Noooooooooo, not that kind. This kind...


Front Right Corner by kpkina, on Flickr

2001 ML320. First Mercedes I've ever owned.

My beloved 4Runner digested itself a couple weeks back (blown engine, cooked catalytic converter, leaky manifolds, more) and would have taken some $12,000 to get back on the road. Sold it as is.

I'm hoping the Merc goes at least a couple years without major problems. I know they're expensive to fix when they do break, so keeping my fingers crossed.

Does the engine ignite on its own?

^Only when it's inside a garage.

Haha!

No mercedes experience here. Hope it serves you well.

You got me.

Beware of the...

Uncommanded
Driving

The conspiracy is real

Congrats, long time MB fan here. I've had 3 [C-Class, S-Class and a pre E-Class], my grandmother had 7 between 1989 & 2017. All S-Class.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Beware of the...

Uncommanded
Driving

The conspiracy is real

Mercedes was just way ahead of everyone with the whole smart car thing.

Congrats on the Mercedes! What year was your 4Runner?

Sweet! All you need is a camo paint job and some roof lights and you've got the car from Jurassic Park II!

quote:

Originally posted by RR:
Congrats on the Mercedes! What year was your 4Runner?

1993

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Sweet! All you need is a camo paint job and some roof lights and you've got the car from Jurassic Park II!

I actually just rewatched that movie just to see the 320 prototypes they used.

Sorry thread drift.....

Can I ask if you bought from private party or dealer (type of dealer?). What pre-purchase process did you go through before determining to buy or not?

Buying a used car seems like it would be simple but it's complicated for me to try to avoid buying a lemon especially w/o warranty.

Private party. I checked out the mechanicals myself before purchase. I'm not a professional mechanic, but my father was and I picked up some stuff from him.

A lot of people have a mechanic perform a Pre-Purchase Inspection (PPI) before purchasing. Not bad advice, though a hassle and an additional expense.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: kkina,

I just let my 1999, yes, first year, 320 go last year...a bit shy of 200k miles

Up until the end it always ran great with regular oil changes...I had an independent shop service it...and it really wasn't anymore expensive to maintain than any other car I've owned.

The only things to be aware of are the window lift arms and the struts for the rear hatch. Another thing to keep an eye on with an older ML model is the plastic of the grill aging and cracking.

Parts are getting harder to find and plastic gets brittle if you go the junk yard route. Cracked a side mirror housing and the body shop price was over $1200 (lots of parts to take apart and replace), but I was able to get one for $80. It had a cracked mirror, so I had to swap it with the one in my existing assembly

I knew it was time to let mine go when it developed a vacuum line leak in the AC system...shop said it wasn't cost effective for them to try to trace it. Yearly refills just before summer extended its life for two years. The tipping point was when the radiator started leaking.

Traded mine to a handy man for work on the house. He installed a new radiator (said it was the same cost as a used one) and let his mom drive it...she was very happy with it

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Private party. I checked out the mechanicals myself before purchase. I'm not a professional mechanic, but my father was and I picked up some stuff from him.

A lot of people have a mechanic perform a Pre-Purchase Inspection (PPI) before purchasing. Not bad advice, though a hassle and an additional expense.

Thanks. Good for you. I'm not sure what to look and listen for so I doubt any self examination would be useful unless something is grossly wrong (ie - oil dripping everywhere).

I had a PPI on the only used car I've ever purchased (which was from a dealer) and the shop was known (where I go for maintenance). But it was just a checklist. Not a bad checklist but they missed stuff that I thought should have been caught and could have been used to negotiate a lower price. The items they missed were costly.

I would have still bought the vehicle as it has got good bones. Just wish I had known about some of the things that needed to be fixed (normal wear fixes that don't really affect the longevity of the car).

However, I don't know how willing dealers are to allow the cars to be subject to a PPI, especially if my preferred shop is about 1 hour away.

I feel caught in a hard place. But, it does sound like carmax has a decent reputation for better quality used cars (or at least better disclosure). Maybe just stick w/ them or a top tier mfgr dealer.... I'm a little uncomfortable w/ these private dealers.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:

However, I don't know how willing dealers are to allow the cars to be subject to a PPI, especially if my preferred shop is about 1 hour away.

I bought a used Edge from a Ford dealer. Before buying, I told them that I wanted it inspected by the independent maintenance shop that I use. They had no problem with that.

The $95 premarital exam came up with a laundry list including a cracked transmission mount, leaky cooler for power steering fluid, spark plugs that had never been changed ($400 labor on this vehicle due to all the stuff that has to be removed in order to access the rear cylinder bank). A total of well over $2,500 for the items on the list.

I told Ford dealer that they either needed to reduce the sale price by that much, or do all the repairs if they wanted me to pay full price. They did the repairs and also lowered the sales price of the vehicle by $500, so the $95 that I spent for the inspection paid off very well.

Before:

Brushgrille_02 by kpkina, on Flickr

After:

Front Left_01 by kpkina, on Flickr

Night and day difference, for the better.
Looks quite clean

Is that a seafaring oil tanker 5-series wagon parked next to you?

^It is. Looks like it has a vinyl wrap. Belongs to another guy in my building.

Kind of reminds me of the Red October.