1998 ML320 - keep or trade?

[dreamtripper007]

This is somewhat a subjective question, but I'm curious if anyone else has been in this spot and if so what you did.

I have an 98 ML320 with 110K miles. It's been a good truck, but in the last couple of weeks I've had to spend approx $2k on it (water pump, O2 sensors, oil sensor and a few other little things). Fair enough because it's got 110K miles, but it irks me some becuase if I had traded it on a new car a month ago, I think I'd get exactly the same as trading it now even though I've done a bunch of work on it.

The fear now is that I'll have to keep spending money on it, while not adding to its value. I think it's retail value is approx $8-9K and trade value is about $6K so spending $1k in maintenance is akin to spending >10% of what the car is worth.

Have any of you been in this situation? What did you do - keep or sell/trade and what was your reasoning?

[sosh]

What you have said you have done to the ML is pretty much routine maint that would be done on most any vehicle. I think you are a bit high on its retail value and fairly close to the trade in value. You must decide if you wish to keep spending on this one or spend quite a bit more and have a new one. I, personally, do not keep a car more than 4 to 5 years at the longest and I always buy new. That works just fine for me but as I said its all in how you feel about the subject and what you can afford. No one but you can make this decision.

[bocabenz]

Originally Posted by sosh

What you have said you have done to the ML is pretty much routine maint that would be done on most any vehicle. I think you are a bit high on its retail value and fairly close to the trade in value. You must decide if you wish to keep spending on this one or spend quite a bit more and have a new one. I, personally, do not keep a car more than 4 to 5 years at the longest and I always buy new. That works just fine for me but as I said its all in how you feel about the subject and what you can afford. No one but you can make this decision.

Just to throw in another opinion: I buy used and get an extended warranty. I keep until car payments on whatever would replace my vehicle would be less than the costs of repairs or until I get tired of the vehicle (whichever comes first). According to my economic model, unless you dislike the truck now, why sell it?

[dreamtripper007]

Agreed that it's routine for the mileage. I reckon to get something decent like say a 2 yr old ML350, I'd be in the $30K range at least so I'm leaning towards keeping this one .....

Originally Posted by sosh

What you have said you have done to the ML is pretty much routine maint that would be done on most any vehicle. I think you are a bit high on its retail value and fairly close to the trade in value. You must decide if you wish to keep spending on this one or spend quite a bit more and have a new one. I, personally, do not keep a car more than 4 to 5 years at the longest and I always buy new. That works just fine for me but as I said its all in how you feel about the subject and what you can afford. No one but you can make this decision.

[Mateo320]

If you like the truck why trade it in or sell it?

If your still having fun driving it like I do, my 1998 ml320 121k miles, keep it!

Just my thoughts...

aa