S Class Running Costs?

[RobM77]

Today a bizarre and totally out of character idea has popped into my head. That idea is to get an S Class Merc; just for a laugh (I already have an Elise and a Z4 Coupé). I just think it would be rather cool to have one for use on long road trips and other such pointless jaunts.

I've seen five or six year old ones for about £12k to £15k. What sort of running costs could I expect on such a car? I wouldn't want anything fast, just a plodding S320 or something.

The search facility doesn't appear to be working by the way, so sorry if this is a repeat post.

[paoloh]

I've just sold an S320.

On a run at approx 1 lepton, I managed 33mpg.

Around town was early 20s.

Parts are no dearer than most other cars.

Just make sure every switch works especially the suspension.

Check all arches/bottom of doors/boot lid/leading edge of bonnet for rust. In fact, check the whole car.

[RobM77]

Gosh, that mpg is rather good for such a huge car.

Thanks for the advice.

Although I love the idea, the cost of buying a decent one is a season's racing, which will take some serious thought/madness. I do fancy one though!!

[paoloh]

RobM77 said:

Gosh, that mpg is rather good for such a huge car.

Thanks for the advice.

Although I love the idea, the cost of buying a decent one is a season's racing, which will take some serious thought/madness. I do fancy one though!!

I just sold a 99 S320. Great spec, 96k miles, Black with Grey, AMG alloys. £4995.

The 320's fetch more money than the 500's IMO.

[RobM77]

paoloh said:

RobM77 said:

Gosh, that mpg is rather good for such a huge car.

Thanks for the advice.

Although I love the idea, the cost of buying a decent one is a season's racing, which will take some serious thought/madness. I do fancy one though!!

I just sold a 99 S320. Great spec, 96k miles, Black with Grey, AMG alloys. £4995.

The 320's fetch more money than the 500's IMO.

That would be perfect for me, however I've been badly put off older cars by endless big bills in the past. What's your honest opinion of a ten year old one? I realise it's a Merc etc, but is it just a time bomb of big bills waiting to go off? Will it be something I'm desperate to get rid of in six months but things keep going on it that mean I can't sell it until I've got them fixed?

I also remember a Fifth Gear review where they compared a new one with a ten year old one, and apparently the refinement was very similar. Is that true?

Basically, this really isn't my sort of car at all. My passion is for lightweight sports cars. However, I'm really intrigued by the idea of an uber luxury car and want to do it properly with what I've always considered the king of luxury cars. Would my aspirations be dissapointed with a ten year old example? A 1999 BMW 3 series isn't a patch on even a Fiat Panda for refinement!!

[paoloh]

RobM77 said:

paoloh said:

RobM77 said:

Gosh, that mpg is rather good for such a huge car.

Thanks for the advice.

Although I love the idea, the cost of buying a decent one is a season's racing, which will take some serious thought/madness. I do fancy one though!!

I just sold a 99 S320. Great spec, 96k miles, Black with Grey, AMG alloys. £4995.

The 320's fetch more money than the 500's IMO.

That would be perfect for me, however I've been badly put off older cars by endless big bills in the past. What's your honest opinion of a ten year old one? I realise it's a Merc etc, but is it just a time bomb of big bills waiting to go off? Will it be something I'm desperate to get rid of in six months but things keep going on it that mean I can't sell it until I've got them fixed?

I also remember a Fifth Gear review where they compared a new one with a ten year old one, and apparently the refinement was very similar. Is that true?

Basically, this really isn't my sort of car at all. My passion is for lightweight sports cars. However, I'm really intrigued by the idea of an uber luxury car and want to do it properly with what I've always considered the king of luxury cars. Would my aspirations be dissapointed with a ten year old example? A 1999 BMW 3 series isn't a patch on even a Fiat Panda for refinement!!

Rob, my wife had the car for 4 months and really did not want it to go.

At 1 lepton, you can't even here the thing.

The only bill I had was with an air con pump and me being me, the only 2nd hand one I couldn't find, was my part number... About £400 for the part and £100 to fit.

It is the little touches like a soft close boot. The whole interior setting itself to the key the user has.

In black with big wheels, these cars look amazing and still look a lot of money.

The car was no slouch and did crack along nicely but still returned decent MPG.

I won't tell you on an open forum what I paid for the car ( PM me if you want to know ) but I would struggle to find a Retail 02 Mondeo for less.

[Egbert Nobacon]

Buy carefully though - rust, shoddy build quality, electrical and suspension repair bills that can make you wince are common.

[RobM77]

Egbert Nobacon said:

Buy carefully though - rust, shoddy build quality, electrical and suspension repair bills that can make you wince are common.

That's precisely what I want to avoid! Thanks.

Does anyone have any experience with Merc's 30 year rust guarantee? You need the car inspected every two years to comply, and I presume that's done as part of the servicing on a car with a FMBSH?

[paoloh]

Egbert Nobacon said:

Buy carefully though - rust, shoddy build quality, electrical and suspension repair bills that can make you wince are common.

Totally agree as mentioned in my first post.

[Elwood]

I've had a 99 S500 for 2 years now and my only expense so far is £40 for rear pads, Overall mpg in that time is 25mpg which I don't think is too bad for a heavy car with a 5 litre V8. On a long run I've had 35mpg. The main thing that would worry me is if anything went wrong with the air suspension. Unless the've been repainted they all seem to have rust around the wheel arches.
PS don't forget pre march 01 cheaper road tax.

Edited by Elwood on Thursday 28th January 17:25

[RobM77]

Thanks Elwood. I think I'll need to do my research. In the past when I've bought cars with traditional springs and dampers they need changing at 70-80k. Is that the case with an S class? I don't want to buy a 100k mile example and find that it handles like a boat (ok, more of a boat than it should).

I'm really scared of older cars, but I'm beginning to consider it.

I called Mercedes today and they do a roof rack so I can get my kayak on the roof (I'm stuck at the moment cause I changed my car in October for one that my local BMW dealer promised me had a roof rack, but after a lot of phone calls it turns out that no such thing exists and obviously I can't get my money back for the car).

[Egbert Nobacon]

RobM77 said:

Thanks Elwood. I think I'll need to do my research. In the past when I've bought cars with traditional springs and dampers they need changing at 70-80k. Is that the case with an S class? I don't want to buy a 100k mile example and find that it handles like a boat (ok, more of a boat than it should

If the air suspension goes it can cost a small fortune per corner to sort.

These people offer a conversion kit that removes the air gubbins and replaces it with a conventional set up.

http://www.strutmasters.com/Mercedes-S-Class-Air-S...

If your seriously contemplating a large exec car but don't want the nagging worry of potential big bills have you considered a Lexus LS400/430 ?

[RobM77]

Egbert Nobacon said:

RobM77 said:

Thanks Elwood. I think I'll need to do my research. In the past when I've bought cars with traditional springs and dampers they need changing at 70-80k. Is that the case with an S class? I don't want to buy a 100k mile example and find that it handles like a boat (ok, more of a boat than it should

If the air suspension goes it can cost a small fortune per corner to sort.

These people offer a conversion kit that removes the air gubbins and replaces it with a conventional set up.

http://www.strutmasters.com/Mercedes-S-Class-Air-S...

If your seriously contemplating a large exec car but don't want the nagging worry of potential big bills have you considered a Lexus LS400/430 ?

Do they all have the air suspension or is it just the S500?

I know this sounds silly, but I want to own an S Class purely because it's an S Class and I've always respected them. I realise that the Lexus or a Phaeton etc would be a very good car, but I've just had a respect for S Classes all my life and would love to own one, partly just to see what it's like.

[Four Cofffee]

How much is a warranty on an S class then? I got 15 months warrant on my 2005 E320 for about £300.

Obviously when I ry to claim it will be worthless.

[paoloh]

There is nothing quite like an S class for "presence". The Lexus doesn't even come close!

Name another that you can buy for £4k that still has this level of presence?

[RobM77]

paoloh said:

There is nothing quite like an S class for "presence". The Lexus doesn't even come close!

Name another that you can buy for £4k that still has this level of presence?

That's probably true. For me though, it's not really the presence that attracts me. It's just that I've always been into sports cars, and since I was a small boy I've read car magazines and learnt about which sports car was fastest, drove best, handled best etc. My bedroom walls had the F40, Caterham, 288GTO, F1 cars, Le Mans cars etc on them. As a purely personal observation, I was always aware that in another sector of the market, known as "luxury cars", the S Class was king, which in my mind was the beginning and end of it. It's the QE2 of cars in my opinion. there's probably a lot more to it than that, but I was never aware of it because I just read Autosport and selected copies of Car if it had something interesting in it. Now that I'm grown up and have driven and owned a lot of sports cars I've settled down with two sports cars that I'm very happy with, and sorted myself out racing a slicks and wings single seater, just like I wanted to. Purely as part of my passion for cars I'd like to own this four wheeled QE2 that I've been hearing about for so long

I also think that the S Class doesn't shout about itself or make me look like a pipe smoking old man. I know this sounds odd, but in a way I see it as classless.

[paoloh]

My wife is 28 and you used love tooling about in the S due to huge boot for buggy and shopping.

It takes zero effort to drive one of these.

Just sit there and waft.

I have to disagree about an S being classless.

It screams money.

Compare it to a similar aged 7 series..... ( I'm talking circa 2000 )

[RobM77]

paoloh said:

My wife is 28 and you used love tooling about in the S due to huge boot for buggy and shopping.

It takes zero effort to drive one of these.

Just sit there and waft.

I have to disagree about an S being classless.

It screams money.

Compare it to a similar aged 7 series..... ( I'm talking circa 2000 )

Wafting appeals to me greatly I also want to see an S Class with two kayaks on the roof! There is a practical reason for buying it

Interesting that you say it screams money. I thought I'd just look like a chaufeur on his day off I can't stand negative attention on the roads, and like to just blend in. Most of them come in silver or black, which is good for that I guess.

It's the quiet that intrigues me. Are they really as quiet as people say doing 70mph on the motorway?

[paoloh]

RobM77 said:

paoloh said:

My wife is 28 and you used love tooling about in the S due to huge boot for buggy and shopping.

It takes zero effort to drive one of these.

Just sit there and waft.

I have to disagree about an S being classless.

It screams money.

Compare it to a similar aged 7 series..... ( I'm talking circa 2000 )

Wafting appeals to me greatly I also want to see an S Class with two kayaks on the roof! There is a practical reason for buying it

Interesting that you say it screams money. I thought I'd just look like a chaufeur on his day off I can't stand negative attention on the roads, and like to just blend in. Most of them come in silver or black, which is good for that I guess.

It's the quiet that intrigues me. Are they really as quiet as people say doing 70mph on the motorway?

We used it to go to Devon, over 1000 miles with little/no noise at all.

Black is actually quite a rare colour.

Silvers/Chardonnay Blue are plentiful.

AMG wheels make a huge difference to the way the car looks.

Another thing to note ( on all Mercs ) if the red EC light is lit on climate control and won't go out. Air con is either very low or knackered. It will also need to be reset after recharge/repair by Merc themslves.

[RobM77]

thanks