I recently bought a 2001 E430 with 78k miles for $6,500. Within 6 months, I had to fork $3,500 in repairs (engine mounts, two switches, 75k miles revision, misc stuff) and I bought 4 new rims and tires ($1200 total). I love the car and hopefully things will settle down a bit now...
Anyway... My wife loves the car too but she wants a wagon and the V6 instead of the V8 so I am now in the market for a E320 Wagon!! We found two wagons in our area (Los Angeles):
- a 2001 wagon with 65k miles for sale at a dealer for $10,995. It is in really good shape. Few things I noticed: missing pixels in the dashboard, driver headrest motor seems to be busted, passenger vanity mirror is busted too. While we don't have records, Carfax shows one owner and it has been maintained at MBZ on a regular basis.
- a 2002 wagon with 124k miles for sale by owner at $6,000. It also is in really good shape except for a crack in the left side of the front bumper and a fog light that needs to be changed. All pixels are there. The current owner has had it for 2 years and has all maintenance records.
At first I was leaning for the 65k wagon but now I am thinking that buying the same car in a good shape with 60k more miles but $5k more in my pocket to maintain it might actually be better. These cars can do many miles anyway and at a certain point, components break due to age not necessarily mileage.
What do you guys think?
Anyway... My wife loves the car too but she wants a wagon and the V6 instead of the V8 so I am now in the market for a E320 Wagon!! We found two wagons in our area (Los Angeles):
- a 2001 wagon with 65k miles for sale at a dealer for $10,995. It is in really good shape. Few things I noticed: missing pixels in the dashboard, driver headrest motor seems to be busted, passenger vanity mirror is busted too. While we don't have records, Carfax shows one owner and it has been maintained at MBZ on a regular basis.
- a 2002 wagon with 124k miles for sale by owner at $6,000. It also is in really good shape except for a crack in the left side of the front bumper and a fog light that needs to be changed. All pixels are there. The current owner has had it for 2 years and has all maintenance records.
At first I was leaning for the 65k wagon but now I am thinking that buying the same car in a good shape with 60k more miles but $5k more in my pocket to maintain it might actually be better. These cars can do many miles anyway and at a certain point, components break due to age not necessarily mileage.
What do you guys think?