mschirmer

A GL320 was my 4th Mercedes - but by far the worst ownership experience.

Purchased the '09 GL320 Bluetec new - hoped to get good fuel economy, reasonable maintenance costs, and more than 200K service life. Well - got one out of three.

Vehicle now has 179K miles and the power plant is at end of useful life - engine is consuming lots of oil (1qt per tank of fuel), fuel injector seals are leaking, timing chain has stretched, check engine light on most of time, and sometimes goes into limp home mode. Car was maintained by the book - with regular services done at an MB dealer. From what I have been able to research, the engine is not rebuildable (parts not offered by MB), a new complete engine is $17K to $23K plus installation, good low mile used OM642 engines are getting rare and run $10K+, short block plus reman turbo plus fuel injectors is $10K to $12K. None makes a lot of sense to install in what would be a $10K to $12K market value vehicle when all done.

Consensus from "experts" is that the engine is "sludged up" - probably because of high miles driven (80K+) in the first 3 years before MB reformulated the oil for Bluetecs and because the oil was not changed every 5K miles instead of the recommended 10K miles. Take it or leave it for what it's worth. Also consensus is that 2nd generation Bluetecs are better - if you change the oil at 2X the recommended frequency.

So, in my humble opinion, the legendary durability of Mercedes diesels is just that - a legend - at least as far as the new "clean" diesels are concerned.

Rest of vehicle is nearly perfect.

Things I've had to do over the years: replace oil cooler gaskets and rebuild intake motors - $3500, replace AdBlue heater - $1000, replace rear air springs - $700, 4 sets of tires - $5000. Replace keyless door locks 5 times - $3000. All in addition to regular maintenance.

But - the good - vehicle has probably averaged about 27 MPG over life.

So it's time to retire the car. Will advertise as a "mechanics special" for short money - if there are no takers, will go to recycler, or donate to charity (perhaps one I DON"T like!).

KrustyKustom

So how much you thinking? I could use a parts car....!

EWT

We've been thinking about replacing our 175K mile GL550. I was surprised to see that diesels had the lowest value of the 3 versions at kbb.com. Maybe not so surprising if this kind of durability is common.

Eric

gl450x164

How much?

a2j

When it comes to GLs, kbb.com is irrelevant. Based on what I've seen over the past several months.

mschirmer

I'm thinking somewhere between $5K and $9K - that still gives room for someone to replace the engine, maybe get another 100K miles and not be too far underwater. Other than the engine, the GL extraordinary condition.

For those that are interested:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/263195232549...84.m1558.l2649

BlownV8

I was wondering when the reliability issues would start affecting value. Looks like it is happening. Now, there is the problem of what the perceived value and actual value. The C5 Corvette suffers the same fate. The perceived value of the cars is much higher than the actual value so few are sold. Many just end up sitting in a garage.

A high mileage diesel with serious problems. If you could get $5k for it, you should sell it and run away. Fixing it will eclipse the value of the car by a long way. even if you are a DIYer, it still may be too expensive to repair when you consider the value of the car.

a2j

GL320s sell quickly for its kbb value because supply is low. GL450s on the other hand is plenty and they are listed for kbb value for months and nobody is buying. You can talk about reliability all you want, but facts are facts.

alx

Manheim shows average value of the 07 cdi with 130k miles is $7600. The 450s are $7300. Given the higher msrp of the 450 i would say the diesels still retain their value better. Also there are many 450 sales and few 320. The 320 is still far more desirable if only for export purposes...

Wow... now when I looked at them those things are practically free if you can wrench yourself...

BlownV8

What about the OP's 2009? He may be much better off running through an auction vs trying to sell as is.

a2j

This is a standard procedure for a dealer that cannot sell his overpriced GL450, or whatever. Instead of reducing the price to a more reasonable amount, they will auction it off.

BlownV8

We are talking about the OP's POS diesel and how to get rid of it. Thanks for the comment though.

a2j

The only person talking about getting rid of "POS diesel" is you. OP never referred to it as such. There are many ways to get rid of a vehicle, and auctioning is one of the popular ones. I'm just talking from experience, same principal can be applied to any.

alx

only low end dealers will put an 09 on their lots. As soon as such vehicle is traded in it goes directly to auction. Depending on dealer even newer vehicles (even 2017s) traded in will go auction after 30/60/90 days on the lot depending on dealer policy. Thus more particular make/model vehicles at auction denote hardship to sell on lot i.e. no demand.

a2j

It's just that after seeing some high mileage ugly interior 2007 non-diesel GLs with issues that have been listed with "reduced" price tag of $10k for a while, I can't believe that they are getting this much money for them on auction.

BlownV8

If that's not the definition of POS, I don't know what is.

EWT

I don't have access to the auction data but wondered what they were actually selling for. A $300 premium on a high mileage vehicle still seems small for a diesel. The difference on something like a Ford or Chebby pickup is quite a bit more IIRC.

It is amazing how cheap these things have gotten. We're probably just going to drive ours into the ground since we still like it and it isn't worth much to sell/trade.

BlownV8

IMHO, a couple of things at play with the GL. The first is the diesel is slightly less expensive than the gasser in the GL from the factory. Diesels in most domestic trucks usually carries a much higher price from the factory than the gassers and are typically much larger.and more robust than what is offered in the GL. Of course, Dodge offers a similar and same size small diesel.

Dependability of the GL diesel is very suspect as you can read with all apparent issues posted on the forum. I'm still surprised it holds any additional value than the gasser but I will chalk that up to rarity. A GL diesel gets significantly better mileage so that has some value. The gap is narrow and may soon be worth less across the board. KBB has it as less according to a member and another says the diesel still carries a slightly better auction price.