Hi, my 75 year-old mom is in the market for a new (used) vehicle and the 2020 GLE 350 has two features she won't compromise on; a large screen and surround cameras.

I took her to a dealer to test drive one in the price range she'd like to be in, and a few things stuck out that I'm curious about.

After the test drive, I could smell coolant. The sales guy said it may be from them topping off the fluids but it was pretty strong... Is there a known issue with the coolant system I should know about? I just became aware of the AC evaporator issues and have read about the timing chain and those two combined appear to cost 30-50% of the price of the vehicle. Oddly, the carfax shows no indication of it having a turbo. Google says there are no non-turbo GLE 350's but it said the same thing about 2019 RDX's and she apparently test drove one that absolutely did not have a turbo so I'm curious if there actually are GLE's 350's without a turbo?

In general, are these considered to be reliable vehicles above 70k miles or is that where you'd be looking to dump it because there's about to be a bunch of expensive services/problems? Honestly, she loves a lot of the features on the car, but I know who's going to end up dealing with any issues that may arise from my recommendation and don't want to make her purchase my problem. I'm going to help subsidize her purchase so I guess to a small extent, I'll be "invested" in whatever depreciating asset she buys and have always found forums to be the best place for advice and service diagrams/etc... I hope I posted this thread in the right spot.

Lastly, are there different trim packages that would affect the price? The video I saw on the 450 had an adjustable suspension and this one doesn't appear to have that. Is that just on the 450? Thanks for any wisdom you folks choose to impart.

 

Smelling coolant is not normal. Hard pass.

 

As far as I know, there is only one engine available on the 350 in NA.
The air suspension is part of a package, not all 450's have it.

 

From ANY dealer - new or used. From ANY seller...take the car to a trusted third party to inspection. Even if you are a solid mechanic....go to a third party (who is not potentially emotionally attached to the vechile or sales process). Maybe the dealer was not lieing about topping it off...but, why did it need to be topped off???

 

The engine in the 350 has cylinder issues. I'd spring for a 450 if you can.