I agree the 12 cylinder models...both BMW and Benz have crazy low resale
in fact there is point in life where I think its not worth anymore than the V8 cars are

another car that is going to be a real dog is that new Volkswagen Phaeton...there are 2004 's out there that were 72K new...selling for mid 40's with 5000 miles on them



Warren
1992 300SD(sold)
2000 BMW 740I
Columbus Ohio

Not to go off-topic, but this one hits home. Depreciation on the Phaeton is admittedly abysmal (and it'll get worse since VW announced it won't be imported to the US after 2006), but like many W140s, no Phaeton ever went out the door at list price. I leased mine with $0 down and a lower monthly payment than an E Class or A6 (and it's far superior), and most who bought got huge discounts - a couple of weeks ago a Boston dealer was advertising a new '05 Phaeton V8 with a $73k MSRP at $20k off list - a lot of the imputed depreciation is coming out of the dealer's hide, or VWoA's, not the first owner.

__________________
81 300SD
08 MDX Tech
93 525i

05 F650GS

That very believable....I knew some families(not mine I assure you) in Texas when I lived there that bought new MB's in the early and late 90's and they gave huge discounts....as I recall something like...$8000 off a 93 300D 2.5 turbo....$12,000 off a 91 560SEL and $13,000 off a 98 S500 are some transactions that I remember the buyers telling me the stats of
Honestly from what I see the 220 is going fall the same way..they seem to be 50% off after 3 years...but hey again its a great deal if you like the car.
I don't know anyone who has owned a 220 since day one ..just those who have leased and fell under the full maintenance umbrella and turned the car in after the lease was up

Warren
1992 300SD(sold)
2000 BMW 740I

I know a Dr who has owned a 2000 S430 since day one. I think he is up to 40k miles now and couldn't be more happy with the car. He has never had an issue. His major complaint is the new water based paint is to soft. I bought my 300SD from him and he prefered the harder paint on the older cars.

My friends dad has had his S600 for almost two years and he hasn't had a problem, other then an egr breaking when he first got it. Granted the car isn't driven much.

I just helped another friend buy an S320 and it seems to be in great shape. The jury is still out on whether it will be a reliable car.

I think their is a lot of hype about these cars. They are not as bad as people make them out to be. Think about it happy owners are not on the tech forum complaining about how trouble free their S class has been.

__________________
2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

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.

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

current: 08 C300 Luxury , 92 500SL

I beleive aswell that the "hype" esp on forums about the W140s is a bit much....I recently spoke to a local MB mechanic and said they are not bad at all.

__________________
99 C43
98 S420
99 C230K
01 C240

I'm not sure I'd go as far as calling it hype, because some folks have had real problems. But, I think that's true of any car.
Everyone seems to call out the evaporator failure rate as a problem, yet I've never seen any statistical data. Granted, several of the techs on this forum have mentioned it as a problem with W140's so I'm happy to accept their word for that. I guess I have been lucky in that regard.
Having said that, what is the real criticism? Is it the high labor time/rate that runs the bill up to a couple of grand to change the evap?
Mercedes isn't unique in that regard. After changing the heater core and evap in a mid 80's Audi 5000, I fear no heater box. I think the spare tire is the only thing I didn't have to disassemble.
As far as having to take stuff apart, look at the procedure for changing a heater core for a mid 90's plain Ford Taurus. The whole dash, console, seats, etc has to come out. Sound familiar? Around here, many of those Taurus have bypassed heaters as a cheap fix.
Anyway, if you do your own work, the evap for a W140 isn't all that expensive and is available from several aftermarket places.
It really comes down to what you expect when you buy one of these cars. If you think a ten year old automobile will be as reliable as a new car, you'll probably be disappointed. If you think a car with triple the complexity will be as trouble free as a basic grocery getter, you'll also be disappointed. And the bills from the dealership will kill you.
Want to see problems with super reliable Hondas, etc? Go read forums on the web for those makes. As someone pointed out, you read about problems on forums like this.
I do know that there are a number of folks on this forum with W140's that love them and intend to keep them. You can put me to that list.
One of the reasons I've been able to keep mine is all the valuable advice and pointers I've gotten from the good folks on this site.
Many thanks to all who have helped me over the last few years.

__________________
KenP

1996 S500 W140 Coupe