Hey guys -

Finally looking to upgrade from a ****box to something that's actually comfortable and decent looking. Prior ASE mechanic, so I'm competent enough with vehicles, just not with luxury imports. I checked out a 2012 E350 today, and had some questions - if you can lend me your wisdom?

The car has 103K miles and is in pretty okay shape. A few dings, drivers seat has MB Tex and is ripped on the bottom bolster, but everything seems to be working. It has the one option I was adamant about, which is keyless go. Is $11K too outside of the ordinary? From what I've read, it's a solid engine and trans with no major weak points other than replacing the cam chain tensioner occasionally (my GTI was the same way)

The brake pad sensors weren't replaced during a recent pad/rotor change, and it's currently on the dash. Is this notification easy to remove once I replace the sensors, or is it a dealership thing?

I know they updated the interiors around 2014? Did any of these interior upgrades make their way into the old body style? I love the simplicity of the interior, but would appreciate a more updated center stack screen. With that being said, I see tons of the older models having a more updated 3 spoke steering wheel. Was this an option, or just an upgrade people did?

Lastly, does anyone have a CARFAX that wouldn't mind running the VIN? I'll venmo you some moneys in return.

If you guys have anything I should check out, or anything in particular I should look for, please let me know!

Thank you in advance for everything.

 

Here's a few tools, use the VIN decoder out there to check the options. Usually when it had keyless go, it had the P2 package which is also the bixenon headlamps with the headlamp washers. You'll notice the headlamp washer cut outs in the bumper below the headlight. The bixenons also had active curve illumination so they swivel when you turn the steering wheel and auto high beams are also part of it. Does a little dance when you first time them on. Check nadaguide.com, but 11k sounds reasonable. The 2012 was the new M276 engine with 302hp and so far it seems like a pretty decent engine, no major issues, just tricky replacing spark plugs as the intake manifold needs to come off normally but there's a few threads on here of people being able to do it without resorting to that.

https://www.lastvin.com/

The brake pad sensor is just two wires and a sensor that wears away and breaks once the pads get down to about 25%, it's a simple replacement and you can reuse it if it's not worn down, all you have to do is replace the sensor and the light will go off, they're available separately, normally two come with a set of front brake pads. We also tend to buy a lot of parts from FCPeuro which has a lifetime warranty on all parts they sell so for something like Akebono pads which just have a 30 day warranty, you end up with a lifetime warranty, same as the rotors.

As for the steering wheel, that was the sport steering wheel which was an option. There's someone on the classifieds sections that will sell a carfax for $5-$6, just search for carfax there.

Only other things that come to mind are the motor mounts, those always seem to go, check your cv joints for any rips in the boot, the whole axle tends to be expensive but if you catch it early a reboot will be cheaper.

Comand is the center console and those changed by the year, not sure which version you have, but usually not worth it to do much of an upgrade, but if you're up for it, there's some thread on here where people are adding Apple carplay/Android auto to the car and it sounds reasonably priced aside from the additional installation cost but it sounds like that's something you can do. That wasn't really available until the 2016+ models.