JesusL

Hello Everyone,

I am on the fence wanting to purchase a nice E class from AutoNation. The car is in great shape and the price is reasonable. However when inspecting the car I found a groove on both of the front rotors (pictures attached). This is one in a chain of dealerships that pride themselves on doing a 125 point inspection and reconditioning the vehicles before putting them out in the lot for sale. Salesman says the car passed the inspection and therefore the rotors are fine, even though I showed him the grooves. I told him that if they replace the rotors and pads or get a repair credit that I would purchase the car. Dealership said NO. Should this be a concern for me if I purchase the car AS IS or should I just walk away? Is this not a safety issue?....I assume that if I took my current car to their service department with those grooves they would immediately recommend replacing the rotors...look at the pictures and let me know what you think please.

Thanks, JL

cetialpha5

Well no pictures but I did the front brakes on my 2011 recently, got new rotors too because they were wearing like that too. Basically the rotors are either too thin or there's something up with the pads. Stopping was still fine although I think there was a little fade before I did them. The brake light still had not come on at that point so I was able to reuse the old sensor. Not that much money to do them. Zimmerman rotors on Fcpeuro are around $86 each and the Akebono pads are around $80 for a set. Indy garage can probably do them in the $100 range more or less. So about $300-$400 to get them redone. Knock that off the price or factor that into your purchase. If you go to the dealer, they seem to like to quote $1000 for anything.

Oh and I tend to go on and on about the options. It may be in great shape, but does it have any options like keyless go, bixenons, pano sunroof, real leather instead of MB-tex, folding rear seat, power trunk closer, driver assistance package, parktronic, dynamic seats, night vision assist, etc.

KEY08

Mud

I would be very reluctant to buy an MB at a wholesaler dealership, especially taking their word about the condition of the car. If you insist on getting an older car with no warranty at least get it checked at a local MB dealer or knowledgeable indy. Even if it's on your nickel you'll get a much better idea of current or possible issues.

As with any mfg, there are more common issues that arise, many of which are not immediately apparent to a first-time buyer, if you are that buyer. Example is engine and transmission mounts - they are liquid filled and notorious for early failure/collapse. And the engine mounts are expensive to replace at a shop.

These chain dealerships are in business to turn cars, not to refurbish them. Something listed as ok on an inspection sheet doesn't necessarily mean it's great, could be marginal. If it's not actually broken it passes. And do they have the full kit MB diagnostic software to check all modules?

With all that said, I bought my car at a third party dealership but it still had original factory warranty. I had the car independently checked out, looked at past MB service records and also verified with MB that it was eligible for extended warranty purchase which I did get. It's now out of warranty but in the past few years I've had a buffer to tell me if it's been a lemon or not. This was my first MB and even though I can do a lot of DIY I was reluctant to dive in without some backup. Your final decision may vary of course, just mentioning some things to consider.

DFWdude

Would like to see the pictures to see the "Grooves" in question.

Brake rotors are consumable items, and are designed to get grooves during use. They will invariably develop a "lip" around the circumference of the rotor as the entire surface abrades away. The amount of lip depends on the mileage, of course. You are not supposed to replace the rotors with every pad replacement, so judging the amount of wear is difficult without pictures. On my C-Class I replace my front rotors at the second pad replacement. At that point, the lip protruded about 1/8" from the surface. Any wear less than this I would think OK.

You didn't mention how meaty the pads were. I would look at pad thickness in conjunction with disc thickness to make an overall assessment. Regardless, the dealer Svce Dept should be able to measure and disclose the disc thickness for you. Doesn't Autonation offer free CarFAX data? That would tell you brake repair history.

As noted by others, rotors and pads are an easy DIY. I'm 67 years old, and just replaced the pads and rotors (a second time) on the C320 (parts noted above are great). If the rest of the car is exactly as you want it, I would be hard pressed to walk away over what could simply be a brake "appearance" issue.

I'm not a fan of Autonation, but they do seem to be buying up a lot of 1st Tier dealerships.

cetialpha5

Yeah, probably at least 60-70% of the cars out there are base models with just the P1 package or may have one or two options. Much harder to find them loaded. A rare one would be one with the driver assistance package, rear entertainment, and night view assist, hardly ever see any cars with those options.

If you click on this site, and select 4matic and then select features you'll see what options were available for that year and the list prices for those options.
https://www.motortrend.com/cars/merc.../e-class/2011/

Here's the brochures:
http://www.auto-brochures.com/mercedes_benz.html

300SE1993

From my experience, my 2011 E350 4matic has been a great car, very reliable. I did front and rear rotors/pads and it's not that bad of a job. I can't believe that the dealership you are dealing with is acting this way. If that's wrong and you can see it, what else is neglected?

Try putting the car into mycarfax and seeing if you can get some service history. What's the miles and price on the car? I paid $8000 for mine over a year ago, with 173K miles. If you get this car really cheap like I did, it may be worth the risk, but a PPI would be a good idea.

JesusL

Thanks for your reply. Price is 12.9K and mileage is 108k. Only added options are pano roof and amg wheels. Carfax is clean and they have a 5day/250mile return policy, supposedly no questions asked. By the way I saw your video on youtube a couple of days ago, very cool.

For some reason the pictures don't attach to the post but you can find them in the gallery.

JesusL

Thanks for your reply. For some reason the pictures do not attach to my post, but you can see them in the gallery, recent.

cetialpha5

Not sure what gallery you're talking about.

Also does it have the faded wood trim and did you see if the seat cushions have any rips? Those are also very common problems.

JesusL

Thanks for your reply. For some reason the pictures do not attach to my post, but you can see them in the gallery, recent.

JesusL

The galley tab on top of the page, then recent images.

The seats and wood trim are in perfect condition. But it does look like the driver seat was ripped at some point, but it has been fixed.

cetialpha5

Those grooves are really nothing, it's minor, probably something got caught up in the pads. You could probably just change out the pads if you're worried about it. You could measure the rotors too to see how thick they are, but visually they look like you could just throw another set of pads on it.

JesusL

Thank you Sir. The thing is BOTH front rotors have the same groove at exactly the same place on each rotor.

KEY08

300SE1993

KBB says wholesale is right around $8700. I think $12,900 is way too much. For not too much more than that, you can get a couple years newer, lower mile CPO car like this one. You could probably talk them down to 15ish.

https://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/cpo/i...HF8JB9DA662505