Hey all, was wondering if anyone could advise or steer me in the direction of a nice motor to buy.
Havnt owned a Mercedes before but think its time i did. I have a budget of £5500 - £6000 so will obviously be looking at older models.
This is a fair bit of money for me personally so was hoping to find something special that is first of all reliable but also going to hold its value a bit. Im not a massive commuter, maybe 10 miles to the office twice a week but i mainly work at home.
After a fair bit of research i landed on a 2009 C320 CDI coming in around that price and with under 100k on the clock. was pretty excited to go test drive and potentially buy.
After speaking with a couple of mechanics they say the the 7G tipTronic gearbox can give horrific bother (in their experience) which has kind of sent the willies up me because I didnt come across many horror stories in my research.
Another petrolhead friend of mine was just that, said make sure to get a manual petrol. So im basically at a loss as to what I should be looking out for. Should i look at the C280? or are there any good manual and petrol models for my budget?
Any and all advice is greatly appreciated at this point.
Also I live in Northern Ireland so prices are slightly higher here but I wouldnt rule out motors across the water as long as i can factor in £500 to get it home!
Since you say you are looking for something a bit special , rather than looking at unloved 10 or so year old cars , I would suggest looking at some of the classic models .
Look up the Mercedes W124 series - your budget should buy you a nice one and they belong to the era when Mercedes were built up to a standard and not down to a price . A well maintained W124 will be totally reliable and will turn heads in a way newer cars won’t . They were available as saloons , coupes , estates or convertibles ( although the last may be out of budget ) .
You may also just find the previous generation W123 in budget , but prices for good ones are climbing . These are very solidly made cars , if you buy a good one it will appreciate in value .
Both of the above are the mid range predecessors to the E Class with bulletproof mechanicals , you have to check the bodywork for rust , but there are good ones out there .
If you want smaller , look to the 190 series - predecessor to the C Class , and arguably the best engineered , again you would get a very nice one within budget ; they are very reliable and easy to maintain.
If you want bigger , look at the S Class , either W126 or W140 series ; running costs for these larger cars are higher but you can’t beat them for comfort and safety . You will easily find a good W140 in budget , but need to look harder to find a good W126 , and you need to check the bodywork carefully on these older cars , again prices are on the rise so a good one will be a sound investment as well as a nice drive .
All of these earlier cars have reliable petrol engines , and reliable Diesel engines which will do high mileages without trouble , and without all the woes of the modem CDI engines such as ‘black death’ swirl flap or DPF failure etc - because they have none of these things . The automat
