Decision time for my ML

[Aterrasse]

What colour is it?

Sand metallic type of colour with pitch black interior.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

If it's as good as it sounds I'd be tempted to take it off your hands after a small profit for you!!

 

[Colin_b]

It has full MB dealer history, all by myself and therefore covered under MB recovery scheme. I got it with merely 3,000 miles on the clock back in 2009. It was a demo vehicle from MB Peterborough (nice guys there, BTW). Just front tyres and front discs need changing in the next two months.

Alex

So £350 tyres, £200 brakes, too good to miss! (unless its anything like my brothers ML230, which breaks down, hits things and has other comedy driver related antics...)

Seems a no brainer to me.

 

[Aterrasse]

If it's as good as it sounds I'd be tempted to take it off your hands after a small profit for you!!

Good to hear Bobby. I think it is really good indeed.

The car has 25,500 miles exactly and all its services done to date (last one done on 29 December 2011 - cost approx. £700). One owner i.e.. me (apart from the dealership at Peterborough three years ago). All bills present and never involved in an accident. It is mainly used by my wife to do the school runs and about three times a years to go to our house in Scotland and in the south of France.

How much do you think it is worth ?

Alex

 

[A210AMG]

^ its worth £13050

That way you get a free take away and Bobby upgrades his current ML


Seriously though, you WILL not find one on that millage / year for that money.


What big bills could it have now? Tyres, ATF change?, brakes. All parts you can get done from an indy and quite cheap.

You don't need to keep with the dealers for the servicing now as it will make very little difference if FSH or FBMSH.

Funny as I have my dads 'Old' E class estate and he bought a ML320Cdi as a stop gap car, he likes it but not as much as the estate. He was hoping the S212 was the one but he's holding out for the shooting brake. I liked my old ML ( I had the previous model) nice high up driving position. Although the E class has a larger boot (length ways) and I like the fact fuel is in the 40's.

I'd be tempted to keep it until yoyu know what to do you will not lose spending £13k to buy it...

 

[Aterrasse]

So £350 tyres, £200 brakes, too good to miss! (unless its anything like my brothers ML230, which breaks down, hits things and has other comedy driver related antics...)

Seems a no brainer to me.

That V6 is a real jewel and never let me down once and the electrics is fine too. It would appear that regular servicing is essential with those beasts. I send mine once a year (always on the 29th December!) regardless of the mileage done over that year.

Alex

 

[Aterrasse]

^ its worth £13050

I thought so!

Alex

 

[Colin_b]

That V6 is a real jewel and never let me down once and the electrics is fine too. It would appear that regular servicing is essential with those beasts. I send mine once a year (always on the 29th December!) regardless of the mileage done over that year.

Alex

I think you've convinced your self its a keeper, and rightly so.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I think you've convinced your self its a keeper, and rightly so.

+1

Having owned it from almost new is a real bonus too.

 

[Aterrasse]

Dear All,

For those who have been following that thread recently, I thought I would update you on my progress.

I have made an appointment with a MB dealer based in Kent to test drive on Saturday the only car that I would be prepared to consider to replace my ML: the E-estate W212.

There are some very good deals out there on new cars and I thought I would have a go at it. But the deal has to be right and goood! I am preparing myself for a good fight with the salesman on two issues :

- part-exchange;
- price squeeze on a new car.

As for the later, I was wondering what part-exchange I should reasonably be expecting (and accept) given that my ballon payment at the expiry of the contract due next month is a mere £13,000 and that my ML (although not a Sport model) is still in a very good condition with FMBSH and only 25,500m on the clock? Any idea?

Thanks to you all for any useful comment you may have...

Alex

 

[LTD]

Look on the MB website and see what similar models are being sold for.

Make prints to take with you and use them for bartering.

 

[gIzzE]

Agreed.

They will try and show you the CAP book, but ask them "Will you really auction an 08 plate car with 25k miles?"

The cheapest sub 40k mile 08 ML320cdi on Mercedes used at the moment is £20k, cheapest Sport is £21k.
Therefore I would aim for £17k and don't take a penny less.
Best thing to do is make the deal on the new E Class first, take in the drive the deal prices as they have up to 17% off the non AMG E Class estates at the moment, £9200 off an E350cgi that someone on pistonheads bought, so hammer a deal out first and then hit them with the trade in afterwards.

 

[Aterrasse]

Agreed.

They will try and show you the CAP book, but ask them "Will you really auction an 08 plate car with 25k miles?"

The cheapest sub 40k mile 08 ML320cdi on Mercedes used at the moment is £20k, cheapest Sport is £21k.
Therefore I would aim for £17k and don't take a penny less.
Best thing to do is make the deal on the new E Class first, take in the drive the deal prices as they have up to 17% off the non AMG E Class estates at the moment, £9200 off an E350cgi that someone on pistonheads bought, so hammer a deal out first and then hit them with the trade in afterwards.

Cunning plan

 

[WillDeBeest]

This is going to sound tactless to some, so apologies in advance. No offence meant - honestly.

There's some bizarre financial logic in parts of this thread, especially the idea that it's sensible to take on an expensive new finance contract because the value of the present car is 'evaporating to nothing', or because the gap to the price of a new car is increasing. After four years, most of the evaporating of value has already happened, and if you've been making the monthly payments out of income, you can make them to yourself instead and have a jar full of money ready for when you really do need to replace the car, or make some repairs along the way.

I came from the company car world, so was used to new cars. I bought my Volvo S60 at two years old when I left the job it came with and moved to one without, and somehow I've never found the right moment to part with it. (I spent most of my jar on a house move, which had some effect!) I've learned that there's nothing to fear from running a less-than-new car; apart from tyres and routine service items, mine needed nothing until the front pads at 96,000 miles and seven years. A couple of expensive items did wear out, but not until it was past 110,000, but even £2,000 on those was trifling compared to the depreciation on a new car.

My point is that, so long as it still does the job you bought it for, a four-year-old car that's never gone wrong has to be a keeper. Anything else is vanity.

Besides, I don't want anyone snapping up deals on E estates until I've got the one I want, so put your hands back in your pockets, Alex!

Tactless outburst ends.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

This is going to sound tactless to some, so apologies in advance. No offence meant - honestly.

There's some bizarre financial logic in parts of this thread, especially the idea that it's sensible to take on an expensive new finance contract because the value of the present car is 'evaporating to nothing', or because the gap to the price of a new car is increasing. After four years, most of the evaporating of value has already happened, and if you've been making the monthly payments out of income, you can make them to yourself instead and have a jar full of money ready for when you really do need to replace the car, or make some repairs along the way.

I came from the company car world, so was used to new cars. I bought my Volvo S60 at two years old when I left the job it came with and moved to one without, and somehow I've never found the right moment to part with it. (I spent most of my jar on a house move, which had some effect!) I've learned that there's nothing to fear from running a less-than-new car; apart from tyres and routine service items, mine needed nothing until the front pads at 96,000 miles and seven years. A couple of expensive items did wear out, but not until it was past 110,000, but even £2,000 on those was trifling compared to the depreciation on a new car.

My point is that, so long as it still does the job you bought it for, a four-year-old car that's never gone wrong has to be a keeper. Anything else is vanity.

Besides, I don't want anyone snapping up deals on E estates until I've got the one I want, so put your hands back in your pockets, Alex!

Tactless outburst ends.

I don't think other poster's mean that a new car's value evaporate at a slower rater, but that if you actually want a new car it will become harder to justify as the value of the current car gets lower and lower. You even said it yourself: "somehow I've never found the right moment to part with it"

From personal experience, here's why I think that right moment doesn't seem to happen until cicumstances force it to:

As the car's value decreases, the price of a new car (if you want one) increases, and the relative difference increases, making it more difficult to justify.

As the car's absolute value decreases, it's value to you personally becomes greater as you've been it's keeper since new or nearly new, and your perceived value becomes increasingly out-of-synch with market value, making it more difficult to justify.

As the car gets older, it's part-exchange value at a main dealer reduces by more than the market value as they really don't want the hassle and so will offer even less for it, making it even more painful to hear, and making the relative difference to the new car more, making it more difficult to justify.

If you originally had a monthly finance payment on the car, but you go for a period without (or at a lower rate), then you get used to the lower relative cost, making the new car more difficult to justify.

And of course, the longer you've owned it, the more attached you become to it, as you'll have more memories attached to it.

 

[WillDeBeest]

...
As the car's absolute value decreases ...its perceived value becomes increasingly out-of-synch with market value, making it more difficult to justify (a new one)

Agreed, but that 'perceived value' has been expensively acquired in terms of payments made and value lost; it therefore makes sense to enjoy it while it lasts.

...
If you originally had a monthly finance payment on the car, but you go for a period without (or at a lower rate), then you get used to the lower relative cost, making the new car more difficult to justify.

Also true, which is why Alex here has an opportunity to set himself up very nicely. He's evidently prepared to go on making payments by taking on a new car; if he set aside, say, £300 a month over the next two years, he'd have £7,200 to add to the value of his ML. That might drop from £17,000 to, say, £13,000 in the same period, but he'd still be £3,200 closer to a new car than he is today. If he then runs that next car for six years, his overall monthly cost includes the flatter middle-years of the depreciation curve rather than just the steep first three, and all without taking on the risk of a car first used by someone else.

 

[martin_a]

Sometimes re: big bills... better the devil you know....

m.

 

[Aterrasse]

Dear All,

No doubt you are all wondering if I managed to resolve my dilemma about the car.

The response is YES

It is a bit reluctantly that I went to my local MB dealer this morning (running about 1 hour late...) but after two hours of hard talks about figures I managed to strike a sweet deal. The dealer agreed to purchase my ML for £15k and let me have a spanking new E-Estate 220CDI for a nominal deposit. According to my calculations, my saving over the next three years will be around £8,000 (fuel consumption, repayments, road tax, servicing, etc). True, I love my ML, but I like my bank account more.

The car will be delivered on 25 May but since my contract finishes on 16 May, a courtesy car will be supplied free of charge in the interim. What can I say...

I would like to thank you all for your very precious advice in this, especially Rob (Bobby Dazzler) and gIzzE who have been very supportive and hugely informative in their comments.

Thanks

Alex

 

[A210AMG]

I would be interested to hear what you get MPG out of the 220

I was looking at the executive SE estates in 220 form... 50 plus mpg claim I would like that

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Sounds like a good result - well done.

We're probably off looking at MLs tomorrow...