Should I get a warranty on a 1991 500SE

[Roygarth]

Have bought car from marque specialist Prestige Motor Company in Banbury, picking it up later this week.

They offer the Gold 'Customer Protect' Mechanical Breakdown Warranty from AutoProtect in Harlow. 2 years cost £550.

Car is in very good condition with full service history and has done 97K miles.

I've never bought a warranty before, self insured I suppose, what do you guys reckon?

Thanks
Piers

 

[d w124]

Is it a w126 or w140?

 

[Gawdi]

You need to look at the exclusions - realistically would you insure a car with 97k on the clock? £550 doesnt go far to sort out a merc and these companies need to make a profit!!

If I was u, I'd pay 1/2 the £550 to a really good motor engineer who knows his stuff to really examine the car...

 

[EDZ649]

What you need to look at is what is covers, ususally major componement failure (Failure being the operative word) not wear and tear and also find out what each claim limit is and how many you can make without being penalised.

Most aftermarket warranties usually have a limit of £1000 per claim but there are some who offer unlimited, however, I doubt yours will due to age and mileage.

I have made a couple of claims on AutoProtect warranties and they were hassle free but others may have had different experiences.

 

[MPG]

That's a nice looking W126 500SE. For that price I'd expect it to be pristine. i.e there should be no rust on the wings (fronts are a known weakness), all bumper chromes should be intact, window brightwork should shine (once it looses the shine it's useless as it's anodised aluminium & not chrome), no white smoke in the exhaust (points to worn valve guide oil seals), no electrical gremlins (although frequently this is nothing more than corrosion on the fuses). If you search through the W126 thread's you'll find good information on what to look out for. Enjoy the ownership experience, the W126 is a beautifully put together car.

 

[Roygarth]

is it a w126 or w140?

w126

 

[lynall]

I have never bought a warranty or extended insurance on anything before ever, but so far my car has mainly been consumables etc but now gearbox playing up poss just converter but maybe as far as new box and converter and thats over £1500 so maybe a warranty would have made sense, also dont foregt servicing etc which is either time of mileage limited for the warranty to be valid.

I would do some googling, iirc 500 v8 pretty well made not sure on the gearbox, plus if you arent doing serious miles the money may be better kept for running costs.

I mean its an old car and stuff will go wrong but theres probably loads of reasonably priced spares out there.



Lynall

 

[d w124]

w126

Is not much to go wrong on the w126.

 

[grober]

I doubt any warranty on a W126 that costs £225 per year is going to cover much? Trouble with these warranties is getting to see all the "fine print" before you put the money down and receive the warranty documents-- then you see all the exclusions/limits to claims etc etc There have been quite few posts on this lately- might be worth checking other policies available on the market- the garage will receive a small commission on the particular policy they are offering I would imagine

 

[219]

My 500SEL has been completely reliable , having covered 16,000 miles since I got it 10 months ago : my car came with a reasonably decent service history ( MBSH up to 100K , then indy servicing to 10K before I bought it ) showing it had been looked after . I now look after the car myself .

As long as the car has been serviced , there ought not to be any major surprises , these cars were very robustly engineered and , if anything was going to break it would have broken long before now . There are people breaking rusty examples of these cars , so replacement parts need not be a huge worry - even an engine can be bought for a few hundred if the worst happened ( very unlikely though ) .

One thing worth checking is the air-con , if fitted . This would have been an old R12 system and should have been converted to R134a for continued use . This is the one item that was neglected on my car ( and , I admit , something that I have yet to attend to ) .

 

[Sorry Pete]

window brightwork should shine (once it looses the shine it's useless as it's anodised aluminium & not chrome),

I've just been on detailingworld.co.uk, where the guys take bodywork cleanliness to extreme levels. Anyway, I thought this might be a nice thread to look at re: cleaning aluminium.

Two products were recommended, in post 4, 'Alubright' and post 6, 'Autosol Anodised Aluminium Polish'. I personally haven't used either product, and can't vouch for them, but thought someone might be interested in them here.