Mercedes E320 - Ford or Mercedes | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Fri 4 Nov 2016 18:35

Mercedes E320 - Ford or Mercedes - DirkThrust

For the last year I've owned a Skoda Octavia 2.0 PD, bought with a full Skoda history and 91k on the clock. In that time I've replaced numerous suspension bits and bobs, all four shocks, wiper blades twice, cam belt and water pump. I probably spent about £1000 on it in addition to routine servicing. I was looking forward to a few expense free miles until someone rear- ended me on Tuesday and wrote it off.

Before that I had a Focus 1.8TDCi bought with 50k on the clock. That one was a real money pit with 3 major and expensive breakdowns in the first 2 years.

So I'm looking for another car. Same sort of thing. Focus, Civic, Octavia etc., 3 to 4 years old.

My work colleague tells me I'm barking up the wrong tree. Instead of looking at middle aged commuter cars which are just heading into expensive maintenance territory I should spend the same money on an older high end car.

That's what he's done over his entire motoring life. Over the last ten years he's owned 3 Mercedes', a Jaguar and 4 Lexus's and reckons he's spent less on unexpected bills in that time than I've spent in one year on a Skoda. He buys luxury rather than sporty, one or two owners, full dealer history. At the moment he has a 52 reg S class which has just gone through a service without one additional penny being spent on it.

I've heard the argument that an 8 year old £50k car may be cheap to buy but still has the running costs of a £50k car but I must admit his point of view seems to have a lot of merit. He's got me looking at 57/58 E class Mercs at the moment.

I'd be interested to hear opinions from people on here.

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Fri 4 Nov 2016 19:26

Mercedes E320 - Ford or Mercedes - gordonbennet

57/58 plate E class will be the facelift W211 model, which is a very good model, don't be tempted to a pre facelift though.

Generally those large German cars such as S class arn't especially trouble free and problems with them are often beyond the average garage so a specialist indy it is, which is fine but do you have one within easy reach.

I notice your friend currently has a 52 plate car, cars from the sweet design period of the 90's are among the best ever made, those designed 10 years later were heavily laded with electronics which can give problems, ie 430 Lexus isn't enjoying the same reputation as unbreakable that LS400 did.

Just to put things in perspective, an air sprung Mercedes SL/CL front shock absorber can cost well over £1000 for the part alone, some of them the bottom ball joint is part of the shock hence work out how much 2 worn ball joints could cost.

He's also doing the right thing buying properly looked after cars, he probably does a lot of his own maintenance too, this is the real cost saver.

Unfortunate that you had the Skoda written off, the quite normal work you list on the car could be required on all cars, its just unfortunate that the cambelts on such cars are such a time consuming job when the vehicle is designed to be manufactured with scarcely a thought about long term ownership, in comparison my new (55 plate) Landcruiser i shall change the cambelt on next week, £72 for a full Gates kit and approx one hour to do, all cars should be designed to be maintained.

If you want a luxury car around the 57/58 plate years, then you could do worse than find a well looked after W211 E220 Merc, but i'd also look at Lexus IS250 or GS300, i'd rather put my faith (and me hard earned) in a proper Japanese car of this type than anything German.

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Fri 4 Nov 2016 19:52

Mercedes E320 - Ford or Mercedes - SLO76

There is an argument in support of what he says if you don't do many miles and stick to petrol and buy something cheap enough that you can simply bin it if anything major goes wrong. I often look longingly at sub £1,500 luxury metal such as Jag S Types, XJ6's, Lexus GS/LS, Volvo S60/S80's, Honda Legends and E39 BMW's All are well made and easily able to cover huge mileages in comfort.

They are all thirsty and expensive to repair, as you'd expect for an expensive luxury car but cheap as chips to buy at 10 years plus. The diesels will do better mpg but they become total money pits as they age and will cost far more to buy and maintain, more often than not they're a false economy.

I certainly wouldn't buy a 8 yr old Merc E class diesel, they're nothing like as well made or reliable as the badge suggests and as for a diesel Jag, well I had a similar debate with an old punter of mine a few years back who'd eyeballed a tidy low mileage XJ6 2.7 TD at a tempting price. He bought it against my advice and landed a bill for a replacement turbo within the first year and it was lying in his drive by year three with a ruined engine. A petrol would've cost vastly less and would still be running. Modern diesels are over complex and trouble prone as they age, luxury cars more so than mainstream metal not the other way round.

Unless you're a low mileage user I'd avoid and instead stick with mass produced mainstream Japanese manufacturers such as Honda or Toyota. They might not be exciting but the Civic, Accord, Auris or Avensis are all largely vice free if maintained correctly, even more so if you stick to petrol engines. All turbo diesels can suffer turbo failure if neglected and DPF issues even if not.

In all fairness to your Octavia, everything you listed was just wear and tear stuff you'll encounter with any car. It was just unfortunate they all landed within such a short spell and sickened you off. But I would certainly avoid Ford diesels, especially anything fitted with the notorious PSA 1600 diesel and also any Vauxhall with a Fiat 1.3,1.9 or 2.0 diesel.

Edited by SLO76 on 04/11/2016 at 19:54

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Fri 4 Nov 2016 20:11

Mercedes E320 - Ford or Mercedes - oldroverboy.

Instead of buying that consider a dacia logan 1.5 dci.

My neighbour just has after i pointed him to one after years of trouble with moneypits.

carries 3 teen boys, all their sports clobber and he paid the extra for the service pack and 5 year warranty and got change out of £10000ish

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Fri 4 Nov 2016 21:45

Mercedes E320 - Ford or Mercedes - DirkThrust

Thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately I'm not a low mileage user. At the moment I'm racking up 500 a week but that's only until March so hopefully I'll be closer to home after that.

I would quite like an auto with enough poke for motorway cruising so that partly explains my choice of the E320. Any big petrol auto will be thirsty so maybe I'll have to settle for manual and Japanese

I must admit I'm a bit wary of modern Diesels after my experience with the Focus but the Skoda has been ok with only a split turbo hose in 30,000 miles. All his Mercs have been around that 2002 - 2004 era and his only major fault was on the Jaguar - 600 quid for a brake servo.

Edited by DirkThrust on 04/11/2016 at 21:59

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Fri 4 Nov 2016 22:17

Mercedes E320 - Ford or Mercedes - SLO76

Skoda Superb is a nice comfortable well made big bus that's not too dear to buy or run. The diesels are pretty robust, especially the old 1900 PD but even the newer 1600 seems to be fit for big mileages. Plenty of taxi drivers across the nation would vouch for it. Just watch for usual DPF problems and they insanely need a timing belt and water pump every 4 years when most rivals will go twice as long or have a chain. I'd sooner have one over an older Merc or BMW, especially the hugely practical estate. Avoid the DSG auto though, they're soft and very expensive to replace/repair.

Edited by SLO76 on 04/11/2016 at 22:19

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Fri 4 Nov 2016 23:07

Mercedes E320 - Ford or Mercedes - sandy56

Buying an old £40-50,000 car can be a recipe for disaster. If anything goes wrong you will need very deep pockets.

A friend ran an old model 320 E class- reliable but expensive, then the gearbox failed- bye bye car. He then paid out for a year old Vauxhall, with a warranty.

It will just be a matter of luck.

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Fri 4 Nov 2016 23:49

Mercedes E320 - Ford or Mercedes - RobJP

Buying an old £40-50,000 car can be a recipe for disaster. If anything goes wrong you will need very deep pockets.

A friend ran an old model 320 E class- reliable but expensive, then the gearbox failed- bye bye car. He then paid out for a year old Vauxhall, with a warranty.

It will just be a matter of luck.

As said. Here is a good guideline :

A car's repair and maintenance costs are NOT related to what YOU paid for it, but what it cost when new.

A £50k car might only cost you £10k a few years down the line, but it's going to cost a fair whack to maintain in good order. Lots of people buy these things and then find out how much servicing and repairs cost, and try to skimp on those costs.

There was a similar thread a few weeks ago, someone wanted to 'scratch an itch' by getting a 2008-ish M3. It would cost £3-5k per annum just to tax, insure, service, tyres and put fuel in it, and that's before anything went wrong with engine or gearbox, which could easily cost another £5-10k.

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Sat 5 Nov 2016 10:02

Mercedes E320 - Ford or Mercedes - madf

BIL bought a 6 year old Mercedes 320cdi with 28k miles from a Mercedes dealer and 12 months warranty. £15k or thereabouts.

Lovely car.

The warranty claims in year 1 for brakes alone were £2.5k.

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Sat 5 Nov 2016 10:08

Mercedes E320 - Ford or Mercedes - Fishermans Bend

Save you money and buy a c.2005/6 Hyundai Sonata V6 for not much money. Otherwise another Octavia would make sense.

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