Dieselman
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- Peugeot 403 Convertible
Has the W202 really been that bad though.? I know you had a coil failure taking out the ECU but that was as purchased, so known and factored into the price, wasn't it.? Other than that and a bit of rust what has gone wrong.?
Of course you know you should've bought a 250 turboD. No coils then..
Of course you know you should've bought a 250 turboD. No coils then..
I guess that it's fair to say that the W201 has it's fair share of problems too, just that they tend to be less serious, cheaper and easier to fix.
It is a disgrace that many 20 year old W201s have less rust than most 10 year old W202s. When W201s were 10 years old they pretty much all looked like brand new, never saw any with rusty wheel arches, boot lids, wings, door tops, etc.
Will
It is a disgrace that many 20 year old W201s have less rust than most 10 year old W202s. When W201s were 10 years old they pretty much all looked like brand new, never saw any with rusty wheel arches, boot lids, wings, door tops, etc.
Will
Dieselman
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- Peugeot 403 Convertible
I agree about the poor paintwork on later Mercedes, but other than that and general wear items, the cars powered by OM605 and 606 really are uber reliable in nearly all aspects.
I agree, they're probably amongst the very best in reliability
But, what springs to mind:
Keys - they fail often and are very expensive to replace (circa £200 vs. £10 for a W201)
Wiper mechanisms - seem to fail more often on W202 and are pretty expensive (£800 comes to mind?). See loads around my way where the wiper has jammed in the middle!
Gearboxes - the manual W202s seem to be strangely weak and there's quite a few 722.6s out there that have never seen an ATF change, plus the leaking electro plug issue?
Rust - as previously mentioned...
Electronics - A few people on here have had faulty ECUs with the later cars. Cluster issues on 208/210s are quite common?
Fragile MAF sensors, air con condensors etc?
The W201 obviously isn't immune to faults, it just seems as though 90% of them are simple DIY jobs and cost a lot less to repair
Will
j.mcdonnell
New Member
The best buy today without doubt is the 2.6 Auto,provided you don't mind putting in a drop more petrol. Having said that I get up 32mpg with 'spirited' driving. If you can find a Sportline version all the better. Remember 2.6's are no more expensive to buy that 1.8 & 2.0lt 's.
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Thanks everybody for your constructive comments again if I can sell my W202 I will definitely go for an earlier model Merc, as regards other problems only minor but still problems.
BAS light problem had to change the brake light switch if I had not been on this forum it would have gone into the garage because I would not have known what was causing it,SRS Airbag light staying on once again the forum came to my rescue (loom under the passenger seat has dodgy connection) that would have also gone into the garage so as you can see this forum has saved me loads of money and this was within 2000 miles of having the ECU replaced.
I think we have all had a car that we are uneasy with and that is how I feel about mine I have GREEN FLAG protection allthough I don't use it very much because I don't trust it.
BAS light problem had to change the brake light switch if I had not been on this forum it would have gone into the garage because I would not have known what was causing it,SRS Airbag light staying on once again the forum came to my rescue (loom under the passenger seat has dodgy connection) that would have also gone into the garage so as you can see this forum has saved me loads of money and this was within 2000 miles of having the ECU replaced.
I think we have all had a car that we are uneasy with and that is how I feel about mine I have GREEN FLAG protection allthough I don't use it very much because I don't trust it.
Sorry getting ahead of myself here I also had to replace two rear springs as one had snapped common fault they can't even produce a decent spring,the front ones could do with replacing (very rusty but I cleaned them up and waxold them I can.t be bothered to spend any more on the THING).
Radiator drain plug broken PLASTIC what a joke had to replace, tensioner damping arm noisy common fault REPLACED and was informed on the last mot that the rear brake pipes are going rusty cant even put decent pipe on
not what you should expect on an expensive so called prestige car so as far as I am concerned the W202 was just an ordinary car posing as an extraordinary car for a lot more money than they were worth and now people have got the message not worth buying so not worth spending money on.
Lets face it if an ECU goes on one of these scrap it because it will cost more to repair it than the car is worth and the prices are still dropping.
Why is it that almost ALL of the cars that appear for sale with remarkably low mileage never have any service history?
It always strikes me as odd - if anything, low mileage/cherished cars are the sort of vehicles whose owners would/should be fastidious with all aspects of ownership, including a fairly basic task of not 'losing' every MOT and service receipts/books etc.
It's a nice looking car nonetheless, just a shame you have no idea if it's done 60k or double that...
Will
It always strikes me as odd - if anything, low mileage/cherished cars are the sort of vehicles whose owners would/should be fastidious with all aspects of ownership, including a fairly basic task of not 'losing' every MOT and service receipts/books etc.
It's a nice looking car nonetheless, just a shame you have no idea if it's done 60k or double that...
Will
I have to say, the w202 i first bought from auction (for £600) for a green elegance trim c200. And this car was the most reliable car i've ever seen, it was a 1995 model, felt as solid as a rock, never went wrong, and i only replaced the front wishbone bushes and the pads/tyres when they went. Other then that i've had no problems with it.
I bought it and shared it with my dad since i was 17, and it was so robust, no rattles, perfect feel when driving, very comfortable. But when i bought the 98 c230K, i think i bought a slightly less-looked after car, or i was just unlucky.
On buying the c230k, i had quite alot of wear/tear things changed, supercharger belt, fuel injectors, spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter, front ball joints and pads. The differential broke (somehow?) and i had to replace that, but thankfully that didnt cost me as much as it could have, £200 from dronsfields and me and a friend fitted it in with no additional charge.
The exhaust backbox then decided to corrode and fall off (lol), but since i've always wanted to replace it with a c36 amg backbox i found it quite convenient, and i just replaced the whole exhaust system with a high flo HKS cat and then straight pipes to the amg backbox, and sold my catalysts for £180 so i got some cash back there!
All in all, the car has given me alot of fun to drive, but with its fair share of problems, but they are problems i decided to fix properly so they never crop up again. And sinec i've replaced the differential i've had absolutely no faults (Touch wood), and i'm enjoying driving the car again! which is a good thing.
But i've got a feeling (and this is only a newbie feeling) that the L and M reg w202's (1994/1995) felt alot more solid then the later ones, i say this because before buying our c200 we did try a 2.0 auto 190e, and they both felt almost exactly the same, butthe c200 had a more 'modern' look (at the time).
Sorry to hear about your misfortunes with your car and sorry for the long essay just felt i had to share that.
I bought it and shared it with my dad since i was 17, and it was so robust, no rattles, perfect feel when driving, very comfortable. But when i bought the 98 c230K, i think i bought a slightly less-looked after car, or i was just unlucky.
On buying the c230k, i had quite alot of wear/tear things changed, supercharger belt, fuel injectors, spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter, front ball joints and pads. The differential broke (somehow?) and i had to replace that, but thankfully that didnt cost me as much as it could have, £200 from dronsfields and me and a friend fitted it in with no additional charge.
The exhaust backbox then decided to corrode and fall off (lol), but since i've always wanted to replace it with a c36 amg backbox i found it quite convenient, and i just replaced the whole exhaust system with a high flo HKS cat and then straight pipes to the amg backbox, and sold my catalysts for £180 so i got some cash back there!
All in all, the car has given me alot of fun to drive, but with its fair share of problems, but they are problems i decided to fix properly so they never crop up again. And sinec i've replaced the differential i've had absolutely no faults (Touch wood), and i'm enjoying driving the car again! which is a good thing.
But i've got a feeling (and this is only a newbie feeling) that the L and M reg w202's (1994/1995) felt alot more solid then the later ones, i say this because before buying our c200 we did try a 2.0 auto 190e, and they both felt almost exactly the same, butthe c200 had a more 'modern' look (at the time).
Sorry to hear about your misfortunes with your car and sorry for the long essay just felt i had to share that.
I have to say, the w202 i first bought from auction (for £600) for a green elegance trim c200. And this car was the most reliable car i've ever seen, it was a 1995 model, felt as solid as a rock, never went wrong, and i only replaced the front wishbone bushes and the pads/tyres when they went. Other then that i've had no problems with it.
I bought it and shared it with my dad since i was 17, and it was so robust, no rattles, perfect feel when driving, very comfortable. But when i bought the 98 c230K, i think i bought a slightly less-looked after car, or i was just unlucky.
On buying the c230k, i had quite alot of wear/tear things changed, supercharger belt, fuel injectors, spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter, front ball joints and pads. The differential broke (somehow?) and i had to replace that, but thankfully that didnt cost me as much as it could have, £200 from dronsfields and me and a friend fitted it in with no additional charge.
The exhaust backbox then decided to corrode and fall off (lol), but since i've always wanted to replace it with a c36 amg backbox i found it quite convenient, and i just replaced the whole exhaust system with a high flo HKS cat and then straight pipes to the amg backbox, and sold my catalysts for £180 so i got some cash back there!
All in all, the car has given me alot of fun to drive, but with its fair share of problems, but they are problems i decided to fix properly so they never crop up again. And sinec i've replaced the differential i've had absolutely no faults (Touch wood), and i'm enjoying driving the car again! which is a good thing.
But i've got a feeling (and this is only a newbie feeling) that the L and M reg w202's (1994/1995) felt alot more solid then the later ones, i say this because before buying our c200 we did try a 2.0 auto 190e, and they both felt almost exactly the same, butthe c200 had a more 'modern' look (at the time).
Sorry to hear about your misfortunes with your car and sorry for the long essay just felt i had to share that.
Thanks Rage
That's what this forum is all about and why it is so good because we all share the good and the bad thanks for taking the trouble to reply much appreciated.
Norman
I don't know where he got this price from
http://www.local.thesun.co.uk/detail/1990-Mercedes-190D-201-Series-For-Sale/1035842177/uk/
http://www.local.thesun.co.uk/detail/1990-Mercedes-190D-201-Series-For-Sale/1035842177/uk/
Dieselman
Banned
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- 34,198
- Car
- Peugeot 403 Convertible
Ah. Good Old Charlie Ironsides. Take the average price and add a Zero.
Haa!
You've said exactly what I've been thinking re: the pricing strategies of the used-merc dealers that populate Mercedes Enthusiast magazine. Another example: Avantgarde Cars have a low mileage (49k) 190LE in Azzurro Blue going for the ridiculous price of £5500.
Still if you have more money than time then you'll probably get a fine car off these astronomically priced dealers. But a little patience and a wad of cash to hand and you'll probably find very similar specced-cars on the market (private and general car dealers) for half the price or more.
Good luck to likes of Charles Ironside, if people are willing to pay those astronomical prices then great, but I won't be.
