So I was given an old Merc

spiff said:
keep it - I bought a 2009 C200 Kompressor elegance - in mint show room condition with full service history from a mate of mine with 79000km on the clock. belonged to his wife. damn it's awesome to drive - like a magic carpet ride :love:
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Not to bum you out but it might be a good idea to keep some cash around for when the timing chain stretches. Or when the crappy little DC motor in the electronic steering lock fails and the car won't start because the lock won't disengage.

Not sure if avantgarde's suspension is firmer but my old W202 had a softer ride :(
 
dabean said:
Not to bum you out but it might be a good idea to keep some cash around for when the timing chain stretches. Or when the crappy little DC motor in the electronic steering lock fails and the car won't start because the lock won't disengage.

Not sure if avantgarde's suspension is firmer but my old W202 had a softer ride :(
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the crappy electric motor - a common fault on this model apparently (broke once with his wife) and timing chain have already been sorted out, stuff was done under warranty last year already. car was checked out again by Merc and giving a clean bill of health before he parted with it.

I did discover that when the battery goes dead then you can't get it out of park!

I don't use it everyday - resides in my garage 90% of the time.
 
ghoti said:
Also, why is there a red bar between 50-60km per hour on the speedo. is that to help guide you to stay in the speed limit or something?
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It's a miles per hour thing in a kilometer per hour car. 35mph is 56kph... Some cars also have it at 88kph which is 55mph. US speed limits, but why they do it is a mystery to me.

PS. Keep the car.
 
spiff said:
the crappy electric motor - a common fault on this model apparently (broke once with his wife) and timing chain have already been sorted out, stuff was done under warranty last year already. car was checked out again by Merc and giving a clean bill of health before he parted with it.

I did discover that when the battery goes dead then you can't get it out of park!

I don't use it everyday - resides in my garage 90% of the time.
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That's good to hear :)

To get the car out of park you can lift the boot on the shifter, there's a yellow button you can press in while moving the stick into neutral.
 
eg2505 said:
Small question from my end,
I mean many old mercs are dirt cheap, due to the parts being so expensive, and labour being that expensive.

Was watching this one YouTube guy who explains why its a bad idea to keep a old merc going....

How true is this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV9rJwEOCus&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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It can be true, it doesn't have to be though.

My brother-in-law bought a 2003 E500 a few years ago. He asked me to read up on it before he bought it and I told him about the air-suspension problems and to make sure the brake recall had been done. He ended up buying it for around R130 000 or so.

About a year later the car started sagging on one side and the dealers quoted around R50 000 to fix it. He's a pretty handy guy so I printed out some replacement guides I found and he ordered the parts from ebay. He did the job himself and it ended up costing him around R8 000 in total.

Anyway he's still happy with the car, it runs like a dream (bit heavy on juice though). It's not his only vehicle though so he could wait for the parts to arrive.
 
kang said:
Have you tried finding a replacement hood ornament? I suspect it'll be hard to find.
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You can buy them from Mercedes Benz dealerships, last time I bought one for my W202 about a year and a half ago it cost me R240.
 
eg2505 said:
Small question from my end,
I mean many old mercs are dirt cheap, due to the parts being so expensive, and labour being that expensive.

Was watching this one YouTube guy who explains why its a bad idea to keep a old merc going....

How true is this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV9rJwEOCus&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Click to expand...

It depends entirely on the Merc. I wouldn't recommend hanging on to a W220 S class, for instance. But we have a 1996 C220 that requires nothing more than it's regular service and still goes and looks like new as well as a 2000 W203 C320 which is much the same.

The key is to find a good non-dealership Merc specialist garage (e.g. Motospot in Cape Town) that actually goes to the effort of repairing components instead of just replacing them entirely.

For example, the motor on our W203's radiator fan stopped working. Dealership said they only fix that problem by replacing the entire unit for R14k - the cowling fan and motor is supplied as a single part. Motospot works with a Merc expert auto electrician that re-soldered the wire for R300! Same with the electric windows that tend to pack up on the W203 - it's usually just a contact on the button that has broken but Merc will only fix it by replacing the entire winder and motor unit at a cost of R8k but actually the button can just be replaced or repaired for a few hundred bucks.

This is why many people have a perception that old Mercs are horrendously expensive to maintain. They buy an old Merc and take it to the dealership for repairs and service and pay an order of magnitude more than is necessary.
 
We keeping the car. My wife took it for a drive and since hasnt stopped driving it. Will find out the pricing for a new hood ornament. It would be nice if it could send out a huge shock if someone tries to break it off. I hear mercs are often the victim of this type of vandalism.

Im still not exactly sure on the year, all I know is its "first registered" year. Which was 1995. So over 20 years is classic right? For an old car it sits on the road well. When you get to 120 it feels like its just getting started and you are only doing 40. What does the sports mode on the gear lever changer thing do?
 
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