Your Advise On Buying Used Mercedes.. Cost?

[shyamnrcb]

Hi Friends,

Am looking to buy a used Mercedes -E320/230 or C240/220, reasonable mileage and good quality of 1997/1998. Any advise? Cost? In general which model is better: box front (202020 chassis as in E220) or double lamp (21XXXX chassis, models above?) How easy/difficult is it to sell after say 2-3 years and depreciation? Your advise would be of great help...Thanks

[gunat]

IMO, a Merc is a Merc is a Merc- but only the cars made before 2000; the new ones tend to be a little more troublesome.

Otherwise, all very solid cars, especially the W124 (E series from 80's/90's) and the W202 (C class from the 90's). Not sure if you'll find the engine types you've mentioned in SL, but there's enough E200's running around, and quite a few E200d/E250d and the rare E300d. Most of the C's that were brought to SL were the 1.8l engine, with a few 2l's and a couple of C250d's. A rare find would be a C with an AMG body kit.

Suggest avoiding the W124 made in India, while its still a workhorse, the build quality was dubious. Merc engines are troopers- but like any other car, only if you maintain them correctly.

[shyamnrcb]

IMO, a Merc is a Merc is a Merc- but only the cars made before 2000; the new ones tend to be a little more troublesome.

Otherwise, all very solid cars, especially the W124 (E series from 80's/90's) and the W202 (C class from the 90's). Not sure if you'll find the engine types you've mentioned in SL, but there's enough E200's running around, and quite a few E200d/E250d and the rare E300d. Most of the C's that were brought to SL were the 1.8l engine, with a few 2l's and a couple of C250d's. A rare find would be a C with an AMG body kit.

Suggest avoiding the W124 made in India, while its still a workhorse, the build quality was dubious. Merc engines are troopers- but like any other car, only if you maintain them correctly.

Thanks for that information. Could anyone please put a price on the purchase value and its resale 2-3 years hence.

[milindu]

Thanks for that information. Could anyone please put a price on the purchase value and its resale 2-3 years hence.

Whats your budget range?

The Round Light E-Class (W210) goes from 3.5million up to around 7 million. Any of these cars are quite difficult to sell and expensive to maintain. The E200 is very sluggish. The 200 Komressor, 230/240 or the 220CDi are quite nice to drive.

We had an Indian E220 which was fine when we sold it with 80k on the clock. How they would be after all these years of runnning, its hard to say. Ours went a good 4 years back at 18/75.

We discussed about all these models in an earlier thread if you can search.

[Parak]

Hi Friends,

Am looking to buy a used Mercedes -E320/230 or C240/220, reasonable mileage and good quality of 1997/1998. Any advise? Cost? In general which model is better: box front (202020 chassis as in E220) or double lamp (21XXXX chassis, models above?) How easy/difficult is it to sell after say 2-3 years and depreciation? Your advise would be of great help...Thanks

Hi there, I saw a 1998 C240 with 98000km selling around 1.3million in New Zealand. The price range is 0.9-1.3 overseas. Just add up taxes etc to get a rough estimate. If any body importing second hands from Europe would be cheaper than that. I do not know the freight cost and taxes. Would this be helpful

[The Don]

Hi there, I saw a 1998 C240 with 98000km selling around 1.3million in New Zealand. The price range is 0.9-1.3 overseas. Just add up taxes etc to get a rough estimate. If any body importing second hands from Europe would be cheaper than that. I do not know the freight cost and taxes. Would this be helpful

Ah Now I understand why you were talking about Holden's etc in Zul's thread cos you are either in NZ or in Aussie,

sad to say man the foreign car prices hold no relevance to SL at all because for some biazzare reason old cars appreciate in SL !!

Also cars older than 3 years cannot be brought in without special arrangements.

Sri Lanka also has a duty structure that taxes cars exponentially relative to the engine displacement, as well as original market value and not the current market value on import !

The tropical weather conditions also mean that cars not meant for the Sri Lankan market fare badly when running in our country, so generally speaking European imports do not work in SL as well as the brand new imports by the dealers,

so one has to take in to consideration all these aspects, and sadly so ........