DiamondKomp

Hope no one minds the cross post from the SLK55 and C forums, but this is the highest volume AMG forum, and I wanted to get a perspective specifically from as many AMG-owners as possible, who might possibly be just a tiny bit more picky/**** than non-AMG owners.

I'm looking into an new (not pre-owned) SLK55 and have found one in the config I want but it has 85mi on it, I guess from test drives, dealer joy rides, and minor transportation. What are people's opinions on acceptable mileage on a new car? Is 85mi a red flag? How many miles did your E55 have when you took delivery?

Thanks!

cte430

well, buying from a dealer's inventory this is sometimes what you get. If I ordered a car and it was delivered with that kind of mileage, I'd refuse it. Off the lot, it's up to you. Maybe you can get a better deal due to the mileage? I'm sure it will be fine - you do have a warranty.

When I test drove a porsche, they took a car off the showroom with only a couple of miles and I drove it for about 25 minutes. Didn't baby it, but didn't beat on it either - wasn't my car to do that. We pulled over and the salesman drove. He absolutely beat the crap out of the car!

Minte

I think the answer to that is like *how do they make hotdogs*
I don't want to know what the first few miles on my car was like.



It had 65 on it when I took delivery.

2K6E55

Mine had 136 miles when I took it off the lot...

JLP

85 miles is reasonable, my car had 10 miles on it. I think anything under 200 miles is acceptable and nothing to worry about.

RJC

I would not want/accept a car with more than delivery mileage especially on an AMG or high peformance car . I've seen it too many times where a salesman and or a prospective buyer redline's a brand new car while still cold, manually shifts the trans, hammers the brakes etc which are all forbidden the during break-in not to mention redlining while cold is always a no-no; to me that's all abuse...sorry.

DiamondKomp

Good point. I guess because it is an AMG, salesguys and customer test drivers are more likely to push the car hard. On the other hand, can a little bit of hard driving during test drive really do any real damage to the transmission or engine?

RJC

High rpm's on a cold engine can do some damage. Even on a car that is at operating temp, high rpms, manual shifts etc are not good for the trans or diffy(during break-in); AMG also does not want vehicle speeds above 85 mph (during break-in) for that exact reason. AMG would also like us to gradually increase engine speeds etc after the first 1000 miles, not just go out and start hammering it.

relisysj4

i had a comfortable 8 miles on the car....its a risk but how much damage could have been done in 85 miles?

RJC

That depends on how it was driven and or what and when it was done.

SoxFan

I have the opposite opinion.

While the new E55 I ended up acquiring had a whopping 12 miles on it, and had been in the US for 19 days, I wouldn't have cared if it had 250 miles on it, and had been in the US for 4 months...at some point, it starts to become a Demo, and you can get an additional, usually minor, discount.

These cars are well built and warrantied.

I just wouldn't worry about it and would get the the car you want for the best deal you can get!

RJC

You should have bought a demo or a used one and been happier .

SoxFan

If I found a car like mine for less than I paid becuase of a few hundred miles...I would have been happier...but I am pretty damn happy. I also got a pretty a good deal where a few hundred miles wouldn't have made a difference.

DiamondKomp

Yeah, that's why I'm inquiring into the build date of the car. That combined with the 85mi should give me some idea of how long the car has been sitting around the dealership (btw, the car is not local, so I cannot inspect it myself).

You make a good point about the build quality and warranty though.

RJC

Why increase the odds of a problem and more visits to the service dept? If you look hard enough you'll find a car with the appropriate 10-16 miles on it.

RJC

Exactly, me too.

SoxFan

I am probably in the minority on this forum...but I to answer RJC: it's all about money...you wouldn't take a higher mileage car over a lower one for the same price...but dealers are discounting to a wildly varying degree. FL dealers were holding to MSRP; MA dealers were in and around invoice, while other dealers were well below invoice. I would go for a car with miles to get the car I wanted at the price I wanted.

And if you're talking about a loaded 2006 E55, there aren't that many left on the East Coast any more...let alone with the configuration you want, the color you want, at a great price...but a few can still be had, if you look hard enough...and if the penalty was a few hundred miles or more, so be it IMO.

BTW, the best deal I currently know of for a new 2006 E55 is a Silver/Charcoal loaded car a $92,000+ MSRP which can be bought for about $84,000. I bet it has fewer than 50 miles on it...you may have done $2K better...but there just aren't than many loaded $91K+ cars left.

RJC

I think he wants an SLK 55.

SoxFan

I guess I was tricked by the E55 Forum thing...it's getting late...But I just wouldn't care or worry about the mileage. I would buy a demo without a problem, if the discount was sufficient. I am sure others wouldn't. That's just my opinion. If I had another X million dollars in the bank, I wouldn't care, or bother...but at this point, the $ and the deal are an important part of the equation.

DiamondKomp

What do you mean there aren't many left on the East Coast any more? Because the 2007's are coming?

I'm out in California. Below invoice on an AMG doesn't seem likely...

SoxFan

K90Well, back here (East Coast) you can get at least invoice (7% off) and better...on into the 5% holdback. Depends on the dealer...while there are dozens of E55s in stock up and down the coast, but there really aren't many at all with MSRP's over $90K. The majority seem to be in the $85-90K MSRP range, vs. $91-92K, which is where you have to be to get most of the core options.

For example, I think there are two left (one silver and one black) with the following combination of options:

lighting, premium with pano, parktronic, keyless go, and trunk closer (together with Sirius, which they both have = MSRP $92,615).

Mr Wolf

My SLK had 46 miles on it, the E55 had 87 miles at delivery...I was a little annoyed, both were special order cars I picked up the day they were delivered to the dealership. Both had stickers on the window from AMG saying the cars were picked at ramdom for testing at the factory.

Both cars now have about 18,000 miles, no problems.

Wolf

spnslc

My SL (not AMG) had 33 miles on it when I took delivery at the factory in Germany. Between my taking it on the autobahn and two miles added as part of the shipping process, my car had 44 miles on it when it was delivered to my dealership in the US.

As part of the Mercedes factory tour, I was told that every so many cars that roll off the line (I can't remember the number) are taken to the test track for quality control testing. I didn't see the test track, but I would have loved to have seen it. Mercedes has one floor of a building (this was the S-class factory that I visited) where factory workers take EVERY car through a little indoor obstacle course to check everything out. It was one of the most interesting parts of the factory tour. We stood there for about a half hour watching dozens of workers check everything from lights to suspensions to everything else. That in-factory process may have put one mile on the car. After that, cars were whisked away to the test track, awaiting train cars, or to huge parking lots filled with brand new Mercedes, awaiting further shipment by trucks.

My car was actually built in Bremen, but it was trucked to Sindelfingen (hundreds of miles away) for my delivery process. Maybe a mile or two was added on and off the truck for that part. I think my car being delivered at 33 miles (at pickup in Sindelfingen), might have been one of the cars taken to a test track and that is just fine with me. I like that it was personally taken through its paces by a factory worker. That doesn't bother me at all. I seriously doubt it was taken for a thrill ride in Germany, because Mercedes cars are everywhere, they are commonplace, and factory workers and truck drivers are use to seeing them everyday. Maybe an AMG would have grabbed someone's attention.

After seeing the factory process, I can tell you that they don't put THAT many miles on a car, unless the car was taken out for some reason, like for track testing, sales tryouts in the US, or thrill rides. And, I know for a fact, because I watched the odometer through the process, that the shipping process from Sindelfingen, Germany to Salt Lake City only put two miles on my car. A car with 33, 46, or 85 miles has obviously been around the block a few times for one reason or another, but it wasn't part of the in-factory build process. Trains, trucks, and new-car parking lots, are just outside the factory doors .

________________________
Sue’s 2006 SL500
European Delivery February 2006

JLP

Whether the car has 10 or 100 miles I think we would be fooling ourselves if we actually thought they weren't being driven hard by whoever drove them.

Seriously if a salesperson, porter, service advisor, GM, detailer or anyone for that matter gets into a AMG car you can be sure they probably laid into it and drove it hard.

Its a car, steel and glass, these cars are built for hard driving and most owners pay no attention to the break-in period (as pointed out in another thread), besides the motors are hot tested at AMG. I seriously wouldn't worry about less than 200 pre-delivery miles.

DiamondKomp

Everyone, thanks very much for your responses. The 85mi was just kind of nagging at me, and I want to be totally happy with the car without reservation, so I decided to pass, and continue the search for a car with fewer miles.