sclasslove

Hello all! I made this account to get some opinions on a new car. I have had my Jeep for a few years now, it still runs fine but I am looking for a newer upgrade. I am looking to buy something within the next few years. There are two Mercedes-Benz models I am looking at. The ML and S. The ML-Class I would want to buy would be an ML350 Edition 10. It's a very nice vehicle. The other one, which I am leaning toward more is an S-Class. It's a 2008 Mercedes-Benz S550. It's a very good price (less than $20,000) and has 65,000 miles. I would like all of you Mercedes experts to give your honest opinion on if I should buy it or not in the next couple of years. Also, are they reliable? I would rely on it to get from school and back and to run errands. Also, I would probably be doing all the work on it myself, so are they easy DIY cars? Thanks.

Frizbeez

Hello,

In my opinion with owning three s classes, a W140,W220 and now the W221, they will be costly to maintain. I would highly recommend spending the extra money on buying a very good exclusion policy extended warranty. These W221 Mercedes have many little electronics that if they start to go can eat you alive. I love my 2012 S550, but would never buy an S class without an extended warranty, unless you are very handy. Even then, many parts in this car will require you to use the Mercedes Star Diagnostic to program and diagnose problems that may arise. From my experience, they are reliable, but you must take care of them and stay up on maintenance. Just keep in mind, these cars are not like Jeeps. These cars will cost you around $500 on a B service, $1200 on tires, $800 on brakes, $400 on spark plugs and so fourth, which no warranty will cover. I am not trying to talk you out of it, just making sure you know because you said you are still in school.

Good luck!

Mike5215

The trap. A car that retailed for $100,000 five years ago has depreciated 75% and it's still in great shape, cosmetically, and it looks like the maintenance was perfect as well. It even drives like new.

What's the catch? The catch is that while the depreciated price of the car puts it in Honda territory, the cost of repairs HAVE NOT DEPRECIATED ONE CENT. Parts are still priced for a $100,000 car. What kind of parts are used to build a $100,000 car? Not Jeep parts is what.

Perfect cosmetics is zero protection. Perfect maintenance is zero protection. The only protection is low, low mileage and a monster warranty.

sclasslove

My Jeep was built with high quality parts. It has lasted 260,000 miles with only one major repair, keep in mind that it is 16 years old. It is probably the cleanest and most reliable car I have ever been in and have ever driven. Back in 1999, Chrysler was producing nice cars. The cloth seats in my Jeep haven't ripped in anyway nor is the headliner falling. The parts that were used to build it were quality and are still expensive (the last repair cost $1100).

Back when my Jeep was made, Mercedes-Benz and Jeep were underneath the same roof basically. Maybe some parts were shared between some Jeeps and Mercedes-Benzs'. Mercedes-Benz was the distant cousin of Jeep as Daimler did own the two companies.

Mike5215

No, it was built with simple, sturdy, reliable parts for a vehicle intended by design to be primitive. I'm confused by the original post I guess. If you're not planning to make a purchase for a few years how would you buy the specific 08 S550 mentioned in your post? Unless you plan on giving the guy one hell of a deposit. Personally I'd steer you toward an ML or a GLK...anything but an S.

But I guess by your logic you pretty much already own a Mercedes anyway.

Nuru

Hmm, I dunno about the ML, I have heard a lot of owners have mixed reliability results with that vehicle.

KNBS550

Not sure about your question(s) ... if you're planning to buy in a couple years, you could get a 2009 or 2010 S550 for less than $20K, so why bother mentioning a 2008? If you already have a Jeep then why wouldn't you go with an ML? Wouldn't you miss the utility of an SUV? Neither of the S or ML are good DIY vehicles, but the ML's height probably allows for easier access than the S-Class.

sclasslove

I mention the 2008 because it was what I was looking at right now. Yes, my plan is, in a couple of years, to buy a 2009 or 2010 for the same price. I was using the 2008 as an example. I don't think I would miss the utility of a Jeep. I mean, I love me Jeep, but, I really done anything with it that an S-Class can't (ex: getting groceries). I forgot to mention that if I were to buy an S-Class, I would probably be able to keep my Jeep as it has a very low cost to maintain and the insurance cost for it is very low. I was looking at an ML63, but it was out of my price range.

sclasslove

I get what you are saying. My grandmother's neighbor had one and the problems with it drove her to buy a Lexus. It was a nice SUV from what I could see.

sclasslove

I love the ML's but the GLK's I really don't like. To me, the outside looks boxy and the interior is bland. That's just my opinion. I liked it a little more when I sat in it at the New York International Auto Show, but my feelings about it are still mixed. I believe that my neighbors have a GLK500, it looks okay but from what I said: it looks boxy and the interior is bland.

I guess if you look at my logic, I never said a thing about them being the same thing. All I said was that they were both made by Daimler so possibly some parts could have been shared between the two companies in the late ninties and early 2000's.

DaveW68

Not likely that you have any parts in your Jeep from the Benz parts bin. Benz really didn't make any kind of effort to share any of their parts with Chrysler models until the LX bodies arrived in 2004, when many were shared with the W211 E-class. A couple years later they started sharing some parts with the Hemi Jeep GC, such as the 5 speed auto transmission, switchgear, steering wheel stalks, and the steering wheel. But by then, the Daimler Chrysler marriage was already on the rocks.

sclasslove

Oops! Looks like I was off a little! The concept was still there though. Thanks for informing me! It's always interesting to learn new things!

PaulE550

I think others may have already stated this, but don't shop for a used Mercedes solely based on the purchase price that may fit within your budget. Especially if you're looking at something like a S-class. Just because the price is what you can afford, doesn't mean the maintenance, insurance, etc. are going to be comparable to the costs associated with your Jeep. All these items I've mentioned are still going to be pretty based on the original $100,000 plus price tag of the car. By the way, that is true with any luxury brand vehicle you buy used. So buying a used S-class is perfectly OK. You just have to realize that your budget has to be able to carry the ongoing cost of owning a $100,000 car.

Mike5215

The axiom goes "There's no such thing as a cheap S Class." If they don't hit you up front with a hefty purchase price, they'll get you on the backend.

If you can afford a $20k S, plus the potential for thousands in repairs and maintenance, you can afford a $40k CPO car and have a cleaner car with any repair costs folded into the monthly payment.

Nuru

Definitely good point.

mnje350

I don't think I would own any Benz without a warranty. I had an '08 CLK that I sold one week after the extended warranty expired. That car would have eaten me alive with repair costs without the warranty.

I have a '10 E350 that is about to go in for a rear camera repair. Extended warranty will fix that. As for the S well same story. Too new to me for much repair but I have the warranty to cover what ever breaks, quits etc.

I don't think that it is such that these cars are unreliable it's just that the cost to fix something is expensive. But my Asian care repairs were not cheap either.

Point being, what ever you buy with a three point star, get as much warranty as you can.

KNBS550

OK. Thanks for the clarification. If you're going to wait a couple more years, the new W222 S-Classes will become more affordable sold as pre-certified vehicles with an unlimited mileage warranty. Probably around $35-40K for a 2014 model. I totally agree with Mike - you're going to pay for it now or later with an S-Class.

KNBS550

OK. Thanks for the clarification. If you're going to wait a couple more years, the new W222 S-Classes will become more affordable sold as pre-certified vehicles with an unlimited mileage warranty. Probably around $35-40K for a 2014 model. I totally agree with Mike - you're going to pay for it now or later with an S-Class.

Mike5215

Not knocking the Jeep specifically. Yours seems near to your heart and obviously has served you well. More trying to clarify for you that an S is in a different stratosphere (in both good and bad ways). For example, when you need a part for the Jeep, you probably have a lot of inexpensive aftermarket options. That's because the part is likely shared across Chrysler's model range and is so common that the aftermarket manufacturers see a large enough market to jump in.

Not the case with the S, where a lot of systems are shared minimally with the CL (which is a low volume seller itself) and that's about it. A part that might be $100 aftermarket on a domestic car can be $1,000 on an S or CL. MB is also known for not showing a lot of love for its repair techs in terms of making parts easy to access. It's not uncommon for a repair on a minor system to call for four or five hours of labor just getting to it.

I've owned 3 S-Class (my current 221 and two 220's) and I was stunned at how heavy the warranty repairs were on the first one.

sclasslove

That is untrue in some ways. There are some parts that were shared across the Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep line up but some parts were only limited to the Jeep line. Parts are still expensive. A transmission nearly cost $2000... If you look at parts for a 16 year-old Mercedes and a 16 year-old Jeep, parts probably wouldn't have that much of a difference in price.

Mike5215

Wow! $2,000 whole dollars for a new transmission?!

A new 7 speed transmission on my 2006 S500 was $13,000 in 2012. A remanufactured unit was over $6,000. Bear in mind the value of the car itself was around $16,000 which goes to my point about depreciation vs part prices. Believe me that was a very tough check to write, and I did the reman'd unit.

Look, you seem like a nice guy, and I get that you're trying to rationalize how owing a used $100,000 world-class luxury car will be the same as owning a used, street legal off-road utility vehicle that cost next to nothing brand new. The truth is you're not really in the market for an ML or an S, right? Just playing around with the idea of it.

Having owned and maintained three S Class over the past ten years, the analogy to me is like saying that dating Rosanne Barr is pretty much like dating Kate Upton, because they both have vaginas.

Nuru

You can get a break on parts by going online and finding the dealers who sell at almost wholesale prices on the WEB (getmercedesparts.com, mercedespartssuperstore.com). you can also find overseas online sources who are shipping to the US.

Mike5215

For minor parts there are some alternate sources, and they're generally selling OEM parts at some discount, but still not cheap. Arnot obviously is an aftermarket vendor who found a market for replacement air struts. But I don't think any of those guys are stocking new $20,000 engines or $13,000 transmissions.

sclasslove

It was a little bit offensive to say that my Jeep cost next to nothing brand new... If I am correct, the window sticker says $40,000. It has many options that weren't standard for that model year. Actually I AM in the market for a used ML or S-Class, If I weren't, I wouldn't have come to the forum. Just because I haven't owned a Mercedes-Benz yet and I am still new to all the different things you have to do to maintain them doesn't mean that you have to be rude about it. Within the next few years, I am almost certain that I will be driving an S-Class.

Mike5215

Nothing wrong with wishing. In the next few years I intend to be banging Kate Upton.