Thinking of Purchasing ML500
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 1
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2003 ML500
Thinking of Purchasing ML500
Hi guys,
I am thinking of purchasing my father-in-law's pristine 2003 ML500. It has 63k miles on it.
I am coming from a Land Rover Discovery 2 and am annoyed with the lack of reliability ....AND English engineering.. and very excited to return to German cars.
I have read a lot of the stickies and posts on this forum and others, searched many of these topics, but still have a few questions that I was hoping for advice on:
1) Are W163's easy to work on? I am fairly mechanically savvy, but is there a high reliability on special tools needed to fix them? Do most of the forum members here do their own repairs without going to the dealer?
2) I have read that ML500's have potential overheating issues, what are the components on the cooling system that cause this?
3) Obvious red flags I should be on the look out for with an ML500?
Thank you. Once again I appreciate your time in responding!
I am thinking of purchasing my father-in-law's pristine 2003 ML500. It has 63k miles on it.
I am coming from a Land Rover Discovery 2 and am annoyed with the lack of reliability ....AND English engineering.. and very excited to return to German cars.
I have read a lot of the stickies and posts on this forum and others, searched many of these topics, but still have a few questions that I was hoping for advice on:
1) Are W163's easy to work on? I am fairly mechanically savvy, but is there a high reliability on special tools needed to fix them? Do most of the forum members here do their own repairs without going to the dealer?
2) I have read that ML500's have potential overheating issues, what are the components on the cooling system that cause this?
3) Obvious red flags I should be on the look out for with an ML500?
Thank you. Once again I appreciate your time in responding!
Newbie
Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 2
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From: DFW Texas
2001 W163 ML55 AMG, 1999 W163 ML320
As far as reliability my family owns a Ml320 and I have a Ml55, I can say that either one is easier to work on than a tahoe, as far as problems I have had nothing at all wrong with my car (knock on wood) and it has 75k miles on it, my fathers Ml320 was sitting outside for 2 years before he got ahold of it and the previous owner ragged it out, but it still fired up after changing fluids after sitting 2 years and its been almost 2 years since and he has had 0 problems with his besides sometimes the a/c fan will only blow on high. We drove from Texas to the center of Alabama on a 9-1/2 hour road trip with no problems and managed to get 19.3 mpg in my dads car. The only down side is my car gets a average of 14.6-16 mpg city 18-22 highway, my dads gets 16-18 city and 18 highway. Your car should get somewhere in that range of mpg.
Junior Member
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 21
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From: Mesa, AZ
'04 E55 AMG, '03 ML500, ‘13 BMW 528i
Do it, you won't be disappointed. This forum has a ton of info... if you can turn a wrench, you can tackle most anything that would come up on the ML.
Bought my '03 ML500 with 90k on the clock, and other than a couple minor issues (fixed the leaking PS reservoir and a minor oil leak from the filter housing) it's been a flawless vehicle. The gas mileage isn't great, but that's what you get with a V8 in a heavy SUV.
I'd go so far as to say that given the choice, I'd still take the 10 year old ML over most other options.
Bought my '03 ML500 with 90k on the clock, and other than a couple minor issues (fixed the leaking PS reservoir and a minor oil leak from the filter housing) it's been a flawless vehicle. The gas mileage isn't great, but that's what you get with a V8 in a heavy SUV.
I'd go so far as to say that given the choice, I'd still take the 10 year old ML over most other options.
