W210: Inside Track on reliability, costs, etc

[grahamf505]

I'm very tempted to buy what seems like a very nice W210 Elegance Estate, registered June 2002. Its a one owner car, FMBSH, 7 seats, cloth interior, 6CD, etc, done about 50K miles and has the 2.6 V6 petrol engine (I'm still confused as to why its called a 240 and yet has the 2.6 engine). Asking price from MB Direct was £15,500, but they'll let me have it for £13,500 after a relatively easy bit of haggling on price. Car comes with 12 months MoT and 12 months warranty from MB Direct.

It seems a pretty good deal to me, but am wondering if there is anything to watch out for that could be unusually expensive or fails prematurely that needs big money to rectify. I shall be doing circa 20,000 miles a year, I'm not too worried about fuel economy as most of that will be company milage for which I get a rate of 40ppm.

After cutting my Mercedes teeth on my W123 and although despite having one or two reliability problems, nothing else compares with a big Merc in my book.

Any comments or thoughts welcome on the above....

Graham

 

[mickeymacs]

W210's can have rust problems, check out the bodywork forum. Mine has spidery patterns and spots of rust breaking through the paintwork in half a dozen places, some seem to be much worse. However, as long as you stick with MB servicing, any serious rust is covered by guarantee, though reading this forum suggests mixed results when trying to get problems rectified. Haven't got round to my dealer yet...

Electrics on mine are also less than perfect, but its still a great long distance express, especially on less crowded European motorways.

 

[GregE240]

Graham,

Nice car....

2 things:

1) Have you checked for rust? You need to check boot lid, wheel arches, under ALL door rubbers, and the front of the car meticulously. If there is rust on the car then MB *may* pay for it to be sorted, but search previous posts on here and the quality of the repair varies enormously.

2) Mechanically wise my 240 has been solid as. I'm just approaching 150K, and the only major thing engine wise I've had replaced is the Mass Airflow Sensor (MAS). From MB the part is over £200, but they come up on e-bay for around 60-100.

Also, the harmonic balancer in the engine has been known to throw a 7 - I think Steve (Perry) had a problem with this in his C240?

Other than that, the only other thing that comes to mind is dicky plug leads, again, not cheap to fix.

Have you driven it?

Ah...one other thing - spark plugs! It has 50K on the clock - which means new plugs time. Its a "twin spark" engine, so theres 12 plugs under the bonnet, and changing them is a £200 dealer job so I'd either get them changed as part of the deal, or check the service history and make sure it has already been done....

Any other questions, please ask!

Cheers,
Greg

PS - economy I get around 26-28mpg, mix of village/motorway.

 

[Lazarus]

Its a "twin spark" engine, so theres 16 plugs under the bonnet

Surely you mean 12 plugs?

Laz
--

 

[GregE240]

Surely you mean 12 plugs?

Laz
--

Sorry - thinking of my other car......

Duly edited.

 

[grahamf505]

Merc W210 E240 Estate

Thanks guys,

Yes I've driven it and it seems pretty good. I tell you what though, if I shut my eyes, apart from the two inches of play in my steering box and springy seats in my W123, the ride quility is no different! Thats either because my 123 is so good, or its just the Merc blood-line running through generations of E Classes!

You won't like me saying this, but my good old Peugeot 505 Estate has a better ride and more comfortable seats than the W210 in my opinion, but this is where old Peugeots always excelled. I get zero body roll and very compliant suspension that just absorbs bumps. Trouble is, it is now old and its a normally aspirated diesel and its very noisy at speed.

The W210 has just recently had its "B Service" so hopefully its had the plugs changed. It has had one or two stone chips on the bonnet that have been touched up, but I will double check other areas as suggested before I hand my money over this Friday.

If I can get a good 100,000 miles out of it over the next 5 years without spending too much money on servicing, then I'll be happy. I'll be doing weekly trips across to Ipswich from Coventry so its the right car for these sort of trips.

I'm wondering what the corrosion problem is. Thought these bodies would be galvonised.....but maybe not.

Fuel consumption doesn't sound too bad. I get about 25 mpg from my 123, so if I get roughly the same thats OK.

Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and buy it, as I'm afraid I've got the bug and it does seem to be a fair price.

 

[Piff]

Check the bodywork very carefully for rust. Sorting it out, even if covered by mobilo life, can take months.
It seems that some of the repairs currently being carried out under "good will" (warranty) are of a dubious nature.
My W Reg E320CDi was taken back by the supplying main dealer earlier this year after several respray attempts (spraying over rust, overspray, colour mismatches, damage to other paintwork whilst in their care) - full refund received.
They thought my standards/expectations were too high for a 5 year old car even though it had cost me £18,000.

 

[mickeymacs]

checkout

http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=16027