Vehicle heavily corroding not advisory

Gewakefie

Admiral £103 a month

its nothing to do with a mid life crisis I want a convertible car to go drive in the countryside on weekends, I like the look of the Mercedes so I’m just gonna look for a model with no corrosion advisories which might cost me a bit more I think 

I just live by life’s too short if I want it I’ll get it, just not very mechanical and didn’t want to buy something that will fall down while driving cos of the corrosion. 

If I needed a car for commuting/work it would be a different story, but I just want something fun and not too expensive for the summer ahead 

Gewakefie

Mildly_Miffed said:

lordmountararat said:

Insurance for £100 is extraordinary. Where did you get that quote?

I suspect a zero has been omitted, since apparently lots of other cars are coming in the same. Or it's merely the monthly payment, not the actual policy premium.

No a zero hasn’t been omitted, this is obviously a monthly price not for the year, and yes I’ve looked at scorocco corsa fiesta, all coming in the same give or take a few pounds 

Mildly_Miffed

Gewakefie said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

lordmountararat said:

Insurance for £100 is extraordinary. Where did you get that quote?

I suspect a zero has been omitted, since apparently lots of other cars are coming in the same. Or it's merely the monthly payment, not the actual policy premium.

No a zero hasn’t been omitted, this is obviously a monthly price not for the year, and yes I’ve looked at scorocco corsa fiesta, all coming in the same give or take a few pounds 

Never fall into the trap of looking at the monthly finance price and thinking that's the cost of your insurance.

You are buying an ANNUAL insurance policy.
Then, on top of that, you're buying a finance product to allow you to pay monthly - at, usually, an exorbitant APR.

It's important to remember this, because...
1. Your commitment is to them for a year. No more, no less. If you want to terminate the policy early, you will be paying a big chunk of those outstanding monthlies.
2. If you don't pay the monthlies, your policy doesn't stop, but your problems and debt will multiply.
3. If there's any way to avoid that high interest, TAKE IT.

£103/mo is £1,236/year. But how much of that is the actual insurance? How much would it be if you paid in full at the start?

400ixl

As I put at the very start of the thread before this got a bit messy.

Find yourself a good Mercedes specialist (there are some in the Stevenage / Hertfordshire area) and go and speak to them. They may be willing for you to arrange for the car to be taken to them or for a fee go and inspect it.

This would be the key for me. Determine what that advisory is for. It maybe a non issue and easily sorted, or it could be a show stopper.

The SLK isn't on the whole unreliable and there are good examples out there of that age. You need to be prepared that outside of the general servicing (which should be reasonable at a local specialist) if something goes wrong it could be more expensive to repair. Parts on the whole are more expensive (but not excessive), secondhand parts harder to come by etc.

You are looking at the bottom of the range 4 cylinder version which is essentially an old C class in drag. So most servicing parts will be reasonable. As an example common parts like Front Brake Disks can be had for £65 a pair, pads for £30 which is not too different to any other cars people have been mentioning.

Wheels aren't anything special size wise being the 16" not the more sporty larger ones, so won't be more than £100 a corner for something decent like the Continetal's on it at the moment.

However, if you get into parts available from the manufacturer, such as electronic control units or roof mechanisms then it can get very expensive very quickly. This is the difference to your average car like a Corsa that people seem to want to compare to.

Servicing will be £200-400 a year at a specialist (more if something like a gearbox service is due).

You need to be aware, Mercedes are not better built than other cars and not really any more reliable, especially at that age. I can appreciate you desire for something different (been driving convertibles for years) and if you are only looking for a weekend driver then it could work. 

If you are happy to expect to budget £2k+ a year to keep it on the road (holding back money across years for any big jobs) then you should be OK on a decent example to start with.

Servicing £200-400
Tax £450
Insurance £1200
+ anything else that needs doing

Gewakefie

400ixl said:

As I put at the very start of the thread before this got a bit messy.

Find yourself a good Mercedes specialist (there are some in the Stevenage / Hertfordshire area) and go and speak to them. They may be willing for you to arrange for the car to be taken to them or for a fee go and inspect it.

This would be the key for me. Determine what that advisory is for. It maybe a non issue and easily sorted, or it could be a show stopper.

The SLK isn't on the whole unreliable and there are good examples out there of that age. You need to be prepared that outside of the general servicing (which should be reasonable at a local specialist) if something goes wrong it could be more expensive to repair. Parts on the whole are more expensive (but not excessive), secondhand parts harder to come by etc.

You are looking at the bottom of the range 4 cylinder version which is essentially an old C class in drag. So most servicing parts will be reasonable. As an example common parts like Front Brake Disks can be had for £65 a pair, pads for £30 which is not too different to any other cars people have been mentioning.

Wheels aren't anything special size wise being the 16" not the more sporty larger ones, so won't be more than £100 a corner for something decent like the Continetal's on it at the moment.

However, if you get into parts available from the manufacturer, such as electronic control units or roof mechanisms then it can get very expensive very quickly. This is the difference to your average car like a Corsa that people seem to want to compare to.

Servicing will be £200-400 a year at a specialist (more if something like a gearbox service is due).

You need to be aware, Mercedes are not better built than other cars and not really any more reliable, especially at that age. I can appreciate you desire for something different (been driving convertibles for years) and if you are only looking for a weekend driver then it could work. 

If you are happy to expect to budget £2k+ a year to keep it on the road (holding back money across years for any big jobs) then you should be OK on a decent example to start with.

Servicing £200-400
Tax £450
Insurance £1200
+ anything else that needs doing

Appreciate this a lot thank you!!

I’ll go back to the insurance price I know you pay a bit more for paying mo they but I thought you could back out at any time! 

400ixl

You are buying an annual policy for which the insurer is giving you finance to cover and charging you monthly payments.

If you decide to back out at any point, you will still have to pay any exit fees that are in the terms and conditions. Its no different to paying in full, you would get a refund for anything over the time and cancellation fees.

Monthly will always work out more costly than annually whether you stay for the full year or not.

angrycrow

From the advert it actually looks tidy for its age. MOT is almost a full year expiring 28/11/2025 so no reason for garage to renew it. Rear rust could be a rotten subframe or an overly deligent MOT tester. My tester has commented on my rusty back box most years in the last 6 years. It might actually need changing next year.

The only red flag I am seeing is ownership history. Last owner took possession 21/11/2024 and by 05/12/2024 had part exchanged the car. What is so bad about the car they wanted shot of it after just two weeks.

Plenty more out there walk away from this one.

At that price point you also have Audi A3, A4 and A5 cabriolets which could be newer. Rag tops tend to be more reliable than hard top convertibles due to simpler design. 

Gewakefie

angrycrow said:

From the advert it actually looks tidy for its age. MOT is almost a full year expiring 28/11/2025 so no reason for garage to renew it. Rear rust could be a rotten subframe or an overly deligent MOT tester. My tester has commented on my rusty back box most years in the last 6 years. It might actually need changing next year.

The only red flag I am seeing is ownership history. Last owner took possession 21/11/2024 and by 05/12/2024 had part exchanged the car. What is so bad about the car they wanted shot of it after just two weeks.

Plenty more out there walk away from this one.

At that price point you also have Audi A3, A4 and A5 cabriolets which could be newer. Rag tops tend to be more reliable than hard top convertibles due to simpler design. 

Thank you for this!

omg really I thought hard top was the way to go cos more reliable hahahaha 

400ixl

The most reliable on a 2 seater would be a manual soft top like the Mazda MX5 and would be my choice at that budget.

On the SLK, outside of the rust, the biggest thing to check is the condition of the supercharger. That will be £k's to sort if it is on its way out. When was it last serviced or replaced?

Frozen_up_north

Read the description for the car:
” DUE TO AGE MILEAGE PRICE ETC, THIS CAR IS SOLD ON A AS IS BASIS”

ie no warranty

This is from a dealer operating from a Portakabin, with a mobile number and an AOL email for contact…