Are all April 2006 onwards ML's £585/600 annual tax? + alternatives to an ML.

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Nat

MB Enthusiast
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Feb 18, 2016
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1,149
Location
North Hampshire
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CLS55, 911t, 3dr Cosworth, MT 10.
Are any of the ML's including the latter ones cheaper than the £585/600 annual tax?

Sold my '05 plate W164 500 last year and the wife has missed it and now wants another one or something of similar size. I didn't realise until recently how useful it was to us for a multitude of reasons. I've been looking at ML's, X5's, Cayenne's, some of the VW/Audi's, etc. Not looking to spend a fortune and would prefer a petrol over a derv. Maybe not the right time to be looking with the added CV19 tax of buying used cars at the moment but I'll need to address it at some stage soon.

Most of the driving will be local stuff then twice a month with long'ish runs throughout May to October.
 
The difference in Road Fund Licence between your previous car and ones at the higher rate is less than £1 a day.

There are many higher costs associated with running a large petrol engined vehicle.
 
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Developing DSM10000’s point, it’s worth just creating a list (spreadsheet) of the running costs to see what it really costs to run your options. And to see exactly how many miles you’re planning to get out of the “family hack.”

RFL is a pain in the exhaust but the bigger issues are depreciation, funding, unreliability (Cayenne, we’re looking at you, Babe), and servicing.

Personally, I don’t see why anyone uses an SUV instead of an estate car for suburban use but that’s me being out of touch with the Zeitgeist.

The obvious SUV candidates must be the Volvo XC90 and the later BMW X3 which is almost as big as early ML’s and X5’s

But an S211 or S212 is always worth a look….
 
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Quite why anyone would want a Cayenne is beyond me.

The only good thing about them is when driving them you are not looking as the hideous outside.

I know two people that have /had them.

One is a 3 litre diesel that averages around 25mpg. The other was a Turbocharged petrol V8 that sat around 13mpg overall because it was almost exclusively used in city environments.

Both cost thousands in repairs once out of warranty
 
If reliability is a prime consideration, you might want to cross the XC90 off the list. In September 2020, Which? reported that the XC90 was the least reliable car in their survey; XC90s between three and eight years old had a fault rate of 74%, the highest of any car in any age group, and 15.8% actually broke down or failed to start. :oops:

If you want a reliable premium/luxury SUV, buy a Lexus. Shame about the looks, but you can't have everything...
 
I suffer from slight back problems and an SUV was the option I looked for in a replacement car to my B Class. Most SUV's carry that heavy RFL tag and in the end opted for my current car Nissan Qashqai. £30 RFL and 50+ mpg from the 1.6 litre diesel engine. It was a shame to move away from Mercedes as I have owned one for 20+ years. The other option for a reduced RFL was an older SUV, G Wagen or the newer ML250, but both were out of my price range.
 
I've seen it said that the B class has stiff suspension and not overly much ground clearance, so I can see why you might want something else.
 
Quite why anyone would want a Cayenne is beyond me.

The only good thing about them is when driving them you are not looking as the hideous outside.

I know two people that have /had them.

One is a 3 litre diesel that averages around 25mpg. The other was a Turbocharged petrol V8 that sat around 13mpg overall because it was almost exclusively used in city environments.

Both cost thousands in repairs once out of warranty

ETTO but i like mine (2012 Gen 2 ,3.0 diesel, 70k ) and would have another when i am due a replacement , loads of space , well screwed together , 34 mpg around town , 850 miles to a tank on the motorway at sensible speeds , £300 pa tax , air suspension is great as is the Bose sound system if that is your thing.

Apart from expensive consumables (tyres / battery / oil etc ) , all mine has cost me in 20 months of ownership regarding repairs is £24 for an ABS sensor , pretty decent for any car that is almost a decade old let alone a vehicle that is deemed generally as an "unreliable money pit".

Dont get me wrong , when something does "let go" it is going to be expensive which is to be expected , but that can be said for any modern (complex) SUV type vehicle.

K
 
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ETTO but i like mine (2012 Gen 2 ,3.0 diesel, 70k ) and would have another when i am due a replacement , loads of space , well screwed together , 34 mpg around town , 850 miles to a tank on the motorway at sensible speeds , £300 pa tax , air suspension is great as is the Bose sound system if that is your thing.

Apart from expensive consumables (tyres / battery / oil etc ) , all mine has cost me in 20 months of ownership regarding repairs is £24 for an ABS sensor , pretty decent for any car that is almost a decade old let alone a vehicle that is deemed generally as an "unreliable money pit".

Dont get me wrong , when something does "let go" it is going to be expensive which is to be expected , but that can be said for any modern (complex) SUV type vehicle.

K
Wow 850 miles is serious range!
 
Wow 850 miles is serious range!

Big tank , 100L (22 gallon) and 42 ish to the gallon on the motorway in ideal conditions.

Equates to 925 miles in theory but the light comes on with around 60 miles remaining.

K
 
Just to update this.

I didn't buy another ML nor another Merc and bought something quite different that wasn't on my radar. Coupled with the fact to me that Merc parts and servicing are now at daft price because of " X, Y and Z" IMO. My man maths said this would be a totally daft purchase, probably worse on fuel, maybe unreliable, potentially going to cost a fortune, etc, etc. So I did the right thing and walked off ....

..... back to my car and done a transfer online and bought it.


I bought this:-

XXZXtJL.jpg


nUqi5da.jpg


CXGqZ8o.jpg


0rIS7uG.jpg


I took the 22" Overfinch wheels off with a 35 profile and replaced them with 19"'s with a 55 profile that are more suited to "what's left of our roads in the UK" and have happily done more miles in this in a few months that what the ML done in 2 out of 3 years I'd owned it. It's such a lovely place to be in. It's not without fault and I was aware of those when I bought it. Most things for these don't cost a lot of money to replace and you can do it yourself. MPG wise? It's been on par with my 164 500 which was a pleasant surprise.

Here's the latest picture outside a place in Basingstoke called The Range. It was pure coincidence that I caught the shop name in this picture 😂

63DRINz.jpg


For those of you that don't know, it's the petrol version and a 4.2 supercharged model. Since the top pictures were taken I've cleaned up the interior, spray foamed it and ceramic coated the exterior as black isn't the easiest colour to keep clean.
 
We had a number of years of reliable and very enjoyable driving with our 4 2 Supercharged RR.

We traded it in a few months ago for the 5 litre Supercharged version.

Noticeably quicker and a little better handling and with a slight improvement in fuel consumption (about 2mpg)

Every little helps! 😂
 
We had a number of years of reliable and very enjoyable driving with our 4 2 Supercharged RR.

We traded it in a few months ago for the 5 litre Supercharged version.

Noticeably quicker and a little better handling and with a slight improvement in fuel consumption (about 2mpg)

Every little helps! 😂

That's good to know. They are lovely place to be sat in. Hope you have many enjoyable miles in your 5.0 :cool:
 
Just to update this.

I didn't buy another ML nor another Merc and bought something quite different that wasn't on my radar. Coupled with the fact to me that Merc parts and servicing are now at daft price because of " X, Y and Z" IMO. My man maths said this would be a totally daft purchase, probably worse on fuel, maybe unreliable, potentially going to cost a fortune, etc, etc. So I did the right thing and walked off ....

..... back to my car and done a transfer online and bought it.


I bought this:-

XXZXtJL.jpg


nUqi5da.jpg


CXGqZ8o.jpg


0rIS7uG.jpg


I took the 22" Overfinch wheels off with a 35 profile and replaced them with 19"'s with a 55 profile that are more suited to "what's left of our roads in the UK" and have happily done more miles in this in a few months that what the ML done in 2 out of 3 years I'd owned it. It's such a lovely place to be in. It's not without fault and I was aware of those when I bought it. Most things for these don't cost a lot of money to replace and you can do it yourself. MPG wise? It's been on par with my 164 500 which was a pleasant surprise.

Here's the latest picture outside a place in Basingstoke called The Range. It was pure coincidence that I caught the shop name in this picture 😂

63DRINz.jpg


For those of you that don't know, it's the petrol version and a 4.2 supercharged model. Since the top pictures were taken I've cleaned up the interior, spray foamed it and ceramic coated the exterior as black isn't the easiest colour to keep clean.
Yes, they are lovely places to be in and to travel in. I had a 2012 4.4 V8 wood burner, but it only lasted a year with me.
3 x over £1k bills for parts alone in my first 12 months with the car was more than the total I spent on all non service parts of all of the 14 Mercedes I have owned.
Back to Mercedes with a GLE and Audi after that year of discovery.....well Vogue to be more accurate!
 
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