> Jon,
>
> I am thinking of purchasing my neighbor's car, and before they put it in
the
> paper, I wanted to appease my curiosity. The car was considered her
company
> car and, therefor, has approximately 230K miles (basically all highway).
> The car is in very good condition, inside and out. After reviewing
her
> service records it seems as if every imaginable item has been maintained,
> repaired or replaced as it should.
>
> I have two concerns: mileage and repair costs. As for the
mileage, I was
> wondering, on average, how many miles the engine will last before needing
to
> be rebuilt? The transmission was replaced two months ago after a the
car
> was towed backwards, the timing belt and the water pump have been replaced
> in the last year or two, the A/C was replaced two years ago, and all other
> normal maintenance items have been taken care of on a regular basis. Since
> my husband will most likely act as my mechanic for most repair and
> maintenance items, I wanted to know the cost and availability of parts and
> tools as compared to other cars in general.
>
> Is there anything in particular I should have checked or will a typical
100+
> point inspection be fine? Can you recommend any places in the San
Jose,
CA
> area? Also, my husband is a mechanic at heart, but has no experience
with
> Mercedes-Benz. He mentioned having a "leak-down" test performed -
what are
> your thoughts?
>
> Thank you for your help.
>
> Kristine
 | Thanks for the email. I have read your emails and have tried to get back
to you but it gets so late so fast. You should always be prepared to spent a little on a used Mercedes. Some people expect to spend a little and then spend themselves to death and sell the car. It sounds to me that the car has been taken care of so far. It sounds to me that if the compression checks out ok, and you had a pre-purchase inspection done, with the findings being good that you should be ok with this car. I would go to www.edmunds.com and www.kbb.com to make sure you are not paying too much. Be prepared to spend between 500 and 1000 in the next few months. Once you have gotten over the initial faze of spending it should be ok for a while. I have customers with over 350k on there 300e's. I would consider finding on with lower miles also, but if this car is a one or two owner car, with all the records since new, new a/c and the rest, it sounds to me that you should buy it. I would think that a 1988 300E with those miles is worth between 4 and 5 thousand. JON |
