Modern Mercedes maintenance diy

I'm aware it can be done, but at what cost?

A local dealer has a few c300's, 2015's, and they are beautiful. The upgrades from 14-15 are significant.

I went to test drive one and the dash screen prompted me about a 1000 mile overdue service. The local dealer had changed the oil and filter but doesn't have the Merc stuff to reset it.

There is no local Mercedes deal to me, nearest is an hour away.

I understand some more modern Benz's can be tapped with a laptop software and a cable, but what timeframe does that become diy able? I would assume 2015 still has lots of copyright protection and only authorized users can touch it. Or am I wrong and it's a diy cable shady software and an old laptop away?

The AWD turbo 4's with luxury package and premium audio took about a $25,000 depreciation hit for 10,000 or so miles of driving...I don't think I have the patience to wait 10 yrs,80,000 miles for someone else to eat up the other 25k in depreciation.

2015 c300 service reset. No special tools required, so could be interesting to go back and try that process to verify it works. What I've found with the modern Mercedes is they are very complicated, but DIYable, and most people that talk about how scary and unDIYable they are have never worked on one. The reality is you absolutely can work on them, and a lot of stuff can even be done within various menus systems, including hidden menus, but most people fail to research it and just assume they require something special, even independent dealers as you've seen.

I purchased a complete STAR diagnostics (clone) setup, including laptop, for around $600 and iirc it will work up to year 2015. I'm not sure what you need past 2015, maybe just a later version, but it's absolutely amazing what you can do with STAR. There is a learning curve with STAR, as it's not the most intuitive software, but MB forum support is gold when starting out with it. I don't know much about the newer c300s, so would suggest checking out that section of the Benz forums like MBworld and Benzworld to get the specific platform info (w205 section for the later c series).

Loads of info on the internet on proper maintenance for the MB products. I do the services on SWMBO 2011 GLK350, piece of cake once I bought an oil evacuator ($70). Still costs me about $65 to do LOF figuring in 8 qts of Mobil 1 Synthetic and good oil filter. But, it beats paying the local MB dealer $249 and yes, I reset the service reminder following instructions found on the internet.

I have been caring for my wife's 06 R class for the last 6 years. It is really not bad, though I do need to get a STAR system.

My R63 pretty comprehensively tells you what is due at each service. None of the basic regular service is out of the realm of DIY, at least for a 2007. You should be able to look up what each service based on mileage is, I 'think' the 2015's have their owner's manuals available online. As stated before the MB forums are knowledgeable and helpful.

My 2003 E55 AMG is very DIY friendly. Its just a big, rear wheel drive, 4 door sedan. I was able to get a copy of Star running on an old Toughbook, the forums have some pretty good tutorials and very smart people, and parts, especially used, are shockingly cheap if you don't mind shipping. You won't get parts at Autozone, but thats just fine.

The biggest difference seems to be the level of complication on these cars. The complication of assembly, quantity and variety of fasteners, and size of certain components are a bit unnerving after working on Subarus and DSMs. But in the end, its just a car. It was designed and built by humans, and if you can read, you can cook.

Some of the stuff like module coding is tough to do, older cars can be done offline, newer stuff has to be done online. No one but the dealer can make keys and its expensive.

For electronics and software, the forums at MHI Auto are fantastic and 100% worth the membership cost but the learning curve is steep. I consider myself good with computers, and it still took a few nights and weekends to finally get Star running on my laptop, with all the Blacklist fixes, different drive partitions needed, software versions, different multiplexer settings, etc.