Heads, head gaskets, and the works for $2,500.
Timing belt for $500.
Front drivers side window motor for $300.
Rear suspension for $1,100.
Needs a new sunroof and a new paint job.
The transmission might be going.
It's got its luxury, but it has not been very reliable. It's bad on gas and the parts are hard to get.
I have blown a lot of money because of this car, maybe because it's a Mercedes. However I did save some money by taking it to a regular mechanic and not those rip-off Mercedes-Benz dealers.
This will probably the first and last Mercedes I will ever own.
Let's see, the reviewer put over 100,000 miles on an 18 yr. old car in 11 yrs. of ownership and had to spend less than $5k in repair and maintenance costs. Yet they decided it's not a good car because it now needs a paint job too. Why whinge? Every car owner has to spend money on such things as repairs and maintenance and fuel. Certainly there were sound reasons why they bought and kept this car and THAT is what a review is meant to convey. Why waste time grumbling about spending relatively little money on a high-end luxury car? Perhaps a KIA would have been more affordable and satisfactory for the reviewer. The only problem is there are NO 18 yr. old KIAs driving around. ROFL!
That's a very good point. don't expect any car to run for 100k miles and not cough once in a while. Most importantly, remember: while your car was probably bought at a bargain, the repairs are for a premium car.
A genuine survey! I don't know if someone has just gone and deleted all the bad reviews on these cars but they are not reliable or cheap to maintain and a lot of cars out there are better.
I have had two w124 cars, a 1990 300E and a 1992 300E-24V. The last one only had 90,000km when I got it and it died at 180,000 (lost compression in the cylinders). I never had a service under $800 and the car has broken down on 4 separate trips with different problems and has only been serviced by a Mercedes Dealer. I can’t be bothered going through all the various problems but I spent in the vicinity of $15,000 maintaining the last car.
The best things about these cars are the look and the drive it ends there.
Apparently this model was one of the most reliable models Mercedes made, this might be true, but that doesn’t mean it is reliable. I have also had a 2000 model C200 and it broke down 12 miles up a dirt road in the middle of nowhere because the gearbox died at 80,000km which is apparently normal?
Really nice cars to drive, but don’t buy one if you have a lead foot, these cars just can’t handle it!
Note: A Comments RSS Feed is available. New comments appear in the Members Area before the main site