Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

I was looking at a Mercedes E 240 tonight. Mint except for a small ding the size of a 10p piece on the passenger door. Silver. Full black leather. 170 horse V6. Auto box with preselect. Full Merc service history & only 70K miles. £300 at auction. All it needed for it's MOT was a ball joint. (£15 GSF) This is nuts. My head overhaul will cost that. It's a great tow car or just a motorway mile muncher. When I was a cash straped student I paid that for a Skoda I almost bought it.

Trouble is the engine size and fuel consumption.
Everyone can't afford to run bigger engines and are scared of the petrol prices.

I was offered a 928 today. The owner had half the engine rebuilt, MOT and full service. Now offering it for £500. Goes well but has to have all the little faults sorted out.
Could get it going well for £1k all in but would be lovely if someone spent 3 or 4 k on it.

Shame because it will never rise to that value overall.
It's worth more if it was scrapped

You did well (or not!) to resist that 928! I'm afraid I don't have that will-power

its not just the fuel costs but also the road tax hurts

this is a pet subject of mine! I fail to see the point in buying newish cars which cost loads of money either outright or monthly when you can get something like JJs Merc for peanuts.OK the fuel consumption wont be good but you dont have any payments,probably few breakdowns,if its pre 01 the tax isnt too bad,the biuld quality is probably better than more modern cars and they are probably less complicated,plus you get a really nice motor to run around in. should have bought it JJ but dont worry,in the current economic climate there will be plenty more opportunities like that!In our local paper there are half a dozen ads offering £200 minimum for unwanted cars ,running or not.crazy innit?

It is quite tempting but I don't think I have money for a second Porker. Might over to look after it and pay for it next year if I get a chance to work on it.
Must admit the difference between my 944 and the 928 is enormous and both put a smile on my face

Yup older cars can be better value, it does however depend on how old. Just sold the old Jag off 54 plate 84K miles after owning it for 18 months simply because the warranty is up at 100K & it's so bloody complex that I didn't want the liability. A common rail HP pump is around £2,500 for instance! The new one has 3 years warranty on it, is starting from lower mileage when I bought it so should run for a bit longer. But fully aware that 6 payments on the Jag gets me a half decent 944 & 20 would buy a Boxster outright!
The other issue is that my companies policy for car allowance is nowt over 5 years old, I ran the 944 for 18 months on that without a problem butI did get the odd question asked.

£300 invested in that Merc would still be £300 next week. More than can be said for putting it in the bank at the moment!

As a financial adviser I am duty bound to add a note about investment risk, so - the value of a Mercedes can plummet as well as fall, and your house is at risk if you set fire to the curtains.

As a student I used to make quite a bit of cash by buying simple MOT failures for about £50, getting them through the MOT and giving them a proper valet before charging about £1,200 for them (the amount of a student loan!).

This sounds like a perfect car to make a couple of £k on... it's amazing what a difference just cleaning the car's glass and wheels properly does to the appearance to a non-car punter!

Ho hum... and my last service was £3,800

Fuel consumption is 34MPG motorway, 26 urban. The AA gave it a great write up. I looked. It would have been instead of the '44
Don't understand why people are parting with good metal like this to buy a 1 litre that will die after 3 years. Thats if no one runs into you & kills you because your cars made out of paper to save weight. It's 8 years old so is banded on emistions so the tax would be a bit steep.