<p>It has been an interesting few months. Over the past few months, we have been offered three different used, older Mercedes in various degrees of maintenance at different prices (by family). After much debate and an evaluation by our favorite mechanic, we turned down car #1 (he said it had A LOT of mechanical issues). We were tempted and held onto car #2 for 36 hours. It had some quirky electrical issues and was being sold for more than we could comfortably afford, but was a 2005 vehicle with under 30,000 miles (we never took it to a mechanic–was just my observations from driving said vehicle a few times). We thanked everyone involved and returned the car and thought that was the end of it but dad decided to buy car #2 and give us his old car (a 2000 with under 85K miles, which also has some quirky electrical issues and just got a brand new battery). I guess it’s karma and we again thanked everyone and figure we will keep car #3 and drive it as long as it is safe to drive (would really offend dad & others to do anything else).</p>
<p>H & I figure we will see if our mechanic can figure out how to make the battery in the car stop dying and it should have some more years of life in the vehicle. Will ship MY car to D, since she does need a vehicle that is safe. Told her I would NOT be comfortable shipping her this vehicle, since we feel my car is more mechanically reliable & we know it was VERY WELL maintained and would be solid in an accident. It also fits D well and she’s very comfortable driving it. It has under 24K miles on it and is a 2005.</p>
<p>H & I are bemused by the musical cars. Car #1 made it’s way to my sister (after we politely declined it). It was flooded in recent rains and now doesn’t start. Not sure what she & BIL did with said vehicle, as it is no longer parked outside their home as it was when it was flooded. Could be that they’ve had their mechanical friend work on it at his place–have not inquired.</p>
<p>Early 2000s Mercedes-Benz cars were not all that reliable, and they tend to have expensive maintenance and repair costs.</p>
<p>A flooded car should be considered a total loss, unless someone wants a project taking it completely apart, replacing all electrical and mechanical components that could be damaged by submersion, cleaning everything else, and putting it all back together.</p>
<p>I got my grandmothers old car (free). It is almost as old as me! Special edition 1992 Honda with all the extra’s! Garaged the whole time and only 40,000 miles. Still looks brand new (paint and leather in perfect condition)</p>
<p>Then the problems started.</p>
<p>A piece of one of the tires peeled off (nice top of the line Michelin’s). My dad made me take it to the local tire shop. They were amazed, the tires were 15 years old! Probably only had 5,000 miles on them but were disintegrating. 4 new tires.</p>
<p>Major oil leak on a trip home. The mechanic said the oil plug had “crumbled”. No engine damage.</p>
<p>Radiator leak–it was just really old, had to be replaced</p>
<p>timing belt–yes, old too–major expense because apparently those engines were put in “sideways” (whatever that means) and it was a real hassle to get to. At least they changed all hoses and belts along the way.</p>
<p>The starter (I think that it what it is called) froze up, couldn’t start the car. It was replaced.</p>
<p>Now, I finally have a car that everything has been replaced/fixed. Mechanoc said the brakes were in excellent condition). About $2,500. Still no airbags. It still looks brand new, has a really nice interior and kind of drives like a sports car (as much as a sport edition Honda can).</p>
<p>I am glad I have a car and I don’t really drive it much. BUT I have learned that OLD cars from grandma might not be worth it.</p>
<p>Yea, we are properly grateful but it is NOT a car we have EVER wanted but can’t figure out a graceful way of opting out. We figure it’s karma and will keep it while we can keep it running decently without sinking a ton of $$$ into it. I figure it’s really NOT my issue that my sister had her car they gave her flooded out. At least don’t believe we will have flooding where I live, but who knows? They had never had the problem either.</p>
<p>It can be our backup car when one or the other of our other two cars are in the shop, I guess, IF we can fix whatever electrical problem makes the battery have such a short life. At least this car DOES have airbags. I know their idea of maintenance doesn’t coincide with OUR idea of maintenance.</p>
<p>We have to buy a car, probably this weekend…DH is dragging his feet but the rest of us are greatly inconvenienced by the lack of a 3rd car and it’s going to get worse next week. I told DH he could walk to work :D. Any of those cars left :D. We buy used, try to get something with under 50,000 miles on it depending on what the current driving situation is. This next car needs to have excellent gas mileage as we will be putting a lot of miles on the car over the next 2 years.</p>
<p>Getting flooded is not a good thing, but at least it may be an opportunity for her to sell the unreliable car (as a flood total loss to the insurance company) without offending the giving relatives.</p>
<p>HImom - 85000 miles? On Oahu? (Any salt air on Oahu?)</p>
<p>Electrical issues can be fairly straightforward to fix … except that the “easy to fix” ones generally get fixed, leaving stuff like “when I turn on the windshield wipers, the power windows start going up and down and the air conditioning quits.”</p>
<p>The good news is that there’s no possibility of getting stuck in Colby KS while on a cross-country trip. The bad news is that age-based electrical problems never really go away. And as you know, ALL work on Mercedes cars is expensive.</p>
<p>The car is a 2000. It is not hard to rack up miles if you drive to & from work. I have a 2000 van that has over 100,000 miles on it. H’s Volvo is a 1998 & I don’t even know how many miles his sedan has.</p>
<p>I don’t know what my sister did about the flooded car. Don’t even know if it was on her insurance yet or still on my folks’ policy. Yes, the good thing about our cars is that we DO have AAA and generally getting stuck is a matter of calling someone to come & rescue/pick me or someone else up. So far, it hasn’t been too bad with our aging cars (we used to have a 1992 BMW that S has since totalled & before that, we had a 1983 that H parted with only reluctantly to get the 1998 Volvo).</p>
<p>I will see if my mechanic can do ANYTHING to help make the electrical system more reliable but won’t hold my breath about it. <sigh> Perhaps in a while, we may gift it to my sister or some other lucky person. Who knows what the future will bring?!?!?</sigh></p>
<p>I know virtually nothing about cars, and expecially An older MB, but two days after H purchased a 2008 used Jeep it went berserk with horn blowing, wipers wiping, crazy clock, and then wouldn’t start. The mechanic reset an electrical code and all was fine.</p>
<p>Can you clarify- were you “gifted” these cars or were you expected to “pay” for them? My SIL has “gifted” 2 of her old cars to my s’s . We paid to have them checked over and paid for whatever they needed (service, new tires) etc. but didn’t pay for the cars themselves.</p>
<p>Cars 1 & 3 were “gifts” but car 2 was going to cost significantly more than we were prepared to pay at that time. We are hoping that the car we have, #3, will run and not rack up enormous repair bills in the near term. If it starts to look like more expense and trouble than we can handle, we can re-gift it to my sister, who has a mechanic relative-in-law that enjoys tinkering & charges low prices. Knowing we still have a backup plan is a relief to me, though not really excited about having FOUR cars on our auto policy!</p>