cdevens

Seriously considering this wagon. Only one owner, car lived in Vegas its whole life. Think something between $10K and 11K would be ok by me. Probably just pay cash. Hoping to have Star Tech Mercedes in Denver do a PPI.

Assumed areas of concern would be: suspension air bags, harmonic balancer, no SBC this year i don't think so ok there, and what else??

http://www.weiscomotorcars.com/2006-...3/Details.aspx

Would like to wet my benz wagon appetite with something like this so i can move into a 2014 or newer wagon in a few years, but thinking it might be better to spend a bit more money now and get a newer wagon and plan to have it for the long haul rather than mess around with a potential headache.

rapidoxidation

fuel tank. Has the recall been taken advantage of on this car? They're prone to crack/leak and it is a well documented issue - not sure if it applies to this model year though.

Shadow5501

2006 has SBC. it was removed beginning with the facelift 2007 model year cars. Not that big a deal these days as prices have come down. A total replacement is ~$1500 or so.

8ball-mb

I wonder why somebody in Vegas had 4matic? Yet didn't have ventilated seats. It looks like no heated seats either...

Interesting.

cdevens

Great catch: no heated seats is probably a deal breaker for my wife considering where we live.

going to look at these two cars tomorrow with my wife and a 7 day old baby because i really need to get out of the house. both of these wagons are at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of my purchasing range/comfort, but want the wife to get int and drive both. she has minimal MB experience (other than her grandfathers s500) and comes from a audi/bmw family so hoping for a good experience.

2004 E500 with 4 owners and 107K, for $8580:http://www.landroverroaringfork.com/...3843eceb3b.htm

the amount of owners and the length of ownership of the last two owners scares me, but the price is so right I'm willing to roll the dice on it and see if we can squeeze a couple years out of it with no major repairs. found a good shop to do a PPI to if we reach that point..

2015 E350 with 29K, $46K:http://www.audiglenwoodsprings.com/u...b74598dd8910e5

so sweet, but not sure of their warranty options and don't want really want to get into a monthly payment thing. beautiful ride though.

probably land somewhere between these two options, but not ready to fly across the country to by a car until January 2018 so the research continues.

kajtek1

No GPS?
Looks like very base wagon, The steering wheel will show the age.
I think all 500 wagons come as 4M on US market.
FYI -We do have nice ski resort at Mt. Charleston - about 1 hr from Las Vegas.

Sleeper Benz

Prices are about a grand lower on the east coast. The AMG wagons seem to really hold their value better, but the regular V-8 has plenty of power for us. FYI, just had our '04 E500 4-Matic wagon out in the recent snow storms here in PA with a full set winter snow tires and it wasn't much fun...meaning the car stuck to the snow covered roads like glue. Forget trying to drift into the corners with the 4-Matic, haha. It just goes where you point it when you hit the gas peddle.

cdevens

drove both. the 2015 was obviously light years ahead of the 2004. honing in on 2011-2014 as the '15 was great but still had only lost 30% of MSRP. need s a little more value and i think i'll find it in the 2014 model year with 30 to 60 K miles.

also seriously considering the 2009-11 a6 Avants all of a sudden, as my wife loved her older audi, but my heart is set on the MB.

Car seat fits amazingly well even behind the drivers seat in the e350, i'm 5'10'' and could drive comfortably, yet snugly, with the rear facing infant seat behind me. amazing!

cetialpha5

You might want to stick to 2012-2014. The 2014 had some major changes some good some bad. The 2012 went to direct injection so you get a 302hp engine instead of the 268hp in the 2011. Faded wood and ripped seat cushion was common in the 2010-2013 range, I think it was fixed by 2014. In 2014 they went to LED and got rid of the bixenons with headlamp washers option. The lighting package with active curve illumination is hard to find though in the 2014+ range. Best value is probably a car that has under 50k that you can buy the extended warranty on, they sell them as 7/100k you still need some of the original warranty in order to qualify to buy it. Or get the CPO and buy 2 extra years from the vendors mentioned in the extended warranty subforum.

kajtek1

My oldest son REFUSED MB diesel when I offered one to him in college saying "Mercedes is for old people".
So when my youngest was coming to driving age, I bought him red Audi Avant 2003 model. I was comparing it to the E320 wagon 4M I did own before and smaller, lighter, more aerodynamic and newer Audi was burning more fuel than "tank" Mercedes while the transmission was pretty louse, not saying that stupid car was telling me to take coffee break every 2hr.. Even I used Avant occasionally for ski trips, I disliked the car pretty much, so when my son got rear-ended on his school run, next car he's got was trusted MB W210 diesel.