New Benz owner here! Its all foreign to me 😂

 

Post some pics!

 

Will get some pics tomorrow in the sun. Unfortunately like every time I buy a new vehicle, it rains every damned day. 😡

 

2008 is a good model year for the W211. Past a lot of the weak spots. How many miles? Good maintenance history? The web has amazing resources for the W211.

 

Was in an accident several years ago, but they did a good job on the paint and the lines are straight for all but the left side of the rear bumper. So I dropped it off at my amazing body guy and he is knocking it out for me this week. Has 134k on it. Maintenance history looked good. Replaced an axle at 16k miles. No other major issues. Rides terrific and my body guy said he was amazed at the condition for it being 10 yrs old. As soon as I have the bumper fixed, I am bringing it to another guy to go over the mechanics just to be pro-active, but I don't see any issues cropping up.

 

Here it is!

 

Forgot to attach these

 

It has the sport package. Nice. I had a silver one like it a few years ago. Solid car. And I think the body style is one of the best Mercedes has ever had.

 

Thanks! I'm loving it!

 

Very nice. I like the wheels.

 

Smooth !

 

Clean!

 

Thanks everyone! Took my 83 yo mother out in it today for Mothers Day. She said she loves it! 😆

 

Clear sidemarker lenses with chrome amber bulbs would look great on your white Benz.

 

Thanks Bahnstormer...I have to have my sockets replaced on my sidemarkers Tuesday. Can you direct me to a site that has these clear lenses and bulbs you refer to?

Also, I just ordered the B67875878 Bluetooth off Amazon for my phone to set up hands free. Anyone have any suggestions on the install/setup? It looks fairly straightforward, but figured I would ask. It appears that someone stole or removed the old BT unit from the console. I was disappointed to figure this out today. Paid $256 with shipping guaranteed by Thursday. Praying it works! HAHA! I hate having to do a return.

Thanks guys!

BTW, my buddy did a great job on the front bumper repaint for the chips and bubble. Looks brand new. I should have had him do the rear bumper too. He removed it to realign it (again he did an terrific job!), but I figured a little touch up paint would be ok and now I hate it hahaha. I have terrible OCD! If anyone buys this car from me after I am done with it, they are getting it in 1000% better condition than when I bought it 2 weeks ago.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by NewBenzOwner811
Thanks Bahnstormer...I have to have my sockets replaced on my sidemarkers Tuesday. Can you direct me to a site that has these clear lenses and bulbs you refer to?

Here you go.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Clear-Bumpe...4AAOxyVLNS3yKQ

This is how mine looks.

 

Thank you! Looks awesome!

 

No orange allowed.

 

 

So I took my newly acquired E350 mentioned above for basic service (oil change, side marker lamp socket replacement, and a few other minor things) and they gave me a HUGE list of things needing done or repaired.

Here is the list and pricing: 1-Oil Change $115 + tax
2-Oil Filter Housing Seal, Heat Exchanger Seal, Thermostat Seal, Cam Magnet Seal $494 + tax
3-Drive Belt $132 + tax
4-Right Front Lower Control Arm with Alignment $1294 + tax
5-Rotate and Balance tires $49.50 + tax
6-3 Cam Plugs with Oil Slinger $250 + tax
7-Transmission Service $296 + tax
8-Brake Fluid Flush $95 + tax
9-Transfer Case Service $191 + tax
10-TPMS Sensors $434 + tax
11-Side Marker sockets $143 + tax
12-Left Front Outer CV Boot $463 + tax
13-Air Filter Housing $407 + tax
14-Power Steering Cooler Line/Hood Cable Remount $110 + tax

I had items 1,2,3,6,10,11,12 and 14 done to a tune of $2,112!! The other stuff I did not ask to be completed. I called around and spoke to 3 other shops including one Mercedes dealer for price comparisons and this was close to the best quote available. So, I purchased this car through a used dealer AS IS and no warranty for $8000 out the door. Some of the car's issues are apparently stemming from the accident it was in years ago. I will have a total of $3,200 (estimated) in the car in repairs including the paint work I had done when I first bought it. That's $11,200! I am feeling robbed, but it is totally my fault since I bought a car I know absolutely nothing about and did not have it checked. I feel even worse because I really do love the car. I suppose I could sell it and take the $3200 hit for the maintenance and try and recoup my $8k original investment, or I could keep it and slowly do the other maintenance fixes or services that need completed with the control arm being the most costly of the bunch. I do not know what to do. Any advice you all could offer is welcome. Also, if anyone wants to make an offer on the car we can talk. I am located south of Dayton Ohio and just north of Cincinnati.

-Heartbroken

 

Ouch. Those were all expensive and shouldn't have been done at the dealer except for a few items. Anyone can do an oil change, I just buy the oil and filter and hand it to an indy, he just charges me $20 to change the oil when I bring my own and rotates the tires as part of the $20. Mobil 1 0w40 is $22.88 for a 5 quart jug at Walmart and there's a $12 rebate til the end of May. Car takes 8.5 quarts so 2 jugs would do. A Mann filter on rockauto is $8.41. There's also a thread I posted on here about $130 off a $250+ service at the dealer now through June 15th. The oil filter housing seals are about $10 for the parts, but it's really the labor to do it so maybe an indy would have been a little cheaper. The drive belt is about $20 on rockauto.com. They also have a bunch of control arms on there too in the $100 range, but I'm not sure which one yours take, usually they don't put the part number on the estimate but if you're stuck with OEM MB parts, you can still order the parts online for about 30% off from various vendors like oediscountparts.com. The alignment you can get at any tire shop, about $79-$100 for one, I got a 3 year Goodyear warranty for $159. All they do is set toe anyway. Transmission service can be done by any indy, you can get the fluid from Shell, case of 12 quarts is like $60 from a shell distributor. Any indy can do the brake fluid flush (every 2 years), you can get the Petosin super Dot 4 fluid at Autozone/Advance Auto at around $15-20/quart. Transfer case fluid you might be stuck with MB, but it's only around $20 a quart, any indy could change it. Aftermarket TPMS sensors are in the $30-$50 range each so it's possible to get a set of 4 for a little over $100, just have to make sure you buy the right frequency, there's two types. Any tire store could install them. The side marker sockets are around $10 and they get corrosion in them. I managed to clean mine and the new bulbs worked fine, bulbs were under $10. You can also get new/reman axles on Rockauto for $50-$100, but they're not as good as oem and some cause a vibration so it was probably wise to replace the boot. But the MB boot kit is around $50 and any indy could have replaced just the boot. Those other items I don't know about. Do a search of the forums before you authorize any work next time. Lots of the items you mentioned are covered in various threads. Don't know much about those last two.

 

Thanks...sadly, I actually went to an Indy for all of these. I know the dealers are ridiculous. I just could not believe the volume of stuff needing fixed or serviced. I went in figuring I would do about $1500 in repairs and thought I was being liberal in that assessment. Guess I learned a hard lesson.

 

You just got hit with a bunch of stuff up front. Most of that stuff on the list would be over 2-3 years. Ball joint/control arms are also common, basically just a maintenance item. Other common items would be the motor mounts, thermostat, tensioner/pulleys, broken wires in the trunk, etc.

 

Correct.

 

You paid $8k for it, but it was a lot more than that new and the maintenance matches that. Just because it was cheap to buy doesn't mean it will be cheap to maintain. Things would be a lot cheaper if you DIY.