Hey guys! Hope everyone’s doing well.

I recently sold my 98 c230 to a gentleman in Tennessee. When I bought the car I only got one key for the ignition. To make matters worse it did not have the slide out metal key inside of it. It had been lost along time ago. Along with all the spare keys. I was nervous for the six months that I own the car And thought I should probably try and get an extra key made but never did

I sold the car and all has been fine and dandy until he has now lost the only key to the car. He is texting me in a fit telling me he cannot get a key made for the car. I have zero experience with this. What should I tell him to do? Just tow it to the Mercedes dealer and pay through the nose? Or is there another good alternative? Thanks so much in advance.

Joe

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Current stable......
17' Rogue SV 70k
11’ Saab 9-5 NG 94k
10’ e550 4matic 185k

sold
02' e320 210k
00' e430 167k
01' e320 171k (regret sale)
91' 300d 2.5t 300k (sold to ecoofidaho)
79' 240d 177k (old yellow my avatar)
87' 300d 169k (junk but fast)
85' 300tdt 261k (RBM parts delivery)
85' 300dt 68k (one owner cream puff)
82' 240d 250k
84' 300dt 198k (sold to diesel don)
91' 190e 2.3 61k
88' 260e 140k

dealer,expensive,or order a german ignition from here with keys.Don't buy cheap,I did,and chinese metal gave up in a month.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran, deutschland deutschland uber alles uber alles in der welt

Did you get the title transferred into his name or did he just take the car and title? I'm wondering if he is a car flipper and didn't transfer the title into his name in order to save sales tax / hide he is an unlicensed dealer.

Tell him to call his local MB dealer, no use you getting in the middle of this ordeal. He will need the title in his name and his proof of ID. If you " fix " this for him, the calls for every little problem will never end. And when you do fix a problem , he will be ungrateful complaining that you sold him a bad 21 year old car.

Call the dealer for your other modern cars and say " all keys lost and you need replacement / reprogramming " then get back to us how expensive a MB key is in comparison.

Just because older MB cars are inexpensive on the used car market does not compel the maker or dealer to drop prices accordingly. There is a reason values drop so dramatically, I'll let you guess why.

I am a TN dealer so all paperwork was handled accordingly. Having sold hundreds of cars luckily the only keys I have ever needed were made at an Ace Hardware. They were always pretty inexpensive. The keys were simple too tho.

I told him I’m sorry he lost the only key and reminded him that was the main reason I sold the car....I didn’t want to lose the only key so .....do you wanna buy my car or not? Lol. Oh well he checked around and the lowest price he found was $450

__________________
Current stable......
17' Rogue SV 70k
11’ Saab 9-5 NG 94k
10’ e550 4matic 185k

sold
02' e320 210k
00' e430 167k
01' e320 171k (regret sale)
91' 300d 2.5t 300k (sold to ecoofidaho)
79' 240d 177k (old yellow my avatar)
87' 300d 169k (junk but fast)
85' 300tdt 261k (RBM parts delivery)
85' 300dt 68k (one owner cream puff)
82' 240d 250k
84' 300dt 198k (sold to diesel don)
91' 190e 2.3 61k
88' 260e 140k

Put on flatbed and go with it to the nearest dealer with title/registration and he shouldn't have any issue at all getting a key. Anytime I sell a MB with a single key the first thing I tell the new owner is to GET A SPARE KEY.

^True dat.

Last I heard my local MB dealer quote one was $300 retail.

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Jim