Dragon's problematic w202

[Renn 208]

In light of the recent posts, I need to ask you how you went through the buying process...

Your particular car appears to have a number of failures that showed up from day one that we' hope could've been sniffed out in the purchase process.

When you bought the car you said it was in "perfect" condition...what changed, or what do you feel you missed?

Did you have a pre-purchase inspection done by a shop? What was your test drive like? Did you do any kind of inspection yourself?

To help other future used 202 owners, please tell us how you went through the process of finding the car, what you paid for it, and your experience in buying the car. Hopefully others will benefit by learning from your experience.

[!!!!!NJ Drive]

also can you note where you bought it from..

[1995c280]

i agree with renn on this one. no offense, but there were just too many problems that you listed for just buying the car. i would really go back to that dealer and have a little talk with them about all of this!

Jason

[zzDragonzz]

I purchased it from Los Angeles at a place called Chauto, you can find their website at http://chauto.com/

When I first saw their ad on autotrader it was immaculate, and I checked out their website and they had a lot of european cars listed on there as well as various higher end cars like ferrari's and Lamborghini's...I don't think there was too many problems with the car, only major problem was the CPS, which is a pretty common problem for benz's after a bit of research I've found out that a lot of peple have had this problem.

They seemed like a very respectable dealership at first, I being asian, and the dealership also being an asian dealership I thought they were going to accomodate me a lot better, but I'll tell you guys more about that later.

Well, I saw the ad on autotrader and was very excited int he car, because I was looking for a car for sometime now, approximately 2-3 weeks, and I either wanted a silver or black C230K or C280, but it had to be a sport model. Anyways, I called them up on sunday and they told me that they were going to call me back when the car was available...I was thinking why wouldn't it be available, maybe a tune up or something, but didn't bother asking them. They called me back the next day and me and my dad drove up to LA together in case I really wanted it, I wouldn't have to make two trips...well after test driving the car, let me remind you this was rush hour in Rosemead LA, I drove the car for about 10-15 minutes, and everything was perfect.... So I talked to my dad and we decided we'll take it. Everything was completely fine, until I got home...let me remind you I live in San Diego, and the dealership was over 100 miles away, so not the dealership down the street kinda thing. With my busy schedule and my dad working all the time, it was pointless to drive the car and leave it up there with the dealer after the mysterious shut offs.

WEll to cut things short, when I got home later that day, I went to try to start my car, say about 2 hours later after it had been cooling off from the long drive, and it wouldn't crank over...so that was when I became really suspicious, sounding like it did was not recieving any fuel, I quickly speculated the fuel filter, fuel pump, or a fuse or relay of that nature.
The next day, as I was warming up the car, I noticed the car started just fine, thinking it was probably a glitch, I decided to warm it up to the 80 degree mark just to be safe since it was pretty cold out the next morning, I went inside to grab a few things and when I came back out I noticed the car was still on but the temperature was not fully where I wanted it to be, at the 80 mark or around there, so I waited a little more. It had been on for about 3-4 minutes now and I was just walking around the car admiring the beauty of it when the car just shut off....I was like, uhhhh ok? So I hoped into the drivers seat, and it cranked right up, and I thought maybe there was some safety thing that if the car was on too long without moving it would just shut off to be safe? haha
So I drove it to school, and it drove fine, but after school, say about3-4 hours later, I started her up and she started up fine, got to a stop light, and it died right on me...that was when I was like ohh no..this cant be happening, but it quickly started after that and I rushed home....

The next day, I decided I was not going to drive it and my dad helped me change the fuel filter, being the easy task that it was, but the problem came back...not knowing it was the CPS I began to do a little bit of research to find the culprit...

I called the dealer up, and they were like go ahead and bring it in and we'll have OUR mechanic look at it...easier said then done, I decided if I bring it to them that was a 2hr+ drive, I'd probably have to leave it there because they wouldn't be able to pin point it right away and that would just end up costing me more money, since the warranty they gave me was 60days, transmission, engine, or transaxle warranty only....for extended warranty it was 800 bucks more and was a 5yr term, but I knew we didn't need that because I've worked on a lot of cars before and that would just be a waste of money....

So in conclusion, The car did not have a lot of problems, it had one major one, and the dealership wouldn't fork over the money to get it professionally looked at, but I ended up fixing it myself, and she runs like a champ now...replaced all 12 spark plugs, and CPS, so in reality if I were to give anyone some good advice in purchasing a car, not just a Benz, but any car in general, is to fully make sure you have some type of warranty in writing, and make sure the people you are dealing with are not sharks...The people I bought my car from were Chinese, and at first they seemed really nice, but after I called them up and told them about my problems, they wanted to help, but they knew I was far away and most likely would not show up. So try not to buy a car that is far away, unless you know for sure there will be no problems during your warranty period, but things come up unexpectedly so it's really hard to determine what will truly happen. If I had a chance to do it all over again, I would probably buy another Benz, just not from that dealership. So for everyoe helping out w/ the problem thanks so much, I really do appreciate it, and let me remind you it was not a lot of problems, it was one major problem, it was just that I made a huge deal about it, and I had the right to because I just bought the car, but hey, nothing in life is perfect....This site however has a lot of caring people, and I really enjoy being here.

Thanks so much,

Su

[1995c280]

posted by zzDragonzz
It had been on for about 3-4 minutes now and I was just walking around the car admiring the beauty of it when the car just shut off....I was like, uhhhh ok?



LMAO, that was funny! anyways...glad everything worked out with your car now and think of it this way---you got yourself a full tune up in the process of trying to fix it.

Jason

[Abuimad]

well im just glad that ur back to being happy with the car, and the car is runing normally again...;)

[MirageHatch]

hope you enjoy your new benz heaps now that prob is all sorted!

[coolin]

Yeah, and in the process you became a club202 senior member in less than a month.

It took me two years to get there!!!

Good luck with your ride.

[benzonline]

I live in Toronto. Bought it private from a German guy living in a small town outside of the city. 2 days prior I almost bought a 98 C280 with 140,000kms but with inspection from a trusted mechanic, too much work has crept up on it and basically the passenger side of the entire car was BONDO!

I then looked in the Auto trader once again and found this gem. 99 C230K, I called the guy and when he said "it has the fabric cloth seats like the new ones" I said "oh ok thanks anyways".

But the low price and low mileage made me somehow go and see it anyways. Well it took 3 mins not even to like the rare fabric cloth seating. The car had EVERY record, never seen snow, had 1 small stonechip and just pure mint.

Had 2 hours to decide to take it as a lady was coming from a great distance that afternoon to see it again!! Well I took it and 2 days later I went and picked it up. The guy told me the lady had a nervous breakdown when she found out it was sold later that afternoon. hahahaha:D

Only thing that went on it 3wks after purchase was the MAS.

[MirageHatch]

found my 1999 C-Class C180 Classic advertised on a car sales website in australia.

was owned by a dentist who lived in wealthy suburb and biig house.

had all records, perfect combo of paint/interior that i wanted, had all electric options, had sunroof, mint paint save for a 3-4 small stone chips, perfect interior and i was sold!

prior to this i test drove a 1996 C200 from a dealership, was clean but back bumper was really scraped up, had the brown dash and steering wheel which didnt grab me and didnt have factory alloys, was a few g's cheaper but didnt drive as well, had a few rattles and was louder. car salesman was a prick who smoked too much and he finally tells me its head was cracked and he'd get it fixed before i picked it up. ha! who would bother!

so glad i held out and waited for the second one! so much better, and its got all the updated panels too which i wanted.

those champagne with beige interiors are hard to come by in aus so i was lucky

[rman]

just browsing thru threads for spark plugs and found this....

i have had my 99 c280 sport for less than 2 weeks, all that i've had to replace were a few tail/brake lights, the front dome lights, and a headlight.

The outside temp display is missing pixels (has worked fully twice) and twice i've seen missing pixels in the tripmeter

Unfortunately, this past monday, and wednesday, retards at my work and the mall where i eat lunch have dinged up my front passenger door. What the fuck?? not even 2 weeks old on my not-so-fogiving black paint

[zzDragonzz]

dam that suxs bro, good luck changing spark plugs, took me forever to change them, or you can let the dealer change them for a hefty price

[rman]

Originally posted by zzDragonzz
dam that suxs bro, good luck changing spark plugs, took me forever to change them, or you can let the dealer change them for a hefty price

yeah, i want to change my plugs, wires, fuel filter, and clean the MAS sometime....it has a *slight* misfire at idle, maybe not even a miss but it just has a slight roughness to it.

how hard was it to change them? did you do it from the top or bottom? I got a hook at the AutoZone in mira mesa, hopefully i'll be able to take advantage of it....

[zzDragonzz]

It was a PAIN IN THE ASS to change them, especially the ones near the firewall, hopefully yours arent that hard to get at...the most time consuming part was prying off theignition wires, seemed like they were super glued on there or something. I've changed the spark plugs and the fuel filter already and cleaned the MAS as well, I have yet to change the oil for the motor and tranny, let me know when you plan to do that if you do, maybe we can try to do it together or something haha

take care man