I just got my '07 c-class and haven't put a dime into the maintenance yet. I was told by lots of people that "You're gonna sell it in a few years after you see how much it costs to take care of." I already know that they are costly- more than, let's say, Acura, but how bad is it? it can't be that bad. Can someone give me an idea of how high the maintenance really is? Of course non-benz owners will say it's astronomical- that's probably why they don't have one- they probably also hate us for having them. So they aren't exactly 100% credible here. So can you give me a proportion, let's say, compared with Acura... for instance, does it cost 3 times as much as Acura to tune-up, fix, replace tires, etc...?

 

Its a brand new car! As long as you don't let the kids work on it,or drive over a curb, it will be fine. Learn how to check all the fluids yourself, and do the oil changes on time.

Over-all, I would say that it will cost you more to operate than a Civic or an Accord, but less to operate than an Oddysey.

Blue

 

Well your first Service A Oil Change is going to cost you $200. That can happen at 15k miles or 12 months. Mine came at 12 months and only about 5000 miles, since I do not drive the car much.

So $200 for one year was not bad for me. Now, by comparison I change the oil on my wifes Honda Pilot myself and it costs me about $20. I do it at 5k mile intervals. So comparing these two the MB oil change is 10X higher than the Honda oil change.

Now, lets look at the tires. The MBZ has something like 235x45x17 or something like that Michelin Pilot Primacys. These are going to cost $1000 all around to change them and wear our fairly quickly since they are a High Performance Tire.

The tires on the Pilot are Kumhos in 235x70x16 or something like that. They cost me about $400 a set installed and last almost 40k miles. I will be lucky if the Primacys go 20k. So the tires on the MBZ are 5X more expensive than the Honda.

I have not had to do brakes yet. But from my experience on my previous BMW which is similar to the MBZ in pricing (I will assume) the brakes maintenance rotors and pads are about twice as expensive as the Honda or my Mazda Miata.

The previous poster who claims the C230 costs less to maintain than a Odyssey (which is very similar to a Pilot) isincorrect based on my experience and I am at 81,000 on the Pilot.

German Entry Level Luxury cars are not cheap to maintain. If we are lucky and only have to do maintenance istead of frequent REPAIRS it should not be that bad.

-Eric

 

As an owner of an '05 C230K with almost 100,000 miles on it now, I can tell you this much. The 4 cyl. supercharged engine is gone
and replaced by several V-6's, as you know since you have an '07. So I wouldn't compare the two here, but everything else I can.
Purchased new, I bought an extended warranty (reluctantly) to 100k miles for my car, knowing I would put a lot of miles on it and
wanted the whole car to be covered just in case I had the same experience with Mercedes as I did with my last car, a 3-series BMW.
Best thing I EVER did. That $1,600 paid for itself over and over in costs at the dealership. So if you're THAT worried about it, you can
still buy one. Other than that, I would agree with the other people who answered you. With BMW and Mercedes, brakes are more, rotors
will have to be changed at time of pads, tires are "high performance" and stickier and softer than most, so there's an additional cost,
oil changes CAN be done yourself as I have done, but it's a bit of a hassle and not recommended unless you like that kind of thing, etc.
You may be lucky and nothing will go wrong with your car during the warranty period. Or maybe not. I would just drive it and enjoy it and not
worry too much about what might happen, yeah? JD Power reliability scores are highest for Toyota, Lexus, Honda and these types of vehicles.
But we wanted a Mercedes and I think they're a good car to enjoy driving. Yes, I know, premium gas vs. regular, etc. And more money for
this and that. I would probably get a new C class when they come out with it and do an upper end V6 later this summer. No more 4 cyl. even
with 33 mpg on the highway and about 27 city. That's appealing, but not as smooth and quiet as the V6 lineup. My take on it. Hope this
encourages you to drive with a smile.

 

mo mo BMW,

I read you post, and thank you for respectfully qualifying yourstatement about me being incorrect by saying, "according to your experience", mainly because your experience has been very different than ours. Our Oddysey did extremely well on repairs until it hit 100k miles, thenthetrannyblew up with an estimated repair of nearly $10,000 US. This would include the tranny, wheel bearings, and axles, all of which were well worn by 100k miles.

Wefound out later that this type of repair istypical of that drive train, often well before 100k miles. The repair was unexpected, untimely,extremely expensive, and actuallycaused us to reconsider the purchase of a new Oddysey.If the tranny had NOT gone, it would be well ahead of the Mercedes, but it did.

Secondly, you're comparing Kumos to Michellins, possibly the cheapest against the most expensive, when I think the owner could choose to put either brand tire on either car. You're also comparing changing the oil yourself to a complete service A at the dealer. Are you really being fair? Either way, I know statistically the Hondas will average more efficient, but I'm sure anyone can tell we are both somewhat biased. Yes?

Blue

 

I will engage you on a few points Bluesilver.

My tire comments were intended to draw a comparison between the Mercedes application which calls for a High Performance low profile staggered, wide, set of tiresversus the Honda vehicle (whatever model it may be with exception of the S2000) which has higher profile All Season type tires.

I personally love Kumho tires. The set I have installed of the Pilot are far superior to the OEM Goodyear Integrity's that came on it. I will very seriously consider replacing the Pilot's on the C230 with Kumhos and I guarantee that they will cost more in the C230 application than the Honda application.

I think my oil change comparo is fair too. My local Honda dealer runs a loss leader special. They will change the Pilot Oil for about $20. But unlike the German Engineers they did not make it difficult so as to discourage an owner from doing it themselves. I stand by the statement that the MBZ oil change at $200 is 10X a Honda oil change, as the Honda does not require Synthetic not to mention 8 quarts of it.

I agree the Transmission on the Hondas is a known weak link. We are quite thrilled it has 81k on it.

-Eric

 

If you do the oil change yourself with 8 quarts of sythetic, then how much does that cost? In other words, how much is a quart of the oil c-classes take?

 

I buy my own Mobil 1 synthetic at COSTCO by the 6-pack.
About the best price you can get I think. Around 5 bucks a quart and my C230K takes 5.8 quarts.
I buy the Hengst filters online for about ten bucks and I'm good to go.