I have been looking at a 2006 E320 Avantgarde Estate.

Anyone have any experience owning a second hand merc? What are the running costs like, are there independent garages that service/repair them at a reasonable cost?

Any advice appreciated!

I dipped my toe into Mercedes ownership with this:

http://mercedesclforsale.wordpress.com/

The first few owners take a big hit on depreciation.

Use decent specialist for servicing unless your car is still under warranty. Mercedes warranties were VERY good but they have been tightening up. I had a 70% respray of an 11 year old car bought from an independent with patchy Merc dealer history done free of charge under warranty about 5 years ago. Doubt that would happen now.

Parts aren’t as horrific as you might fear. Remember that the E-Class is basically a taxi in the rest of the world so designed to be patched up and kept running.

Sign up for a Mercedes Owner Club forum and browse the Problems page for what ever car you are looking for. Sometime people know the actual car you are looking at and can warn/recommend it.

If you want to buy mine I am keen to sell as I bought another Merc recently while not concentrating

I bought a 4 month old one and saved about £6k off new. Found a garage that will service it for around 60% of the dealers cost and maintain the warranty.
Bit more expensive to run but drives like a dream 🙂

Edit mine is a C class sport.

Checked the annual VED yet?

That’s why mine is such a good buy. Before the draconian VED rules 😉

If I was a middled-age woman I’d have this WCA 😉

Hang on….. binners!!

I bought a 2005 c class with very low miles on it and in 40000 miles it’s needed 2 bulbs and routine servicing which I do. I will be upgrading to a e class estate next year sometime as I love mine. It drives superb.

Yip, bought a c220 sport estate just over a year ago, been a good car with no probs yet. Heavy on the diesel no Matter how you drive it. Previous owner took the £35k hit on it so great buy 2nd hand.

Petrol variant, some had twin spark plugs per cylinder, if coil packs and leads are bought from mercedes they are crazy money. The aluminium inlet manifold version is better as the latter plastic ones have the swirl flaps which can be prone to caking up and seizing. The diesel ones tend to get leaky injector seats, easy to see pop the engine covers off (torx bits) and there will be mess round the injector, not difficult to sort.

Don’t always discount mercedes for your parts as the other day they were cheaper than any other motor factor for discs and pads and had them on the shelf when all around hadn’t.

Regular servicing in the main seems them to running to a good age, mot wise, front lower wishbone bushes are starting to pop up regularly.

Don’t forget older E class Mercedes rust like nothing else on the road today (apart from their own vans)…

Just make sure its has no rust underneath, they tend to look great on top with nothing left in the chassis.

Thanks for the replies chaps.

Don’t forget older E class Mercedes rust like nothing else on the road today (apart from their own vans)…

Just make sure its has no rust underneath, they tend to look great on top with nothing left in the chassis.

What age would you class as a problem? I am looking at an ’06.

06 is fine for rust mate, your looking at 96 ish up to about 2002 ish for that problem. I recall reading it was something to do with a thinner metal and or no galvanising .

Mrs Gruntfuttock bought an 06 CLK 320 CDI with 62K on the clock, a few months ago (for £8750) Got it B serviced at an independent garage (ex Merc techy) for £325.

The car was probly 35K new. & It’s got some legs on it! Pity It’s an automatic though.

It’s VERY clean, no rust (what’s rust?) just the odd chip on the front.

I bought brand new C220 Sport in December 2007 so 57 plate. It’s covered 80k miles trouble free and in comfort. Never missed a beat and now returning 55mpg so decent for fuel costs. My first Mercedes and won’t be my last, thinking of an SL next.

W124 E-320 Coupe – made when they made them like Panzers – open to offers!

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ot-mercedes-e-320-coupe-1995

W123 FTW!

Is that a personalised numberplate?

I have been looking at a 2006 E320 Avantgarde Estate.

My colleague, at the time, had an E280 diesel estate company car while I’d taken the ‘salesman’ option of a petrol Vectra (and loads of cash). Mine only went into the garage twice in 2 years and +60k, both just for 20k services.

I lost count of the amount of time his Merc was in the garage over the same period/miles. Needless to say when he gave the car back after the 2 years and decided to run his own car, he bought a Volvo XC90 estate.

From what I understand the mid-2000’s weren’t good years for Merc owners, and even the German Taxi operators started looking elsewhere.

http://www.dw.de/taxi-drivers-move-away-from-mercedes/a-943667

John, if it was, I’d have it on my W123 in a heartbeat!

A lot changed with the eclass (w211 in Merc speak) in 2006. The electrics were completely overhauled, SBC replaced (expensive brakes system), as was the rust proofing and these post 2006 cars (they have a less curved bumper – easiest way to tell the difference) are proving to be very reliable. I had a 2008 e320cdi estate until recently and it never gave me a single problem in 3 years of ownership. I thought that it was great and it rode appreciably more comfortably than my current eclass sport.

Is it a petrol or diesel that you are looking at? The diesels should have the inlet port seal for the turbo checked. Otherwise they are reliable.

Having done a bit more research I think I will give it a miss. The model I was looking at was one of the last pre-facelift ones. As mentioned above, this model seemed to have quite a few potential problems so it is probably best to steer clear.

Tony – it was a 3.2l Diesel

What’s the real world mpg from the e320cdi please?

I bought a 56 plate e320 cdi sport estate in January this year.

The ultimate dadwagon for me (well, the E55 AMG might nudge it off that spot) – 7 seats, 7.1 sec 0-60. Lovely.

Real world mpg about 33mpg for me. On longer runs it would nudge over 40 fairly easily I’d say.

Running costs seem okay so far. Has an 80 litre tank so the first fill was a bit of a surprise, but you know you’re buying a 3 litre V6 so I’m guessing you’re okay with a three figure tank-fill.

Merc garage did a freebie first check-over, and I think I’ll probably use them for the first year or two and then my local independent.

Lovely car.

keep away from RUSTY YEARS!!!!

i fell into the rust trap, 2001/2 C230 , and even though i bought from a dealer i got shocking service, first the rear diff broke coming out of the dealer when i picked it up, it had no oil in it despite the 100+ point check, then the exhaust came loose, then the screen wash motor stopped working, then the air con stopped working, and in replacing that, they broke a bit of the dash, but didnt change it, until i told them –
then the rust began to show on the arches and they told me it wasnt within the warranty by x no. of months and please go away now. had to get the arches done myself.

i often wonder these days if i would ever buy from a dealer, and instead not pay the premium and go private and just put some money aside if it goes wrong.

Main dealer or Indie?

If Main I had 😯 experience from a main dealer (owned by Merc) in Manchester.

What’s the real world mpg from the e320cdi please?

37mpg for 60k miles when I owned mine. That had a Brabus upgrade (275bhp) too.

@hora, liverpool *MAIN* dealer, although subclassed as Inchape, and although i took it to another Official Merc dealer, they said they could do no work on it, because it had to be part of the Inchape network “for accounts purposes”, unless it was considered an emergency repair . could be bull***t and they just didnt want to touch the car.

interestingly i had to get it serviced in Italy (before the rust appeared) and the Merc dealer there didnt blink an eye lid and did everything they could under the warranty.