Is Spending $5K on a $3K Mercedes C230 Really Worth It?

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"Spending 5K to fix a 3K car...." Been there, done that. But the alternative was buying another car with lots of unknowns and deferred maintenance, because there's no such thing as a clean car for under 5K.

$5000 is cheaper than a new vehicle.

just because the insurance company values a car at 3k$ does not mean you can go out and buy a similar good condition working car for 3k$.

I owned a 2006 c230 from new. Passed it on to my first daughter and then to my second. Always maintained and it was at 310k miles when my daughter was in an accident and it was totaled by the insurance company. Thankfully, she was okay.

Take a $3000 car. Do $5000 of repairs. You now have a $4000 car.

ANY old car can be a money pit. If you have owned it for years, it is in generally good condition and love it, fix it. A new $40,000 car will cost a lot more than fixing your old car.

Grimes is great. I can feel it. Don't lose him

GRIMES IS THE NEXT BIG YOUTUBER, HE IS SO NICE AND HONEST..

I’ve got 2 Mercedes and it’s still cheaper to fix them than buy a new one and have a 1200$ a month car note. And with no car payment, it’s not that bad to fix them up 😎 People try to dog Mercedes, but look around. You’ll see a lot of old Benz’s still cruising around. Granted, the Mercedes of the 80’s and 90’s were definitely built better. But Mercedes still has some reliable cars. Just do your research before you buy one. I’ve been driving Benz’s for over 30 years now.

Been there. Done that. Bought a 2001 Audi S8 for $13,500 in 2013. Over the next seven years I spent $13,000 on repairs and maintenance. Painful but loved every minute I owned it.

Is a 3000 dollar mercedes worth spending 5000 on repairs and maintenance - hell yes considering the alternative.

I had one of these with 300k miles it is basically a fun car with a good ride quality but indeed the cost of replacing parts totaled it out for me

10 years ago I bought a 07 C230 Sport for a good price. I redid the front end and have it serviced at a Germany car garage. Each year it runs around $500 to $800 in maintenance. Its is fantastic car love driving it. The Sport model is all AMG underneath, brakes, suspension etc. it handles amazing. The cost of maintaining this car is in line with any other car that age plus its just a blast to drive.

No one should complain that a car with 180,000 miles should need an almost complete rebuild. At 15k a year that's 12 years wear. If you aren't putting $100 a month away for repair or replacement you have only yourself to blame. You can choose to put your $15K saved towards repairs or another car. Either way, no whining, you got your money's worth out of the car.

That service position is great, someone needs to create 3rd party hood struts to give that function to all strutted cars.

Another argument is, if the owner had a budget of $8k, buys this for 3 and spends the 5 to get it close to perfect, that's by far the better option than buy something that's been apparently maintained well.

I had a 2004 C230 Kompressor. I was in the military stationed in Germany and I bought it new over there. I picked it up at the factory in Stuttgart. I ended up bringing it back to the states and it was a fantastic car. I only had some minor oil leaks around the camshaft adjustment solenoids. They were around 70 bucks a piece and took 5 min to change. The brake pads were the easiest I've ever changed. There was a little pin that you tap out with a punch, then the pads slide right out. I think they became a pain in the butt around 2012 or so.

I come here to tell everyone how great these cars are whenever the Wizard does a segment on a W203 Mercedes. They are reliable and I own one myself, but I bought the 2005 C320 4Matic.

This car was my first Mercedes back in 2008 when I was 19 years old. I was starting off as a realtor in DFW so I would drive everywhere to show houses. This is exactly the same car, down to the year, color, wheels, engine, ect. I drove it hard, beat it to the ground, drove it from 25k miles all the way to like 250k+ miles. I'm ashamed to say that I treated this car like absolute trash and it was always a reliable champ. I even took it on a tour of Mexico all the way down to Guadalajara and back to Texas. I did the bare minimal maintenance to it, usually after the CEL would come up because of a misfire. I mean, I would change the oil like every 20k miles, if it was lucky. Never did I ever change the trans fluid. Only changed brake pads once after my whole car got covered in rust from metal to metal brakes. Did a full suspension refresh only once in all the years I had it. I was so bad to it that I would only change tires after they would go flat from having the wires exposed. Eventually after years of abuse the balance shaft wore down so bad that the engine started to die at idle and the intake flap issues didn't help either. I parked the car for a couple of years with the excuse that I would finally fix it but I never got around to it. Ended up selling it to some salvage yard for 500 bucks just to make room for my new car an 06 E55 AMG. It is the only car I've ever sold that I cried (was bawling) as it was leaving in a tow truck. So many memories in that car that I could write a movie similar to the hangover movies. I still miss it to this day. A few years ago I bought an 06 C55 but it just didn't feel the same so I sold it. I've thought about looking for a mint white C230 again but with 3 AMGs in my garage I have no room for it. I would encourage anyone to buy it but my advice would be to treat it right. If my clapped out one made it past 250k miles I can't imagine how far a well maintained one would drive. Thank you car wizard for the video of this car.