Dryce
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- May 17, 2006
- Messages
- 10,964
- Car
- ..
Today my W211 has moved on.
It was an E240 AG at a couple of weeks under 8 years old. I've had it for almost exactly 82 months - 2 months under 7 years. It was bought at just over 13 months old as an AU car. I covered 62500 miles.
Facts and figures.
The car effectively depreciated by £17500 over that period. £207/month.
Servicing costs + maintenance were £3850 - that includes two balljoints, discs and pads, headlamp washers, water pump, front springs, battery, and welding exhaust brackets. £47/month.
The £47 was fairly representative of the actual rate of expenditure. In the early days there was less spent on unscheduled repairs but dealer servicing and ATF change keep it up. In the middle part of its life unscheduled repairs creep up (ball joint, headlamp washers) and there was a large service that involved spark plug change. Then over the last 2 years servicing costs were lower but there was a a second balljoint, front springs, and water pump.
So cost of running the vehcle excluding tyres, insurance, VED, and petrol was about 33p per mile.
The car only let me down once by failing to undertake a planned journey when the front spring collapsed.
It passed all its MOTs with no advisories apart from a note about tyre wear.
Paintwork was not bad. No rust that I was aware of on any of the main panels. Alloys were beginning to show some corrosion. On the little tabs that cover the roof bracket attaching points and on the rear boot silver trim there were small signs of bubbling.
Interior was part leather part fabric and wore extremely well with the birdseye maple trim. I'd challenge anybody to work out its age based on its condition.
Ownership experience was good. The car was enjoyable to drive and did several tours round the west and north east of Scotland with foreign visitors. Despite rather inferior performance figures compared with most of the other engine variants in the W211 family the small V6 petrol was capable of expediting cross country journeys fully loaded very quickly and in refined comfort with driver + 3 passengers + luggage. AG suspension on 16" rims was a good compromise and I would describe it as very poised on the open road.
It's set a benchmark on car ownership experience for me that will be hard for its successor to follow.
It was an E240 AG at a couple of weeks under 8 years old. I've had it for almost exactly 82 months - 2 months under 7 years. It was bought at just over 13 months old as an AU car. I covered 62500 miles.
Facts and figures.
The car effectively depreciated by £17500 over that period. £207/month.
Servicing costs + maintenance were £3850 - that includes two balljoints, discs and pads, headlamp washers, water pump, front springs, battery, and welding exhaust brackets. £47/month.
The £47 was fairly representative of the actual rate of expenditure. In the early days there was less spent on unscheduled repairs but dealer servicing and ATF change keep it up. In the middle part of its life unscheduled repairs creep up (ball joint, headlamp washers) and there was a large service that involved spark plug change. Then over the last 2 years servicing costs were lower but there was a a second balljoint, front springs, and water pump.
So cost of running the vehcle excluding tyres, insurance, VED, and petrol was about 33p per mile.
The car only let me down once by failing to undertake a planned journey when the front spring collapsed.
It passed all its MOTs with no advisories apart from a note about tyre wear.
Paintwork was not bad. No rust that I was aware of on any of the main panels. Alloys were beginning to show some corrosion. On the little tabs that cover the roof bracket attaching points and on the rear boot silver trim there were small signs of bubbling.
Interior was part leather part fabric and wore extremely well with the birdseye maple trim. I'd challenge anybody to work out its age based on its condition.
Ownership experience was good. The car was enjoyable to drive and did several tours round the west and north east of Scotland with foreign visitors. Despite rather inferior performance figures compared with most of the other engine variants in the W211 family the small V6 petrol was capable of expediting cross country journeys fully loaded very quickly and in refined comfort with driver + 3 passengers + luggage. AG suspension on 16" rims was a good compromise and I would describe it as very poised on the open road.
It's set a benchmark on car ownership experience for me that will be hard for its successor to follow.
