That's $6K on a car worth a little more than that right? I am beginning to read alot of , "yeah, its' $4K , but it is a new car now" or "$2K is ok for annual maintainance" . I am beginning to think just making car payments on a new Benz is better than paying for a used one cash, with all this $ that I see being spent on here.

It's funny ...whatever board I go to, everybody says the other mfg
's are no good, but I hadn't heard anyone call the Japanese cars, POS. Especially when posting of $6K in repairs on an MB.

I have always had atleast one Japanese car in the driveway, but would typically trade in 1-2 yrs, so never alot of miles. Except one time when I had an 1981 Toyota Tercel, and got about 160K miles on it with never opening up the motor . It was smashed due to an accident in the back, and it smelled like fuel due to a carb not running right. It was just a carb problem; never fixed it but ran fine; without $1K timing belt replacements or $2K headwork.

My point is that, I am beginning to wonder if all these Mercedes are as good and dependeble as the general public (me for example) perceives. or do we see all these high mileage MB units on the road b/c people are spending thousands annually for maintainance. If so, where is the "my car is better than your car" theory for MB?

Also when I see people recommending used car warranties and AAA, I foresee problems. Don't get me wrong, I AM IN LOVE with the 300E's....but have to think of maintainance $$ or money pit $ .

I have been trying to figure out via the archives how much to budget annually for maintainance and the $1K I was thinking isn't going to cut it , I believe, for a 300E. Even if I budgeted $2K, you get one of these $4k jobs and bamn. BTW, I just saw a 91 300Ce for sale in one of the local papers for $10K, but the guy was advertising "recent $20K in maintainance" Now I am starting to believe the ad

Good luck on your repairs. Credit card companies must love MB owners