Contemplating a Mercedes

[Big Booger]

I am thinking about buying a used Mercedes. Any thoughts pro or con on this? I am just wondering if any of you have any experience with owning a Benz in Japan and what to look out for.

[FG Lurker]

Taro's the guy to talk to, and he won't have anything much positive to say about the idea. Basically repairs and service are crazy-ass expensive and unfortunately regular.

[Tsuru]

Get a Lexus.

[tidbits]

Can't tell you much about cars, but we own a S320 1997 model (the last "big" model for S320) since about 2-3 years ago, no repairing so far and just renewed the Shaken by ourself too. Will check with him what to look out..(I wasn't in the "buying process", he bought this car without my knowledge, when I was back in my home country and while we already owned a Honda Oddesey )

[Jack]

I am thinking about buying a used Mercedes. Any thoughts pro or con on this? I am just wondering if any of you have any experience with owning a Benz in Japan and what to look out for.

If you want to go broke repairing it, go for it. If you want to preserve your wealth, go with a brand that was mentioned by Tsuru and that I wont mention it because then you'll say I'm biased.

[nottu]

[Tsuru]

If you really absolutely have to have a second hand Merc, for heaven's sake don't get one from between 1995-2005. The reliability and quality are absymal compared to their heyday or what they build these days, having found that skimping on quality control is no way to run a luxury car brand.

What model are you looking for?

[Ketou]

Yea...what model are you looking at? Going for a C, E, S?

[Yokohammer]

BB, great to hear that you've come out of an iffy situation pretty well! But why a Merc? I agree with other posters who feel you should just get a new domestic car: full warranty, no shaken for three years, reasonably-priced service with a smile. On the other hand, from the looks of your last vehicle after the smash-up you might want to look into a nice second-hand Hummer H3.

[Marked Trail]

... second hand Merc, for heaven's sake don't get one from between 1995-2005. The reliability and quality are abysmal

I had a 1998 Benz 190E (bought new) and I would rather own ANY OTHER CAR in the Universe.

Benz in Japan has the world's most expensive servicing and the car's need servicing all the time. The J-distributor Yanasei are crooks and the cars are just don't make sense in Japan since EVERY service item costs double or triple.

In Germany the service is superb--It just sucks in Japan and the States. In the US I have owned a 1991 Benz 300 straight 6 which was ok but EVERYTHING needed a special Mercedes tool to fix and the 3rd party service parts don't really work.

[color="Red"]FINALLY THE BIG WARNING[/color]
You may be tempted to buy a used Benz 600 in Japan because it is possible to buy one for almost nothing if it is over 5 years old---DON'T! Even the mechanics at the Benz dealers curse that car because everything mechanical is shrouded and it takes HOURS to expose the mechanicals just the start performing a simple tune-up or oil change.

[Catoneinutica]

Taro's the guy to talk to, and he won't have anything much positive to say about the idea. Basically repairs and service are crazy-ass expensive and unfortunately regular.

Can't improve on FGL's summary. We leased small Mercedes from a J-doc back in the late 90s and we both loathed it. It was ugly, no fun to drive, cheaply built (as Tsuru mentions), and it seemed like we were always having to go to the ubiquitous Yanase for repairs. Buy a Honda.

[Yokohammer]

Buy a Honda.

Yup. +1.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

If you can afford a luxury car now, can you give me a job?
In fact, can anyone give me a job?

[Taro Toporific]

Taro's the guy to talk to, and he won't have anything much positive to say about the idea. Basically repairs and service are crazy-ass expensive and unfortunately regular.

Yep. I've had a hate-hate relationship with Benz for 40 years.
My best friend in high-school skipped going to university and went to Germany to become a certified "Mercedes-Benz Meister Mechanic"---I used to work in his independent repair shop on the weekends when things got busy. Gasoline Mercedes were always "cranken" ---The diesels were a better value (if the filters are changed and injectors are cleaned religiously).

In Japan, paying for the service will cost you a small fortune (unless you collect a small fortune of special Benz tools). Save yourself the grief---Get a Lexus.

PS: I only use my 190E Benz to haul tomatoes on the Rice Ranch---The trade-in value of a Benz that is 4-to 6 years old and only has 30,000km on it is less than 50,000 yen.

[Ketou]

PS: I only use my 190E Benz to haul tomatoes on the Rice Ranch---The trade-in value of a Benz that is 4-to 6 years old and only has 30,000km on it is less than 50,000 yen.

Never trade in a car, they rip you off no end. I'd buy em for easy over what they offer.
Did you import the E190 yourself? Don't see many around...

[Takechanpoo]

[Taro Toporific]

Did you import the E190 yourself? Don't see many around...

I bought it new with a Mitsubishi-Mercedes (joint venture) employee discount. The worst car of the 20 or so I have owned over the years.

[james]

Buy a Honda.

yeah, just not a "Honda Life". if you do, i'll run you off the road for your own sake

[Jack]

If you can afford a luxury car now, can you give me a job?
In fact, can anyone give me a job?

Post deleted due to lack of evidence for what I was going to write.

[Big Booger]

I just want to know about the repair cost, maintenance, etc... The car I am looking at is a SLK 230 Compressor, 2 seater supercharged roadster convertible. But I want to know what sort of special charges come along with servicing at Shakken time, etc.. if any. That's my only concern. And perhaps inflated insurance premiums or something like that.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Post deleted due to lack of evidence for what I was going to write.

Wise decision!

[Big Booger]

[Adhesive]

Hmm a bit of an odd-choice for Japan, but congrats. My grandfather had the same car...personally I would only get a ZR-1 from that generation, but I'm pretty sure the 92' introduced the awesome LT1 engine, which is rated at 300hp, right?

Anyway they are relatively easy to work on...they have a lot of digital instruments and I think a HUD that might be a bitch to replace in Japan...but there's so many parts available in the US I'm sure you can have something shipped.

By the way, manual or automatic? If it's manual you got a sub 5 second 0-60 car on your hands.

[FG Lurker]

Well, I bought a 1992 Chevrolet Corvette with 50K
miles/80K on it and got a decent deal with shaken for 510000 yen.

No idea if that's a good deal or not but I'm guessing you'll have a bit of fun
with it!

I drove it all day today and loved lighting the tires up.

You're not going to like replacing the tires quite as much. Good tires for it
will set you back 30,000 to 40,000 each.
(Cheapass Falken tires that'll be noisy as hell and kill you if you push a bit
hard in the rain run around 12,000 to 15,000 each.)

It has quite a few small problems

It's an American car... You'll get used to the problems.

Hmm a bit of an odd-choice for Japan, but congrats. My
grandfather had the same car...personally I would only get a ZR-1 from that
generation, but I'm pretty sure the 92' introduced the awesome LT1 engine,
which is rated at 300hp, right?

Yep, the new LT1 and 300hp...from a 5.7 litre engine... USA! USA!
USA! (No offense BB, that's just the way the US goes about getting some
power.)

By the way, manual or automatic? If it's manual you got a
sub 5 second 0-60 car on your hands.

Nope, the ZR-1 was 4.9 seconds but the stock 6 speed LT1 was 5.7. I'm not
sure what the penalty was for the automatic but I am guessing something
around half a second.

[Adhesive]

Yep, the new LT1 and 300hp...from a 5.7 litre engine... USA! USA!
USA! (No offense BB, that's just the way the US goes about getting some
power.)

True, but there's TONS of room for cheap gains with those 5.7 liters.

Nope, the ZR-1 was 4.9 seconds but the stock 6 speed LT1 was 5.7. I'm not
sure what the penalty was for the automatic but I am guessing something
around half a second.

Really? I knew the ZR-1 was sub 5 and I thought the LT1 brought the standard corvette close to those numbers. The only thing I could find on it is here: http://www.motorera.com/corvette/1990/vet92.htm

No idea how reliable that info is...

[FG Lurker]

True, but there's TONS of room for cheap gains with those 5.7 liters.

Depends what you want. If it is only straight line acceleration that you're after then there is much
that can be done without a whole lot of money invested. If you want a more balanced car then
things start to cost more...

Really? I knew the ZR-1 was sub 5 and I thought the LT1 brought the standard
corvette close to those numbers. The only thing I could find on it is here:
http://www.motorera.com/corvette/1990/vet92.htm

There is a Motor Trend review of the '92 Vette that gets quoted a lot and that's where the 5.7sec
time for the 6sp LT1 came from. The 4.9sec time for the ZR-1 came from a Car & Driver review.
In '92 5.7 seconds was a fairly respectable time and 4.9secs matched the '91 911 Turbo.

[Blah Pete]

Watch where you park it. A friend of mine had his Vet stolen in Ibaraki. Never got it back.

[FG Lurker]

Watch where you park it. A friend of mine had his Vet stolen in Ibaraki. Never got it back.

Probably stolen by Oklahoma...

[Coligny]

PS: I only use my 190E Benz to haul tomatoes on the Rice Ranch---The trade-in value of a Benz that is 4-to 6 years old and only has 30,000km on it is less than 50,000 yen.

Dude... 4 year old A4, 20000km... we considered ourselves lucky
1- to get rid of it \
without having to pay
2- We got a spare smart key free as trade in (it was like christmas twice the same day)

Simply nothing was working anymore. The garage where she was bought was previously a Toyota/VW/Audi... then they dropped Audi and we became personna non gratta, they refused even to perform oil change. While they were working on a Passat B5... which is the same car with different bumper.
ABS-gone often rear lock up even with moderate braking at speed below 30kph
Aircon-randomly gone
airbag-passager side gone
Shieldwiper-gone under the rain (known design flaw)
Winter/cold engine start-not if you skip using it more than 1 day
Auto gearbox-really confused when climbing anything (up/down constantly)
Transmission-front right dogbone gone (clak clak clak noise when you turn)
Steering-worn out, should have replaced all the upper links
Paint... sunburn on the left front door, gloss coat gone, would require repaint of all 4 left panels (4 man each)

I think i manage to forget some, but you get the idea...
2 years after dumping it I was still having nightmares...

[Big Booger]

Well it's an automatic but going from a 2.0 liter Mazda MPV to a 5.7 liter Corvette has really made my damn day. But now I have to sort through small shit like changing the under-the-hood lights, finding air, fuel and transmission filters (hello Autozone, Napa, even if you believe it Yahoo Japan auctions....), finding some new tires within the next year, cleaning it properly to my standard of cleanliness... the shop tried cleaning it but it's just not the type of cleaning I consider appropriate.

The passenger seat gear is fucked so I have to find parts for it or repair it... it's all electric which I fucking hate...

I changed the oil at Autobacs and learned how to reset the change oil light (rather complicated series of button presses on the dash cluster),

But overall I am happy. I mean it's no spring chicken but the damn car sounds beasty when I rev it up and that's worth 500000 yen to me... my fucking Mazda sounded like a weezing 80 year old. The vette sounds like a quiet riot concert on crystal meth.

I agree Adhesive it was odd to get the car and went I went to the shop it was to look at an Alpha and a goddamn Audi TT 1.8 liter. But he had sold both of them and he had the vette sitting over in the corner not even prepared for sale and I asked him how much he wanted for it. He said 550000 and I told him I'd come back in the daylight and have a look. Came back, noticed some of the troubles and made a counter offer at 490000. He said 510000 including the rip-off recycle fee and we had a deal.

It gets decent fuel mileage if I can keep from putting my foot through accel into the floor pan. And my neighbors are really thrilled to hear that 5.7 liter V8 revving in my parking space.