A friend of mine works at an indie Mercedes shop and gave me a call because they have a black/charcoal int. '03 SL500 in there getting some extended warranty work taken care of (believe it was something w/ the ignition switch). I was mainly looking at '00-'02 E55s and '03+ E500s prior to this. I checked out the car a couple of days ago and took it for a test drive and really like it. It's got 58k miles on it and is extremely clean. It's a one owner car and the guy is in his early 60s and it hasn't been beat on (and it shows). The car has only been serviced/worked on by Stead Mercedes in Walnut Creek, CA and my friend's shop. The only reason he's selling it is because he just bought another luxury car of some sort. He's asking $28,000 but my friend and his boss think I could probably get it for $24,000-$25,000. I'm currently waiting to hear back from my bank regarding a loan and my insurance company.

I'm mainly worried about if I can actually afford to own this car. I've done some reading on here and have seen a lot of the you need a warranty and you don't need a warranty type posts. Since my friend works at an indie shop i get parts at his cost plus a little extra (5%-10%) and almost free labor (what I decide to pay him). His boss is ok with him doing side jobs for me. I can handle the payments no problem, but am a tiny bit hesitant of any issues that may come up. This car would be my daily driver (7 miles each way to work) but I do have another vehicle so I could deal with downtime if needed.

Opinions? Should I go for it if the price is right or am I a dumbass for even thinking about doing this?

I bought one from dealer with 3yrs extended warranty, had it now for five years. one owner 50001 at purchase now 65385 so not even 16000 miles put on this car I have five benzes, but this auto needs a warranty , issues i've had, ABC malfunction, gas tank replaced, motor mounts, upper and lower bushings, battery goes down if your don't drive it a couple days, total repair $25000 not including tires $660 for front, $750 for rear tires, difference sizes made that way, trunk lifters go bad $169 pair at dealer, third trunk brake light breaks cracks up $258, $30000 in warranty repairs at dealer to date. If you drive every day you will probably pay more to upkeep

That's kind of what I was afraid of. Since you're showing dealer costs, is it really that bad without the labor? I realize parts are expensive, but do the big dollar problems show up often or is it mainly just the small stuff that's a few hundred here and there that adds up?

I'm really on the fence about this. I'm also considering CTS-Vs or a C5 Z06, which are a little more in my price range.

If you are worried about the payments on $25k and you don't get a warranty, you won't be able to afford this car.

Let's say that all labor was free. You are still going to pay $1200 for one shock that goes bad, or $2000 for a brake computer chip or $2300 for a malfunctioning command unit. What happens if the roof doesn't go down or up one day. Sure your friend may fix it for free, but he'll still have to charge you the $2000 in parts.

I had mine 2 years, paid $2400 for the warranty and it had about $10,000 in warranty repairs.

you never know what will malfunction like my friend said, even if labor is free the parts could run you a mini fortune, you must get warranty to be safe and do the scheduled maintenance. This is not a auto for the every day weak of heart I hope it don't break down, every thing has malfunctions and every day driving brings new adventures to possible malfunctions. This might not be the auto for you

You guys all have very valid points. I think at this point I'm going to go ahead and pass on it. Thanks.

Yes definitely. If you are scraping by with just the payment, the first chunk of repair work will destroy your budget.


Wow, where did you find an amount that small for the COMAND unit? I just had to get mine replaced (was rebooting a lot, then finally just died) and it cost about $5600. About $5K of that was just the unit! Thank god it was covered under my Easy Care warranty. Whew!

-Rook3300

Rook3300, you spent 5k for the Unit?

This is one of the only authorized repair vendors in the U.S. 495 covers a complete rebuild:

http://www.midwestelectronics.com/ca.../Mercedes-OEM/

Well, I didn't but my extended warranty did. It was a complete replacement of the COMAND head unit. The dealer service manager said it would be about $5K for just the unit alone and about 8 hours of labor.

Thanks for the link but all those units are from older cars. I've got a newer unit in my 2005 SL500. Their website didn't specify if they work on newer units. If I couldn't have the replacement through my warranty, I would have been all over something like this but everything's a-ok now.

-Rook300

Rook, who do you have your extended warranty with?

I got a 3 year aftermarket warranty through EasyCare at the time of purchase. It cost only about $3200 or so. Can't remember exact price.

-Rook3300