10 year old Mercedes a stupid idea?

Am I going to be the first to suggest Lexus LS400? 1998-2000 are the best ones IIRC.

clutchsmoke wrote: Am I going to be the first to suggest Lexus LS400? 1998-2000 are the best ones IIRC.

The LS400 is really the spiritual successor to the W126 Benz. We're talking about a car with sway bars in the seats. I'd probably drive one if gas prices were halved.

Kenny_McCormic wrote:

clutchsmoke wrote: Am I going to be the first to suggest Lexus LS400? 1998-2000 are the best ones IIRC.

The LS400 is really the spiritual successor to the W126 Benz. We're talking about a car with sway bars in the seats. I'd probably drive one if gas prices were halved.

My only problem with the Lexi is that they really are uninspired designs. But it really is pushing the easy button.

You can get a REALLY REALLY nice Crown Vic / Town car / Mercury for the same $$$ as a clapped out S series MB. And cost of ownership will be at least half if not less. This kind of soured me on the MB. Not that I am a huge fan of the Ford Luxo barges but looking at the $$$$ they get really acceptable really fast.

Knurled wrote:

DrBoost wrote:

EvanB wrote: 10 year old Mercedes? yes. 30 year old Mercedes? no.

My experience is the opposite of that. My 30 year old benz was actually very reliable. The 10-year old benzes that came into the (high end) shop were turd-o-licious. Right about 1992 (W124) is the last benz I'd buy, the jury is out on the current stuff of course.

So, what you are saying is, 10 year old yes, 30 year old no? (Unless you think it is stupid to have a cheap, reliable car)

I think the original post, coupled with the one I quoted is convoluted. I'm saying that my 30-year old benz was reliable (that's a yes in my book) and that all the newer benzes I've had experience with were built to a much lower standard, and were very unreliable (that's a no in my book).
So, a 30 year old benz is a yes (though I wouldn't bother if it wasn't a diesel) and anything newer is a noe.

I vote BMW in the 10 year range. Mercedes just seems to scare me. I've had a run of E36 and E46's, and almost an E39. I think they are great cars, super easy to service and parts are not obscene or hard to come by. Enormous amount of DIY on the interwebz.

Miata?

DrBoost wrote: Mercedes Ute?

glueguy wrote: I vote BMW in the 10 year range. Mercedes just seems to scare me. I've had a run of E36 and E46's, and almost an E39. I think they are great cars, super easy to service and parts are not obscene or hard to come by. Enormous amount of DIY on the interwebz.

What about BMW SUVs?

In addition to a race car I have a 10-year-old extremely reliable and clean Subaru WRX for my "sport" daily fix and a large newer Honda when I need to haul or tow stuff.

I want to go from 3 cars to 2 so I've been looking for something reasonably fun to drive that can haul stuff and tow 3500 lbs. The X5 looks promising but going from Subaru/Honda to used BMW maintenance and depreciation might be shocking.

jv8 wrote: What about BMW SUVs?

When the driveshaft/transfer case interface strips out, that's $2000 in parts alone. There is no center lock, so you can't just pull the front driveshaft and keep truckin'.

BTDT.

Knurled wrote:

jv8 wrote: What about BMW SUVs?

When the driveshaft/transfer case interface strips out, that's $2000 in parts alone. There is no center lock, so you can't just pull the front driveshaft and keep truckin'. BTDT.

But what is the real world frequency of that happening?

I would go with an E46. I just picked up my 3rd E46, and it's 10 years old, and fell right within that range with reasonable miles (for being 10 years old), and was a 1 owner car that was always serviced at a dealer up till when they sold it last October. The key with them, and probably most of these cars, is to find the ones with the least amount of stupid options that could go wrong (outdated nav, high performance AMG benz's that have $1200 rotors, giant panaoramic roofs that fail). With the E46 I specifically ruled out convertibles because I don't want the costs of vert tops and parts failing after 10 years, M3's because they were out of the range and need more expensive maintenance bits, and automatics because they tend to fail after 100k and just aren't as fun IMO. I would have ruled out the Xi variant because of it's tendency to eat axles and a few more complex parts than the RWD 325/330, but I actually need the AWD ability for my commutes at times.

If you want to go broke, by any of the S500/7 Series/A8's out there. Its not the mechanical bits that will bankrupt you, its the insane amount of complex eletronics and computers. As was said, there is a reason that depreciation on them is so terrible, but then so good on the Lexus LS. Even on my E46, if I had to buy the general module that just went bad, I would have been looking at a $7-900 bill, luckily these cars are at an age now that parts cars and used parts are plentiful on the interwebs.

A week ago I met someone while out riding my motorcycle, he was riding a superdukey or whatever they are called. Get talking and the guy is a bmw mastertech or whatever they are called. He was saying the weirdest part of repairing the bmw was that he spent most of his time on the computer, not actually wrenching.

This is true. Also the reason I stick to indy's that have the computers in their shop.