Mercedes-Benz E350 CDI | Shed of the Week
Is a Shed money W212 E-Class too good to be true? One man might have the answer
Yes folks, it’s that time again, eyes down and dobbers out for a quick round of your favourite SOTW game, ‘if it was that simple to fix, the dealer would have done it by now’ bingo! To give you time to get your pens and papers out we’ll start by rambling on about the gen-four W212 E-Class which first popped up in 2009 at the Geneva show.
In time-honoured fashion, Mercedes called the coupé you’re looking at here an E350 even though it was actually built on the W204 C-Class platform. Still, surely most of us will be prepared to forgive them that bit of badge-bodgery in exchange for being able to gaze in admiration at the ‘sleek’ (copyright ChatGPT 2025) profile of this black beauty. It’s nicely prepped, too.
On cars other than those you might buy from Shed the odometer will be running forwards. For that reason, Shed is going to say that the mileage of 134k given on the ad for this car isn’t quite right as it had already passed the 141k mark when it went in for its last MOT test in December. The only advisory at that time was ‘items removed from driver’s view prior to test’. In a long career of MOT certificate scrutinisation this phrase used to get Shed stroking his straggly beard in ruminative fashion until he realised that they were generally talking about vision-reducing stuff like dangly air fresheners. In the case of this Merc the tester added an extra morsel of mystery by saying they were front items removed from view, a traumatic reminder for Shed of his wedding night when his wife ordered him to remove his own dangly front items from view.
The diesel engine of this 350 CDI is Euro 5 BlueEfficiency rather than the later Euro 6-compliant BlueTec. That’s good if you selfishly value lower personal costs over the wider needs of the planet because it means you won’t have to fork out for AdBlue. Even with the lower-powered 227hp/398lb ft version, as here, you’ll be bombing this 1,730kg coupé through the 0-60mph run in 6.5 seconds, which is less time than you would have needed to do the same test in last week’s BMW 330d Shed. There was actually a burlier 261hp version of the 350CDI with a 0-60 time in the fives.
The official average fuel consumption of our 227hp car was 41mpg and even the annual road tax is bearable, relatively speaking anyway, at £345. Leather was an option on the Sport and this one is mooed up accordingly.
All right, it can’t be put off any longer: our car has a problem. According to the vendor it ‘drops into limp mode after driving for some time’. Obviously it would have been useful to know what they mean by ‘some time’. If they’re talking about 30 seconds, limp mode would be inconvenient bordering on maddening, but if it’s five years, well, that would be something most of us could happily ignore. Chances are it’s going to be somewhere between the two, and probably closer to the 30-second end of the range than the five-year end.
To try and find the possible cause Shed put in his usual ‘one go and then I’m giving up’ research effort. To his relief and surprise the internet kindly came up with the phrase ‘DPF pressure sensor’. Apparently that can be a thing on these. Shed won’t bore you with what goes wrong. All you need to know is that a couple of years ago a new one cost £65 and that it would take an indie about an hour to bung it on for you. Add that to the £1,995 for the car as it stands and then show someone a picture of it in its new no-problems state. Then get them to guess how much the car might cost. Shed is fairly confident that their guesses will be considerably higher than a little over two grand.
Of course, a dodgy DPF might not be the reason, in which case your forum bingo entry will win you a prize. Maybe. But even if you don’t bother mending it, is that such a disaster? Limp mode isn’t always bad. After all, not everyone wants or needs to bash about the place at unsociable speeds. Limps can even be nice, like the one Shed often gets when he’s out walking with the postmistress. That’s a trouser pressure issue.
I’ve pushed “do you want it sell it?” notes through the door a couple of times with the hope to buy it for a banger rally, but there it remains.
Shame.
Top shed!
I can sometimes get 200 miles in without it going into limp mode. It sometimes comes on shortly after a restart on the way back from the shops. Pot luck. To shed’s point given the torquey engine you can still creep it to 80 on a flat motorway in limp mode or try simply turn the engine off and on again (carefully avoiding engaging the steering lock).
As for the Mercedes, superb looking thing. Yes from me.
Very nice shed though!
However it’s a stonking engine when on full tap. Worth it if you’re handy with vehicle electronics and patient at fault finding. The can bus comms is the underlying issue. Too easily confused by poor connectivity.
AdBlue has nothing to do with saving the planet (CO2) and everything to do with preserving the health of young children (NO2). Ancient Euro 4 diesels have been better for the planet than just about anything since, it's just a small matter that they lead to smaller head circumference in newborns and increase ASD incidence.
Imagine a world where even motoring journalist know what they're talking about.
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