Typical maintenance costs for E320...
 

Hello -

My dad is eyeing a nice MB E320 in Grand Rapids, MI; it's a 2002 with less than 30,000 mi (don't know exact mileage reading). The bank owns the car - they claim it's only had one owner - according to my dad it's a very nice looking sedan. The bank wants $28,500 for the car...

Question to this forum: 1) What are the typical maintenance costs for such a vehicle? Assuming there is very little a weekend mechanic can do on a car like this, what is the owner likely to pay in maintenance per year over the next 8-10yrs and what will the typical maintenance items be?

2) Are there any well known problems he should know about for this model/year?!

Thanks in advance -
James

Main well-known issue is the harmonic balancer breaking apart.

Probably one of the good models to own, as there are not an incredible list of common problems with the vehicle. Maintenance costs depend on a lot of variables, such as do you take your cars to a reputable independant or the dealer? Dealers generate lot of their revenue off of service, so they are not always the cheapest route to go along.

Make sure it has records, and has been maintained and cared for.

Call me a skeptic.
If the bank owns the car, I can imagine what kind of life this vehicle has had with it's first ( and only ) owner. :(

2002 models have the updated harmonic balancer.

2000 and newer models have free maintenance up to the first 50,000 miles, so you know that much should have been covered.

I think these cars are very, very easy, as far as maintenance is concerned.

As a Grand Rapids Benz owner, I can suggest two possibilities for getting the car checked out, which he probably wants to do even though the mileage isn't great. Betten Imports, the local dealer, actually has a pretty decent service department AFAIK; our experience with the Benz on a couple of things and on my daughter's VW has been fine. Prestige Imports is an indie that does most of the work on my Benz. They have bread-and-butter customers with Beemers, Volvos, Benzes etc. and sell a number of used MB, but they also are the area people to work on Ferraris, Rolls, etc etc; I've seen a lot of high-end vehicles there. Either should be able to do a proper PPI.