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Rialto71

Rialto71

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My B-class 2010 Merc cdi aut. has been maintained and fixed for the last 6 years. Apart from services, tyres and battery, I have replaced cam-belt, CV joint and now
Pully on/in alternator. The car has 189400 kilos on it and. Only me driving. A few scratches and bumps. Interior fine,except for dog hair. My daughter says the car is getting too old, I must get a smaller car as I mainly just drive in our small decrepit town. The problem is that the mercedes mechanic who service and fix it is in another town and it is an iritating issue. He does not have a merc agency and does lots of older mercs in the area. Now, should I look for a smaller car around R18000 including trade-in, or shall I keep on fixing my baby? My age is in my username; guess I have about 10 years of driving left. It is sort of now or never! Please give some advice. I need a car that will last for life, must be an automatic, although I can still drive a manual.
 
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If I had only 10 years left to throw handbrake turns, I would want to do it in a safe car - like a Mercedes.
 
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Yeah I suspect 18k was a typo, that's the cost of a service and a tyre or 2 nvm a whole other vehicle
 
Rialto71 said:
My B-class 2010 Merc cdi aut. has been maintained and fixed for the last 6 years. Apart from services, tyres and battery, I have replaced cam-belt, CV joint and now
Pully on/in alternator. The car has 189400 kilos on it and. Only me driving. A few scratches and bumps. Interior fine,except for dog hair. My daughter says the car is getting too old, I must get a smaller car as I mainly just drive in our small decrepit town. The problem is that the mercedes mechanic who service and fix it is in another town and it is an iritating issue. He does not have a merc agency and does lots of older mercs in the area. Now, should I look for a smaller car around R18k including trade-in, or shall I keep on fixing my baby? My age is in my username; guess I have about 10 years of driving left. It is sort of now or never! Please give some advice. I need a car that will last for life, must be an automatic, although I can still drive a manual.
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Mercedes do not have the same legendary build quality as 20 years ago, and once it's out of plan, services are expensive, and when things break, even more so. The B-Class isn't exactly a big car, so I dunno what your daughter is on about. Anything smaller will also be quite pap once you are used to the 2l turbodiesel. Your car is, in all probability, worth around 100,000-R110,000 (retail, give or take depending on condition), so don't expect a trade-in of more than 70 - R80,000. Adding 18K to that will give you R88,000, hardly a princely sum of money to buy a new pre-owned car.

Had it been something like a Toyota, Honda or Lexus, with that mileage and year model, I would have suggested that you keep it, but being Mercedes, I'd be inclined to suggest selling it in favour of something more reliable and less costly to maintain and repair.

Look for a single owner Honda Jazz, Civic or even Brio, they are known to last and give the least issues of the hatchbacks, with verifiable full service records and relatively low mileage (not more than , say 120-130,000kms).

2nd prize would be a toss-up between Toyota Yaris, Toyota Etios, or Mazda 2.

In other words, Japanese cars, preferably built in a Japanese factory. And who at least have a dealership in your town so that you don't have to go on a roadtrip with padkos when you need a service.

Alternatively, you can keep it. If you drive carefully, and are very lucky, you may well make it last another 10 years without too much to repair.
 
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TheChamp said:
Did he mean R180k maybe?
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Nope. Clearly she meant 18 Karat, which is abbreviated 18k, and is a measure of the purity of the gold bar. A standard gold bar of 400 troy ounces weighs about 12.42 Kg, and at today's price would be worth almost 13 million ZAR. But she would be needing the services of a BEE partner to sell it, which means that she would be lucky if she even gets a little over 1 million out. Just enough to buy an entry-level Lexus UX 250h F-Sport.
 
Sell it and buy yourself a Suzuki Swift or Baleno. For the Swift, you should try look for the older model first (the Japanese built one with 6 airbags). I don’t think it matters which Baleno you get. Any of these cars should last you for a long time.
 
I would say get an M3 actually, Mazda née BMW. Proper cars, the added space over say a Swift could come in handy + it will feel a great deal more substantial than any Swift (still a good option mind you).
 
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