iiLOVEmys430

Hey guys heres a little background. I drive a 2000 s430. We bought it in 2004 as our family car for $46,000 with only 40,000 miles. Today our baby has 145,000 miles and over the past 9 years we've put $10,000+ into repairs aside from maintenance. Im 18 years old and this was a hand me down from my mom. I'm going to be honest, my mom knows nothing about cars and recently i found all the records for the car and this poor baby had terrible maintenance. In 2009 ALL services were overdue. I got the car a little over a year ago and i knew that it was poorly maintained but i never knew to this extent. So basically the car needs about $2000+ in work to get it back to at least an acceptable condition but i cant afford it. Im at the point with the car where im looking to sell it or trade it in for a honda or a toyota. Im 18 and i make $9 a hour. I LOVE MY BENZ and i wish i could keep it but its not smart for me at this time to own such a drama queen. So basically should i give up the car for a more practical car or keep fighting? any suggestions?

CarboyS

You're 18. You have a whole life ahead of you to drive more cars. It will hurt to get rid of it, but it seems you need to for financial security.

haoz129

You could afford it by doing works by yourself. Time and willing to learn is young man's wealth.
The love with the car could lead you to a new direction, or a new era. You could accumulate lots of skills which is gold mine for you and your futrue family.

List all the issues on your car, prioritize them which we could help, then fix the urgent. You'll find it cost much less than you think.

Of coz, Only if you enjoy working on it.
BTW, check my maintenance thread in my signature to see how much we can DIY on these beauties, even the top dog of Benz, at home.

All the best.

Howard

vmystikilv

Ive been in your shoes before, I became very good at tinkering so I wouldn't have to lose my bmw 850i long time ago. Short of changing and engine or transmission I can tackle anything else.

That being said, if I was in your shoes I would let it go. I would probably still buy a Mercedes but I would get either a C-class E or ML. Id Choose the ML with no airmatic anything anywhere. You could also do a decent model acura TSX or TL with built in Bluetooth with the money that S class will fetch in. Yeah, I would prob do an pre owned Acura TL or tsx. And like the Guy said above, your young enough, you will have plenty of cars in your life time.

Quadcammer

its a problem laden early model with a poor service history. Its also a run of the mill s430. why be car poor? To me it makes way more sense to have cash to go out and do fun stuff with friends than be struggling to own a ratty high mile 13 year old luxury car.

Sell it, buy a cheap reliable car, drive that for a few years and re-evaluate. If you really love the w220, there will be thousands around in a few years to buy, fix, etc.

dump it.