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Maintain service history or not?

I just bought a 1985 Mercedes W123 280e and I'm faced with an unexpected problem. I bought the car intending it to be a cheap (it cost =A3450) car for my everyday use (which is not heavy as I work from home). It's got 12 months MOT and is in really good shape. I knew it had service history when I bought it but that has given me a dilemma. Getting it home I find it was serviced according to the MB book until

113,000 in 1998. It has done 3,000 more miles and had about =A32,000 spent on it in 98/99, apparently stored ever since (I got it with 98 tax disc on). So, I could easily just take up servicing at MB garages where it left off, but this seems like a lot to spend on a car that cost so little and that I exepcted to maintain myself.

Should I DIY or should I maintain service history? Any thoughts anyone? Antony

Reply to
antony.adshead
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what do you expect to do with the car?

imo its only worth paying for stupidly priced servicing if u expect to sell it on again for a good price, but for a 20 yr old car i dont think it is worth it....just change the oil regularly as with any car.

Reply to
Jon Reynolds

DIY. It cost you =A3450. If you ever sell it, you'll do well to get=20 more than that. One trip to a Mercedes dealer will likely set you=20 back more than the purchase price. Any loss in value by not=20 maintaining the service history will be negligible compared to the=20 cost in keeping the MB history going.

Just keep the receipts for oil, filter etc. and write in the service=20 book yourself. Wouldn't put me off buying it if I saw that had been=20 done.

I'd be more put off buying a 20+ year old car from an obvious lunatic=20 who was still taking it to a franchised dealer ;-)

Ian

--=20 Ian Riches Bedford, UK

Reply to
Ian Riches
113,000 in 1998. It has done 3,000 more miles and had about £2,000 spent on it in 98/99, apparently stored ever since (I got it with 98 tax disc on). So, I could easily just take up servicing at MB garages where it left off, but this seems like a lot to spend on a car that cost so little and that I exepcted to maintain myself.

Should I DIY or should I maintain service history? Any thoughts anyone?

DIY every time. Paying MB dealer prices for servicing doesn't make sense on a 20 year old car. Any advantage gained by buying it cheaply, would soon be lost in high service charges. When or if it comes to selling, cars of that age sell more on condition than service history. Mike.

Reply to
Mike G

Give it a good service now , oil , filters , plugs. Maybe get a tuning guy in if you can get one cheapish and it should be enough to get it through the year. A work horse of a motor. I had an estate a few yaers back. Bought at

125k , sold two years later at 185k. Oil changes are the key
Reply to
john

anyone?

There's no point getting it serviced at a dealer! For =A3450 you haven't got much to loose, and servicing will probably won't be much less than that at a main dealer. If you record all of the servicing that you perform, and ideally keep the reciepts, then it shouldn't worry any potential future buyers.

Reply to
petermcmillan_uk

I seem to remember that MB have a 30-year warranty if the service history is kept fully up to date, but I suspect the gap has been too long so DIY!

Reply to
TTT

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