I have been planning on purchasing a E63s within the next 6-8 months. So I’ve been watching prices on different sources and keeping an eye out for “buy now” deals.

I’ve been seeing a lot of lower priced 2018 models with around 2-4k miles with this on their CarFax reports. I’ve found 3 of these within a week. They usually go for $5,000 under the normal ($89,000-$90,000). $95,000-$100,000 being average price. $110,000 - $115,000 for the edition 1’s with lower mileage.



Now I know this is something I should stay away from but I was just curious if this was common and what is it? Because this could still happen to any vehicle..

P.S. Any other buyer tips appreciated

 

Just an educated guess but probably the cylinder 1,6 misfire, which reportedly has been fixed.

 

I don't know about the rear diff issue on the car. I'd be a bit worried about that, but if they're offering the full warranty, then I suppose it would be fine.

I had the CEL for the 1, 6 misfire. After a couple of service visits the car has been fine for several months, but we'll see after I start burning some more summer gas. Reportedly the fix has been released to dealers and actually improved fuel economy - though I wonder if performance has been dialed back at all as part of it.

That happened to me on a 2003 Ford F-250 with 6.0 l diesel. They were having sticking injectors and modified the firing impulses to prevent the problem. As a result the power was dialed way back. They also eliminated the pilot injection fuel shot that helps start combustion and makes the motor quieter and less clanky. Following the fix I had to start turning off the truck going through drive throughs like Starbucks.

My feeling was that the 1, 6 misfire was not a hardware issue and one of the diagnostic / smog monitor settings being dialed down too tight and triggering on some edge cases. In my case they swapped around injectors and recalibrated them, likely rearranging the stackup of tolerances for each cylinder and dropping it below the alarm trigger. Likely MB looked at the diagnostic log info from a bunch of cars that were exhibiting the problem and were able to make a firmware change to work around the issue and stay compliant with smog limits.

Now that the fix is out, would I purchase a buy back car that was reacquired due to this problem, yes absolutely.

 

My understanding is that most lemon buybacks end up with a branded title. That can cause some problems - lenders and insurance companies tend to avoid those vehicles as the value is in question. Doesn't mean you can't finance/insure, just that you may encounter some hassles and have to do some additional shopping.

 

Yeah, the misfire issue may have been rectified but these cars have Lemon titles which some companies won't touch, and when you go to sell or trade you'll end up getting offers for less than wholesale. It's a trade off. You're getting the car for cheaper but it might not be worth all of the ensuing hassle. Also, most lemon laws only apply to new car purchases. If you have problems with the car it's hard to argue you weren't expecting it to still be a lemon when it already has a lemon title.

 

Great info, thank you. Not really worth the small price difference then. If it was $15,000 - $20,000 under value, then it might be something to think about.

 

One thing to be aware of is that lemon laws and if/how a title is marked differs by state. Some states allow the returned vehicle to be sold with a clear title. In some cases if you buy a branded title vehicle and title it in another state the title will end up "washed" with no record of it once being branded. This also means you could easily end up unknowingly buying a lemon buyback.

 

> I don't know about the rear diff issue on the car.

What rear diff issue? That might explain what is gong wrong with mine.

 

What he said!
Happens more than you think. Carfax has started making this an little harder to completely hide but it's been happening for decades

 

Also following this -

I see a number of lower-priced cars with early MY 2018 build dates (often in 2017) with not-good things like "spark plugs replaced" early in their lives, and then scary things like "engine compression checked" and "transmission removed and replaced"... One sales guy tried to buffalo me with "it's an AMG car, of course they're going to check the compression!"

Uh, buddy. No.

I'm very hesitant to jump on one of these cars - even CPO, even significantly less expensive than many others - due to these reports.

Anyone have any thoughts as to these early car issues being functionally resolved, or are there manufacturing defects or design flaws somewhere in the early production cars that are causing these issues?

 

Early on, the CELs were happening and Germany was specifying to change coils, plugs, injectors, perform smoke tests, compression tests in trying to determine what the cyl 1,6 misfires we're caused by. Other than a few cracked intake manifolds, nothing was determined except a needed software update. However, while that was being developed, people had no use of their vehicles for long periods of time and mbusa bought some of them back. The software update has been out for a while and applied to many vehicles. I think that the CPO cars are fine now and probably represent a good bargain.

 

I have to say I love my E63, evey time I drive it I smile.

 

Autotrader lists 47 total used E63s 2018-19. Is it a lot? I'm not sure what is the percentage of total sold. 9 of them are station wagons.

I know I enjoy mine and I don't see anything close to replace it.

 

May not be a lot given that some buyers trade cars every year for other brands without much regard of resale value.

 

One reason I sold mine was I was kind of freaked out by the check engine light issue in a car so very expensive with no real explanation of exactly what was going on. Plus there was the rear diff issue too that would lock up, never forget the guy who had to have his flat bedded from in front of his house with everything locked up. He later lemoned the car back to Benz and got a BMW and was happy with it. I had a rear vibration issue with mine too that the dealer could not seem to address and I kept brining the car back and they kept charging me for rear wheel balancing which was very aggravating. Also the fact that when in adaptive cruise mode the 4 cylinder mode would hold briefly and then not work again until you turned off the Distronic. They will never fix that issue, it's something to do with software. I did not like the whole thing of the car even going into 4 cylinder mode as it was and found driving the car with eco off was the best solution to that issue also eliminating the start/stop function too which I didn't like. I did not care for the type of torque converter used in these AMG's either, very abrupt and jumpy especially under certain conditions. Plus the real rough ride was just too much for me especially up north. I found I could not use all the speed and power the car has to offer too with the conditions I drive under. I was on some windy country backroads yesterday with my E450 wagon and found it more enjoyable to drive than my E63 in sport plus mode. The last thing that really pissed me off was those openings in front of the dual intercoolers on the nose of the car, that was just stupid and a $122K car should not have be be modified to keep debris out of that area. Even with the screens debris would get in there still. It's not a issue with my E450, plus the E450 is a $44,000.00 less car, thats worth a little more than half of the cost of my E450 Cab I also bought last fall. I had way too many bad experience like with diesel gate with VW and the rear end issue with a new Cadillac CTS-V in 2013 to go through this sort of stuff again. I was picturing fighting Benz to buy back my Wagon.