Hey Scotty,
I'm considering purchasing a 2009 Mercedes Benz c300 4MATIC AWD with 141km (I'm in Canada) and it's automatic. I plan on taking it to my mechanic to check it out. It has a clean title, no major rusting issues. This is a private sale between neighbours.
The asking price is $7000, but I can get it for a few hundred dollars less. I know you aren't the biggest fan of Mercedes-Benz, but I wanted to know how you feel about Mercedes from early/mid 2000s. Permitted the car cooperates, I plan to have it for 3-4 years before purchasing a newer Lexus.
Thanks!
For a daily driver, no. You'll go broke keeping it on the road. For a weekend toy it could be ok. Just realize there are no cheap parts on that car.
If you don’t mind repair costs, it can be a good weekend car.
So I use to work at benz/porche/bmw shop. Here's my take.
Mechanical:
Personally the E-Class IMO had the better engine. Not a fan of the V6 from the C-class 4matic. V8 E550 is actually more reliable if you are talking Benz specific. Haha. For the automatic, I'd also see if there are any codes. Lots of these have electrical gremlins that just can't be cleared really. Basically the car is too smart for its own good. Since you have a mechanic looking at it that's already good. See if they got a S.T.A.R. computer. It will tell you everything you ever want to know about the car. I also would recommend against daily driving as a simple brake job charges premium. Lowest my previous shop charged was somewhere around 1k for all 4 corners with B service. LOF and inspection.
My little tidbits about the cars in general:
---Benz is the king of plastic only second to Volvo(owned by china so what to expect lol) so expect everything plastic to be fragile/non-malleable. Clips, hoses, Ect.
---Benz also had a mold prevention spray for their AC system because mold likes to grow in their systems for whatever reason. Several recalls, should check to see if yours is under it.
---if you have mice where you live, watch out for that too, for whatever reason, liner and other things mice like to chew on, seems to be a Benz specific thing cause the other cars from the same customers where never prone to this issue. Though it could just be cause I saw such a high volume of benz with rat chewings.
---I actually like most Benz cars despite all the downsides. Could just be that I think that they are less complicated than BMW LOL, maybe it's because I know how to work on them more than BMW's ehhhh.
