Hi all,
I am new to the forum, and a pending 1st time Mercedes owner. My mother in law was planning on trading in her 1997 E420 over the next few days to get a new smaller C280. The car has 93,000 miles on it, always babied, dealer serviced and garage kept. When detailed, she looks brand new inside and out.
The only problem with the car is an ASR problem. For what the dealer is willing to give her on trade in, I see it as a sin to let the car go if this ASR can be fixed and would like to buy the car for myself.
The exact symptoms are: When stopped the ASR light illuminates, the engine revs up causing a lerching forward feeling. When you shut car off, restart it, it's fine again.

Could this be more trouble than it's worth?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Schab

Just personal opinion - but there should never be such a thing as a pending purchase of an ASR car - no one should every knowingly buy a car with ASR.

Schab,
Well, the only one that can answer your question is yourself. Anything can be fixed if you're willing to put the time and money into it... and only you know what the limits are. The dealer has already answered the "what's it worth question". They're not in business to take a loss on a trade, so they've discounted the worth to cover their expenses... and probably more. The difference is that they probably know what's wrong with it and you don't.
Why not level the playing field? Pay another dealer the diagnostic fee to pull the codes and give you an estimate on repair. Post the codes here and someone can help you with an idea of how tough the repair is.
You also post whether or not you will do the work yourself... big difference.
Are you a "wrench turner"? This is your first post (welcome by the way!) so we aren't familiar with your abilities or past repair experiences with cars.

I'm with you... a clean '97 E420 is a nice car. Why trade it? You'd get more for it in a private sale. This forum also has a For Sale section. Personally, I don't trade cars to dealers; I believe you always lose in that transaction.

I tried to pull your profile to see where you live, but you didn't list it. I'm sure there would be several folks here interested in possible purchase.

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KenP

1996 S500 W140 Coupe

Check out my Mercedes web pages specifically MENU#24 for ASR problems and solutions.

There's a number of companies that repair the ETA (Electronic Throttle Actuator). There's an older '95 C280 link to MSF highlighted.

__________________
Regards . . . . JimF
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'94 S500 Cpe

Visit my Mercedes Web Page