Buying a W211 - opinions very helpful

[racingsteve]

Hi.

For three months have been looking for a clean W211. Criteria is full service history (advice taken from here), under 100k miles (significantly less if available) and toys of Sat Nav and heated seats with full leather interior. Prefer 320 over 280 over 270 over 220, again based on comments on this forum. Budget is up to £10k but happy to spend less and want to keep car 4/5 years at 20k per annum unless able to trade up sooner.

This week dived in for a 'stunning and immaculate' Merc specialist advertised model and arranged for a comprehensive RAC inspection. Result is plenty of cosmetic problems but also gearbox/engine leaks plus more than enough body/exhaust corrosion to make me happy to walk away.

Verbally the RAC engineer advised that Mercedes didn't get their act together regarding corrosion until early 2007 and, in his experience, models before 2007 will ALL come with some corrosion or other. Based on experience can you guys confirm or deny this?

In truth, is looking for a 2004-2006 well looked after/corrosion free W211 a fantasy or have I just been unlucky in this instance?

Any help more than appreciated for this newbie...

Steve

 

[Bakili]

With budget of 10k max you will easily get 2007+ car with range of 50 -80k mileage.
You have money, market is yours.
Take your time, do not rush into buying.

 

[Jukie]

Yes, there would seem to be plenty of well-specced, facelifted W211s available between £7k & £10k.

 

[mattc]

our 2004 211 is not rusting. they were all galvanised by then. As others say for your budget you can get post facelist and avoid the SBC issues

 

[blue gnome123]

I'd agree that you should get a post 2006 saloon for that budget. Also as the others say, there are plenty around.

 

[racingsteve]

Thanks for the early replies.

The W211 in question was May 05 registered and, galvanised or not, rear door skins both had significant blistering. Was this just unlucky?

Noted mattc regarding SBC issues (also picked up from here reading through posts).

With regard to facelift/post 2006, budget as described is £10k but would happily spend £7.5k, for example, for an earlier model. This car will be on the road Mon-Fri and all I want is a good looking and reliable marque. The question is am I wasting my time looking at pre-2007, not if I can afford to pay more? Every vehicle would be inspected but if 85% of them are going to be corroded/have other issues should I simply look for a later model?

What I'm trying to establish is how reliable 2004-2006 W211s are? If I was buying a Peugeot I would know that if my budget is £10k I'd better find another two grand because the more I spend the less issues I'm likely to find. My understanding of W211s was that there are clean 2004-2006 models but, after the latest "stunner", am wondering if this is the case.

Again, any comments will help.

Thanks

 

[mattc]

we boughts ours off Jay Manek who is active on this forum. He is definitely a stand up chap

here's one of his offerings:

LINK

 

[evdok]

or you could buy mine....

 

[racingsteve]

Looks good mattc, huh?

 

[DSB SL AMG]

just be aware the RAC/AA will make any car look bad...its there job too! the car did sound ropey but I would always advise having it inspected at your local MB indie, most will charge 1hr labour, have more MB model experience and knowledge and probably be also much cheaper then the £150 you have payed the RAC...

 

[racingsteve]

Thanks DSB.

In this instance, I was 200 miles away and needed an inspection to support the dealer's description. I accept the position of RAC/AA inspection but not difficult to read between the lines to see if report is being fudged. If the issues are off the page however prudence suggests simply walking away. Given there were only minor issues deal would have been done but it wasn't to be.