FWIW, I paid $13k for my 97 C230 18 months ago, and that was with 61k and 2/100 Starmark. I thought that was a helluva deal, especially estimating that the warranty saved me 6-8k in repair and disgnostic costs.

As of now, trade-in is around $5000, and in 1st qtr '05, it was over $7k. That's a huge drop in 8 months for a cheap car. And this is the simplest car mechanically that they made that year.

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former: 83 300D, 97 C230, 93 400E

current: 08 C300 Luxury , 92 500SL