And that is the gospel of the beast

I'm just praying that the 5.5 TT makes it to the E sedan...

 

No need to pray, new V8 TT is confirmed for the W212. Just a matter of waiting another 6 months or so.

 

I've had a few AMG's and other MB's both new and used and some were great to own, and some not so great. But, I learned my lesson about not owning one of these without a warranty when I bought a low mileage S500 Coupe that was georgous but eight years old with no warranty. The repairs were more than a new car payment.

Must say I have a, "good", E55. (fingers crossed, knock on wood) Almost five years old and it's never been in the shop except for service and an IC pump. Really. Almost 50 k and still on the original brakes. No issues at all.
Still, I just purchased an extended warranty and wouldn't own the car without it.

 

Agreed with most of the points here. I've had my 04 for a year and a half now and have spent close to $5K in repairs that luckily most were covered by the extended warranty I bought through CarMax as I bought the vehicle through them as well. I bought it with only 30K miles on it from a single owner in Florida and CarMax does all the checks.

Even though I do make good money and can afford the car I would hesitate to buy another one despite it being a fantastic car, based on the repair cost thus far.

I will keep it for as long as I can but might have to jump to a cts-v, Chrysler, Charger Srt-8 if forced. These are lesser vehicles but maintance cost is much, much less.

So in short, I feel your pain.

 

Mods dont count as repairs....LOL.

J/K!

 

I feel for the OP, but it was to be expected. I drive an 08 F350 diesel dually for my daily. It is out of warranty and I guarantee you it has cost me just as much as your E55 to keep on the road this year. $200 oil changes and the entire cab has to come off ($1,500) to work on nearly anything. It isn't just your E55 that costs a butt load to keep on the road.

 

Nice! Actually I wasn't counting the mods in those numbers.

 

And to be fair the MB quality is back up in recent years which doesn't help us as we own mid 2000 vehicles. They beat everyone in 2010 but Porsche and Acura which is pretty impressive.

Link: http://www.emercedesbenz.com/autos/m...nd-associates/

 

Alright alright... I read all your posts and it seems many of you have some sympathy for Brad and his E55 troubles but some of you are posting crap like UHHH, did you not check your warranty, UHHH it's a 100K car do your research. Come on now dont add insult to injury, dont be that guy that says "are you ok???" after you fall and break your arm.

My Story:

I live in the best place in ALL of WA which is WEST SEATTLE. I, like Brad, always wanted a E55 since the w210 was hot. Just like Brad this was my "dream" car and saving money FOR MY DOWNPAYMENT was the dream. Paying in cash? NOT an option, but screw it I got that car and that's what mattered and warranty? Nope. Lucky to have the car let alone pay more for a warranty. I did my research on the car and these forums are the best help. It seemed to me I should stay away from the 03 04 w211's so I found a 2006 checked it for bushing squeeks, pulley issues, the whole 9. Everything seemed fine.

Issues as follows:

I'm stomping the **** out of an SRT8 and I notice at 140mph the car feels restricted. The Dealership obviously wont do a 140mph to see the problem & no error code etc.. The forums indicated the SUPERCHARGER PUMP has failed/failing. PROBLEM SOLVED. (still whooped him with my janky SC pump)

I'm driving down the road listening to Al Green and my dash board lights up red like the gates of HELL with every warning light you can think of; SBC, ESP and who knows what else. Turned out my battery module failed and fried both batteries AND my alternator.

Took it in for a service and was told my idler pulley was wobbling and the top portion of the valve covers were leaking. Just fixed all of it and whined about it later.

This is the most annoying problem and THEEE most common. These front ends are weaker than a 90yr old man. I started to hear squeeking and popping from the front end. I knew the deal. I bought thrust arms and lower ball joints for it but my noise continues on. 1 dealership and 2 highly respected Mercedes shops have looked at it and cant tell me where the noise is coming from. So as it stands I still own the car but the front end noise drives me crazy and makes the car sound like a bucket. (yes they checked the sway bar links, yes they checked the upper joints, yes they checked the mounts, yes they checked the airmatic)

So my response is, yes research is great but these problems can happen at any time without warning and sometimes out of warranty. It literally HURTS me to think about selling the car and not only that how do you match this cars performance with anything else, YOU SERIOUSLY CANT unless you get a 2011 model or alien spaceship. This beast has ***** and is more luxury than anything else but the whole "pay to play" motto is worn the F out and down right ridiculous. Just wanted to share my story and say BRAD, I FEEL YA.

 

So what is the message here? These cars are getting old enough and high enough miles that you won't be able to warranty them. Are they scrap at that point?

 

Yes they are scrap.

I'm proud to own a worthless piece of tin.

Nice BTW...

 

I've been curious about this for some time now...... What really happens to these types of "premium priced" cars once they reach a certain age and mileage? Whether it's an older S-class or a 7-series or 8-series BMW at some point you just don't seem to see them on the roads anymore. Where do they go? Wholesaled and shipped overseas?

I'm convinced that the high maintenance costs are responsible for creating the bizarre and non-linear depreciation for these cars... And yes, I'm sure that as soon as warranty is not an option anymore the prices drop like a stone. Nobody wants to be the buyer of a non-warranty car regardless of the acquisition costs (even of it's dirt cheap)

To some extent the high repair costs are a blessing....imagine if an E55 could be repaired cheaply and the parts costs were low. Suddenly there would be a dearth of "riced-out" E55s on the roads. Once word got out that a 469HP, easily tunable car could be purchased for under $10,000 the younger crowd would be all over it. Not good for the brand, and certainly not good for Mercedes Benz from a marketing perspective. Fart can exhausts and NOS stickers on our beloved E55? It would probably be a reality...

Mercedes Benz is supposed to represent a vehicle that people "aspire to".... IMHO, It should never suffer the indignity of becoming someone's high-school knock around car, or even a recent college graduate car. Thankfully, even at a very low acquisition cost the Internet horror stories about parts and repair costs will scare a lot of adolescent kids away and the cars that remain on the roads can be allowed to age in a dignified and graceful way.




-G

 

Damn this has me nervous


I have owned a 2004 Range Rover so I know what unreliable is, but is this that bad?


What should I look for when i run the vin at mercedes?

 

But how long did you own the Range Rover for,4 months Having said that i still you for having the guts of buying one

 

Had it for a year. But with warranty.

As of now its between a 2004 E55, 2004 M3 or a 2006 Cayenne S

 

You can't buy class or taste, plenty of these cars are riced as soon as they leave the showroom floor. It's a mass produced car, nothing more.

Enjoy the ride.

 

I had a 2008 Cayenne GTS. All kinds of electrical gremlins. Porsche was not helpful when multiple dealers couldn't figure out the issues. I didn't keep it long.








Do some research on the Cayenne boards at 6speedonline and rennlist. Lots of info there to scare you away from ownership