Need help with choices

SamW

I am just venturing into the luxury sedan world. I have a choice between purchasing a 2008 Mercedes E350 4matic or a 2010BMW 528i xDrive. Both have the same mileage (<100k) and about the same price ( couple hundred dollars different). Please let me know which car is better for a first-timer on luxury car and why sinvce I know nothing about them except what stated on their specs. Thanks in advance for your help

Michaell

SamW said:

I am just venturing into the luxury sedan world. I have a choice between purchasing a 2008 Mercedes E350 4matic or a 2010BMW 528i xDrive. Both have the same mileage (<100k) and about the same price ( couple hundred dollars different). Please let me know which car is better for a first-timer on luxury car and why sinvce I know nothing about them except what stated on their specs. Thanks in advance for your help</p>

Any 10+ year old German car with those miles is going to be a bit of a drain on your wallet. If you can't budget a couple thousand dollars a year for maintenance and repairs, you should pass and look at something different.

Let me get some experts in here, to offer their opinion.

SamW

Michael, Thank you for your insight. I can get either of those two for a little under $10,000 out the door but based on your input, I will probably pass on both and look for something else that wouldn't need a couple thousand dollars a year for maintenance and repairs. I guess it's true that BMW stands for Break My Wallet. Thank you again

roadburner

As a bit of background, I’ve owned BMWs since 1983- 12 in all. If I wanted an F10 5er I would look for a RWD model and have a thorough pre-purchase inspection performed by a shop that knows BMWs. A service history would also be very helpful. The one time I spent over $3000 on a repair on one of my BMWs was when a transfer case went south on my E83 X3 at around 130,000 miles. If the car has been maintained properly I’d set aside maybe $100 per month for maintenance and repairs.
I’d also set aside a considerable amount for heavily caffeinated drinks as the F10 is a soul crushingly boring drive.

SamW

Thank you roadburner for your comment/input. $100/month sounds better if I use that to buy lottery tickets. At least there might be some excitements when I check the numbers compare to having to take time off and sit inside the shop lounge for hours waiting for the repair work to be done if I was lucky to be able to get it to the shop before it dies. The thought of my car dies in the middle of a 6-lane highway during rush hours alone would give me a heart attack. Btw, I'm kinda allergic to caffeine so the more reasons for me to stay away from F10

roadburner

I'm catching a strong whiff of amateur guerrilla marketing...

oldfarmer50

Knowing nothing about either car but knowing something about repairing old cars, I’d say buy the one with the best parts availability. Nothing worse than finding out when something breaks that you can’t find the part you need to repair it. If either one is a low production model, I’d pass.

roadburner

Both BMW and Mercedes tend to focus on parts availability for new and old models. I bought a lot of parts for the rolling restoration of my 2002 at my dealer’s parts counter. They even had oil filters in stock.