could someone explain these to me?

i have heard from some folks advising me that they are a con.

i have heard from others that they are better than 3rd party[non M-B] warranties.

i have heard from others that 3rd party[non M-B] warranties are as good.

the way i am viewing it, a M-B dealer has offered a car to me for sale and has obviated my putting a mechanic at his store to do a mechanical inspection by offering the vehicle as fully warranted. AS IF IT IS A NEW VEHICLE.

and what purchaser would conduct an indpendent mechanical inspection on a new car?

however, an intelligent purchaser would do such an inspection as part of the procedure of buying a house[new as well as old].

so, should we purchasers conduct such an inspection when buying a car that costs as much as lots of houses? even when the vehicle is sold with a warranty that may be intended to vacate that desire to conduct pre-purchase mechanical inspection.

though the benz that has provoked this thread has low miles[20k] after 6 years of ownership, that does not mean as much as some might think insofar as engine conditions are concerned.

though low mileage cars have some virtues, engine condition might not be one of them.

for instance, my 560sec. it was not driven very frequently. since acquisition, until 2000, no more than 4k per year. and only to the market. etc. when i took it over, and started driving it at the 52k mark, i was astounded by its lube oil consumption when subjected to my style of driving. most educational was the billows of white smoke when i throttled down and then got back on the throttle.

a borescope would have revealed this.

most of you probably know the causes. in my hard-driven 560sel, this kind of oil consumption did not occur for over 220,000 miles.

and even there, there was no carbon gunk on the pistoncrowns. they were clean.

on the 560sec, crowns were covered with carbonized gunk and excessive leakage was occurring down the valve stems.

i attribute all of this to a lack of high speed running.

so, here is this s500c that has had no running in its 20k life. M-B dealer offers it as a starmark car with a 100k warranty included in the purchase price and offers more warranty coverage for a nominal price.

trying to make this a new car.

but i ask, if this engine is going to need top end renovation, will the starmark warranty cover the damage imposed by an owner who failed to drive the car sufficiently to make all of the engine work properly?

all ears.