W212 Opinions wanted for Taxi use

[Someonesname]

Hi everyone,

I am interested in purchasing an automatic W212 facelift 220 / 250 diesel Estate as a Taxi and for personal use.
I have a few questions that I would really appreciate some opinions on. I currently drive a 2017 Skoda superb with a 7 speed dry clutch DSG gearbox.
I am very mechanically sympathetic and ensure my cars are regularly serviced and well maintained.

Firstly, I would like to know how reliable the 5G and 7G transmissions are. The DSG in my own car doesn’t seem to be well suited for my type of work driving (80% town, stop / start style driving)
I had to replace the DMF at 64k miles and currently am experiencing wear on one of the clutches at 74k miles resulting in slippage on gears 1,3,5 and 7. Even finding someone who has the expensive equipment to replace the dsg clutches is quite difficult and expensive. If I was driving big miles on motorways I’m sure these issues wouldn’t be as prominent but I do around 30k miles a year, majority if which in town / city.
I would rather have reliability instead of refinement for my type of usage.

Secondly, are there any engine, DPF, EGR injector etc issues to know about ( other than common cross make issues ) ?

Judging by current pricing I would be looking at buying a car with around 50-60k miles on it and would plan on keeping it for 4-5 years so mileage will probably be well over 200,000 by then.

Any info would be great.
Thanks

 

[Monkeylegend]

I ran my own Chauffeur business for 15 years and had 3 E220's all with the 5g box.

2003 car that did 312k miles with no significant issues.

2007 car that also did 312k miles with no significant issues.

2011 car, which I kept when I retired, now on 318k miles, again with no significant issues.

All serviced properly by Mercedes. They changed the injectors on the 2011 car under warranty recall, the initial cars had the well documented injector issue, although mine had done 80k miles with no problems before they were changed.

Other than that the water pump was changed at 220k miles, a known weakness but cheap to replace, and early this year I had a replacement alternator at 315k miles which cost £194 plus fitting. It still does over 50mpg on a run and needs no oil between services.

Get a properly serviced car and buy with confidence. There are millions being used as PH vehicles worldwide and it is not because they keep breaking down

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Two thoughts come to mind.

The E class is used right around the world as the premium private hire car of choice. An unbelievable 250,000 of these cars are sold consistently every year, decade after decade.

Look around the short-term car parks of LHR and you’ll see plenty of these cars. Check the online MoT histories and you’ll see plenty which have solid six figure mileages. Sit in one at speed and you’ll see them doing their job quietly, effectively and looking pretty much as new. Scan autotrader and you’ll see high mileage cars still looking pretty much as new.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

As far as I’m aware all facelift W212’s diesels have the 7 speed gearbox.

 

[Monkeylegend]

As far as I’m aware all facelift W212’s diesels have the 7 speed gearbox.

Mine was registered in February 2011 and was one of the last with the 5g box.

 

[markjay]

The 5g box is near bulletproof, though some do suffer from leaking pilot bush (electrical connector).

The 7g has bo particular issues either, but they are more expensive to fix is anything goes wrong.