The cost is more if adjusted for inflation. The list price of £78k in 2003 is £139k in 2024. The £47k cost of maintenance very roughly adjusted using the inflation rate from the mid life of the car (2013) would be £64k. The total would be £203k in 2024.
Some years ago Clarkson and Hammond bought a secondhand BMW 6 and M-B S-class because they were so cheap to buy. May’s response was “you’ll both end up bankrupt living in a skip” 😂
It shocking - I have a mate who has an almost new W213 (from new) and yet has hardly driven it in the last two years. Its always in the garage or back at the dealership. Sensor this, gearbox that, won't start as battery drains itself overnight randomly, interior trim splitting - almost every area of the car. I know they made the W124 and their engines seemed to have no major problems in Bf109, but this was a long time ago. Their reputation for quality is an illusion. My mate was like a cultist Merc's for almost 30 years, he is looking at a Lexus...........
@@Boric78 A friend has a 2007 550 S class with 140,000 miles. It's his baby. He bought the dealer computer so he can do all the repairs himself. He's done a ton of work too. 2 weeks ago his dashboard lit up while on the hwy. The car lost power and he pull off. Had it towed to the shop he likes. They informed him the transmission was toast and needed a rebuild and a new case! $5,000 later he's getting it back Monday. The mechanic also informed him that the transmissions in these all do this from 80,000 to 138,000 miles so he should fell lucky he got so much time out of his!!!!! MB quality indeed!!!!! My 06 Toyota van has 284,000 miles on its original trans. I change the fluid every 75,000 miles shifts great. Never been opened. Crappy Toyotas!
This says nothing about quality as the faults were minor.The car never let the owners down and was in roadworthy conditions. Just don't buy things you cannot afford to maintain.
@@benjaminlusskin3211 Just don't buy MB S class for delivery and you will be good. People who buy MB S class as a new car do this not because of its reliability. A luxury car is about being the latest model, this is a status symbol.
i bought a Lexus as soon as they were released for the first time in a toyota dealer with large tires with the front of a mercedes(look a like) and the back of a chevrolet(also look a like) , nice Lexus all that came after are horrible but maybe a good car, it is a TOYOTA , the one i had only lasted 1.5 years in my hands, but my Toyota Celica from the 70´s is till running pretty
@@Cptblogh my mother language is portuguese , i speak better than i writte but i think it´s well explained about what i´ve wrotte , which part is copnfusing you , i´ll try to writte it better
Different types of people generally. The sort of people who buy new often won't spend £50k on maintenance - they'll take the hit on depreciation and replace the car every few years and avoid most of the issues. The sort of person who'll spend a few grand fixing problems generally won't pay the same sort of money on depreciation. Just depends where you pick up the car on its journey really. Sure there's a graph or diagram where costs/depreciation/issues overlap.
@@test143000 I think the higher up the payscales you go time is generally a lot more structured. Not so much the cost of maintaining old cars - it's the unpredictability of something shitting itself they can't afford. Certainly for daily drivers.
Hi from Australia.. here's a different perspective.. my 2000 model 105 series LandCruiser has 700,000klms on it and has only had regular services and consumables like brakes, tyres, uni joints etc. it's got wind up windows, no computer, entirely analogue and has never failed to get me home. I think one would class that as a win!
@@captainwin6333 With country driving in Australia the first preference for most drivers is to just arrive. And not need repairs at Woop Woop .Drive quality may be a trade-off. PS : Sorry @jamespotts9836 if I have stolen your thunder.
Specialist cars need expensive repairs my Volvo never had door handles and it also had the same engine gearbox starting motor and charging system ok I replaced the seats with some leather seats from the scrap yard for 100 pound and yes it was a taxi and when I sold it it was as good as new
If you painted it bright orange, & put a confederate flag on the roof, you could use the easier driver & passenger windows. Perhaps an option for when you're older/less mobile?
Competent enthusiast mechanic/owners could have done a great deal of this work and saved a fortune; at this age and value I think the car's future is with likely to be with such a person.
Fixing stuff can bee very unpleasant and requires expensive tools to make your life easier, plus time and space. Currently on my gravel drive replacing springs in rain to get Saab through mot :)
Certain modern MB cannot be serviced without proprietary scanners and tools. Subframes have to be dropped out on a lift table with the car on a lift to access many driveline components. Parts costs can be 10X other marques. So, no, a shade-tree mechanic's/ happy enthusiast's car it is not.
@@ivaneberle3972 That's why some people have turned to Volvos from the 1980ties.... Easy access. Can be repaired by anybody. And do a million miles or more. If serviced.
In the last 3 weeks I completed $11,600 dollars worth of mechanical work on one of my cars. That is a retail price. My price was $980. One reason I do as much of my own work as I can. That, and I do not like people touching my things.
@@vincemarshall8550 LOL. The underbody and engines transmissions are all clean sport. I have designed fabricated or milled my own parts old bean. Now you prattle on and go bother someone else.
I had one a while back. It was two years old - one owner - Paid £40 grand for it - 30.000 mls. Kept it for 6 yrs and was trouble free. Undoubtably my best car ever and such a joy to drive. Apart from regular servicing it was trouble free. apart from new batteries. I was lucky !
Ok, just another personal experience. I own a 2003 CL600. Purchased in 2017. Paid $17K at the time. Has had a new radiator, trunk opener and gear shifting lever system. I had no issue with the gear lever, but the repair shop said I needed it. OK. So, maybe $5000. in repairs. I do all regular maintenance myself. I live in Arizona so I don't even know what the rust and gunk is under your car. Mine is as clean as the day it was made. No electrical issues, no door or mirror issues, no suspension issues, no tie rod ends, no oil leaks, nothing has failed. It is the best built car I've ever driven. It is the most incredible car I've ever owned (and I've owned a newer Bentley). The most completely satisfying, brutally fast car, and I am still enjoying it almost 8 years now.
Old mercs get such a hammering for quality, I feel like I've been lucky I've got 2 at the moment, a 2004 slk amg and a 2013 e350 coupe with 120k miles on it and neither of them has cost me anything major in maintenance, in fact I've had the e350 for 2 1/2 years and the only thing that has gone wrong with it was the passenger seat occupancy sensor, and that was on a replacement interior I bought to brighten the inside up from black to a cream coloured leather, the original seat sensor was fine so I swapped it over but I had a 2004 clk with 170k miles before that and that had the same seat sensor issue, other than that everything worked and it never let me down. Maybe I'm about to have the smile wiped off my face by one of them going expensively wrong but from my own experience over the last 4 years they've been the most reliable cars I've owned and I used to drive nothing but japanese.
We bought a 2000 ML 320 for $18,000 second hand sold it to a scrap dealer ten years later for $400. It was still going and had a plethora of problems, many electrical.
I like your attitude, I bought an E46 2.5 petrol coupe for £1200 7 years ago with 92k miles, it had an abs fault that i thought was a wheel sensor but turned be the abs computer, cost from bmw £750, my bmw independent mechanic quoted £200 for a second hand part and fitted it for £100 which involved programming it to the car (the abs computers fitted around that time are all the same but need programming to the individual car) I got rid of it in April this year when the vanos started pissing oil at 120k miles. I got £200 at the scrapyard. I bought a 53 plate CLK 500 with 70.5 k miles on the clock I am 4th owner and everything works, It cost me 5k but it has been faultless so far. It now has 76k in 5 months of ownership. as most of my miles are motorway miles the mpg ain't too bad. When it shits itself or something really annoying goes wrong I will get something else. I would rather drop 5k on an old nice car than get finance on a mediocre newer car.
@@eric-wb7gj Like my 20 year old panda i picked up 3 weeks ago, 67.000 miles on it, MOT till April and only payed £500 for it with a bonus that i have a full panda with a blown head gasket for a complete spares car. i should have at least 3 years out of this one 🙂
I’ve done over 100,000km on my secondhand Alfa 159 wagon and had to beg my mechanic to replace the rear discs last service. That’s the only money I’ve spent on brakes in that time.
Depends on driving conditions , but usually any MB should do at least 60,000 miles before needing new rotors. Dealerships often change out rotors and pads prematurely I reckon , to make more profits.
I owned a 2005 CL500 for the years(2015 to 2018) I bought a comprehensive warranty for $2000(3 years) that was the same as a new car warranty and covered everything. Over the 3 years the warranty paid approx $16,000 in repairs. Mainly the Suspension. They are a very expensive car to maintain. As soon the warranty ended I sold it. To own one without a warranty, be prepared to spend a lot. I’m in Melbourne Australia fyi.
Among all the comments of how much it costs to own and maintain a CL from the early 2000s, can we just appreciate how quiet the cabin is when Jack is driving? Frameless doors and no B pillar. Yes, you can drive on the motorway and still whisper to your passenger. That's also the beauty of the C215.
Sounds like "death from a thousand cuts". Brilliant editing on this one! Kudos for your unique presentions of these kinds of issues. Entertaining and informative. Well done.
I got flashbacks watching this as I had a Merc from 1999 for nearly 20 years. Mine was plagued with electrical problems. The window seals never worked properly, so water got on the wiring and it was like the car was haunted at times. Mirrors replaced because the LCD for auto dimming degraded and leaked. Wrong wiring around the boot, so more weird faults as water ingress shorted things out. Worst of all was catastrophic rust that appeared after 15 years or so. It was such a shame because it had a lovely 3 litre 6 cylinder engine that was still going strong and it had AMG suspension that made it a hoot to drive. Sadly sold for nothing in the end, but it was fun while it lasted.
I do all the work on my Sl & CL so costs are kept to parts only. Colour coded door handles are expensive and need replacing because the keyless go functionality degrades and they stop locking / unlocking the car.
A friend had one. Massive, yet tiny. I could not find headroom in the front and the rear seats are crazy small and it broke down constantly. Did you know the S Class has a tiny fan that blows cabin air over the temp. sensor for a more accurate reading ?? Now you do. After a while the tiny fan's tiny little bearings die and it makes an intermittant and impossible to pinpoint mosquito like whining sound. Now you do.
It's funny. We still have our Skoda favorit from 1994 (one of the cheapest cars you could buy) with almost 200k miles on the clock and if you add the cost of every single repair needed all these years, it barely touches 1k euros. I can definitely sell the whole car for around 500 euros.
I have a CL500 2002 for a year and a half, trouble free motoring, I live in Australia, garage it every night, premium fuel it, and it’s glorious. One of the best cars Mercedes has made, a future classic.
We got one in as a trade back when I worked at a BMW dealer in 2012, and man, what a great car. Our used manager tried to sell it for a couple of weeks but after zero interest just sent it out to auction. 500 pounds seems like a steal for what you got!
Transmission conductor plate is an expected replacement after about 16 years , due to heat degradation , just like the crank position sensor. The obvious solution here is don't take the big hit from early depreciation , buy it well used and then carry out most servicing and repairs yourself , rather than going to a MB dealership where they charge ridiculous prices , simply because they can. Mid 2000's Mercedes are a very viable DIY car if you have any mechanical ability and are prepared to spend a few dollars on some tools.
The transmission conductor plate, also known as the valve body separator plate, is a crucial component in the automatic transmission system of a car. It is made of metal and serves as a gasket that seals the transmission valve body plate and the transmission case. This plate has several tiny holes or passages that allow hydraulic fluid to flow through it to control the flow of transmission fluid to the various solenoids in the valve body, causing the gears to shift smoothly.
Great insight to what old luxury costs to maintain. So many people buy a once 100k car for a couple of grand and there expectations and reality are miles apart when it comes to keeping these cars going. Great video.
I own 4 Alfa Romeos. Watching this video makes me very happy that I own a reliable brand. Next time someone makes a joke about Alfa reliability I’ll just send them this link.
I purchased only a few new cars and learned my lesson, back to used cars. The last one was exemplary (Lexus RH450h) as I did not have a single failure in 5 years ownership from 120’000 km to 168’000km, not even a light bulb, only brake pads & disc and 12v battery + normal service. Now on a 5 year Jaguar I-Pace for 11 month with only one minor & cheap failure (over pressure valve in the air suspension, 84 chf for the part and 530 for the whole job). Lots of luxury for a very low second hand price.
Pilot bush is essentially the electrical connection between the gearbox and the main wiring loom and they leak, conductor plate is revealed by removing the gearbox sump and it's wise to replace both those components when you do a gearbox service. CLs suffer from a problem where the door wiring loom isn't quite long enough and continual opening of the doors will cause the wires to break, as there is not enough stress relief, but normally not all at the same time, hence multiple fixes and eventually a new harness. The gearshift/door handle replacements are the keyless entry/start systems breaking (very common) and they try very hard not to sell those parts to the general public, as it's considered a security risk, worth bearing in mind if you buy these cars and have an aversion to paying people to fix them. Ultimately, this was getting on for a £100K car when new and those kinds of cars cost serious bucks to maintain, just because you can buy one for sock drawer money now, doesn't mean it costs any less to keep on the road, something a lot of people fail to recognise when buying 'cheap' luxury cars.
£6,000 a year to buy and run a V8 Merc over 21 years, not bad, Lee Macmasters Porsche Taycan has dropped nearly £90,000 in 3 years in just depreciation alone, now that's expensive
Interesting, this is even the >2003 model, should have less issues than the cars that came before that. @3:27 self dimming mirrors are known for not lasting that long. 9 years seems believable. (And they still cost 400,- for a piece of glass, at least for my clk) And if they start leaking you have to be careful about the paintwork i've read. And about the door handles, The remote IR summer feature (in the clk, probable the same for cl) always breaks down. Easy diy fix, just solder the broken joints. Although i doubt anyone would spend a lot of money to have this feature working again.
Interesting that aside from general maintenance, the engine needed very little if any repair through all that time as those 5.0 engines are legendary as being bulletproof.
This is the reason I do all my own work on my cars. For better or worse it’s been a good savings. My last merc cost me about 2000$ in maintenance and depreciation a year for 5 years. I thought that was good value. The cost could have been 4x if I went and had someone else do the work. Realistically for the every day man it’s a money pit. And it is the reason so many people lease these types of vehicles. My classic merc on the other hand gained value and all the mechanical work was paid back when selling. So I bought another classic merc. I am working on it and bringing it back as a hobby and have driven about 5k miles on it. It all depends I suppose.
Although thd home mechanic might well have saved a fair bit by doing some of the work, i just get a feeling that someone that paid £80k in 2003 for a CL500, is not the weekend mechanic type! Maybe stereotypical, but thats my view. So, about £5100 per annum. Thats a fair bit of money! Thats easily many peoples annual mortgage costs, then and now.
You're old, and out of touch. Mortgage payments are 3-4 times what you think they are. The average monthly mortgage repayment on a house in the UK is currently £1,441.36 And a wealthy person bought that car, not some middle-class serf.
@glock22357 😆 you're making assumptions Glock. My mortgage is around what you say the average is. I live in Scotland though, so don't get ripped off (too much), with over inflated housing prices. I also know many people who's mortgage sits around the 500-600 mark. Finally, a wealthy person was exactly my point, as I don't see a fat corporate banker being in his overalls of a Sunday, changing ball joints!
Looks like you got an absolute bargain given the history on that particular car. I had one of these for 4 years and it was trouble free. Clearly this car was loved by its owners so deserves to be kept up now.
Some of those sound very similar to the things that im encountering on my 03 CL500. The door switch panel is a pain in tbe arse because the plastic sliding thing that holds it breaks leading to squeaks. The wiper motor on my car also needs replacing and recently I got stranded because a $2 bush on the transmission linkage broke so the car couldnt be started. Other than this, the car is an absolute tonne of fun to drive!
Around £6k a year. I always keep a spreadsheet to track this 'real' annual cost (including depreciation) - always shocks me how much it ends up being a month, and what a pain selling a used car is! The reason I've been leasing on and off for some time (chasing great deals only!) and then bobbing back into buying used, then back to leasing again when a great deal pops up! Currently replacing the front springs on my sons Saab to get thought its MOT, not fun ! And leasing a Tesla on a great deal, no servicing requirements for that one!
Watch the "I Do Cars" guy on the BMW 750i for a BMW luxury car horror story baked into the design that makes a seemingly attractive used BMW essentially a millstone with negative value.
Incredible! My one-owner-from-new [me] Jaguar XF 2014 is now 10 years old, has 180,000 miles clocked and has has nothing like this cost of ownership. "Major items" have been front suspension lower wishbone replacements at 150,000 miles and not a whole lot more. That ZF 8-speed gearbox has never missed a gear, even in sport mode. Jaguar got it right with the XF!
I had a 190E in the mid nineties, bought from Merc FSH and about 6 years old. Almost immediately the wiper motor "failed' wasn't covered by the warranty, no surprises there and Merc wanted about £500 to replace it. Luckily friend of friend Merc mechanic cleaned it and it worked fine. Apparently hadn't been cleaned since new and should have been as part of servicing. Loved the car. Didn't like the dealers at all. Never had one since.
The wiring loom is finicky and usually goes bad because it gets crimped on the inside of the door. It's a common fault in the C215, as is the metal reaction on the base of the C pillar.
Neighbour has an old small Toyota. Virtually nothing spent. I have an old Merc cabriolet…. It’s not been bad actually but does need love and care. Still feels special. Caveat Emptor.
I recently did a total cost of ownership on a year 2000 Peugeot 406 2.9L V6 I bought in 2007 and scrapped recently. £240 a year including tyres. Purchase cost less £300 scrap value included. I do my own wrenching. Nothing actually went wrong with the engine. Water pump, alternator, starter, ignition and clutch all made in 1999 and untouched. The previous owner replaced the timing belt and long life spark plugs. Insurance averaged £160 a year. Motoring in the UK is cheaper than many places if you avoid the motor trade! Annual road tax was a killer though, on older cars currently over £300 for the Peugeot. Current car is a 2005 Honda Accord. No costs over the year. Previous car a BMW 530i which I got feed up with constantly changing suspension arms and coolant plastic parts!
Jack you bought a well-maintained car, imagine what a state it would be in if these jobs had not been attended to? For the cost and complexity of the car, ~£4k a year on maintenance isn't too bad, if you can afford it of course. For comparison, I owned a Nissan Qashqai for 3 years. It cost me £4.5k in maintenance and repairs over that time, and I thought that was a lot. Interesting content Jack, and shows the true cost of running a fabulous beast like this 👍
I used to own one of these CL500s and one of the "common faults" was the driver and passenger door mirrors. They used to just "fall off!" Or fall apart internally.... At over £400/time it was both annoying and expensive.
Very interesting video. Oddly enough, there was no mention of the cost of tires over 21 years. It would be interesting to compare with the cost of leasing a similar vehicle or a series of vehicles over the same period. Also, what would the cost of owning similar vehicles until the warranty runs out and replacing it over the course of 21 years.
It's important to note that there were no serious engine or transmission issues, and that the high cost of routine repairs, parts and servicing was due to using a Mercedes main dealership. For anyone who can do these mostly simple tasks themselves older Mercedes can be relatively cheap to own, and reliable. In many cases non-OEM replacement parts are easier to source and are cheaper than those for most other makes of car. Furthermore, there are a number of forums and You Tube channels dedicated to explaining how to tackle the most common tasks.
I ordered a custom-built 2022 Ram 3500 Mega Cab 4x4 Laramie with stage 2 upgrades, the standard output 6.7l diesel, and a host of other options for around $103,000. Since owning it, I have sunk around $3k in maintenance and after my warranty expires, will no doubt sink a lot more 😕
absolutely horrifying. possibly the worst part is with that door wiring fault. I wonder if that caused the sale of the car at any point? if it had been a single owner car I imagine some strong discussions would have occured as to why the fault was never fixed...
That is actually very cheap for such a great car that drives today better than most cars. I live in a country where this amount is less than what it cost me to buy few years ago my M2 Comp.
The fact that it is/was a very expensive car aside (you must expect expensive servicing and expensive parts whenever something breaks), I don't think it sounds like the car was very unreliable. For 15 years, very little played up. And then you are getting close to the full lifetime of many cars.
It’s well known that Merc reliability improved across the board from 2006/7 onwards when the next gen S class came out, so the CL generation after this one would, I imagine, have had less running costs. Their price to buy second hand also now seem to have bottomed out a bit
@@Leo555ZZZ This is my point. I own a car with 190,000 miles and no suspension issues. Another car I ran to 230,000, and it would still be on the road, but for an accident. No suspension issues there, either. If these parts fail due to vehicle weight (or any other reason, really), then I suggest the parts are poorly engineered, from a maintenance standpoint. Lovely vehicles, for sure, but ownership costs are plainly excessive. (And I have not even got into the multiple repairs the door!!)
@@superbear617 Like many designs , the suspension is a compromise ..fluid filled bushes do a great job isolating NVH , but clearly they sacrifice some durability compared to solid rubber. Other parts of MB's will outlast the parts found on other makes. The M112 and M113 engines from this era are known for excellent durability , and will easily do hundreds of thousands of miles if given regular oil changes. As I have commented elsewhere , some owners who can do their own maintenance and repairs , have very reasonable , even low ownership costs with MB's from this time period. My personal experience has been excellent , and I enjoy driving a top quality car , instead of a newer , but much more common vehicle which sells at a much much lower price when new. ( there must be a reason why ). I'd rather have my twenty year old MB , than a three year old Toyota , but that's just me.
Hi, great video, the real truth right. So, may I add to the issues found on this model. Wiring was a constant intermittent problem throughout the vehicle, mainly because the entire cars wireing harness was manufactured with too finer liner tollances, so any connections where there was movement, like doors tended to pull and so stress any wiring connection. Wires would break within a multi wire harness. So common functions like electric windows, door mirror adjustments, gear shift, and mirror glass heating would fail again and again throughout the history of the car. Best regards
You go to an official garage, they'll milk you. Every time. Know your car, keep it, get to know it, learn to do some wrenching. It'll take a day the first time you do it, but the tools will cost less what you'd pay for labor. That's the joy of owning cars that are 10+ years. The knowledge is out there and replacement pieces are quite cheap.
There's a good reason why top-end Mercedes from the 2000s are so 'cheap', they're money pits. I think Mercedes lost their reputation for solidly built cars a long time ago, I wouldn't even call them a maker of luxury cars, they're a volume manufacturer.
A friend bought one of these 12 years ago. I thought he was nuts and told him so. I really thought he'd have to get rid of it within the first year but in the end, apart from some minor issues (and yes, the big one ABC) it has been fine and was daily driven a fair few miles each year till it has now been kept as a weekend car. BC02 YDH
The door switch covers are a nightmare on these - my driver & passenger one came away. The wiring to the doors is also a known issue as is the gearbox conductor plate (goes into limp mode - Jags which used this box & had the same issue) - had all of that done. Does put me off buying a CL55K - always wanted one...
I wonder if the door panel being replaced many times is not in fact the electronic switches assembly, because someone didn't know that due to the special door's hinges design, the wiring loom fails, and they thought that the switches assembly was dead. The center console thing may in fact be the shifter assembly : a plastic piece is known to fail and leave the shifter stuck in P. The Mercedes dealership replaces the whole shifter assembly, whereas you can find a third-party replacement part made out of metal for cheap on internet, but you have to disassemble the whole shifter assembly by yourself. The first owner was too wealthy to mess with this so he trusted the dealership and let them change expensive devices instead of disassembling and repairing them.
Am I right in thinking that a lot of those repair and maintenance jobs were done at a main dealer? Because if they were then it’s easy to see why the costs were so prohibitive. The best thing to have done, as i do myself, is to find a good reliable home mechanic and source parts off places like Eurocarparts. Then the bills are a fraction of the cost.
You could say that during the warranty you are obliged to let 'the garage' do the maintenance for general wear and tear servicing. I think the door issue was due to damage when taking it apart the first time? We may never know of course. The crank sensor was probably wear and tear. I do agree with you, why mess about welding the catalytic converter? I do appreciate that not everyone has the skills to do their own oil change and so on and may not even have the time. I do think though if you are able then tackle things like brakes, bushes things like that yourself. I would not by 'knock off' parts either they end up being a false economy. Quite sobering to hear the whole total at the end Jack! Interesting video though Jack thank you. 👍👍
I have got a Model 1990 Mitsubishi Sigma 3.0V6 12V 177 HP which even Jeremy Clarksen said he wanted to simply keep when he had tested it arround 1992. That was the 24V 205 HP Top version.
Buy a good example fully depreciated & find a really good independent specialist & that should as cost effective as a complex luxury car ownership gets.
The conductor plate failing is almost a given on these five speed transmissions. The car starts having trouble changing gear when it should and then eventually gets stuck in 2nd gear - limp mode. Mine failed with about 250k kms on the clock, when I was about 150kms from Melbourne. I had to take all back roads to keep below redline. The transmission shop guy said "It's common as on these." Replacement with transmission service was a bit under a thousand dollars.
Having watched your Maserati Biturbo video, I would like to see the same cost analysis made for the Maser. I bet you that it didn't have more electrical gremlins than this Merc, and for sure the door handles didn't fall off so frequently... honestly Maserati has an often undeserved bad reputation, German cars can be just as bad but their PR does a better job of hiding it.
A good account of running a 'upper market' Mercedes. Thankfully it's not a car that would be included in my 'top 10 cars that I would like to own list' - as such a car does not invoke an emotional reaction that would overide the economical viabiliy case for maintaining ownership of such a vehicle. In your video you state (8:49) - "..... where aluminium meets metal you get paint reaction, and the paint bubbles, and there is no rust there ......". Firstly, I assume you meant to say: "where aluminium meets steel" - and if my assumption is correct, your statement is incorrect. When two different metals, like aluminium and steel, are in contact and exposed to a common electrolyte (ie. water), the outcome is galvanic corrosion - ie. one of the metals experiences accelerated corrosion while the other is protected - and the signs of paint bubbling in this area indicates such an occurance. Notably, If addressed when the paint bubbles appear then the corrosion is normally very modest.
That's about £6000/year or £500/month for a high-end Mercedes up through 2024. Though it seems that it should have cost less, if it had been traded for an equivalent car every 5 years the cost would have been significantly higher.
It's kind of sad what's happened to Mercedes Benz. If you grew up in the 1970's, a Mercedes was the best car in the world. BMW's weren't far behind. If someone told you then that in 60 years a Toyota would have superior build quality than a Merc you'd have thought they were crazy.
There's a lot to be said for leasing a car...I have only bought one car from new. I have maintained it completely myself, buying parts/consumables. It has cost a fraction of what it would have if I had used the dealer. It is still running well and looks like new after 12 years. But I'll never buy a new car again, knowing that it is worth less than half what I paid. Depretiation is a financial killer. For the Merc, the door electrics were likely a problem because of water intrusion. The perpertually bodged door repair is, I think, a perfect example of the fear which every car owner who is not handy or mechanically inclined has. Essentially, you are financing the quick and initially cheaper "guess and check" method of repair, rather than paying someone to spend some time to methodically analyse and find the root cause. Somehow consumers have accepted that they are on the hook for every incremental repair that doesn't actually solve the problem. If you order steak and potatoes, and the waiter serves you fish and chips, you are not expected to eat or pay for it, and you are perfectly entitled to send it back, and be served what you ordered, or leave. But somehow, if a car owner is served a fix that doesn't fix the problem, they have to swallow it. Interesting...
Wrong. $122K was not "lost". "Lost" means there is nothing left at the end. For that $122K, the owner got a top-tier transportation appliance that they enjoyed for decades, and a vehicle to sell when they were done with it. And now you're enjoying it. Far from being "lost", that money was well spent by someone that could afford it.
LOL,..... Try looking at it another way. The owner could have bought himself a comfortable vehicle at a fraction of the cost. And had the pleasure of losing money on numerous charitable projects...
@@user-pt1ow8hx5l If you're stuck on virtue signaling, it can be said the owner kept many hardworking people employed by owning the car. From those that built it, to those that sold it, to those that repaired and maintained it. Plus those that have investments in MB. Rather than giving it away to people that won't appreciate it, give to hardworking people.
@@user-pt1ow8hx5l But nothing comparable to this one. Or he would have had to pay around the same. These are not more expensive than any other car in same class.
On top of that, add for VED, insurance and petrol. VED, say £500 pa = £10,500 Ins, say £1,200 pa = £25,200 Petrol, say 20 mpg = £35,700 (say 5,000 gallons) That's another £71,400
For older people insurance is much lower. I was quoted £ 660 for a new Porsche 911 Carrera S. I currently pay £160 for an older Honda Accord and was paying £180 for a BMW 530i.
All those issues with the driver's door may point to accident damage fixed on a budget and not done through insurance. Broken door mirrors as well may indicate some careless driving and consequently damage to that part of the car. But you're right, buying an executive car new with your own money is a mug's game!
Those must be main dealer prices. I've got a 2006 SL500, which has most of the same running gear and I pay nowhere near those prices. Get yourself a good Indy garage and those prices will drop by a massive amount.
Exactly, the high costs are entirely due to the car being maintained by a Mercedes dealership. Non-OEM parts are plentiful, and inexpensive and most of these jobs are not complicated.
When you can’t maintain it, don’t buy it. If more people did this, the more of these special cars will be maintained by the ones who love them and keep them on the road.
Cost of fuel and tyres on top of that. Plus road tax and insurance. Cost per mile, if the original owner kept it all that time must be something like £2 per mile? Trip from Leeds to London and back: somewhere in the region of £800? Lovely car. One for the multi-millionaires from new.
What does that work out per year on average and per mile driven? Older luxury cars with a reasonable service history can be great bargains, especially if you don't obsess about all the toys working.
Whilst it is a big sum of money, it's worth noting that a modern CL (or last gen S Class coupe) with a V8 would have been over £1000/month on monthlies....so over 21 years that's easily going to double that figure.
Holy Sh*t... This is why I never buy new and I learned how to do all my own mechanical work. I started doing this because I loved quality cars and bikes and had very little money. I could only afford the vehicles I lusted after if there was something big and/or expensive wrong with them. So I learned to fix stuff. Now, decades later, I can afford to pay mechanics but choose to still perform the work myself. I have a proper shop with tools, machine tools and a lift, and I have a good stock of parts and good sources for anything I might lack. I own two 1960s Ferraris and a 420 SEL W126 Mercedes and a garage slam full of motorcycles, and they all work as they should. Over time, I have saved literally hundreds of thousands of dollars/pounds/euros this way, and I got to drive Ferraris/Lancias/Lambos/one Maserati and a slew of Mercedes, well before I could afford them. FYI - one of the things I love about my Ferraris is that there are NO wires in the doors - wind-up windows, manual locks, no speakers, no "courtesy" lights. The lesson contained herein is, if you buy new and keep all the receipts, just don't ever let them near your calculator!! Semper Fi
My Father would tell me, there is nothing wrong with owning nice things, but you also need to have the means to be able to care for the nice things.
good point 👍
Was he talking about cars, or women?!
This example £122ks worth!
@@mcihs2 both
You'd think an expensive car would mean it is better made and more durable. That was (largely) true of a 1970's Mercedes S-Class...
The cost is more if adjusted for inflation. The list price of £78k in 2003 is £139k in 2024. The £47k cost of maintenance very roughly adjusted using the inflation rate from the mid life of the car (2013) would be £64k. The total would be £203k in 2024.
The value of the pound has slipped during this period........
Serious question: Do the inflation adjustment calculators factor in the insane pandemic property price increases?
Exactly
Plus interest on the car loan
An interesting hypothesis but it only cost what it cost at the time
You should have included road tax and tyre's too. Plus estimated insurance and fuel costs maybe.
Crazy money. Great work Jack.
Tyres...
It's a testament to modern Mercedes-Benz build quality 😂
Some years ago Clarkson and Hammond bought a secondhand BMW 6 and M-B S-class because they were so cheap to buy. May’s response was “you’ll both end up bankrupt living in a skip” 😂
It shocking - I have a mate who has an almost new W213 (from new) and yet has hardly driven it in the last two years. Its always in the garage or back at the dealership. Sensor this, gearbox that, won't start as battery drains itself overnight randomly, interior trim splitting - almost every area of the car. I know they made the W124 and their engines seemed to have no major problems in Bf109, but this was a long time ago. Their reputation for quality is an illusion. My mate was like a cultist Merc's for almost 30 years, he is looking at a Lexus...........
@@Boric78 A friend has a 2007 550 S class with 140,000 miles. It's his baby. He bought the dealer computer so he can do all the repairs himself. He's done a ton of work too. 2 weeks ago his dashboard lit up while on the hwy. The car lost power and he pull off. Had it towed to the shop he likes. They informed him the transmission was toast and needed a rebuild and a new case! $5,000 later he's getting it back Monday. The mechanic also informed him that the transmissions in these all do this from 80,000 to 138,000 miles so he should fell lucky he got so much time out of his!!!!! MB quality indeed!!!!! My 06 Toyota van has 284,000 miles on its original trans. I change the fluid every 75,000 miles shifts great. Never been opened. Crappy Toyotas!
This says nothing about quality as the faults were minor.The car never let the owners down and was in roadworthy conditions. Just don't buy things you cannot afford to maintain.
@@benjaminlusskin3211 Just don't buy MB S class for delivery and you will be good. People who buy MB S class as a new car do this not because of its reliability. A luxury car is about being the latest model, this is a status symbol.
You can see why Lexus is so successful
i bought a Lexus as soon as they were released for the first time in a toyota dealer with large tires with the front of a mercedes(look a like) and the back of a chevrolet(also look a like) , nice Lexus all that came after are horrible but maybe a good car, it is a TOYOTA , the one i had only lasted 1.5 years in my hands, but my Toyota Celica from the 70´s is till running pretty
@@RUfromthe40syour comment makes little sense as you don't know how to compose a message. Care to rephrase?
@@Cptblogh my mother language is portuguese , i speak better than i writte but i think it´s well explained about what i´ve wrotte , which part is copnfusing you , i´ll try to writte it better
@@RUfromthe40s from this onwards....... "all that came after are horrible but maybe a good car..."
Different types of people generally. The sort of people who buy new often won't spend £50k on maintenance - they'll take the hit on depreciation and replace the car every few years and avoid most of the issues. The sort of person who'll spend a few grand fixing problems generally won't pay the same sort of money on depreciation. Just depends where you pick up the car on its journey really. Sure there's a graph or diagram where costs/depreciation/issues overlap.
Well said, I bought my Range Rover at 5 years old, 26500 miles, so I avoided the first £68k of depreciation
True. Hard to imagine somebody on, let's say, 500,000 income trying to maintain 20 years old Merc.
@@test143000 I think the higher up the payscales you go time is generally a lot more structured. Not so much the cost of maintaining old cars - it's the unpredictability of something shitting itself they can't afford. Certainly for daily drivers.
Hi from Australia.. here's a different perspective.. my 2000 model 105 series LandCruiser has 700,000klms on it and has only had regular services and consumables like brakes, tyres, uni joints etc. it's got wind up windows, no computer, entirely analogue and has never failed to get me home.
I think one would class that as a win!
If you liked cutting around in a tractor.
@@captainwin6333 With country driving in Australia the first preference for most drivers is to just arrive. And not need repairs at Woop Woop .Drive quality may be a trade-off. PS : Sorry @jamespotts9836 if I have stolen your thunder.
Hello outlier.
My Volvo was reliable and cheap even after 350,000 miles and I service it myself
Specialist cars need expensive repairs my Volvo never had door handles and it also had the same engine gearbox starting motor and charging system ok I replaced the seats with some leather seats from the scrap yard for 100 pound and yes it was a taxi and when I sold it it was as good as new
Think I'm going to dust off my bicycle!
For the cost of the drivers door in 21 years I would leave it be and climb out the sunroof.
If you painted it bright orange, & put a confederate flag on the roof, you could use the easier driver & passenger windows. Perhaps an option for when you're older/less mobile?
My soul would most likely leave my body way before that 😂
Competent enthusiast mechanic/owners could have done a great deal of this work and saved a fortune; at this age and value I think the car's future is with likely to be with such a person.
Fixing stuff can bee very unpleasant and requires expensive tools to make your life easier, plus time and space. Currently on my gravel drive replacing springs in rain to get Saab through mot :)
Certain modern MB cannot be serviced without proprietary scanners and tools. Subframes have to be dropped out on a lift table with the car on a lift to access many driveline components. Parts costs can be 10X other marques. So, no, a shade-tree mechanic's/ happy enthusiast's car it is not.
@@ivaneberle3972 That's why some people have turned to Volvos from the 1980ties.... Easy access. Can be repaired by anybody. And do a million miles or more. If serviced.
@@MrAnwarsmith Good on you. They can go on forever, those Saabs. If serviced. And rustprotected.
Work on a modern-ish Mercedes? At home?
Unless you own a Mercedes repair shop, that's probably not happening.
In the last 3 weeks I completed $11,600 dollars worth of mechanical work on one of my cars. That is a retail price. My price was $980. One reason I do as much of my own work as I can. That, and I do not like people touching my things.
was that engine work or the kind of stuff we can all do if we dont mind getting dirty
Same. I cannot find anyone to take care. I do all i can myself.
@@vincemarshall8550 LOL. The underbody and engines transmissions are all clean sport. I have designed fabricated or milled my own parts old bean. Now you prattle on and go bother someone else.
I had one a while back. It was two years old - one owner - Paid £40 grand for it - 30.000 mls. Kept it for 6 yrs and was trouble free. Undoubtably my best car ever and such a joy to drive. Apart from regular servicing it was trouble free. apart from new batteries. I was lucky !
Why sell it than?
Call it BS
Ok, just another personal experience. I own a 2003 CL600. Purchased in 2017. Paid $17K at the time. Has had a new radiator, trunk opener and gear shifting lever system. I had no issue with the gear lever, but the repair shop said I needed it. OK. So, maybe $5000. in repairs. I do all regular maintenance myself. I live in Arizona so I don't even know what the rust and gunk is under your car. Mine is as clean as the day it was made. No electrical issues, no door or mirror issues, no suspension issues, no tie rod ends, no oil leaks, nothing has failed. It is the best built car I've ever driven. It is the most incredible car I've ever owned (and I've owned a newer Bentley). The most completely satisfying, brutally fast car, and I am still enjoying it almost 8 years now.
Well done ..there are many experiences like yours , but they are not put up on youtube.
@@Leo555ZZZ I tried to share a positive experience of my CL600 on my channel...
Old mercs get such a hammering for quality, I feel like I've been lucky I've got 2 at the moment, a 2004 slk amg and a 2013 e350 coupe with 120k miles on it and neither of them has cost me anything major in maintenance, in fact I've had the e350 for 2 1/2 years and the only thing that has gone wrong with it was the passenger seat occupancy sensor, and that was on a replacement interior I bought to brighten the inside up from black to a cream coloured leather, the original seat sensor was fine so I swapped it over but I had a 2004 clk with 170k miles before that and that had the same seat sensor issue, other than that everything worked and it never let me down. Maybe I'm about to have the smile wiped off my face by one of them going expensively wrong but from my own experience over the last 4 years they've been the most reliable cars I've owned and I used to drive nothing but japanese.
We bought a 2000 ML 320 for $18,000 second hand sold it to a scrap dealer ten years later for $400.
It was still going and had a plethora of problems, many electrical.
I buy cars for around £500 to £700, run them for a couple of years and scrap them in for £200. Cheapest motoring you can get.
I'm glad I'm not the only one. LMAO.
Here!
I like your attitude, I bought an E46 2.5 petrol coupe for £1200 7 years ago with 92k miles, it had an abs fault that i thought was a wheel sensor but turned be the abs computer, cost from bmw £750, my bmw independent mechanic quoted £200 for a second hand part and fitted it for £100 which involved programming it to the car (the abs computers fitted around that time are all the same but need programming to the individual car) I got rid of it in April this year when the vanos started pissing oil at 120k miles. I got £200 at the scrapyard. I bought a 53 plate CLK 500 with 70.5 k miles on the clock I am 4th owner and everything works, It cost me 5k but it has been faultless so far. It now has 76k in 5 months of ownership. as most of my miles are motorway miles the mpg ain't too bad. When it shits itself or something really annoying goes wrong I will get something else. I would rather drop 5k on an old nice car than get finance on a mediocre newer car.
A sound policy. 'Bangernomics' is a world of it's own, always chasing that elusive 'gem', & the extra satisfaction when you find one!
@@eric-wb7gj Like my 20 year old panda i picked up 3 weeks ago, 67.000 miles on it, MOT till April and only payed £500 for it with a bonus that i have a full panda with a blown head gasket for a complete spares car. i should have at least 3 years out of this one 🙂
Brake rotors and pads on each brake job? Sounds like someone was taken for a muppet.
I’ve done over 100,000km on my secondhand Alfa 159 wagon and had to beg my mechanic to replace the rear discs last service. That’s the only money I’ve spent on brakes in that time.
@@andrewnevermind4902 seems like that's the way the Germans do it, BMW, Audi, Benz, new rotors with every set of pads for whatever reason.
This car is very heavy and has some power. I think it's normal.
Image costs 😉
Depends on driving conditions , but usually any MB should do at least 60,000 miles before needing new rotors.
Dealerships often change out rotors and pads prematurely I reckon , to make more profits.
I owned a 2005 CL500 for the years(2015 to 2018) I bought a comprehensive warranty for $2000(3 years) that was the same as a new car warranty and covered everything. Over the 3 years the warranty paid approx $16,000 in repairs. Mainly the Suspension. They are a very expensive car to maintain. As soon the warranty ended I sold it. To own one without a warranty, be prepared to spend a lot. I’m in Melbourne Australia fyi.
- Should have bought a Ford Crown Victoria...
Among all the comments of how much it costs to own and maintain a CL from the early 2000s, can we just appreciate how quiet the cabin is when Jack is driving? Frameless doors and no B pillar. Yes, you can drive on the motorway and still whisper to your passenger. That's also the beauty of the C215.
Sounds like "death from a thousand cuts". Brilliant editing on this one! Kudos for your unique presentions of these kinds of issues. Entertaining and informative. Well done.
I got flashbacks watching this as I had a Merc from 1999 for nearly 20 years. Mine was plagued with electrical problems. The window seals never worked properly, so water got on the wiring and it was like the car was haunted at times. Mirrors replaced because the LCD for auto dimming degraded and leaked. Wrong wiring around the boot, so more weird faults as water ingress shorted things out. Worst of all was catastrophic rust that appeared after 15 years or so. It was such a shame because it had a lovely 3 litre 6 cylinder engine that was still going strong and it had AMG suspension that made it a hoot to drive. Sadly sold for nothing in the end, but it was fun while it lasted.
I do all the work on my Sl & CL so costs are kept to parts only. Colour coded door handles are expensive and need replacing because the keyless go functionality degrades and they stop locking / unlocking the car.
The beauty of a car is to some people more important that depreciation and repairs.
That's another reason not to buy this car, then.
A friend had one. Massive, yet tiny. I could not find headroom in the front and the rear seats are crazy small and it broke down constantly. Did you know the S Class has a tiny fan that blows cabin air over the temp. sensor for a more accurate reading ?? Now you do. After a while the tiny fan's tiny little bearings die and it makes an intermittant and impossible to pinpoint mosquito like whining sound. Now you do.
Now I do. Thanks.
It's funny. We still have our Skoda favorit from 1994 (one of the cheapest cars you could buy) with almost 200k miles on the clock and if you add the cost of every single repair needed all these years, it barely touches 1k euros. I can definitely sell the whole car for around 500 euros.
It's a shitbox though.
@@thegeoff9253 That's exactly what they say people that never owned the car.
That's 600 pounds per month.
You can hardly lease a Skoda for that money...
I have a CL500 2002 for a year and a half, trouble free motoring, I live in Australia, garage it every night, premium fuel it, and it’s glorious. One of the best cars Mercedes has made, a future classic.
We got one in as a trade back when I worked at a BMW dealer in 2012, and man, what a great car. Our used manager tried to sell it for a couple of weeks but after zero interest just sent it out to auction. 500 pounds seems like a steal for what you got!
Transmission conductor plate is an expected replacement after about 16 years , due to heat degradation , just like the crank position sensor.
The obvious solution here is don't take the big hit from early depreciation , buy it well used and then carry out most servicing and repairs yourself , rather than going to a MB dealership where they charge ridiculous prices , simply because they can.
Mid 2000's Mercedes are a very viable DIY car if you have any mechanical ability and are prepared to spend a few dollars on some tools.
The transmission conductor plate, also known as the valve body separator plate, is a crucial component in the automatic transmission system of a car. It is made of metal and serves as a gasket that seals the transmission valve body plate and the transmission case. This plate has several tiny holes or passages that allow hydraulic fluid to flow through it to control the flow of transmission fluid to the various solenoids in the valve body, causing the gears to shift smoothly.
Great insight to what old luxury costs to maintain. So many people buy a once 100k car for a couple of grand and there expectations and reality are miles apart when it comes to keeping these cars going. Great video.
I own 4 Alfa Romeos. Watching this video makes me very happy that I own a reliable brand. Next time someone makes a joke about Alfa reliability I’ll just send them this link.
Theynare crap too
Although expensive, this Mercedes was not unreliable.
I purchased only a few new cars and learned my lesson, back to used cars. The last one was exemplary (Lexus RH450h) as I did not have a single failure in 5 years ownership from 120’000 km to 168’000km, not even a light bulb, only brake pads & disc and 12v battery + normal service. Now on a 5 year Jaguar I-Pace for 11 month with only one minor & cheap failure (over pressure valve in the air suspension, 84 chf for the part and 530 for the whole job). Lots of luxury for a very low second hand price.
Pilot bush is essentially the electrical connection between the gearbox and the main wiring loom and they leak, conductor plate is revealed by removing the gearbox sump and it's wise to replace both those components when you do a gearbox service. CLs suffer from a problem where the door wiring loom isn't quite long enough and continual opening of the doors will cause the wires to break, as there is not enough stress relief, but normally not all at the same time, hence multiple fixes and eventually a new harness. The gearshift/door handle replacements are the keyless entry/start systems breaking (very common) and they try very hard not to sell those parts to the general public, as it's considered a security risk, worth bearing in mind if you buy these cars and have an aversion to paying people to fix them. Ultimately, this was getting on for a £100K car when new and those kinds of cars cost serious bucks to maintain, just because you can buy one for sock drawer money now, doesn't mean it costs any less to keep on the road, something a lot of people fail to recognise when buying 'cheap' luxury cars.
£6,000 a year to buy and run a V8 Merc over 21 years, not bad, Lee Macmasters Porsche Taycan has dropped nearly £90,000 in 3 years in just depreciation alone, now that's expensive
Sounds like a Great Buy for the second had person, well done.
Interesting, this is even the >2003 model, should have less issues than the cars that came before that.
@3:27 self dimming mirrors are known for not lasting that long. 9 years seems believable.
(And they still cost 400,- for a piece of glass, at least for my clk)
And if they start leaking you have to be careful about the paintwork i've read.
And about the door handles, The remote IR summer feature (in the clk, probable the same for cl) always breaks down. Easy diy fix, just solder the broken joints.
Although i doubt anyone would spend a lot of money to have this feature working again.
If like me your used to fixing cars on a budget by yourself, some of those prices are eyewatering 😅
you could buy a bentley mulsanne turbo for the price of that drivers door 🤣
The £910 crankshaft sensor caught my attention, I replaced it on my SLK55 for about £30.
@@vincemarshall8550 , and spend twice the amount in repairs and maintenance every month on your cheapo Bentley.
Interesting that aside from general maintenance, the engine needed very little if any repair through all that time as those 5.0 engines are legendary as being bulletproof.
This is the reason I do all my own work on my cars. For better or worse it’s been a good savings. My last merc cost me about 2000$ in maintenance and depreciation a year for 5 years. I thought that was good value. The cost could have been 4x if I went and had someone else do the work. Realistically for the every day man it’s a money pit. And it is the reason so many people lease these types of vehicles. My classic merc on the other hand gained value and all the mechanical work was paid back when selling. So I bought another classic merc. I am working on it and bringing it back as a hobby and have driven about 5k miles on it. It all depends I suppose.
Although thd home mechanic might well have saved a fair bit by doing some of the work, i just get a feeling that someone that paid £80k in 2003 for a CL500, is not the weekend mechanic type! Maybe stereotypical, but thats my view. So, about £5100 per annum. Thats a fair bit of money! Thats easily many peoples annual mortgage costs, then and now.
You're old, and out of touch. Mortgage payments are 3-4 times what you think they are. The average monthly mortgage repayment on a house in the UK is currently £1,441.36 And a wealthy person bought that car, not some middle-class serf.
@glock22357 😆 you're making assumptions Glock. My mortgage is around what you say the average is. I live in Scotland though, so don't get ripped off (too much), with over inflated housing prices. I also know many people who's mortgage sits around the 500-600 mark.
Finally, a wealthy person was exactly my point, as I don't see a fat corporate banker being in his overalls of a Sunday, changing ball joints!
Back in 2011 I bought a car for just 120€. Last week I replaced one of the gearbox cables for 150€. That was a shocker to me!
Looks like you got an absolute bargain given the history on that particular car. I had one of these for 4 years and it was trouble free. Clearly this car was loved by its owners so deserves to be kept up now.
Some of those sound very similar to the things that im encountering on my 03 CL500. The door switch panel is a pain in tbe arse because the plastic sliding thing that holds it breaks leading to squeaks. The wiper motor on my car also needs replacing and recently I got stranded because a $2 bush on the transmission linkage broke so the car couldnt be started. Other than this, the car is an absolute tonne of fun to drive!
Around £6k a year. I always keep a spreadsheet to track this 'real' annual cost (including depreciation) - always shocks me how much it ends up being a month, and what a pain selling a used car is!
The reason I've been leasing on and off for some time (chasing great deals only!) and then bobbing back into buying used, then back to leasing again when a great deal pops up!
Currently replacing the front springs on my sons Saab to get thought its MOT, not fun ! And leasing a Tesla on a great deal, no servicing requirements for that one!
Watch the "I Do Cars" guy on the BMW 750i for a BMW luxury car horror story baked into the design that makes a seemingly attractive used BMW essentially a millstone with negative value.
Incredible! My one-owner-from-new [me] Jaguar XF 2014 is now 10 years old, has 180,000 miles clocked and has has nothing like this cost of ownership. "Major items" have been front suspension lower wishbone replacements at 150,000 miles and not a whole lot more.
That ZF 8-speed gearbox has never missed a gear, even in sport mode. Jaguar got it right with the XF!
I had a 190E in the mid nineties, bought from Merc FSH and about 6 years old. Almost immediately the wiper motor "failed' wasn't covered by the warranty, no surprises there and Merc wanted about £500 to replace it. Luckily friend of friend Merc mechanic cleaned it and it worked fine. Apparently hadn't been cleaned since new and should have been as part of servicing. Loved the car. Didn't like the dealers at all. Never had one since.
The wiring loom is finicky and usually goes bad because it gets crimped on the inside of the door. It's a common fault in the C215, as is the metal reaction on the base of the C pillar.
Neighbour has an old small Toyota. Virtually nothing spent. I have an old Merc cabriolet…. It’s not been bad actually but does need love and care. Still feels special. Caveat Emptor.
Whoever owned has been taken for a ride! That is excessive overcharge!
at least it was a luxury ride 😆
I recently did a total cost of ownership on a year 2000 Peugeot 406 2.9L V6 I bought in 2007 and scrapped recently. £240 a year including tyres. Purchase cost less £300 scrap value included.
I do my own wrenching. Nothing actually went wrong with the engine. Water pump, alternator, starter, ignition and clutch all made in 1999 and untouched. The previous owner replaced the timing belt and long life spark plugs.
Insurance averaged £160 a year. Motoring in the UK is cheaper than many places if you avoid the motor trade! Annual road tax was a killer though, on older cars currently over £300 for the Peugeot.
Current car is a 2005 Honda Accord. No costs over the year. Previous car a BMW 530i which I got feed up with constantly changing suspension arms and coolant plastic parts!
Jack you bought a well-maintained car, imagine what a state it would be in if these jobs had not been attended to? For the cost and complexity of the car, ~£4k a year on maintenance isn't too bad, if you can afford it of course. For comparison, I owned a Nissan Qashqai for 3 years. It cost me £4.5k in maintenance and repairs over that time, and I thought that was a lot. Interesting content Jack, and shows the true cost of running a fabulous beast like this 👍
The door switch covers were an infamous week point on these cars (I know I had one!) The clips on the inside would break and they would rattle around
I used to own one of these CL500s and one of the "common faults" was the driver and passenger door mirrors. They used to just "fall off!" Or fall apart internally.... At over £400/time it was both annoying and expensive.
Very interesting video. Oddly enough, there was no mention of the cost of tires over 21 years. It would be interesting to compare with the cost of leasing a similar vehicle or a series of vehicles over the same period. Also, what would the cost of owning similar vehicles until the warranty runs out and replacing it over the course of 21 years.
Joy to watch and get information as always. Having one of theses its very helpful
I think the garage that repaired the car saw the owner coming and proper ripped the poor so and so off.
It's important to note that there were no serious engine or transmission issues, and that the high cost of routine repairs, parts and servicing was due to using a Mercedes main dealership. For anyone who can do these mostly simple tasks themselves older Mercedes can be relatively cheap to own, and reliable. In many cases non-OEM replacement parts are easier to source and are cheaper than those for most other makes of car. Furthermore, there are a number of forums and You Tube channels dedicated to explaining how to tackle the most common tasks.
I ordered a custom-built 2022 Ram 3500 Mega Cab 4x4 Laramie with stage 2 upgrades, the standard output 6.7l diesel, and a host of other options for around $103,000. Since owning it, I have sunk around $3k in maintenance and after my warranty expires, will no doubt sink a lot more 😕
absolutely horrifying. possibly the worst part is with that door wiring fault. I wonder if that caused the sale of the car at any point? if it had been a single owner car I imagine some strong discussions would have occured as to why the fault was never fixed...
That is actually very cheap for such a great car that drives today better than most cars. I live in a country where this amount is less than what it cost me to buy few years ago my M2 Comp.
£900 for a crank sensor fitted? A SWAG or Febi one is £22 and £23 at a well known German parts factor. Why were hours and hours labour charged?
Absolute brilliant video.
The fact that it is/was a very expensive car aside (you must expect expensive servicing and expensive parts whenever something breaks), I don't think it sounds like the car was very unreliable. For 15 years, very little played up. And then you are getting close to the full lifetime of many cars.
It’s well known that Merc reliability improved across the board from 2006/7 onwards when the next gen S class came out, so the CL generation after this one would, I imagine, have had less running costs. Their price to buy second hand also now seem to have bottomed out a bit
Replace control arm at 60K??? I don't consider that normal wear and tear.....
It's a heavy car and Britain's potholed roads...
...and some MOT testers are a bit keen when they see a bush that looks a bit funny...
The rubber bush is fluid filled , and they often wear out after 60,000 miles.
To be fair, Lexus products suffer the same. A heavy car with fancy bushings for low NVH wear the bushings quickly.
@@Leo555ZZZ This is my point. I own a car with 190,000 miles and no suspension issues. Another car I ran to 230,000, and it would still be on the road, but for an accident. No suspension issues there, either. If these parts fail due to vehicle weight (or any other reason, really), then I suggest the parts are poorly engineered, from a maintenance standpoint. Lovely vehicles, for sure, but ownership costs are plainly excessive. (And I have not even got into the multiple repairs the door!!)
@@superbear617 Like many designs , the suspension is a compromise ..fluid filled bushes do a great job isolating NVH , but clearly they sacrifice some durability compared to solid rubber. Other parts of MB's will outlast the parts found on other makes. The M112 and M113 engines from this era are known for excellent durability , and will easily do hundreds of thousands of miles if given regular oil changes.
As I have commented elsewhere , some owners who can do their own maintenance and repairs , have very reasonable , even low ownership costs with MB's from this time period.
My personal experience has been excellent , and I enjoy driving a top quality car , instead of a newer , but much more common vehicle which sells at a much much lower price when new. ( there must be a reason why ).
I'd rather have my twenty year old MB , than a three year old Toyota ,
but that's just me.
122k pounds, but you would have been driving a CL500. What fun. Beats driving a Camry.
Hi, great video, the real truth right. So, may I add to the issues found on this model. Wiring was a constant intermittent problem throughout the vehicle, mainly because the entire cars wireing harness was manufactured with too finer liner tollances, so any connections where there was movement, like doors tended to pull and so stress any wiring connection. Wires would break within a multi wire harness. So common functions like electric windows, door mirror adjustments, gear shift, and mirror glass heating would fail again and again throughout the history of the car. Best regards
I had one. Absolutely wonderful car. My 1996 SL500 is spectacularly easier to run.
You go to an official garage, they'll milk you. Every time. Know your car, keep it, get to know it, learn to do some wrenching. It'll take a day the first time you do it, but the tools will cost less what you'd pay for labor. That's the joy of owning cars that are 10+ years. The knowledge is out there and replacement pieces are quite cheap.
British car prices are retarded. They're about 3x in Europe.
There's a good reason why top-end Mercedes from the 2000s are so 'cheap', they're money pits. I think Mercedes lost their reputation for solidly built cars a long time ago, I wouldn't even call them a maker of luxury cars, they're a volume manufacturer.
A friend bought one of these 12 years ago. I thought he was nuts and told him so. I really thought he'd have to get rid of it within the first year but in the end, apart from some minor issues (and yes, the big one ABC) it has been fine and was daily driven a fair few miles each year till it has now been kept as a weekend car. BC02 YDH
The door switch covers are a nightmare on these - my driver & passenger one came away. The wiring to the doors is also a known issue as is the gearbox conductor plate (goes into limp mode - Jags which used this box & had the same issue) - had all of that done. Does put me off buying a CL55K - always wanted one...
I wonder if the door panel being replaced many times is not in fact the electronic switches assembly, because someone didn't know that due to the special door's hinges design, the wiring loom fails, and they thought that the switches assembly was dead.
The center console thing may in fact be the shifter assembly : a plastic piece is known to fail and leave the shifter stuck in P. The Mercedes dealership replaces the whole shifter assembly, whereas you can find a third-party replacement part made out of metal for cheap on internet, but you have to disassemble the whole shifter assembly by yourself.
The first owner was too wealthy to mess with this so he trusted the dealership and let them change expensive devices instead of disassembling and repairing them.
Modern "mechanics" don't fix anything they just replace parts
Am I right in thinking that a lot of those repair and maintenance jobs were done at a main dealer? Because if they were then it’s easy to see why the costs were so prohibitive. The best thing to have done, as i do myself, is to find a good reliable home mechanic and source parts off places like Eurocarparts. Then the bills are a fraction of the cost.
You could say that during the warranty you are obliged to let 'the garage' do the maintenance for general wear and tear servicing. I think the door issue was due to damage when taking it apart the first time? We may never know of course. The crank sensor was probably wear and tear. I do agree with you, why mess about welding the catalytic converter? I do appreciate that not everyone has the skills to do their own oil change and so on and may not even have the time. I do think though if you are able then tackle things like brakes, bushes things like that yourself. I would not by 'knock off' parts either they end up being a false economy. Quite sobering to hear the whole total at the end Jack! Interesting video though Jack thank you. 👍👍
Love love love the 215 owned 5 so far
I have got a Model 1990 Mitsubishi Sigma 3.0V6 12V 177 HP which even Jeremy Clarksen said he wanted to simply keep when he had tested it arround 1992. That was the 24V 205 HP Top version.
Buy a good example fully depreciated & find a really good independent specialist & that should as cost effective as a complex luxury car ownership gets.
The conductor plate failing is almost a given on these five speed transmissions. The car starts having trouble changing gear when it should and then eventually gets stuck in 2nd gear - limp mode. Mine failed with about 250k kms on the clock, when I was about 150kms from Melbourne. I had to take all back roads to keep below redline. The transmission shop guy said "It's common as on these." Replacement with transmission service was a bit under a thousand dollars.
Having watched your Maserati Biturbo video, I would like to see the same cost analysis made for the Maser. I bet you that it didn't have more electrical gremlins than this Merc, and for sure the door handles didn't fall off so frequently... honestly Maserati has an often undeserved bad reputation, German cars can be just as bad but their PR does a better job of hiding it.
I think a Prius would have been a smarter financial choice
A good account of running a 'upper market' Mercedes. Thankfully it's not a car that would be included in my 'top 10 cars that I would like to own list' - as such a car does not invoke an emotional reaction that would overide the economical viabiliy case for maintaining ownership of such a vehicle.
In your video you state (8:49) - "..... where aluminium meets metal you get paint reaction, and the paint bubbles, and there is no rust there ......".
Firstly, I assume you meant to say: "where aluminium meets steel" - and if my assumption is correct, your statement is incorrect.
When two different metals, like aluminium and steel, are in contact and exposed to a common electrolyte (ie. water), the outcome is galvanic corrosion - ie. one of the metals experiences accelerated corrosion while the other is protected - and the signs of paint bubbling in this area indicates such an occurance. Notably, If addressed when the paint bubbles appear then the corrosion is normally very modest.
That's about £6000/year or £500/month for a high-end Mercedes up through 2024. Though it seems that it should have cost less, if it had been traded for an equivalent car every 5 years the cost would have been significantly higher.
Luxury second hand Mercedes' cars can be as cheap as chips to buy, but the Mercedes-sized bills definitely don't depreciate.
It's kind of sad what's happened to Mercedes Benz. If you grew up in the 1970's, a Mercedes was the best car in the world. BMW's weren't far behind. If someone told you then that in 60 years a Toyota would have superior build quality than a Merc you'd have thought they were crazy.
These are only the maintenance costs. Fuel, insurance, tax should be added for the actual ownership cost.
There's a lot to be said for leasing a car...I have only bought one car from new. I have maintained it completely myself, buying parts/consumables. It has cost a fraction of what it would have if I had used the dealer. It is still running well and looks like new after 12 years. But I'll never buy a new car again, knowing that it is worth less than half what I paid. Depretiation is a financial killer. For the Merc, the door electrics were likely a problem because of water intrusion. The perpertually bodged door repair is, I think, a perfect example of the fear which every car owner who is not handy or mechanically inclined has. Essentially, you are financing the quick and initially cheaper "guess and check" method of repair, rather than paying someone to spend some time to methodically analyse and find the root cause. Somehow consumers have accepted that they are on the hook for every incremental repair that doesn't actually solve the problem. If you order steak and potatoes, and the waiter serves you fish and chips, you are not expected to eat or pay for it, and you are perfectly entitled to send it back, and be served what you ordered, or leave. But somehow, if a car owner is served a fix that doesn't fix the problem, they have to swallow it. Interesting...
Wrong.
$122K was not "lost". "Lost" means there is nothing left at the end. For that $122K, the owner got a top-tier transportation appliance that they enjoyed for decades, and a vehicle to sell when they were done with it.
And now you're enjoying it.
Far from being "lost", that money was well spent by someone that could afford it.
LOL,..... Try looking at it another way. The owner could have bought himself a comfortable vehicle at a fraction of the cost. And had the pleasure of losing money on numerous charitable projects...
@@user-pt1ow8hx5l If you're stuck on virtue signaling, it can be said the owner kept many hardworking people employed by owning the car.
From those that built it, to those that sold it, to those that repaired and maintained it. Plus those that have investments in MB.
Rather than giving it away to people that won't appreciate it, give to hardworking people.
@@user-pt1ow8hx5l But nothing comparable to this one. Or he would have had to pay around the same. These are not more expensive than any other car in same class.
@@martinsvensson6884 You last comment is indecipherable.
@@glock22357 That's because it wasnt for you lol
On top of that, add for VED, insurance and petrol.
VED, say £500 pa = £10,500
Ins, say £1,200 pa = £25,200
Petrol, say 20 mpg = £35,700 (say 5,000 gallons)
That's another £71,400
For older people insurance is much lower. I was quoted £ 660 for a new Porsche 911 Carrera S. I currently pay £160 for an older Honda Accord and was paying £180 for a BMW 530i.
All those issues with the driver's door may point to accident damage fixed on a budget and not done through insurance. Broken door mirrors as well may indicate some careless driving and consequently damage to that part of the car. But you're right, buying an executive car new with your own money is a mug's game!
Those must be main dealer prices. I've got a 2006 SL500, which has most of the same running gear and I pay nowhere near those prices. Get yourself a good Indy garage and those prices will drop by a massive amount.
Exactly, the high costs are entirely due to the car being maintained by a Mercedes dealership. Non-OEM parts are plentiful, and inexpensive and most of these jobs are not complicated.
When you can’t maintain it, don’t buy it. If more people did this, the more of these special cars will be maintained by the ones who love them and keep them on the road.
Cost of fuel and tyres on top of that. Plus road tax and insurance.
Cost per mile, if the original owner kept it all that time must be something like £2 per mile?
Trip from Leeds to London and back: somewhere in the region of £800?
Lovely car. One for the multi-millionaires from new.
What does that work out per year on average and per mile driven?
Older luxury cars with a reasonable service history can be great bargains, especially if you don't obsess about all the toys working.
Whilst it is a big sum of money, it's worth noting that a modern CL (or last gen S Class coupe) with a V8 would have been over £1000/month on monthlies....so over 21 years that's easily going to double that figure.
You could probably have constructed another entire CL500 from all the parts required for this one. NASA spent less fixing the Space Shuttle.
Hardly.
Holy Sh*t... This is why I never buy new and I learned how to do all my own mechanical work. I started doing this because I loved quality cars and bikes and had very little money. I could only afford the vehicles I lusted after if there was something big and/or expensive wrong with them. So I learned to fix stuff. Now, decades later, I can afford to pay mechanics but choose to still perform the work myself. I have a proper shop with tools, machine tools and a lift, and I have a good stock of parts and good sources for anything I might lack. I own two 1960s Ferraris and a 420 SEL W126 Mercedes and a garage slam full of motorcycles, and they all work as they should. Over time, I have saved literally hundreds of thousands of dollars/pounds/euros this way, and I got to drive Ferraris/Lancias/Lambos/one Maserati and a slew of Mercedes, well before I could afford them. FYI - one of the things I love about my Ferraris is that there are NO wires in the doors - wind-up windows, manual locks, no speakers, no "courtesy" lights. The lesson contained herein is, if you buy new and keep all the receipts, just don't ever let them near your calculator!! Semper Fi