Westwind

As mentioned in my previous post, My E550 completed 40K and now before the 50K Warranty is up, I have to make a decision. I am convinced that once the warranty expires, the car starts falling apart. May not apply to the majority here, but from past experience, and my luck I am a believer.

I like the car, but have had a lot of warranty work done, so no regrets of getting rid of it at 50K. However, I would like to know from experienced owners if it is wise to get Extended Warranty and whether its worth it.

To me, the word 'worth' means this: If you factor in the cost of extended warranty, would the trade in value at that end of that time be any better than trade in value at 50K? i.e. Am I better of trading it in before 50K or Get 20K more for X Dollars, sell it 2 years later and that trade in value is still better even if cost of X Dollars is added? Hope I have not confused everyone. Thanks for your insight on this.

CEB

What kind of "warranty work" have you had done and how has the car been in the last 10 or 20k miles.

If the problems were relatively minor or "teething problems" then you may want to keep the car.

If OTOH, you want an extended warranty because you are expecting further trouble then sell the car.

An 11 with 50 k miles is pretty high mileage and the value will continue to drop like a rock if you continue to rack up the miles at that rate. A 2010 with 45k miles may be worth more than a 2012 with the same amount of miles because that mileage is "normal" for a 2010 but high mileage for a 2012.

You will not recoup the cost of your extended warranty - but if you like the car you may get many years of enjoyment and reliable transportation from the car.

Mercedes is not a car with the reputation of "trade it before the warranty expires"" like BMW. While Mercedes service is expensive, most Benzes are reliable and don't require excessive service (like my BMw - don't get me started)

Keep the car if you like it and get an extended warranty if you are concerned about catastrophic failures but don't keep it because you'll get more money (unless you park it until your high mileage becomes "normal mileage" for the age of the car.)

You'll want to trade it before 50k miles. A car with 49k miles is far easier to sell than one with 51k miles.

BM2BZ

agree with ceb. but is there anything in the dealer that you want to trade it to? not sure if you like the 2014 fl model but if not, assuming you want another e550 and it'll be a challenge to find a 2013.

petee1997

MB had a bad spell from 1997 to 2015 or so. Since then their cars have been quite reliable. The next two or three years are the cheap depreciation years. Financially, you are better off to keep the car and if you are concerned about large repairs, buy a warranty.

Car companies love fools like me that trade every two or three years because they want the newest stuff.

CEB

If you have that kind of information, could your crystal ball please give me the winning numbers for the next $100million+ Powerball.

Your date range may be a bit off.

samkimg

IMHO .. extended warranties aren't to increase resell value, but to mitigate the risk of high repairs by transferring potential future costs to MB.

I believe the resell value can be marginally increased by proving factory/dealer service throughout the life of the car (some people like to see that), but for the bulk of buyers, dealers or private parties, I've found that KBB is the consistent method for value determination. It more up to the manufacturer/model reputation than what we as individual owners can provide.

That being said, I do buy extended warranties as I prefer to drive a car 5-8+ years than hop from car-to-car or year-to-year. In each purchase something has gone wrong that has recouped the cost, and a few times I have gotten many times the cost of the warranty.

As I move from a 2010 to 2014 E350 I plan to again move the balance of the extended warranty I didn't use to defer most of the cost of an extended warranty on the new car.

Westwind

Thanks for your responses.
@CEB. I agree with you the logic of Make year and Miles. But there is another way of looking at it. I bought the 2011 model in Sept 2010. At that time, the 2010s were also available. So, lets say I bought that 2010 instead of 2011 with 40K miles, the distribution per year looks better on paper. Yet, you are at a loss because its a year older. Regardless, I have definitely used it more than your average of 10-12K per year. I did not lease (and consider trade-in in future) for this very reason.

To answer other questions: I've not had major warranty work done, except for brakes. More than once. And they still are not right. But my dealer is tired of me and has pretty much told me that there is nothing wrong with it and they will charge for it next time.

Keeping the car longer makes perfect financial sense. So, I will certainly look into extended warranty vendors. Nevertheless, I plan on going to the dealer and see what they are offering.

Thanks for your replies.

samkimg

Quote: But my dealer is tired of me and has pretty much told me that there is nothing wrong with it and they will charge for it next time.

I had a similar situation and I went to another dealer and they made it right for me and my repair situation. If at all possible, get a second (or third) opinion. It might just be worth the hassle.

CEB

Correct. Go to a different dealer.