I found a nice used 03 E55 with 68,000 miles for cheap but the car is out of warranty.
Price is about $10K less than the market due to high mileage.
Do you think it is too risky to take a chance on this car?
What types of potential repair problems will arise in the next few years that I may have to prepare for?

TIA

 

I'd be worried mostly about the SBC and Airmatic systems. Lots of little electrical stuff can pop up. What's the price?

 

put it to you this way, id rather have a new c350 than ANY mercedes w/o warranty, take my word for it. i spent at least 3000$ (thats w/ the dealer taking care of 75% of the parts, thats only labor and 25% of the parts price)on my car after the warranty ran out, i then returned it b/c it was leased w/ 63000mi. my car was in the shop during the warranty period at LEAST 30 times. no joke

 

They are asking $43K.
Looks like the base model with no mods.
Owner said it was mostly highway miles.

 

I wonder if your car was just a bad apple and maybe others had better experiences with theirs.

My current MB has been out of warranty for the past 5 years and although there are things that come up from time to time, I have been pleased with it for the most part.

 

Just beggin you. Please don't buy an AMG without warranty.

We have SBC's going bad left and right (WHO KNOWS how much that crap is....noone has ever had to shell out cash for them yet)

I just think you'll be sorry buying without warranty.

 

I would not do it..

maybe a c32.. since it has no SBC, airmatic and all the electrical gadgets like my E55.

But if the kompressor or the engine goes out.. its going to hurt!

If you plan to drive it for about a year.. then it might be worth the risk.

 

Dont do it, it's too risky without any warranty on AMG cars.

 

Have it inspected BEFORE you make a offer on it
Factor in a Extended Warranty 2K or so
SBC is Covered for 10 Years..No Worries there

(IF) its a decent 55 and You can low ball him ..Go For it!

 

So you guys are saying that you would not touch an 03 E55 with no warranty for $43K. What is it worth then? $30K? I did not know these cars were so worthless

 

by the time you fix **** that goes wrong it will cost at least 50 anyways , why not buy 1 with warranty for a little more

i got a pm from eleven11:

Re: Out of Warranty post

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote:
Originally Posted by eleven11
I noticed you posted your opinion about not owning a MB out of warranty. I also see you have a 2003 CLK55 - have you had many problems with it (I'm assuming it's not the one you took back)? Thanks.


it is the car i took back. many many electrical and drivetrain problems. my family has owned about 8 mbs in the last 10 years, i saw the quality of the cars decline over a period of time. my 1st car (when i waS 16) was a 94 e500, bulletproof, nothing ever broke except the tranny ( i was reving it in N and dropping it into D, and all sorts of other abuse, i was 16). the 95 S 500 never had anything but scheduled maintanence. then the various ml (320, 430, 55) started to have problems. my clk was the biggest POS ever. the alarm would randomly go on, the one touch sunroof wouldnt work... bunch of little (expensive) electrical problems. the car died on me while i was driving on the freeway, im lucky i didnt get hit. my moms 05 e55 died on her twice while she was driving (in motion), my dads brand new 07 ml500 is having problems (weird ticking noise from either tranny or diff), its got 500 mi on it, yes, 5 hundred.
trust me, stay away from any newer mb w/o warranty. if it was a 124 or 140 w/ 150000mi on it it would be more reliable than any newer benz w/ 70000 mi on it. they dont make em like they used to. if you really want it i suggest you buy an extended warranty (not from the dealer, they rip you off, directly from the warranty company) get the best coverage you can, youll need it. i hope im wrong but as you can see my experience has taught me otherwise. btw, the e class has even more things that can go wrong than a clk b/c of the airmatic suspension, kompressor, sbc braking
good luck

 

No deal. Get a CPO.

 

Pfff, buy it for $40k. Then spend $100 on obtaining all the online MB technical guides and manuals. Then spend $1k on a nice set of tools.

Now inject an extra shot of testosterone and you're good to go.

 

look into how much an aftermarket warranty will cost you for another 5 years / 50K miles. when you go to resell it another buyer will actually look at it.

warranty buys peice of mind and then you can go out and drive the **** out of it.

 

I think in this day and age it is not worth buying any car out of warranty!.....most cars require sophisticated equipment to diagnose the problem, let alone fix it!!!.......I would try and obtain the price of a good warranty and work that into the price of the vehicle.
...I would also be interested to know what recalls and work the previous owner has had done???.....with a 2003 car, the first thing you need to change will be the crappy intercooler pump...and so on!!!

 

forgive my ignorance, but what is a "SBC" or what does it stand for?

 

buying an 03 e55 w/o warranty is almost as risky as having unprotected sex with a somolian *****.

 

So basically if I were to read and sum up the above comments you are all saying the car depreciates to near nothing when the warranty is out. Listen to yourselves cut your own nads off and screw any potential resale. Your statements above make it sound like your driving a ticking timebomb POS.

 

well something is bound to go wrong as in any car, the e55 is built for performance, and generally performance cars are no toyota, they do have problems and when we do have problems we want to be covered by warranty

 

I've got a CL55, in general they don't make as many of them so I would suspect a few more issues with my car than an E55.

I just came off MB warranty (have an extended warranty), and have 50K miles.

First, I don't mind all the stuff that goes wrong ... I truly enjoy the car that much and wouldn't trade it. At 50K miles they are just "breaking in". In my case, I've had so much stuff fixed by MB that I don't want to give mine up. Why start all over again with an unknown?

The biggest issue with the car you are considering, at 68K miles and no warranty, is that you are taking over a car that you don't know the history of. Did the previous owner slide on maintenance, not repair stuff under warranty that could be repaired, not take care of TSB's, etc.?

Many big-gun AMG's are sold to high-rollers -> poor maintenance history is a very real problem to be concerned about.

I figure my CL55 will be in the shop once every three months for, on average, two grand worth of work based on the history of repair work. You can roughly guess how much a non-warranty E55 is worth to you.

 

we are, just hope that its later rather than sooner.

see my (very long) above post

 

go for it.... the car has already took a big hit in value being out of warranty, if things really go wrong, just skip the repairs and trade it into a MB dealer....

 

I just did some basic math to quantify this car.
As previously mentioned, the car is about $10K less than other cars in the market.
However, the miles is about 20,000 to 40,000 above the other cars.
If I use the mileage as a rough estimation of depreciation, I can figure at $0.20 per mile, the car is worth about $5,000 to $10,000 less than cars with less mileage.
Having a warranty is worth about $1,500 - $2,000 more to me.
If I do the math, a comprable $53K E55 with about 25K miles with remaining warranty is worth about the same as this low priced car. I know I can find some that have more options than just the base model as well.

Reading all your posts makes me think that the low price of this car is not that attractive at all. I am actually scared that this car may be a nightmare.
I have had a good experience with my current MB but then it is a W210 with the M104 engine in it.

So, I decided to pass on this car and look for one that has more options, less mileage with remaining warranty.

I am also suprised that there are so many on the used market at these prices.
I wonder if I wait a few more months, the prices may even be more attractive.

 

lol thats the truth

 

trans cooler went out on my e55 2 weeks b4 warranty expired and took out tq conv. nearly 5k in cash avoided. and service mgr said these are big problems on older e55s