Lots of info out there I'll keep it simple. If you had to do it over with a 30,000 +/- a little budget which one would you buy and or regrets with the one you did and why. Also if an older model I will buy a VSC. I've read allot on the forum of the pros and cons. Most of the info is about the MB factory extensions. Any advice on the non MB companies ie Route 66, warranty direct and do any of them cover airmatic suspensions.

 

Yes, I am really enjoying my 2012 E550 - but, it's no Lexus with respect to reliability. I would still buy another tomorrow, but would try for one with blind spot monitoring and Distronic.

With the awd and biturbo v8, I feel my Merc offers a rare combo of GO for the price. I like the ext and sport wheels. The int design is meh, but I think about it less and less as time goes on. The pano is over-rated, but the black roof looks sharp. The fold down rear seats are awesome for my road bike. The seat heaters rock, but the ventilation is horrible.

In the ~15 months that I've had my Merc, it's made 3 trips into service for mainly niggling little issues. I'm undecided on keeping my car out of warranty or not. I'm hoping the service frequency goes down once I get all these little issues sorted. I'm a long time Lexus owner for the record and while they're not perfect, they mostly just require oil and gas year in and year out. I miss that with my Lexus, but am optimistic my Merc will "settle down."

 

I would go for a 2012 plus E550. I have a 2014 E550 4 matic and I love. As the previous poster said the E550 offers a great and rare combination of GO. The car plenty of fast in all occasions...while I would love an AMG I cannot even utilize the power offered by the E550.

 

If you are considering an extended warranty, I would inquire at your local MB dealer repair shop on which 3rd parties warranties they work with the most. My service advisor had a list and shared it with me.

 

Get it

 

The factory warranty is considered the best and many dealers around the country discount their extended warranty. If there's an option to buy the factory extended warranty, that would be the first one to buy. The thing with 3rd party warranties is that the one the dealer likes is usually the one that has the highest profit margin.

 

Thanks for the relpies.. I'm looking harder at the CPO option. I'm amazed at the price variations of similar vehicles. Take for instance a CPO 2012.. Anywhere from say low 30s to high 40s? I know options play a big part in price differences but that seems quite high. My understanding on any vehicle that is still under factory warranty that an extension from MB can be bought at a later date. For example, if I bought a 2012 with a warranty date of of say 4/1/16. I could opt out of the selling dealers price for warranty extension, then shop for best deal from any dealer up to the April run out.

 

What issues have you had with the 2012 E550?

Mine has been amazing, started with a 1000 mi drive, and now driving spirited every day, plus a few blasts down the drag strip, found nothing wrong at all. 67k on the clock now.

You could go for a loaded up 2010-2011 with the pesky airmatic, or find a great deal on the 2012-2013 with the Biturbo engine and standard 4matic.

Any warranty extension will add $3k or so to the price. It's just a gamble whether you expect that much in repair within the warranty period. I'm gambling that won't happen.

 

That's true as long as you don't buy it from an MB dealer. If you get it from an MB dealer without a CPO warranty, I believe you can't buy the extended warranty. So it has to have the one year CPO warranty from the MB dealer and then you can buy 2 more years of CPO from any dealer in the country.

As for the gamble on the warranty, I think if you get a good enough discount on the extended warranty, it's probably worth it. The car at that point is in the middle of a phase. Too early to have lots of DIY articles and cheap aftermarket parts and not too many in the junkyards so you have to rely on the dealer for most items.

 

Idk why anyone would pay 40k plus for a 2012 CPO or not. That seems very high but maybe my memory is off.

 

If it was possible to get my same model with less miles and distronic with a warranty etc. I'd do it in a heartbeat. There is no E550 post 2010 with a better overall score based on some publications and much of that is due to the airmatic and NA 5.5 engine. I prefer to not have to deal with the turbo issues since I don't need the additional power or mod-ablilty.
However the airmatic is very useful for many of the conditions on the roads in my area. Also I've already had to use the lift for large speed bumps and flooded areas already several times on roadways that I couldn't have traverse without it. If you have a warranty then you'd be covered for suspensions issues. Plus the value of 2010 for what you will pay currently is amazing. You'd have dodged all of the massive depreciation hit at this point.

 

Oh no, you're going to get Jon going with your positive airmatic remarks, he test drove one you know!?! That coupled with reading some posts on the net = he's an expert. I won't see any of his actual comments, but I know they're coming

Redbud, not sure where you are, but here's what looks like a very clean CPO P2 with distronic in your price range. Looks like a pretty good deal...and beats a stripped one w/o a warranty.

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...-warranty.html

 

^^ That's a pretty nice one, but no mention of a pano roof and from the pictures, it doesn't look like it has it. It's too bad people don't like to post the VIN, it's the only way to see what all the options on the car are. Dealers post them all the time. Otherwise, it's somewhat nicely loaded.

Also I'm going to guess that because the buyer bought it as a CPO 2 years ago, and the warranty expires in 2016, he probably got the max 3 year CPO warranty you can get so once it expires, you'd be stuck with a 3rd party warranty if you want one. Otherwise an MB extended warranty could have been good for 7 years so some other 2012 could be under warranty til 2018 or 2019.

 

I'm still getting daily Autotrader alerts for every 2012-2013 E550 Sedan listed for sale in the country. They are listing from the low 30's into the 40's. Of course, a CPO at a MB dealer will definitely be on the higher end. There is definitely also a bubble between the price of 2010-2011 to the 2012-2013 even with similar mileage and options. That's quite a depreciation hit from a car with average sticker probably around $70K+++.

 

Exactly! Thus my question. Seems like 30 ish is more appropriate

 

Although list might be 70k, there's actually a lot of discounts that go on.

This lease deal talks about getting 14% off MSRP. So if you can pull off this deal, it's $365 a month for a 61k E-class on a 24 month lease.

http://leasehackr.com/blog/lease-an-...fleet-discount

 

IDK why anyone pays retail for anything, but people do it every day. They walk in, say "I want that" and pay. I think it's mainly convenience, or they have enough dough they just don't care.