Potentialbuyer

This car is being offered to me by an old friend for a. Sry reasonable amount. only has 41k miles and has been garaged most of its life. My hesitation is that I am looking for a daily driver for my job and I'm concerned that even with the low mileage, it may have some expensive problems come up because it is such an old model. On the other hand, I know I'm getting a good deal so part of me wants to just take advantage of what's being offered. Looking for advice on people who are familiar with these cars. This would be my first Mercedes. Thanks!

Dale B

I am new to my SL500 as well, but have driven Mercedes for more than 20 years. Don't buy any car if you don't want to maintain it properly. You need to expect that things will go wrong.


Do the math. You can spend 8K to 10K for a 2001 SL500 with 50K miles. Set 10K aside to cover any future repairs for the next 5+ years. I don't think you will need to spend that much, but it's worst case. You will have less than 20K in your SL500.


Or you can spend 25K for a new inexpensive car. You will still have to spend money to maintain your inexpensive new car. In the end, its up to you. Which would you rather drive? To some people a car is just transportation. To others it is much more. My worst car experiences have been when I was tied to a car that I didn't like.


The problems that I have seen are when people don't look at the total picture and when the time comes, they are not prepared to pay for the proper maintenance. The nightmare is when people buy based on the monthly payment rather than total costs.


I have driven Mercedes and Porsches for the last 30 years and my total costs have been well below my friends that turn their ordinary new vehicles over every 3 to 5 years.


Find a good mechanic that you can trust and learn about your cars.

Jimmy Chen Shib

Sage advice by Dale.

Jimmy