gravytrain416

Hello all,

I have driven MB cars for the past 22 years. Started out with the venerable old diesels, 240D, 300SD, 300SDL. I still have my 1984 300SD with 752K that I can't bear to part with. My current daily driver is a 2001 E320, which I absolutely LOVE. After the W210 cars, I'm in the dark. I can dismantle and rebuild an old W123 or W126 with my eyes closed, but I'm totally ignorant on anything newer. Question is this: my mother has a 1996 E320 that she's had for years, and she's thinking about upgrading (it only has 168K on it). A fellow that I've bought over 20 cars from over the years has an absolutely gorgeous 2008 E350 he calls a "sportline", a term I haven't heard before (has different rims, and some different trimwork). Car has 120K miles on it, and looks like it just left the showroom. Immaculate, inside and out. Looks like a brand-new car. Being old-school, and knowing very little about newer models (yes, even 10-year-old cars), I'm looking for advice from those of you who know more than I do. Is this a good car? Reliability-wise? My mother is retired, and drives very little. She MIGHT put 7,000 miles on a car in a year's time. He also has a 2006 E350, which is in the same condition. There's no question that Mercedes quality isn't what it was in the 80s. I'm just wondering if this '08 E350 is worth taking a gamble on for my mother. Price is $8900. Thanks for any constructive input from anyone who knows about the later cars. Thank you.

cetialpha5

Sounds like the guy garbled the sports package into the sportline. That was just the headlamp washers, different rear end look, different color gauges over the luxury package. Don't get the 2006. That one was the first year for the 3.5L engine and that had balance shaft problems which could cost 5-7k at the dealer to fix. Also SBC brakes which is also another 1k or more as the pump alone is about $800. Things were fixed by the early 1/3 of 2007, but you're safe with a 2008 or 2009. At that 120k mileage, maybe the intake manifold at some point. That's about $500 for the manifold plus a few hundred for labor. There's a few youtube videos on it. Those seem to go anywhere from 80-160k.

gravytrain416

cetialpha5, Thank you so much for the information. The fact that 2006 was the first year of the 3.5 was in the back of my mind for sure. My mother's 1996 E320, as you know, was also the first year of the W210. She's had a number of problems with it over the years. Years ago, I bought a 1992 W140 car, also the first year. Spent more time in the shop than it did on the road (I didn't do enough research on that one before I bought it). I'm always a little leery of buying first-year cars like that. Thanks to your help, I've 100% ruled out the 2006, as beautiful as it is.

The manifold - why would the entire manifold need to be replaced? Manifold gasket, I could understand. I'm still in the learning process here!

I need to do a little research on the "Sportline" name. Maybe it's just a sport pkg like you said.

Is the price out of line? I've looked it up on KBB, and it seems fair, but KBB isn't always accurate.

Thanks again for the help. I sincerely appreciate your input.

cetialpha5

Try nadaguide.com. I like to buy them between average and clean trade in and retail is overpriced. They never really give you any extra for options so feel free to pay closer to retail if it has a lot of options. Check https://www.datamb.com/ to see what options the car has. Things like bixenons, keyless go, parktronic, pano roof etc add value but you don't see them as options on nadaguide.com.

It uses two different lenghts of intake runners depending on the rpms of the engine. Eventually the levers break or it gets gummed up from use and bits either break off or the levers break. Just watch the repair videos and you'll get a sense of how it works. Basically when it breaks, it will be either tuned for high or low rpms so it will be fine at one setting and not so good at the other.

As for the price, haven't been following it, I paid over 18k for my 2008 4 years ago. But it only had 48k back then and I'm still under 100k. And to clarify 2006, that year was the last one for SBC brakes, they got rid of it from 2007-2009 so they're normal. All I've done with mine in 4 years is change the brake pads and flush the brake fluid.

gravytrain416

Thanks once again! I think I have used datamb.com before. Or something similar. I need to get the VIN and figure out exactly what it is!

The manifold issue, I believe may have been what my guy was working on when I was up there the last time. A plastic part that had broken; he had the manifold off the car and was working on it. It was an E350 as well. I'll do some looking around on YouTube and check into it further. I'm lucky with this guy to a certain extent. He's sold MB cars for over 35 years. Good thing is that he works on the cars that he sells also. For a MUCH lower price than anywhere else. Like $40 an hour!!

Thanks again for all the information. Getting near bed time, but I'm going to do a little more research with the info you've provided.