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Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ArizonaBear
Let us know when you have 100K miles on the odometer.
Needless to say: rigorous maintenance will help you achieve that goal.
These days 100K is break in mileage, 200K with little more than routine maintenance and replacement of consumables should be no problem with most new cars.
I want to buy a Mercedes but Im worried about maintaing it. Is there a handbook for dummies that shows you step by step how to fix and maintain a Benz?
You can't fix it yourself anymore, just like every other modern car. Way too complex.
You can't fix it yourself anymore, just like every other modern car. Way too complex.
With research and some guidance from the many forums, yes, you can maintain and repair your own modern Mercedes. That is assuming you are competent to repair other vehicles, of course. I've done plenty on our ML320.....more than I should have, to be honest.
Maintenance is a nightmare? You gotta pay to play. S550 costs 100k and a BMW 750iL is atleast 10k cheaper and equivalent Audi A8L is maybe another 5k off.
Pick your poison. Just remember you gotta pay to play.
Yeah you can buy a POS Hyundai Equus or Kia K900 (which by the way, despite being 30-40k cheaper than the Germans, is not being bought by anyone) and put that 40K savings and see your money grow.
But, what if you already have zero debt, still make 6 figures - yeah an S class doesn't seem expensive anymore.
^ And you have to realize that if you are buying a used Mercedes for $30,000 instead of the sticker of $120,000, you are still buying and maintaining a $120,000 car.
They typically will run well when properly maintained. Unfortunately, in many cases, that means taking it to an independent mechanic instead of a dealer.
Excellence always costs. I follow the 80/20 rule where I can buy 80% of perfection for 20% of the price. I would buy a new Subaru instead of a new Mercedes if I ever buy a new car. Actually I do better than that. My newest car cost about $5,000 which is 5% of a new Mercedes.
Indeed Mercedes cars are great machines but not great enough to justify the price.
^ And you have to realize that if you are buying a used Mercedes for $30,000 instead of the sticker of $120,000, you are still buying and maintaining a $120,000 car.
They typically will run well when properly maintained. Unfortunately, in many cases, that means taking it to an independent mechanic instead of a dealer.
Well, again if you can afford the buying price, it means nothing if you can't afford the maintenance - tires - consumables.
Eg:
My C63 which I drive the way it was intended to in on its 4th set of rear tires at 18k miles. Each pair will set you back approx $700.
My GL-450 on which now I have 87k miles, went for the 80k miles service - not too long ago - $1200.
My E350 - typical service costs in $400-500/ yr (averaged over 5 years).
Yes they run well as long as you maintain them and that's true of most machines Japanese or German, just that when Japanese stuff breaks down, its relatively cheaper to replace.
I owned a GTO and the maintenance was on the cheaper side but oil changes were on the "relatively" expensive side and so were the rear tires.
I will agree that yes German car maintenance - or scheduled maintenance can cost couple grand a year once it hits 100k or higher. but that's not a whole lot of money to everyone and some people just freak out when they hear those numbers.
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