rod right through the bottom of the engine case. Well that damned Turkish coffee place had a new engine (used that is) in the car by the end of the next day, and I have never had the intermittent start problem since.


This whole BB is akin to the Turkish coffee joints. You know where you can come to post a problem, some crusty guy with 95 Thanked Posts will spill his coffee while he denigrates your stupidity, and then someone will drop in with the answer. For me it's part of the fun.

 

Sorry I'm not a "wow the hood" type. I actually have a job and responsibilities and just pissed that a car have so many issues for having low miles.

 

I'll admit that I didn't do my research. Wasn't actually looking for a Mercedes. I had a BMW for over 10 years, that although it had some issues, were minor compare to this Mercedes. I guess I'm just disappointed that MB was so sloppy with this car.

 

Plasma, I had an 06 E55 that I bought with 60k miles and I had similar experiences to you. The car was costing me so much money to keep on the road, and people would tell me "oh you bought a bad car" or "you need to check/keep up with the maintenance". The thing about the W211 E Classes is that they break down unexpectedly on components that don't require maintenance. I had to get my car towed multiple times within 2 years of ownership because of

1) Fuel leak shorting out electrical wires on the fuel pump
2) Airmatic going bad
3) SBC died
4) Alternator died

Not to mention other problems such as the heater core valve going bad and not having heat in the car during our coldest winter months and my dynamic seat pump failing.

None of those four components require maintenance. When they go bad, you replace them, but the inconvenience of having to call Mercedes road-side assistance and waiting an hour for them to come each time when you have important events going on, etc.... it just sucks.

At that time I realized, that these cars are just not worth buying after they're out of warranty. If you want a nice, reliable, luxury car that's simple and doesn't have a ton of bells and whistles, get a Lexus. Mercedes loves to introduce unnecessary and over-engineered components to their cars that they abandon in their later models because of how faulty they are. That's exactly why they ditched SBC and don't fully use airmatic in their new E Classes.

 

I owned 2 E classes an E 500 (2004) and then an E 550 (2007). Although the 2007 was much much better and dependable than the 2004, they were not well designed cars. Nor were they well built nor were their parts well sourced. They were from a time when MB was inept, their attention stolen by the demands of owning Chrysler, and a time when their cars were transitioning from mechanical triumphs, with no wizardry of modern day electronics into today's tech laden vehicles.

I now own a 2015 ML 350. The difference in content, capability and dependability between those vehicles and this one is not to be believed. The modern, current products ARE the Best. Great content that always works, great assembly, and no repairs. I know that's of little solace to owners of older product who believed all the advertising crap of the time, and thought the W211's were in fact great cars... they weren't. Owners were either lucky to get a "decent", acceptable one or unlucky and got time bombs, service department queens...

The new MB product doesn't make any unscheduled trips to the service department. Just once every 10,000 miles for routine maintenance. There's no escaping the fact of what the 211's were and still are.

All I can tell you is to look at the problems and frequency of postings here in the 211 Forum compared to the postings/complaints of modern era product on their respective Forums. Night and Day.

Good Luck and hang in there until you can get a much later year MB. The W 211 is an old product from a bad time in MB's History

 

Hi Barry,
the best thing is that your car is under warranty. Buying a used older german car is risky at best. My 2007 E350 was purchased as a Certified Pre owned with a 100K warranty.
The warranty was worth its weight in gold!
I sold the car after the warranty was over.
People that purchase these cars don't seem to realize that they are buying $50-60K cars, that may be cheap to purchase, but very expensive to own.
Dave

 

They are expensive to own only if you start taking them to mechanics.
I bought first of recent W211 with > 140k miles and in 3 years put about $300 in parts in it. Most of the money spend on replacing worn seats.
2nd W211 will take more as Bluetec has >160k miles, but I hope that after spending $500 on new MM, GP, fuel lines and filters, ALTERNATOR BRUSHES - I will be good for several years.
Than 30-35 mpg on cheap diesel will give me lot of savings day after day.
Sure that is much more comparing to several MB we did own in last 15 years, where annual cost of parts averaged about $50 to date. I buy higher-mileage MB at bargain price.

 

I'm in the same boat as you man. I bought my E500 in January 2015, had 250,000 km and paid $7,000 for it.

So far, I've had to do about $10,527 in repairs (probably more), which you can see in my maintenance list below. The worst was when the Engine started chewing up oil, had to reseal the engine, that happened at 300,000 km which is pretty pathetic in my eyes as I was expecting more from a V8 Benz engine.

It's kind of sobering to see how much money I've burnt on this car, could've bought a brand new one by now. Not to mention the countless days and weekends lost in garages. These repairs are with an indy too. My biggest mistake was spending $8,000 dollars from January of this year - I had to do the engine reseal, new rear air shocks, transmission flush, engine tune up, and front axle rods. My mechanic on two occasions said that I was pretty close to totaling the car, once he said that my engine had half the total capacity of oil and second he said my front axle boot ripped and was probably days from complete failure.

I would have never believed these cars are so fragile, I drive it like a grandfather, easy on the throttle and slow to rev and come to stops smoothly. With the engine oil leak, it was spewing but my dash oil sensor never once indicated that the engine was missing oil, it was only when I brought it to the shop because the car performance was feeling sluggish - this was just 2 weeks after I did an oil change .

If I knew, I should have junked the car back in January saved 8K, but now that I've essentially doubled down there's no turning back, going to ride this puppy to its last breath.

I will say this though, the car is fully loaded, glass ceiling, push to start, and everything in the driver seat is adjustable with air bags - can not live without this! Plus, the knowledge that the car will protect me and I will most likely walk away without a scratch is also priceless. My car before this was an BMWE46 320i that was wrecked in a rear end by an Escalade going 60 mph and I walked away with a sore neck and still showed up to work pulling off a 12 hour work day, so I will always go for German cars for the safety engineering and mechanical structure alone.

Initially I was really disappointed and disheartened at the money I spent, but now it's almost like a badge of honour. The amount of hours I've spent learning how cars works is a positive in my book. The body style in my eyes is timeless. Right now, it's sitting in the parking lot until I change the faulty transmission conductor plate, which I am going to do myself.

The poster above made a good point, this car was probably upwards of 75K new with all the extras, and I don't have to pay any of the depreciation costs. I'm pretty sure I've jumped over the big repair hurdles, hopefully smooth sailing from here on out

TLDR, lessons I've learnt:
- have to learn to do stuff and wrench on the car yourself
- buy parts from disassembled / chopped cars when it makes sense
- next E class must not have air suspensions

 

Sorry, but I disagree. I did most of my own work, brakes, oil changes, etc. But paying $400.00 for a wheel alignment that required camber bolts from the dealer, and transmission service of $350.00 which is also a dealer only service,will take your breath away pretty quickly. Not to mention non rotatable tires on sport packages that require replacement at @20K miles if your lucky, at $250.00 each. Under warranty my car required crank sensors, a new fuel tank, motor mounts, air-conditioning evaporators twice.
I loved my car, but purchaser have to accept the fact that they are purchasing a $50-60K car that requires service with expensive parts. An indy repair shop could probably save you 25% on your service.
Dave