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If you know how to, and don't mind to work on your own vehicle, maintenance costs will be a non issue. Sure, some parts like aluminum control arms will be pricey, but for regular maintenance like spark plugs and air filters, transmission and differential fluids, etc, it's either no difference, or a difference of only a couple dollars. When you don't pay $80-$100/hr shop labor fees, it all evens out pretty well.
edit: If 100% of the work and maintenance will be done by a shop, then yes, you'll be paying quite a bit more for a luxury vehicle's work.
Depends on the car. Newer luxury cars have quite a bit more complexity to them on average. There are plenty of examples where replacing a $40 part might take 10+ hours of DIY. The cost of that is only a non-issue if you have a ton of free time and a second vehicle to drive while doing a multi-day repair.
Especially if you have a CPO warranty, you're probably fine. There is nothing wrong with it but you should know that things will cost more. Its part of owning one. That said, if its what you want and you can afford to pay a little more for maintenance go for it. If you're on a shoe string budget, you might want to consider something with lower cost of ownership.
[quote=Jimbo302;44797006]Absolutely, unless you go in understanding the price of foreign parts.
Yeah who knew a brake job on my Celica GTS would cost $1200 the first time and not even last 5 years. The super expensive parts rusted away. The second brake job was $2000 and I don't consider the car to be a luxury car. It was supposed to be a conservative toy. Not so much.
Absolutely, unless you go in understanding the price of foreign parts.
Yeah who knew a brake job on my Celica GTS would cost $1200 the first time and not even last 5 years. The super expensive parts rusted away. The second brake job was $2000 and I don't consider the car to be a luxury car. It was supposed to be a conservative toy. Not so much.
Where the heck do you go for such an expensive brake job?
Yeah, the catch is that German luxury cars are expensive to maintain and fix. That's why slightly used cars are so heavily discounted. The E350 you mentioned probably had a sticker around $60,000. 2 years and 20,000 miles later it depreciated by $25,000. That's because nobody wants one until they get cheap enough.
The E-Class is actually pretty reliable, especially the 6-cylinder models. It's more like three years old since it's a 2014 and the 2017 is around the corner. Sticker is not what the original owner paid, as it was likely in the $50s, so not quite $25k over the period. The car is also on the way out as it is a generation old, since the W213 is set to start sales in the next few weeks, which has a downward effect on prices as well. There are other German luxury cars that have steeper depreciation curves and are notorious for finicky systems, but an E350 is not generally noted as one of the more problematic examples.
The current generation E is reliable, as was the previous one, though there were more issues with the previous E500 and the air suspension, but the drive train is solid. It's nothing like the W210 series that was produced during the Chrysler years where the staid and long-in-the-tooth W124 series was replaced by a vehicle that had many problems. The subsequent W211 was pretty reliable, especially in the E320/E350 configuration, and the current W212 has been decent, though about to be replaced by a W213.
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Eh, just buy a $5000 Jag and work on it yourself, I'm sure it's just as reliable as anything else,and the parts can't be that bad...... yeah.
Point is. Research what you are buying. If you are paying for maintenance and parts yourself, be knowledgeable going in. Know the specific model and not just the make. If your prepared, even if it is bad, you'll know that going in.
I've dealt with so many people that get mad and flat out call you a liar and a crook, when they hear the cost of the parts and labor. My reply was always the same, ' you're welcome to purchase the part and repair it yourself '.
Oh, animalcrazy, sounds like you are getting the standard midas ripoff. You are probably getting everything replaced, which is good, but costly. You have to decide if that's what you want.
As for not lasting 5years, that generally has more to do with mileage and driving style than equipment.
I had a VW/Audi dealership try to charge me $160.00 for an oil change and swapping between winter & summer wheels which should have been a basic tire rotation charge. I ignored the red flag on the way in when they hemmed and hawed when I asked how much it would cost and never gave me an answer. To add insult to injury, they made me wait 2+ hours to do the work. I recall they knocked off the $40.00 tire rotation and "only" charged me $120.00 for 4 quarts of Castrol 504.00 synthetic and a filter that is half that at most VW dealerships.
There is no way in the world I would own an off warranty European luxury brand unless I had a local indie mechanic who had the manuals, tools, and training to work on it. The hourly labor rate around me at luxury car dealerships is $130.00+/hour.
FWIW, I bought a 2012 CPO Lexus LS 460 about 20 months ago. It had 19,000 miles on it and came with the 100,000 mile warranty. So far, the maintenance costs have been reasonable.
High end brands charge sky high labor rates and push services not required by the manufacturer. Its about profit for them. I had an Infiniti leased from Infiniti for 39k miles. My dealer at an minimual 30k mile service which is an oil change and check many things. The dealer offered me three options of service. Base was $275, gold level was replace some of the fluids not just check them and the platinum level was replace all fluids not check them, the prices were $495 and $795.
I told my dealer, heck Infiniti owns this car, I want to do what the manufacturer and owner recommends not more. If you want to do and pay for more yourself as the car owner have at it. I took it to a reputable Independent garage and cost me less than $150. Had to change a cabin air filter per Infiniti that added $100 to the cost in parts.
Find a good independent garage to do your repairs and it works great if you get a super reliable brand like Lexus or like Infiniti was for my SUV and M56
Mass-market European luxury cars (BMW 3-series, Audi A4, Mercedes C- and E-class) usually aren't too bad to maintain:
1) They're sold in large enough numbers that the manufacturers try especially hard not to screw them up.
2) In the case of Audis at least - they share many parts with less-expensive VW models.
3) Even though dealer maintenance can be expensive - parts usually aren't too bad if you shop around a find a good independent mechanic who understands the computer-based diagnostics required to work on a modern European car. As long as a car is made in large numbers - it will be worth it for independent companies to make inexpensive (but suitable) versions of any expensive OEM parts that turn out to be failure-prone.
OTOH, I wouldn't mess with lower-volume European cars - the S65s, Touareg V10 TDIs, and Audi S8s of this world. The manufacturers rarely design these more-complicated models with long-term serviceability in mind, and if the car is made in small numbers it is not worth it for third-party companies to make lower-cost copies of expensive OEM parts.
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