LostWrench

Hello!

I have tinkered a lot of other German cars but never a Mercedes. But somehow I got a liking to the W211 and want to buy one.

Where should I start?
I don't need a lot of power but I want a reliable engine and transmission. What should I look out for, what is the common problems that needs to be sorted out?

Thank you in advance for any help!

LostWrench

The E200 Kompressor Petrol (Year 2006) engine is it consider reliable? It's much cheaper, at least here where I live.

cetialpha5

This is mostly a US centric crowd. We never got the E200 here. Started with the E350 in 2006. That was a horrible year as the M272 engines had a defect in the balance shaft that wasn't fixed til 2007. I'm going to guess the E200 is probably a 4 cylinder so we'd have no idea. Also trims seem to vary with contry, in the US, the 2006 model had the older interior which was from 2003-2006. In 2007 they updated the interior. Some prefer the face lifted version, others, the older version. In 2006, they also had SBC brakes which will eventually fail and cost 2k at the dealer to fix or at least 1k at an independent mechanic. For 2007+, they went with regular brakes.

LostWrench

Thank you for your answer. Well I just googled the biggest Mercedes forum and found this . Ok then I will look for 2007 models instead. But the smaller engine isn't really a problem for me as long as it's reliable. But I will do some more research.

One think I got really surprised about was the prices of good quality after market, one Bosch rear calliper about 60 USD from Germany, I live in Sweden.

Strigoi

Get an AMG. They're worth it.

LostWrench

The E200 seems to have the M271 Kompressor engine. What I can read it's reliable but the chain needs to be replaced. AMG is just a package right?

cetialpha5

When people refer to the AMG here, they mean the engine and the model which is either the E55 or the E63 in the US. When many people say they have an AMG on the forums, they just mean they have have the package which seems to annoy many who feels that should just apply to the engine/model because while the package is a few thousand, an AMG is is probably at least 50-100% more than the regular E class.

LostWrench

Oh.. Well a real AMG is off limits for me, it's 2-3 times the price. A W211 E200 (-07) cost about 7k USD and a AMG E63 (07-) is at about 29k USD, and the AMG's is really rare here. Maybe I could import one from Germany but that's a hassle and it's difficult to sell imported cars here.

jimbo1763

Be careful on a 2007 as well. The balance shaft matter affected early model year 2007's (I know because I own one and had to replace the balance shaft). You can check the engine number against the list of affected motors to be sure-just be sure to do it before you buy it!.

LostWrench

I can't find the list of affected models for M271 (Regarding balance shaft), could you hand me a link?

jimbo1763

Here is a link. You will need engine number.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w211...ne-serial.html

LostWrench

In that thread they only talk about M272 (Not M271), or am I'm missing something? I'm not planning to buy a car with the M272, I'm looking for a M271 car.

cetialpha5

The balance shaft issue only affected the M272 engines. That's what we got in the US. Don't know about any issues with the M271. It probably still had SBC though so looking for 2007+ is probably still valid.

Shack1

Dont get a mercedes and you will be happier