Used C-Class Petrol Choice

[Midlands1]

Hi all

Brand new to this forum and am excited to to soon purchase my first Mercedes.

Am looking for a c class estate, petrol as my miles are 6k per year, local with some motorway jaunts littered through the year for work and family trips.

Appreciate there is not much choice, especially as I’d prefer silver or grey! Am torn between age or mileage and not sure if manual is better than auto too. Am worried about making the wrong choice! Would be looking to keep the car for at least 5 or 6 years.

The 2 on autotrader I’m looking at are linked below, any thoughts or advice gladly received ?

Auto Trader UK - New and Used Cars For Sale

Find your next car with Auto Trader UK, the official #1 site to buy and sell new and used cars. Over 400,000 cars online. Simple, easy, quick!

www.autotrader.co.uk

Auto Trader UK - New and Used Cars For Sale

Find your next car with Auto Trader UK, the official #1 site to buy and sell new and used cars. Over 400,000 cars online. Simple, easy, quick!

www.autotrader.co.uk

 

[Petrol Pete]

Hello and welcome . Depending on how you want to drive it don't fall for the sales pitch that the 'AMG line' is worth the extra money. It's not an AMG , never will be . The (generally) bigger wheels and stiffer suspension might not suit you. It seems you have a decent budget available to you.

My own C class ownership experience is with a much older model (than you are looking at) fitted with a 5.4 litre V8 petrol engine. So I can't add much.

Someone will be along soon to give advice (probably telling you to go for an E class instead ).

 

[SpikyMikey]

Welcome!
No idea if the same applies to the newer C Class, but on the previous generation, the manual gearbox was reputed to be a fairly agricultural piece of kit. In fact manuals were pretty rare. Personally I'd go for an auto, but I'm getting lazy in my old age!

 

[Wearsthefoxhat]

Hi and welcome. I would suggest driving both an auto and a manual to see which suites you best, then, imho look for an auto..
then I would as already hinted by Pete above, drive a C class then an E class….

so now you ll be looking for an auto E class estate, a “wagon“ in Mercedes model lingo.

Above all I would be more concerned with the service history of the car, they are built to be used so high miles shouldn’t be too much of a problem if looked after property. Mercedes main dealer history is, again in mho certainly no worse than any respected Independent Mercedes garage. One with some nice useful options as well… then enjoy it…

of the two you have posted, the second one, but with leather would be a good starting point, but again just me.. there may well be a good owner on here with something.

 

[190]

Poor Mercedes will never live down it's reputation for an agricultural manual gear change but that view is a generations out of date. In reality this hasn't been true for a very long time. I can recall driving a manual 190e 30+ years back and the gearchange wasn't great. Fast forward 30 years and I've been driving a 2009 manual for 8 years and the gearchange is as good or better than any other manual car I've driven recently. The only criticism I'd make is not about the gearchange quality but the choice of 1st gear ratio being too low. That's a trait that Mercedes has had for as long as I can remember, including on the auto boxes where it effectively robs the car of a gear because it's so very rarely used. Overall though there is no reason to avoid a manual if that's what you want.

 

[markjay]

For info:

The 4-cyl petrol W205 had the 2.0L M274 Turbocharged engine up to the 2018 facelift, and the 1.5L M264 EQ 'mild Hybrid' Turbocharged engine after that.

Both cars in the adverts are the pre-facelift model.

 

[Midlands1]

Thanks all for the welcome and the advice. I’m not adverse to a manual, suppose I was wary of the what seems an unfair reputation!

The sports version has a full history but needs new pads & discs all round as well as new front tyres so I guess the previous owner did not want to spend the money before moving it on. Have not got the service info on the amg line one yet.

I had saved so I could up my budget so that I could just afford the newer style (w205) and was thinking sub 100k miles which is why I had short listed these 2.

I’ll book in test drives for the weekend.

 

[tonysmb]

In my experience of manual MBs, later ones are much better than those of years ago and are perfectly acceptable. The only issue I have is that I preferred them with a proper handbrake, not foot-operated (not applicable here) or electric parking brakes. I know that they have brake-hold but I don't use that, nor do I like it, but that's purely personal.

With regard to spec., I would check whether leather is 'genuine' leather or the plastic 'Artico' leather: too many sales people, including MB-dealer ones, try to pass off 'faux' as genuine, though it may or may not be of concern to you.

 

[SmartAmg]

Welcome.

 

[Bortig]

Welcome.

 

[markjay]

If you're OK with manual transmission, then you're in luck - on the C-Class, they are so undesirable that you'll bag a very good deal on one! Of course, you'll get less for the car when you sell it, but if you intend to keep it for a number if years, then the gain is all yours

 

[Bortig]

Hello and welcome . Depending on how you want to drive it don't fall for the sales pitch that the 'AMG line' is worth the extra money. It's not an AMG , never will be . The (generally) bigger wheels and stiffer suspension might not suit you. It seems you have a decent budget available to you.

My own C class ownership experience is with a much older model (than you are looking at) fitted with a 5.4 litre V8 petrol engine. So I can't add much.

Someone will be along soon to give advice (probably telling you to go for an E class instead ).

I would agree, the amg line is nice with some extra luxuries but it's a Mercedes first and not an AMG, as mentioned it really seems to be a sales ploy, but as long as you know that and want some other bits and bobs then go for it but standard is still good in my opinion.

 

[DITTRICH]

Hi Midlands1,
In late 2019, Iwas sort of in the same position as you and ended up buying a used s205 2016 C200SE petrol estate with 154k miles - an ex lease company car (It was a Road Chef car and had spent its time doing motorway miles). I still have it. There are things that I miss from my old w202 C230k saloon which had heated mirrors, but the garmin satnav built in, and the semi electric seats are an improvement. I have tosay, I don't like the line of levers to control fan, a/c, temperature etc as they are all the same and in my old car the levers/dials/buttons were all distinct. Automatic is the way to go, especially as the steering wheel paddles allow you to change when you want to. I also miss the size of my old s124 E300D diesel estate. However, all things considered, the W205 C200SE still gets good mileage in spite of it being a petrol (more than either the C230k or the E300D). That's 20+ years of car evolution for you. Don't be afraid of higher mileage ex lease cars. That's my 2c. Good luck choosing.

 

[Midlands1]

Thanks for all the advice so far. I’m keen for an auto but you do always hear about the cost of repairs being higher then a manual gearbox but I’m assuming they are more robust and reliable than feared!

The 100k mileage barrier also causes a mental block, I’m drawn towards a 2017 auto with full service history and 120k on the clock but worry it will be worn out and I’d be inheriting problems.

 

[Midlands1]

Clicked on “done” to post it before I’d finished! . Anyways, the auto i was looking at has too many red flags in terms of condition (a few scrapes and scuffs including on the door edges and need new pads, disks and front tyres) so that’s a no. Still musing over the manual so will keep waiting for something else to come up - the Mrs suggested a 3 series

 

[SmartAmg]

the Mrs suggested a 3 series

Mmm, Divorce?

 

[DITTRICH]

Thanks for all the advice so far. I’m keen for an auto but you do always hear about the cost of repairs being higher then a manual gearbox but I’m assuming they are more robust and reliable than feared!

The 100k mileage barrier also causes a mental block, I’m drawn towards a 2017 auto with full service history and 120k on the clock but worry it will be worn out and I’d be inheriting problems.

1 owner ex lease cars will always have been maintained no matter how much mileage they have done. If it isn't in the service history, it wasn't done. The first thing I did when I had my car serviced was get the automatic transmission fluid changed as it wasn't noted on the electronic service record. The next year I changed all the tyres and bought myself a full size spare. This year, on 180k-ish miles, I replaced the original battery which lasted 7 years. I also had a Nox sensor message, so that was changed. Luckily the petrol C200se doesn't have the complicated diesel sensors and heating elements. Next year it will be spark plugs. Then maybe discs and pads but seeing as I am very careful with the use of the brake, I expect that they will last longer.
When I was buying, I was paranoid about some of the earlier petrol engines which seemed to have problems (timing chains, balance shafts etc), but the 2 litre M274 engine I have seems OK. When I bought the car, I reasoned that if anything mechanical was going to go wrong on a 1 owner ex lease car, it would have happened by the 154k miles on it when I bought it. Yes my car did have the small dings one would expect on a motorway driven company car, but it wasn't anything big to worry about.
Good luck with your search.

 

[BigJase88]

Just to throw a spanner in the works i think the Merc 7G Tronic auto box is agricultural