Couple of questions.

a) I can do some maintenance myself. Given that which year would be the sweet spot between depreciation and repair costs?
b) No matter what year and reasonable wrench turning skills will any year still be prohibative without a warranty?
c) One that I am interested in has "smoked" healights. Is this just a film that can be easily removed?

 

Any warranty you can purchase is simply pre-paying for normal maintenance. Warranties are simply insurance policies, and insurance companies don't lose money.

Smoke film is aftermarket and since it's applied to plastic I'd worry. I'm surprised it's not illegal.

 

Thanks for the prompt response. You echo my sentiment regarding warrantees.

I'm not digging the smoked headlight look at all and agree that I can't believe that it isn't illegal. Since the car is a at a dealer I guess I could insist that the film be removed before purchase.

 

You are discussing two different things.

Maintenance has a fixed schedule known in advance, and a semi-reasonable cost. It can be factored into the purchase price when figuring the total cost of ownership. Extended warranties DO NOT cover maintenance. Some manufacturers offer pre-paid maintenance plans which will cover these costs.

An extended warranty covers the repair cost of parts that break/fail during ownership that are NOT supposed to be replaced like maintenance items. These can not be factored into the total cost of ownership, except very generally when looking at a specific models' long-term reliability. These unexpected, and often far more expensive compared to maintenance, failures are what extended warranties cover.

Extended warranty companies do lose money on specific lines, just like Allstate loses money on homes in a specific area when a hurricane strikes. They just make money overall on their product lines so can afford to take losses in certain areas. As a whole, in order for any insurance company to make a profit, their overall lineup has to be profitable. That does not mean that certain policy holders do not get big payouts.

I sell a lot (thousands) of extended warranties, and I see a lot (over 1000) of claims. I can tell you from my personal experience that for an R230 SL, a good extended warranty is a good investment. Are you guaranteed to get over 100% of your investment back? No, you are not. But on average you can come pretty close over the term of the plan even without a major problem, while protecting yourself against a major problem. And if yo DO have a major problem you will be VERY happy you have an extended warranty. With a single ABC strut costing $2100 at a Benz dealer, and lots of expensive things that can go wrong, you should seriously consider it with these cars.

The key of course is to get a full coverage plan, from a good company, at a fair price. Sometimes that's hard to do...the car can have a lot of miles, certain plans may not be available for certain models (especially the SL600), etc. But if you find the right combo, which is my job, it can be a major asset.

These cars, as a whole, are not reliable, and are very expensive to repair. And I say that from personal experience across hundreds of them, and can provide references from dozens of people right here on MBWorld that are very happy they got a warranty from me, or somewhere else.

If anyone would like a quote, email me at brucem105@comcast.net.

Thanks.

Bruce
Becks Imports LLC

 

if the headlights are smoked with the tint film you can simply just peel them off but being that your buying your car from a dealer you should request to take them off.

 

2007 if you can afford one would be a good bet. That is the first year of the 550. I would avoid the SL600.

If you want to really enjoy the car before the suspension dies on you then I would recommend a 2005 or later SL55.

Don't just go for the cheapest car. Spend time getting to know the market.

Z

 

Becks Imports is correct on the extended warranty. I had one on my 2001 CLK and got much more back in covered repairs than the cost of the insurance. This was a M-B extended warranty I bought when car was delivered and I was very happy I did it. Becks is wrong when it comes to reliability on later Benz cars. The early 90s were admittedly bad and M-B spent literally billions on warranty repairs. Owners also spent fortunes on these cars. But, speaking from personal experience, and talking to knowledgable people with no ax to grind, the later decade cars were terrific. Our 2008 C350 was perfect, no problems whatsoever, over 3 1/2 years. My 2009 SL550 has also been perfect over 3 1/2 years and 40K miles. The various surveys bear this out. M-B quality is back to a high level. But anyone buying these cars should understand they are complicated and expensive to repair. If somebody wants to have an appliance that is cheap to run, they should buy a Japanese make.

 

I base my opinion on having well over 1000 MB's under various warranty plans. All of them are model year 2000 and later, with most from 2003-2008, very few before or after those years. Actually, I do have a bunch after 2008, but most are still under the factory warranty so I am not seeing claims yet.

I see hundreds and hundreds of claims, and when I say these cars are both not reliable and expensive to repair, it's an accurate statement. I do see a lot of VMIs on cars I buy for my clients that are post-2008, and those look pretty much the same as the older cars in terms of work done and warranty cost. So I do not see any reason they will come out being cheaper to own long-term.

Your experience with one 2009 SL from 0 to 40K miles is not really conclusive. People buy extended warranties to cover them from 50K and beyond...so I don't see how you can extrapolate yet. It's just too early for that prediction on a 40K mile 2009, aor really any 40K mile 2009 in general. It's too early for me to say they will NOT be reliable too, but I do some some claims, and lots of VMIs, so based on that admittedly limited experience I just do not see any huge difference.

Are the some reliable ones? Yes. Are they, as a whole, more reliable than the mid 90's cars? Hell yes. Are they reliable or inexpensive to own long-term? No, they are not, at least not based on my experience with a lot of cars, service history, and claims.

Bruce

 

I've had my '03 SL55 since new and it has been virtually bullet proof.
In 9 years:

AC compressor
Shifter
IC pump
TPMS
Secondary air pump

 

There are some reliable ones, it's not like they all need $10K worth of work in 2 years.

But looking at overall reliability cost to repair, and playing percentages, the odds are against the car being a low cost of ownership from a repair aspect.

Bruce

 

Becks Imports is right on. I love my 2003 SL500 but the repairs have been horrendously expensive. My extended warranty has paid out somewhere around $16,000 in repair bills. My dealer readilly admits to their customers that this is a high cost car to repair.

I will probably buy another and it will definitely have an extended warranty. It is just the nature of this model car.

 

My car has been reliable, too.

Purchased used in 2005 and put 70,000 miles on it in those 7 years. Under the factory warranty and CPO, I had a tiny leak in an ABC line repaired and a Command firmware update to fix a random reboot problem. Nothing else that I recall off the top of my head.

After the CPO warranty expired, I went without a warranty. The only problem has been the secondary air pump failure.

 

I have an SL55 purchased it new. The problems I have had in 7 years are:

Secondary air pump
Crank Positioning Sensor
O ring replacement on transmission to correct a leak.
Fast wear on rear tires
The car has been very reliable and a blast to drive.

I did get an extended warranty, did not have a single claim and now I have a bunch of cancelled checks

 

If anyone would like a quote, email me at brucem105@comcast.net.

Thanks.

Bruce
Becks Imports LLC[/QUOTE]



Well I did email you, 2 days ago and still waiting? Shopped around elsewhere and received 2 replies within 2 hours!!!!!

 

Well I did email you, 2 days ago and still waiting? Shopped around elsewhere and received 2 replies within 2 hours!!!!![/QUOTE]

I'm pretty good about returning emails. I either didn't get it, or I guess I could have deleted it by accident. Although I just looked ib my deleted folder.

Can you re-send?

Thanks.

Bruce