Buying used from MB Dealers .. Cambridge in particular?

[AlanD]

Hello - just wondering what the general consensus is on buying approved used cars from MB directly. Had a chat with one of them a couple of weeks back about the 12 month warranty that they provide and they claim it covers "pretty much anything" outside of standard wear on brakes & tyres. No Service Plan option "because it's an AMG".

Also, do any of you have any specific experience with MB of Cambridge, good or bad?

 

[BQF]

Bought 2x E class from MB dealers - Kings Lynn and Portsmouth.

Kings Lynn very good, Portsmouth horrid.

Warranty is excellent - and their recovery service (for the times, as an example, when both front springs go when you are 300 miles from home) is exceptional.

A genuine warranty - almost everything is covered, including electrics.

 

[wheels1]

Re Cambridge Mercedes.
I have found parts dept. helpful, visiting the service dept today £114 per hour, to put on there computer!

The sales dept i have found to be ok but there cars are always priced at the higher end, and i have not been able to budge them much, so have never bought from them, Bury st Edmunds Mercedes sale have always been helpful, but as they are smaller, there is less choice of cars.

I will let you know how i get on at Cambridge today.

 

[AlanD]

Re Cambridge Mercedes.
I will let you know how i get on at Cambridge today.

Ahh .. if you're there today, could you do me a favour??

There's a blue C32 on their forecourt .. could you cast your eye over it and let me know what you think? They say it's in excellent condition and a former MB Club owner looked after it. Couldn't really get anything accurate from them on the condition of the tyres and brakes, but full MB service history and apparently runs perfectly.

 

[BQF]

That car has been on their forecourt for Eons - I bought my E55 in December, and when I started looking in November that C32 was there!!

Obviously, it's a 9 year old car - it's done fairly low miles, mind, and it does look immaculate. Parkers reckon it should be £8,605 from a franchise so I think if you could get it for £9,000 you'd have a sound deal and a good car.

In fact, I might buy it myself (not really - although it is tempting!)

 

[AlanD]

That car has been on their forecourt for Eons - I bought my E55 in December, and when I started looking in November that C32 was there!!

Obviously, it's a 9 year old car - it's done fairly low miles, mind, and it does look immaculate. Parkers reckon it should be £8,605 from a franchise so I think if you could get it for £9,000 you'd have a sound deal and a good car.

In fact, I might buy it myself (not really - although it is tempting!)

Haha ... cheeky buggers! They said it was only there for a week a couple of weeks ago!

They've dropped it £500 recently. It doesn't have any tax - I was thinking around the £9k mark with tax would be a good deal, but particularly wanted to know what state the brakes and tyres were in so that I didn't have a £1k bill in the first year! I think the fronts (discs and pads) are probably about gone judging by the service record.

Just need to sell my ST220 and get a lift up to Cambridge!

 

[wheels1]

Ahh .. if you're there today, could you do me a favour??

There's a blue C32 on their forecourt .. could you cast your eye over it and let me know what you think? They say it's in excellent condition and a former MB Club owner looked after it. Couldn't really get anything accurate from them on the condition of the tyres and brakes, but full MB service history and apparently runs perfectly.

Will do, do you have a web-link to the car.
Train from Kings cross to Cambridge 45 mins

 

[AlanD]

Will do, do you have a web-link to the car.
Train from Kings cross to Cambridge 45 mins

Hopefully this works to Autotrader:

MERCEDES-BENZ C32 AMG 3199 cc

 

[wheels1]

Hi Alan here you go:-

Outside:-
wheels look good unmarked
brake discs look good, hardly worn as best i could tell
tyres front about 6mm
tyres rear 4mm this is my best guess
windscreen looks good no chips i could see
paint looks good virtually unmarked, [ small mark on the rear bumper]
the car was dusty so hard to tell if it had been repainted but no oblivious signs of paint

front :-
AMG brake calipers painted and still looked good, unlike the rears which where very rusty.

Interior looking in from the outside as the car was locked:-

All looked good, the only mark i could see was very small rubbing on the drivers seat, AMG seats look tasty.

mats looked good , one rear one a bit mucky
The drivers seat belt was wrapped around the headrest for some reason so there may be a problem there.
Best i could do without the keys, look a very nice car to me.
good luck with your search
Grant
Ps they fixed my problem and only charged my £91 to re-program two keys for the keyless go as it took just under an hour!

 

[AlanD]

Thanks Grant - very kind of you. It's my definite "best of the rest" at the moment, since there are no late '03 or '04 cars out there with low mileage and sensible pricing. Really wanted the latter, but this is up there with the pre '03 cars and, I think, a better colour than silver or black! (controversial!!)

 

[rascalmaster]

i used mercedes approved used as they were cheaper than the main dealerships... i used mb hemmel hempstead.
you need to really keep your wits about you!
1st car i got had been previously boinked and the rear had been repaired with a very unprofessional looking repair. only found out because we took out the lining and bumper to install a rear parking sensor.
mb of course knew nothing about it; but to give them their due; changed it for a newer one at a reduced price
haggle as much as you can... its shocking how far they will drop... particularly towards the end of april ;-) to meet their targets.
at the last; ask for an extra year of tier 1 warranty (thats worth a grand on an e class) as well as a guaranteed resale value.
at the very last; explore the possibility of a part exchange if thats what youre looking for...
best of luck

 

[gIzzE]

What about this C32??

Mercedes : Mercedes C32 Amg Silver 60k 51 plate Stunning

 

[Deleted member 37751]

What about this C32??

Mercedes : Mercedes C32 Amg Silver 60k 51 plate Stunning

Check out the service history; the last two are 18 months apart and only 2000 miles in that time?

The one at Cambridge looks really expensive to me- even from the main dealer.
Try a bid of £7500, you never know. What's the worse that can happen?

 

[AlanD]

Check out the service history; the last two are 18 months apart and only 2000 miles in that time?

The one at Cambridge looks really expensive to me- even from the main dealer.
Try a bid of £7500, you never know. What's the worse that can happen?

Yeah, 2001 is just too old - I don't want to buy a 10 year old car to replace a 5 year old one. Getting a 2004 plate is my target.

I was thinking along the lines of £9k, but get them to do tax, front discs & pads, ATF change and maybe extend the warranty. Still not entirely convinced I want a 2002 model, but it's a nice colour and looks/sounds like a well looked after car.

 

[gtvlusso]

Went to MB Cambridge many years ago, I was interested in buying an SLK230 Kompressor. I had longish hair at the time - Sales guy asked if I was a rock star.....bought an M3 instead.

I am a consultant surgeon.

'nuff said dudes....rock out y'all

 

[AlanD]

Price dropped again (though just a little!). It's a shame there's very little coming on the market at the moment to compare against. Come on all you 2003/2004 owners with low mileage, where are you!

 

[BQF]

It's dropped off the approved used MB website - so it probably won't get an MB warranty. Offer them £8,000 for it - I'll bet you'd get a yes.

 

[AlanD]

Is that separate from their own dealer website? Why would they choose to do that .. because they're dropping the price to a point where the warranty isn't cost effective for them anymore?

 

[cussy]

i have just had a used ml320cdi sport from mercedes benz retail used in manchester in december 2010.love it.i live in south wales.
1 year warranty and 2 years free serving.great deal.i have been looking for this car
for over a year and all other garages were the same price as the dealer but they did not have the deal i was given by mercedes.i went all the way to manchester due to the dealer in wales was 3 to 4k more expensive for the same spec and milage.i looked for used and searched national there are better deals and price differences between
the dealers.i will do this again to save money and then use the local dealer for servicing.hope this helps as it saved me big bucks to travel.

 

[AlanD]

Yep - def not ruling out far away places. However there are only 9 C32s on sale across the UK as we speak and most are too old or too high mileage!