Looking for W211 E320CDI came across these interesting cars

[Stocho]

1. Very cheap. Probably one of the first Facelift. Very good price. Really fully loaded. Broken fog light, broken interior feature (compartment between seats), the fact that has been on sale at rock bottom price indicate that probaly there are other problems with the car so hesitant to travel for 30 miles and almost 1 hour each way....

Mercedes-Benz E Class 3.0CDI E320 CDI Avantgarde 4dr 7G-Tronic


2. Grey colour. Silver is OK for something like Ford Modeo or VW Golf but just so boring for E-class Mercedes... Unfortunately it is hard to find W211 in colour other than silver. Here we have grey colour. Again too long away, moonlight dealer with spelling mistakes so hesitant to go and see it...
Mercedes-Benz E Class 3.0CDI E320 CDI Sport 4dr 7G-Tronic

 

[guydewdney]

1st one not that loaded. No airmatic. No distronic. No cooled seats. Broken lever on the armrest is very very common, but is 80 quid from merc. I just glued mine back on with araldite. Heated steering wheel?

2nd, similar, no electric seats? Far too much silicone spray used to shiney it up inside. Yuk. Nice colour and wheels tho'

 

[Stocho]

1st one not that loaded. No airmatic. No distronic. No cooled seats. Broken lever on the armrest is very very common, but is 80 quid from merc. I just glued mine back on with araldite. Heated steering wheel?

Yes,given the price repairing that lever and the fog light is not a problem. But often such things show overall state of the car. Have been in similar situations and while the very major and clearly wrong things can usually be fixed not too expensively you look all over the car and it looks like it has totally been neglected / used to carry rubbish / barbed wire etc. So you realise that even if you fix the major things it is still not the car you want.

As far as features are concerned most cars on Autotrader have no extra features yet are described as "Fully Loaded". Airmatic - I thought absence of Airmatic (and SBC) is one of the appeals of the facelift as airmatic tends to go wrong and is very expensive to fix compared to springs and shock absorbers. Is it actually a reliable and desirable feature?

 

[Stocho]

Actually for the second car noticed:

"FULL MERCEDES AND SPECIALIST HISTORY, 6 MERCEDES AND 1 SPECIALIST STAMPS IN THE BOOK, SERVICES AT 15K, 30K, 46K, 55K, 88K, 103K AND LAST SERVICE AT 119K"

Is 33K miles between services (55K-88K) far too long? Could it have imapred the car to the extent that it seems OK now but is much more likely to fail in the future?

 

[guydewdney]

With that argument, get a poverty spec one as theres less to go wrong..... lol.

 

[mannikon]

I think these two have been on sale a while, certainly the first one has already been discussed on this forum.
Agree about silver, they're both nice colours. They are both facelift if that's what you want (personally I'm a fan of Airmatic and SBC and factored in money to put aside in case they need repairs on mine).
The first one in black has three good options (the so-called options listed are mostly standard items!): passenger memory seat, panoramic roof and trhough loading. The through loading on mine made me buy instead of going for an estate, not just "folding rear seats", the seats fold completely flat (long as you take care) and in two parts so you can still have one rear left for a passenger and also you should be able to fold the fron passenger seat flat also making it capable of taking a very long load.
However, I think both cars have high mileage, you should be able to find similar and better W211s with much lower mileage.

 

[Stocho]

I think these two have been on sale a while, certainly the first one has already been discussed on this forum.
Agree about silver, they're both nice colours. They are both facelift if that's what you want (personally I'm a fan of Airmatic and SBC and factored in money to put aside in case they need repairs on mine).
The first one in black has three good options (the so-called options listed are mostly standard items!): passenger memory seat, panoramic roof and trhough loading. The through loading on mine made me buy instead of going for an estate, not just "folding rear seats", the seats fold completely flat (long as you take care) and in two parts so you can still have one rear left for a passenger and also you should be able to fold the fron passenger seat flat also making it capable of taking a very long load.
However, I think both cars have high mileage, you should be able to find similar and better W211s with much lower mileage.

The first one has oil leak as advisory on MOT... May be it was fixed may be it is minor but as far as I am concerned another reason not to spend half a day to view it... even though the price and the features it has are tempting - does have at least some features as most cars on sale have none (yet "loaded"). Though if Memory seats are just on passenger seat and not on the driver's seat then obviously a lot less attractive as I assumed if it is on passengers it is surely on driver's as well...



Finding a good, high spec (and I am not talking distronics and airmatic just memory seats, folding rear seats, heated seats, heated washer), facelift W211 E320CDI, grey or black but not silver is not easy at all.

 

[mannikon]

To clarify, if it has passenger memory seat it would have driver's also. Seen lots with driver only which is a shame (passenger will always have electric control but memory is a useful option).