medici78

I am at a crossroads. I have exactly 1 year left of warranty. I am debating whether I would keep the car and mod it or sell it and let the buyer enjoy the warranty that is left.
How many folks here are driving out-or-warranty E55's? How many of you have had to have repairs performed and what was the cost?

AMGfan

I'm in the exact same boat and I'd definately would like to see some feedback...

x-tian-230k

you guys would be crazy to keep your cars without warrenty.... i have 1 year left on my mfg warrenty and 1.5 years left on my extended warrenty... after that its gone....

wawy

If I had finished paying it off I might consider it but if not then forget it! Same with the C32!

Archi

I've never kept a car beyond the mfg warranty. Given the amount of electronics in this model, Im not going to start.

simon78

I think you have several options:

1) Buy an after market extended warrenty such as GE's.
2) would MB sell extended warrenty ? Might want to check with the dealer.
3) It's a great car, and if you sell it close to the warrenty expiration, you will get killed on the price, so keep it and mod it.

What do you guys think?

Fast55

You're kidding right?

simon78

Do you guys think is going to be that bad after the warrenty goes out?

I mean so far after all the recall i have no issues with it .. and i wonder if it will go downhill ?

enzom

I don't think it will be "bad", but things break all the time. For example - my Comand died and had to be replaced. The technician told me that if I had to pay for it, it would cost "thousands". Better not to have to worry about those costs. I doubt that the car will start breaking down left and right and leave you stranded.

medici78

Why would I be kidding? My more seriously modded cars have all been out of warranty and were never my daily drivers. The E55 has a ton of potential that I think will be further exploited as more tuners get involved. Unfortunately, it is a relatively complex (electronically) vehicle and I question how expensive maintenance etc. on the ordinary non-powertrain items will be.

Fast55

As pointed out, very expensive. Couple that with a poor to very poor reliability record, and I would be hesitant to keep one out of warranty, even if it was a previously problem free example. The example COMAND failure would indeed be 2K+ to fix. Airmatic suspension failure is even more. With this in mind, I think a W211 is probably one of the few cars that it makes sense to always have a warranty on.

MB_Forever

Always make sure you have warranty on your Mercedes Benz (whether it is manufacturer's warranty or extended warranty or third-party warranty). Sometimes things just fail and stop working. Out of the 6 mercedes benz vehicles I drive (3 are mine and 3 are my best friend's), 5 of them had the COMMAND just die for no reason. My stealership said it would've cost me $2,300 dollars without warranty ($3,100 for the CL). Another time, the A/C compressor stopped working, that's another $1,500 dollars. The small electric motor that operates the window up and down failed one time, and that was $600 dollars. Airmatic, add another 4 to 5 thousand dollars.

And trust me, the list continues...

The car may mechanically hold strongly, but the other little things don't, and they are VERY EXPENSIVE to fix and maintain.

If you can't afford extended warranty, don't buy or keep the car. Always make sure you are COVERED under warranty.

Note: Mods don't always void the warranty!

AMGfan

Because MB stealerships don't fix anything...they just replace the suspected faulty part and they already have set rates per replacement for each individual piece of equipment they have to remove and replace to get to the malfunctioning part.

If you carry an MB past the warranty, then you are better off going to an independent MB experienced wrench. This is from experience...not only are their labor rates more reasonable, the probability that they will try to fix a problem/part first versus an automatically replacing a presumed "bad" part is much higher.

Jrocket

Hopefully a ttE63 will be out by the time my warranty ends in 2010.

No warranty=no Mercedes for me.I have a hard enough time owning one without full maintanence program on it.

xraymd

My E is leased so I don't have to worry about unloading it. With all the little electronic gremlins I've had, I'd be real nervous owning one without a warranty. I'm curious what effect stories about break failures will have on resale too. I'd have no problem leasing a new Mercedes after my current lease is up; I just don't want to be holding the bag when I have an out of warranty problem on an older Benz.

medici78

So nobody here has an '03 that is out of warranty?

vraa

Friend, we have a 2003 SL500 that is out of warranty.
It is no E55, but it has it's share or random problems.
Thank goodness for aftermarket extended warranty (but even then, it is not perfect).

Jrocket

My guess would be alot of trade ins or really low priced 03's coming up soon.

Vetluver

If you like the car and don't want to mod it, extend the warranty. I think that you can do it and it is probably worth the cost.

Another possibility is to mod and take your chances. I have had 2 MBs that I kept well beyond the warranty and both were not troublesome. Mind you, repairs were necessary and not cheap but it was still way less than buying a new $80+ new car. I just loved the cars and got 7 and 10 years out of them.

I have an extended warranty on my E55, 7 years or 100k miles and I'll prolly keep it longer than that and give it to one of the kids who'll love to have the beast.

vixapphire

given the relative preponderance of used 6.3 300 SEL's and 6.9 450 SEL's out there, both of which had cumbersome air suspension units, is the air suspension really that likely to suck eggs in short order, or is an owner within reason to expect 15-20 years of reliable operation?

all the foregoing said with an understanding that today's Merc is a pale shadow of the 6.3's and 6.9's, where quality of build and materials are concerned. thus, my question!

vixapphire

for mechanical parts, very true. for the gadgetry in and behind the dashboard/console, i don't know too many mechanics who double as electrical/computer engineers! with a "hand-built engine" etc., i'd expect failure all over the chintzoid COMAND etc. well before the car itself ever kakked out on me. then again, I may be delusional - maybe it all sucks!!!

on the other hand, i've had trouble-free operation since new at 15 months, so my fingers are crossed. that doesn't mean i'm not going to sell it soon, though. i want to buy a bimmer x3, and a MB w108 v8 sedan next and live the bohemian lifestyle while my wife cruises around in her dream car - a higher-profile version of the 3-series station wagon (which pretty much describes the x3).

Fast55

I don't think anyone questions the build quality or reliability of the pre-merger cars. After that, all bets are off.

AMGfan

I concur, the labor in replacing the electronic MB wizadry is where you save $$$.