RicardosBenz

I'm seriously considering trading in an excellent condition 1999 S500 for a 2001 S55 with approx 94K miles. The price is appealing at just under $25K. I need some advice on what I should look out for? Are maintenance costs excessive? Car looks great outside and inside and the engine sounds great.

Heres the website: www.palaceautocenter.com

whoover

That's a lot of miles. If you do a search on autotrader, there are lots of them around with much lower mileage. They will cost you more now, but may save you money in the long run.

The maintenance won't be much more than you're used to. Repair costs are the killer but, there too, a normally-aspirated S55 shouldn't need more than an early W220 S500. But therein lies the rub. There are so many areas that are due to cause problems on a 100K-mile W220: suspension (Airmatic or ABC -- they both break), electrics (lots of modules), seat pneumatics, central locking, etc. Owning any W220 without a warranty is a gamble. The good news is that an 2001 S55 is no worse of a gamble than a 2001 S500. But it's way more than a gamble than a 1999 W140 S500, which was fairly well debugged by the end of its run.

DRTYLNDY

Well look at that, I am in the same situation almost. I currently have a 2000 S500 Sport and want to trade into a 2003+ S55. My payments would be about the same but that is the least of my problems. My wife says I am crazy and should be happy with the one I have. I tried to explain to her that every 3 years or so I get bored with my cars.

whoover

Your situation is much clearer. From early W220 to later W220 is easier to justify. From 302 to 493 horsepower is mandatory. Tell your wife it's for the safety. It has head protection curtains that the 2000 doesn't.

RicardosBenz

Thanks for the advice. I plan to test drive the vehicle tomorrow or Thursday. Then I'll decide if I really wanna proceed. BTW, do you think an extended warranty would be a good idea?

whoover

An extended warranty is normally a must, but I can't imagine that you could get a decent one with that age and mileage. It would either expire pretty quickly or have so many exclusions to be useless, I would think.

brianw430

I must agree with whoover on this. I purchased my 01 S55 for about the same money, almost two years ago, with 60,000miles, wood steering wheel and heated rear seats. Investigate after market warranties here, but generally they are for the catastrophic failure, not covering some of the costly repairs like ABC or airmatic. I love mine greatly and look forward to an 03+ in the future!

Good luck in your search, but make sure you take your time and be very particular about what you buy. Make sure it has complete service records, or at least some paper trail regarding its service/maintenance history.