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Got a deal for e very cheap W212 with high mileage
Hey fellas, I have found a pretty nice deal on E200, 2012 pre-facelift for only 4K Euros, the only problem: it has done 350,000KM, around 217K Miles.
The car has been used before as a Taxi in Germany, but it looks very clean in interior and exterior. I was thinking of investing some more into it like changing color, adding the e63 w212 body kit, etc. What do you guys think, can I expect it to last for another 100,000 KM / 60,000 Miles?
What's the saying, "There's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes"? Seriously, if you got the car, then just drive it and not worry about making it something it's not. Hopefully the taxi company that owned it kept up with the maintenance and it will keep chugging along. Can you get another 60K out if it? Maybe. Might need nothing or it could need lots of new parts thrown in. May be a reason the company is selling it rather than holding it and putting those miles on it themselves.
As previously suggested, I would just drive it and enjoy it. I knew an acquaintance (years ago) in the Limo business who maintained his Lincoln Town cars well, and drove them for 300,000 miles or more. But the problem children got sold off faster than the keepers that would make 380,000 miles..
Even if you are a handy DIYer, It takes only one significant problem to run up a big bill... just for parts. Just updating the looks with new grille, etc, will double what you paid for the car, and it still will be worth only what you paid for it initially, or less.
Not my cup of tea, but there are those who love to keep these things going. To spend any money on paint and body modifications negates the cheap purchase.
Hey fellas, I have found a pretty nice deal on E200, 2012 pre-facelift for only 4K Euros, the only problem: it has done 350,000KM, around 217K Miles.
The car has been used before as a Taxi in Germany, but it looks very clean in interior and exterior. I was thinking of investing some more into it like changing color, adding the e63 w212 body kit, etc. What do you guys think, can I expect it to last for another 100,000 KM / 60,000 Miles?
As a German TAXI the car is a Diesel I assume, which is a good thing but what is not is that they probably wound the meter back. I have a car that I got starting 2012 and it had 14700 miles on it. I have added over 150000 miles to it in almost 5 years. That is roughly 30 000 miles yearly and I drive my car only 1/3 of my working days.
A TAXI drives every day and logs in miles very fast. They easily drive 100000 km/year so this car most likely has the actual km reading north of 500000. You can check for this by reading the car's engine or transmission module where the actual km for that module is stored. If this is a dealer selling it then you need to find another dealer to read the km and tell you the truth.
But, regardless of the km reading if it is a Diesel the engine will not go out or very likely will not go out. The most wear and tear is with the suspension so the shocks and different bushings wear out and some of these have probably been changed already.
I would just buy the car and drive it as it sits as long as it drives. Heck, with 4000 Euros you can't even buy a moped anymore.
Is it in taxi-creme color?
When actual kilometrage can be in question, you are buying older car for its condition, not the paper records.
Was the car properly maintained or driven close to the point when wheels are failing off?
I'd do compression test and if that shows good, we are talking 1 million miles, or 2 million kilometers engine.
Hey fellas, I have found a pretty nice deal on E200, 2012 pre-facelift for only 4K Euros, the only problem: it has done 350,000KM, around 217K Miles.
The car has been used before as a Taxi in Germany, but it looks very clean in interior and exterior. I was thinking of investing some more into it like changing color, adding the e63 w212 body kit, etc. What do you guys think, can I expect it to last for another 100,000 KM / 60,000 Miles?
If you are a handy DIYer you can do what this guy did...
German taxis have their own color and with high demand MB makes cars in taxi version.
Beside color, they also have different instrument cluster to incorporate the meter, while cabbies don't care much about gadgets, so don't expect too many options on the car.
German taxis have their own color and with high demand MB makes cars in taxi version.
Beside color, they also have different instrument cluster to incorporate the meter, while cabbies don't care much about gadgets, so don't expect too many options on the car.
German taxi color is a wrap that you can and probably must remove if the car is not registered as a TAXI anymore. Car’s VIN should tell what color it was made to before putting the TAXI wrap on it.
Wrap come on the market not much more than 10 years ago. German taxi are cream for 50 or more years.
I'm not talking about 50 years ago, I'm talking now. And the mandated "cream" TAXI color came at early 90's so it is about 30 years ago. Taxi companies were required to paint their fleets to this color but instead a German company developed a wrap for changing the car color. Now I think MB does the wrap for TAXI cars they sell. And now they talk about freeing up the TAXI color so they can be any color.
Wrap is the way to sell the old taxi with the pristine color under the wrap when removed. With this and wound odometer it is much easier to sell as a used car.
Experienced German used car buyers know all this and inspect the roof paint very closely as the suction cup TAXI sign mount sometimes leaves a very faint round marking on that paint under the wrap and, of course, they check the actual mileage of the engine and/or transmission modules.
But you can make a trip to Germany and see for yourself as you don't believe anything I say.
A Finnish news paper just had an article about a taxi driver reaching 1,000,000 km with his 2015 E300 Bluetec. According to article, here is what has been done to the car so far:
-Shock absorbers at 750,000km
-Wheel bearings at 800,000km
-Alternator has been changed 4 times
The driver emphasized in the article that the engine has not been opened and he plans to drive the car at least until next spring when it will have about 1,200,000 km. He said the high milage only shows in the number of rock chips! He said even the original seats are holding up great. The car has been driven in two shifts since new.
Even 2 drivers putting 250,000 km per year is lot of driving. They had to get lot of freeway routes.
But anyway, that sample brings again possibility of odometer rollback. So do the proper checks.
Even 2 drivers putting 250,000 km per year is lot of driving. They had to get lot of freeway routes.
Hypothetically, if they took delivery of the 2015 model in Sept 2014, it would have been in use for 5 years so far, making it 200,000 km per year. That would be 100,000 km per shift per year. If they worked 300 days a year, it would be 333 km per day per shift. That seems doable... Of course, that's still lot of driving everyday.
Hypothetically, if they took delivery of the 2015 model in Sept 2014, it would have been in use for 5 years so far, making it 200,000 km per year. That would be 100,000 km per shift per year. If they worked 300 days a year, it would be 333 km per day per shift. That seems doable... Of course, that's still lot of driving everyday.
That's EXTREMELY doable. I used to have a round trip commute of 104 miles (over 160km). If you drive literally all day long there's absolutely no reason you couldn't do twice that.
To the OP - 4k Euros seems like a steal, IF there's nothing wrong with it. Get a pre-purchase inspection performed if you can, or, just go into it expecting to spend another several thousand Euros on the car. And if you end up not having to, then great!
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