PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - Wanting to purchase a 94-95 E320 wagon..........

TROVERMAN · #32 04-06-2004, 02:10 PM

I have put 15,000 miles on my E320 wagon in 6 months. Needless to say, it is driven a lot. I wouldn't hesitate to drive the car from here to California and back, right here right now without doing anything to it. I have complete faith in the reliability in the car. The car has 52,000 miles on it right now, but I plan to keep it until close to 200k miles, where it will be well-maintained and running better than many newer cars. Does Mercedes have their problems? Definitely. It should not have the headgasket leak nor the wiring harness. The other problems are acceptable as replacement items to me. I just threw in $100 worth of parts last weekend. Now the brakes are excellent, and some trim pieces are new. Recently, the old vacuum analog auto-climate control unit gave me some problems. Many people complain at this system, but $8 cured the problem. My neighbor just purchased a new Volvo S80 T6. The car's climate control system will not blow heat on these cold mornings. Nice! The replacement part will cost him maybe a couple of hundred. I would not discourage anyone from buying this car, so long as they are somewhat mechanically inclined to do work on their own vehicle (This is a very nice car to work on, for the most part) and are willing to maybe have to travel to get parts and pay a little bit of a premium. The car is worth it. The m104 powerplant is strong and smooth. Recently tried out a 1988 420 SEL with 212,000 miles. The car ran flawlessly, no smoking, clean oil, no underhood odd noises, raps, or rattles. The outside body had no rust; the seats really weren't that worn. The dealer was trying to get 5k for it, and they did. The car is 16 years old with high miles and really is still pretty sweet. This is why people buy Mercedes Benz products. People say Mercedes quality goes downhill after 1995, but it is not necessarily true. Cost-cutting measures were implemented so as to compete with Lexus, etc, but you can still expect high longevity out of a new Mercedes. Quality is an integral part of a Mercedes-Benz automobile, even if you cannot see it initially.