Mercedes Benz E Class E240 W211 2004 - Is it a good car ??

Rukshan W · October 12, 2021

Hey Guys,

I'm after a Merc E240 /2004, this will be my 1st Merc and wanted to check pros and cons before deciding.. Have played with Subaru and Audi already, so though of moving on to a Merc😄.

* Any common issues I need to worry about (Say a car with 140K on the clock)

* Availability of spares in SL

* Place to check the full thing before buying (Full report..)

* Other Pros and Cons..

Appreciate any feedback on above guys...

Thanks ..

Gummybr · October 12, 2021

7 hours ago, Rukshan W said:

Hey Guys,

I'm after a Merc E240 /2004, this will be my 1st Merc and wanted to check pros and cons before deciding.. Have played with Subaru and Audi already, so though of moving on to a Merc😄.

* Any common issues I need to worry about (Say a car with 140K on the clock)

* Availability of spares in SL

* Place to check the full thing before buying (Full report..)

* Other Pros and Cons..

Appreciate any feedback on above guys...

Thanks ..

Well its a nice car, since you have had experience with an Audi you may not feel its very expensive to maintain like others may say.

Common issues - I would say you got pay a bit of attention to the interior as the plastic surfaces may become sticky and you will see a lot of small small parts missing and specially the power shutter and power mirror switches would be faded. There was an issue with the ABS system which was common to the W211. Check on Supercharger. Be ready do some seat covers.

Spares - D*MO will have most parts as Mercedes still manufacture parts, if you want OEM you maybe able to get from the other specialist MB shops around Colombo.

Check Up - I would recommend D*MO to do a thorough check up and you can also get an estimate for the work that needs to be done which would be beneficial. Other places will also be able to give a report but you wont be able to get an estimate.

Its a nice car, but I would prefer the E200 over the E240, drove one to Jaffna and back, must say its very comfortable and was a good drive. Fuel economy I got round 10kmpl on that trip and it was a 240 if I remember correct. Some came loaded (Panoramic sunroof with solar panels to keep the interior cool, both side memory, Rear Seat Entertainment, Push Button Start on the gear lever, CD Changer etc). These were much quieter than the later generation cars with the Turbo engines when in idle.

Cons - Dont expect it to be sporty. It has that majestic Pappa look so depends on how you look at it.

Hope this helps.

Rukshan W · October 31, 2021

Thanks a million B for your lengthy explanation.. 😀

k9master · February 12, 2022

Hi Rukshan W,

Did you find a good car?

@Gummybr has covered pretty much everything.

I've got a 2006 E200 Kompressor (Facelift) for sometime and it's been largely trouble free journey. Also have driven an E240 on an off so I can compare between the two.

E200K has a 4 cylinder 1.8L engine with a supercharger where as E240 is a 2.6L V6. If you manage to find an E200K manufactured in 2006 or after (a tad rare in SL) you'd have more power 184BHP opposed to 177BHP in E240 and the E200 has the weight advantage as well. On the other hand E240 sings when revved. All this said, it's by no means sporty. A luxury barge that allows your to overtake with relative ease is what it is.

Overall, both are good cars and tech and features are quite similar. If / when you call sellers, try and get the VIN over the phone and run it through mb.vin : VIN Decoder for Mercedes-Benz for a full list of features, original destination post manufacture, climatizations etc. Cars imported by D*MO get a suspension tuned for better ride height, a beefed up AC system to coup up with our temperatures and a few other extras that suits us.

There's not a lot of a difference between tech features across these models at least from the lot that was imported to Sri Lanka. I'm yet to come across any E Class from that era with Keyless go, Distronic etc. But I've seen cars with Electric seats with memory, Sunroof, quad zone climate control, Harman Kardon sound system etc. Stock Infiniti sound system is more than perfect though, and well tuned for the interior of the car.

Needless to mention to look for full service records. These can go really wrong really fast if not properly maintained. I only have experience with D*MO which is not as expensive as the popular belief but I've got to know that there are a few competent shops that can look after Mercs well (Ar*v*nda M*t*rs etc.)

On 10/12/2021 at 2:33 PM, Gummybr said:

Common issues - I would say you got pay a bit of attention to the interior as the plastic surfaces may become sticky and you will see a lot of small small parts missing and specially the power shutter and power mirror switches would be faded. There was an issue with the ABS system which was common to the W211. Check on Supercharger. Be ready do some seat covers.

Power shutters, mirrors and seat controls are fine though they are not of the best quality. But the biggest issues I've seen are with AC vents, Climate Control Unit and under-seat plastics. These are absolutely horrible and tend to break away to the touch (depending on how much sun exposure they've had). Rest of the interior is trouble free, leather, wood and metal pieces (of which there are plenty) are fine and solid, seats are very comfortable and looks good in the long run if the leather is moisturized periodically and maintained.

Pre-2005 cars had a different brake by wire system that ties to ABS / ESC which was quite troublesome. I think most of the cars imported by the agent had the problematic parts replaced by D*MO. If it's an automatic it's also best to get a feel of gear changes in the 722.5 gearbox and see if it's in a good condition. However I heard that these could be repaired / restored relatively inexpensively in SL.

Good luck in your search.