What do ye make of this?

jesus_thats_gre

I have a fondness for luxury barges and have been looking at the 2001 to 2004 BMW 7 Series and Mercedes S-Class.

I am particularly interested in this (the 7 series seems to be particularly good value):

http://www.carzone.ie/search/BMW/7-Series/735..MAI/200923193002010/advert?channel=CARS

http://www.carzone.ie/search/Mercedes-Benz/S-Class/320-A%23T/200928194573757/advert?channel=CARS

Besides the cost of road tax, is there anything else of note that one should know about when considering a car of this type. Are they expensive to maintain? Anything particularly expensive need replacing once you start racking up the miles? If you were to keep it for 2 or 3 years, would garages take them as trade in and would you get screwed on the price?

I won't be doing more than 10,000 miles a year by the way.

milltown

Same answer is given every time a variation on this question is asked. Apart from petrol and tax, the running costs could be eye watering. They were >€100k cars when new and unfortunately the cost of maintaining them doesn't depreciate with their value. Often the opposite in fact. You could be lucky and get one that gives you years of service with no more than brakes, servicing and the odd suspension bushing but it's a gamble IMO.

Regards resale, I'd say you could put a match to it in another couple of years. You'd probably be lucky to see a third of your money back in two or three years time.

Dublinstiofán

My mate is a Cheffeur and has a similar merc to that S-Class.
It's beautiful inside but drinks petrol so be careful. It costs him roughly €4 - €5 to drive to work which is about 3-4 miles away.

I wouldn't go any bigger than 2L its not required with the low mileage your doing.

mickdw

To be honest, if you are going to run one of those for a few years, you should be prepared to write off the purchase cost as a whole and really, anything you can get for it on resale is a bonus then. Any reasonable car is going to cost 5k/year in depreciation so if you ran a new mondeo for 3 years it would cost you 15k to 20k in depreciation.
That cost would be a minor detail compared to other running costs of those imo.

vw4life

to replace merc s-class front and rear brake pads,discs,shocks,balljoints,lower strut mounts,upper suspension arms,suspension arms and full service including sparkplugs(12) approx €4-6000,then maybe air mass sensor,sparkplug leads(12) and a coil or 6,another €2-3000.

make sure it is thoroughly checked over before purchase and as already said,worth maybe €4-5000 in few years if its still a minter and needs none of the above

jesus_thats_gre

Crisis cheers for the heads up!

unkel

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

Crisis cheers for the heads up!

The nay-sayers are right in that there are risks. Then again, I've owned a (previous model) BMW 735 for 5 years and apart from routine servicing done cheaply by my trusted BMW independent, the only substantial bill I've had was just over a grand for a suspension overhaul at 137k miles

I've owned another V8 BMW saloon before it for 4 years, and it didn't need any repairs at all apart from a leaking coolant hose (about £100 iirc).

Mr Benevolent

Alternatively you could maintain the thing yourself. It's always an option.

galwaytt

My thinking is this. On average, I reckon a car costs/depreciates about 4500 p.a.

So, a 15k car will be worth zero after 4 years, effectively. Sad, but true. If you're happy with that, buy anything you like, and if you depreciate it like I said above, then it's all down to personal preference of what level of comfort, style, economy etc you like, in the meantime.

YozzerHughes

Do it. Everytime you sit into it you'll feel like a millionaire. Sure you might get unlucky and get hit with an expensive repair. Or you could be unlucky all the time driving a mediocre car for 3-4 years. As said get a good reasonable independent mechanic that is well used to dealing with the marque and you shouldn't go too far wrong. Main dealer work will kill you.

jesus_thats_gre

The first half of thread is quite negative and the second half is quite positive. Interesting

Cmar-Ireland

If your capable of diy work on the car then go for it. If you shop out all work, then forget it.

vw4life

Cmar-Ireland wrote: »

If your capable of diy work on the car then go for it. If you shop out all work, then forget it.

^^^^^what he said but parts are expensive for Merc and I would never fit non-genuine parts.still its a lot of car for the money if you get a good one,get it checked and if alls well go for it

galwaytt

Early Lexiiiii, LS400 go for peanuts - and don't need fixing.

Ditto GS300, but a lot of people don't like them, so are even cheaper !