17plate C Class - High Miles
17plate C Class - High Miles
Author
Discussion

TheHighlander

Original Poster:

1,657 posts

226 months

Thursday 14th October 2021
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Hi Gents,

I have the option to buy one of the old company cars - I have no need for this but why not.....

17 plate Merc C Class 350E Hybrid
1 owner
Mileage - 171k of motorway miles (my bosses old motor)
Full MB history as with all our cars they get everything needed, it's had batteries aswell.

Anyway I am struggling to put a price on it, work have said for me to make them an offer as they don't really have a cost on it either due to the mileage.

Any ideas?

Richard-390a0

3,460 posts

119 months

Thursday 14th October 2021
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We buy any car or Autotrader valuation tool?.

TheHighlander

Original Poster:

1,657 posts

226 months

Thursday 14th October 2021
quotequote all
Richard-390a0 said:
We buy any car or Autotrader valuation tool?.
Them and motorway came up with something along the lines of unable to evaluate due to the mileage which is strange as I sold one of our work vans to WBAC the other day with 196k on it and a 18 plate.

Tabs

1,106 posts

300 months

Thursday 14th October 2021
quotequote all
Sharp intake of breath. If it was a Lexus hybrid, I'd take a punt at the right price. They are pretty reliable, and the battery pack can be replaced/reconditioned for reasonable money.
But a Mercedes? I seem to remember they had many problems on release. Have you investigated independent problem solvers if you hit trouble?
I'm biased, as I do have a Lexus, and hybrid battery solutions can easily be found.

georgeyboy12345

4,581 posts

63 months

Thursday 14th October 2021
quotequote all
The C350e was a PHEV, right?

Seems a kind of inappropriate use for a PHEV, generally they more suited to lots of short journeys, but could see its appeal as a tax-dodge. Anyhow I saw an A3 e-tron with 190,000 miles on it recently and it was still running well.

The 2.0 turbo engine in these is the M274 unit, it's pretty reliable, but supposedly in some rare cases the timing chains and turbos can let go between 80-100k miles, though this one should have done this long ago! I think the hybrid drivetrain in these circumstances can prolong the life of parts like the timing chain and turbo, as the electric motor is helping the engine along, meaning it's under less stress (though the increased weight penalty may counteract this to a degree).

The 190k 2014 A3 e-tron I saw was up at £8500 through a dealer. Obviously the Mercedes is more car, lower miles and a few years younger. If you can get it for £10k, then I'd say that's a good deal.

James-gbg1e

429 posts

108 months

Thursday 14th October 2021
quotequote all
350e in any guise was a pig. The hybrid was meant to be 18 miles I believe yet most got around 5-6 miles from the reading I did at the time.

Worse still though were continual issues and errors in the hybrid system.

I'd do some research and make a decision on it, then determine a price based on A trader.

SlowV6

720 posts

167 months

Thursday 14th October 2021
quotequote all
James-gbg1e said:
350e in any guise was a pig. The hybrid was meant to be 18 miles I believe yet most got around 5-6 miles from the reading I did at the time.

Worse still though were continual issues and errors in the hybrid system.

I'd do some research and make a decision on it, then determine a price based on A trader.
Although in this case the OP knows this particular car and therefore if it has proved reliable in it's 171k miles. De -risks it a fair bit.

OP has stated they have no real need for this car so in my mind this deal only seems worth bothering with if OP can get the car for way under its true value and thus turn a profit by flipping it. Otherwise OP is buying a car he doesn't need and will be taking a hit when selling.

samoht

7,174 posts

174 months

Thursday 14th October 2021
quotequote all
If the various valuation tools don't work and you can't see others with such high mileage at that young age, then I'd fall back to extrapolation.

Basically make a spreadsheet of all the 2017 C350es on autotrader, noting price and mileage. Then plot them on a graph and either manually draw a line through the dots, or get it to do a line of best fit automatically. Then find 171k miles on that line for the value.

When I was looking at 350Zs before I just used a straight line - EDIT I think exponential is better.


This would be my best effort to achieve a 'fair' valuation.

Edited by samoht on Thursday 14th October 22:23

General Price

6,267 posts

211 months

Thursday 14th October 2021
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£7500-£8000

It's probably worth around £9000 to trade

samoht

7,174 posts

174 months

Thursday 14th October 2021
quotequote all
General Price said:
£7500-£8000

It's probably worth around £9000 to trade
The highest mileage C350e on AT has 107k miles and is up for £14790. Not sure that a car with a bit under twice the mileage is suddenly worth half that?

TheHighlander

Original Poster:

1,657 posts

226 months

Friday 15th October 2021
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General Price said:
£7500-£8000

It's probably worth around £9000 to trade
That's about right, a couple of traders I know got back to me last night.

Offers between £8500 and £10500 on condition, it's immaculate and very little wear on the drivers seat and steering wheel, it's had an easy life.

I've since been told I can get it for £5k so I'm going to take it.

What's a wee bit annoying is I just bought a 2019 C Class AMG line for the wife 3 weeks ago - 25k on it etc haha.

gman88667733

1,196 posts

95 months

Friday 15th October 2021
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TheHighlander said:
That's about right, a couple of traders I know got back to me last night.

Offers between £8500 and £10500 on condition, it's immaculate and very little wear on the drivers seat and steering wheel, it's had an easy life.

I've since been told I can get it for £5k so I'm going to take it.

What's a wee bit annoying is I just bought a 2019 C Class AMG line for the wife 3 weeks ago - 25k on it etc haha.
At 5k, that is a bargain. If something seems not quite right, just sell it on for a profit..!
Good luck with it!

TheHighlander

Original Poster:

1,657 posts

226 months

Friday 15th October 2021
quotequote all
gman88667733 said:
At 5k, that is a bargain. If something seems not quite right, just sell it on for a profit..!
Good luck with it!
I've driven it alot for work when I go further a field as my work pickup isn't great for long journeys.

He was going to buy it but said he would have no use for it, he found out from our transport side how much they wanted last night.

It's had new batteries in it, I may just give it a good clean up not that it needs much, have a wee drive of it for a bit and sell it on.