Hi all,

I need some advice from your experience.
My cousin offers me adeal of a 2000 S430, spotless clean with low millage(only 14000m), around $25000-$30000,do you think it's a gooddeal?
and
1.How much maintance fee should I expectper year (provided no major problem)?
2.Since I am living in northern area, is it good to drive in snow?
3.Since I didn't have any experience of drivingMercedes, what should I know before purchase (gasexpenses etc)?
4.There arethreads in the forum mentioning some problems of the car,how'sthe reliablity of the car?
Thanks for the advice in advance.

Regards

S.J.

 

The price is ridiculous I don't care if the miles are low (if the cluster has not been replaced and it really has 83M).

These cars are prone to trouble, mine has 80M and it has been great for the year I have owned it, two ball joints, and a few self correcting electrical glitches not much different from my 05 300C. Compared to my 300C, the S430 is superb. The C is faster but it is a cheap car, head turner but cheap nonetheless.

I live in the Buckeye Nation and so far on Potenza 009 tires the snow is a non issue.

I get up to 32mpg with the cruise on 65, about 17 city hyway mix.

Maintenance costs are up to you. Do your own oil, filters, transmission fluid and I get my MB OEM parts online at huge savings. My ball joint was $35 and my indie put it on for $116.
If you go to the stealership, plan to get robbed.
So far I have installed a new cabin filter, air filter, changed the trans fluid and differential fluid, coolant and oil/filter. The only needed maintenance in the next year will be oil and filter. An example of an oil change is 8.5 qts of Mobil 1 at $50 and a proper German fleece filter at $20. If you follow MB recommendations it may be every 12-18K. I only put 6500 on mine in the last year so I will do oil now even though it is well before schedule, I don't like going more than a year since I have a lot of short trips.

Reliability, hmmm, it's no Hyundai.