Six Years of W210 Expenses
 

Just a data point for any who may be interested in this kind of stuff...

Bought my 98 E300 in 2013 with 73,000 miles on it for $5500. Dealer serviced, everything working.

I do some things myself, but most work done by very competent indie. Labor rate currently $130/hr....but he lets me provide my own parts.

When I bought the car, there was some wheel well rust and some spots here and there. Spent $700 to get that repaired.

Over the last six years and about 55,000 miles there's been all the normal/routine stuff you would expect: fluids, filters, tires, brakes, etc...

Some highlights by way of additional items:

AC leak, ball joints, lower control arms, brake calipers, brake lines, front springs (twice!), delivery valve seals, fuel lines, engine mounts, exhaust (muffler and center pipe), heater control valve, K40, MAF sensor, shifter bushings, front shocks, sway bar links, tie rods, voltage regulator, window regulator. And last but not least a cracked exhaust manifold! :eek:

Other than the cracked exhaust manifold and having to replace the front springs a second time, none of this is unexpected given the age, mileage, and location (#Ihatesalt) of the car. But it all adds up. About $11,000 over the course of 5.5 years!

About $2000 a year is not the end of the world. But I'm finding it increasingly difficult to make the case for the W210 when the W211 is available. I've owned one of my CDi's 3.5 years. Put 30,000 miles on it (now 175,000), spent a total of $1400. That will go up as the years go by. But I'm fairly confident that a good condition W211 will always be significantly less expensive to maintain than a W210.

Will need to address glow plugs later this year. And the steering rack has a leak which I stopped with Lucas product. Oh, and there's a minor tranny fluid leak. :rolleyes:

I always say, the devil you know is the better devil.

My Jeep's paid for, and I've dumped ~4k into parts the last 3 years(no labor but my own). That's just how it goes. Cheaper than a new one, and I'm much more confident in a vehicle I know inside & out.

To me this is an apples vs oranges thing. You bought a rusty (210s IME had pretty bad rust issues) at a point when lots of repairs were pending (around 100k). The 211 likely had a bunch of stuff done on it in advance of your ownership.

Unless I’m missing something that indicates that the w211 is so much better of a car.

History is also a question here. A 210 with 72k for $5500 seems cheap. Yours seems to have had issues like rust from the start.

If you're not going to DIY almost everything these cars aren't worth owning. Same goes for the 211. Parts are cheap but labor is expensive.

Looking at the repair history of the CDI over its entire life, it just hasn't needed as much. And it's been in New England the whole time. My other CDI, picked up 6 months ago, is a Southern car.

The rust when I bought it wasn't bad...just beginning on the wheel wells. But, once it starts.... Rust on a W210 in New England is absolutely inevitable unless you completely keep it off the road during the winter.

Rust resistance on a W211 vs. W210 is night and day.

That's my feeling as well. The only alternative for my son (he owns the car now) is to cut his losses on the MB and buy a Honda CRV or something.

My wife drives a 2009 Nissan Versa that could be used as a clown car in a circus. Purchased it in 2009, she has put 75,000 miles on it, and outside of shocks, brakes, tires and a battery, the car has not required any other major expenditures. If you drive an older Mercedes diesel, you had better be in love with the car. That is the only way you can explain away the time and money you put into keeping it running. Both cars will get you from point A to point B........................

Another point of comparison: our Honda Odyssey, now with 245,000 miles on it, has cost about $10,000 to maintain over the course of the last 145,000 miles and eleven years. Around 7 cents a mile. Much cheaper to maintain.

How many transmissions did you power through? Honda till date do not know that a transmission can be designed with a downward valve body and a removable sump.

Transmission replaced under warranty at 38k miles due to bad torque converter (a known problem for that year)....been perfect every since. Fluid change every 20-30k miles.

My Accord will be scrapped or sold when the tranny dies. What a turd of a transmission. I don't plan on investing the time/effort/money into repairing it when it dies. Everything else on the car is rock solid, I just sit around waiting for the tranny to go. Not as bad in the 4 bangers, but still a weak POS.

As much as I like my HAH, and it’s reasonably good handling, it’s not the same as driving these old MBs down the road when their suspensions are good and the steering boxes have little to no play. W123 is great, w126 even better. My father had a w210 until the high 200’s- same there.

My 135i has better road feel, but it’s a high performance, 4000# small car...

Just for fun, I think my 2002 wagon was on the other side of the $ hump. Bought it for $1400 with 320Kmi, 2 years ago or so, have driven it 30KMI, failures have been shifter, water pump, and 2 ebay coil packs, not too bad.

The car looks great inside and out, much better than the mileage would indicate. I do think the engine is getting tired, CEL is on, misfire after replacing plugs, and the passages are plugged. Have had no luck keeping the misfire away.

Gas or diesel?

OBD2 will tell you which cylinder is misfiring on the m112. The most likely failure point is the plug wires followed by the coils. It's very easy to leave a plug wire not fully seated.

Time to dump the car real quick. $5500 investment plus $11,000 to run the car for 55,000 miles? A total of about$16,500, plus downtime and frustrations. It doesn't make sense no matter how you cut it. The recurring cost is too high. Lease a car would give you a better deal with minimum or no recurring costs. Or just buy a Honda or Toyota.