Maintaining a MB - how expensive is it?

[BlueBimmer]

IMO if you're thinking about owning an old benz, make it your weekend car, wag mong gawing daily beater para kahit papano di masakit sa ulo.

kaya i still stick with my old E36, weekend cars lasts longer and generally problem free IMO.

but there's always the daily beater Merc thats bulletproof.

[s211Flyboy]

mga sirs! konting enlightenment lang. I wanted to have an MB. alin mas maganda between 190e or 230e. tanx!

[mbeige]

What 230E did you want, there is a w124 version and a w123 version.

[hens]

sir hens. ganyan din ang naging prob sa car ko. out of nowhere umilaw ang check engine light. brought it sa pinapagpagawaan ko then they bought it sa casa wala rin makita pero na rereset nila. pero umiilaw ulit after a couple of hours. my rpm sensor nasira din (costed me 5k for a meter long wire with connector tips). engine mounts up to 20k... gggrrr and to top it all off my vario roof stopped working (well i think kasalanan namin kase we stored the car for a yr).

engine mounts for 20K? sobrang mahal yata? less than 5K lang nabili ko .sa casa mo ba binili? RE: dun sa CEL ninyo, na solved na ba?

[s211Flyboy]

im after w124 body ng 230e or 190e. wala pa kasi ako experience sa mb. thanks for the help.

[ronw123w124]

sakit talaga sa ulo yang W203 na C class, had a friend who sold it after 6 months, kasi naasar na sya kakabalik sa casa, I think the car spent more time at the casa than being used. Pero maganda yung mga older models especially yung W123 & W124 series, sobrang tibay talaga and mura i-maintain.

[impulzz]

older benz models are better used as daily drives. had a w126 before. pansin ko nung una ko sya nabili, madalas ko gamitin, wla masyo ingay sa suspension or mga issues with the electricals... nung tumaas ng husto gas prices, had to cut cost medyo malakas kasi inline 6. so nagagamit na lang 126 for coding. yun na madalas may mga langit ngit ka maririnig sa ilalim, yung aircon minsan matagal lumamig nadating sanadali alng lamig agad cabin. engine medyo pumalya na.

then it came to a point na parts for my 126 m110 engine became scarce na. as in lahat ng mb parts seller walang ma supply ng distributor rotor, but they have the cap. even the big shops like delodour in libis and sunshine motors didn't have it. so when time came i needed cash, i sold the car to a MB lover told hime everything i had repaired and what else that needs to be repaired...sya na daw bahala... miss the ride of my 126.

[uwak18]

No experience with MB here but I really wanted one especially the 190E/D or W123 W124. But after reading your reactions parang ayaw kona. What other MB models na dapat iwasan. But models is the best and gives you less or even no headache?

[mbeige]

I find myself driving my w123 300D-T more often than I drive the w124 300TE despite the wagon's more comfortable interior, more supportive driving seats, more electronic toys, quieter highway sound, and ice cold AC. Since it's getting colder now the w123 with non-perfect AC still has that character that the w124 will never have. I might work on the w123 this weekend to install some new parts I just bought.

These cars are not Japanese ultra-reliable machines. For instance, the m103 engine has been said to be notorious for headgasket problems, the om603 turbodiesel engines have a vacuum pump that's not well-designed, the "rod bender" 350SDL's have a generally short lived engine design (for a diesel), and some complain that the w201 190E or 190D's have really cramped interiors. When you compare these to newer models, probably so, but for their time they were the "standards" other cars were based on. It's easy to mistake them for newer cars because as Bruno Sacco intended, these cars are meant to have a lifespan of 30 years from conceptual and production time to maybe another decade later. I forgot the article but it generally said these cars weren't designed for the general time period but for 7 years in the future. So if you see a new MB today, it will still look new 7 years later. Something like that.

I drive my 300D daily, the 300TE was just taken to the desert recently with a few business clients. The 300D has 179k miles while the 300TE has 225k miles and they still function well for their age and condition. Some parts may have to be replaced and may cost more than it does to replace the same parts from other manufacturers.

Some say the '95+ cars to '98 maybe have some electrical problems that had to do with biodegradable materials used in the wiring harnesses, or have reliability issues even to maybe 2005 models but the brand new ones are catching up in terms of build quality and reliability. I think this is also an effect of the splitting of MB (or Daimler) from Chrysler.

Then again, parts sourcing is another matter for owners there in the home country. Here I have no problems even with classic parts since the 2nd Classic Center is just 30 mins away here in Irvine. The first is in Stuttgart of course.

Aftermarket replacement items can also be used but they usually have subpar quality compared to the OE MB items. It all depends on which items I guess. For one the key head of the w123, w116, w115/114 keys easily break and cost $7 now but used to be $15 before.

I think the misconception lies in the fact that these are really old cars and it might not be a good idea to compare them to newer ones because they've had so much more use and if you do not know the previous owner that's another unknown you have to consider when buying used MB's. On the contrary can you find similarly aged cars that can replace these MB's? I just read an article about the e34 BMW and w124 MB's and some have advantages and disadvantages but one thing that struck me was build quality. The MB was better built than the BMW, for the same generation models. But the BMW has better handling "on the edge" daw yung dating compared to the MB which is more planted, more relaxed.

Finally there's a quotation that I always mention to MB buyers. The most expensive MB is a really cheap one. You figure out the rest.