Cavey wrote:
I'd still be inclined to get rid before the warranty expires mate.
If (or rather, when) it bins out after the 6 months, you're holding the baby - an expensive old car that keeps going wrong and each time costs a fortune and is a money-pit.
I really hate to be negative/miserable about this as I can tell in your heart of hearts you like this car, but seriously I just think it's too much of a risk.
Fair point Cavey but here is my (entirely logical, lol) reasoning for keeping the Merc.
1) Once the Parktronic is fixed it's 100% operational, remember I've got my own scanner to plug into it so can monitor its health. It's got just under 30K on the clock, and apart from the valve body control unit (which admittedly would have been a £1000+ bill), the other stuff has been niggles.
2) If I do change it after six months of ownership I'll take a massive hit, I'm being offered £8K on trade-in and it was an £11K car (£10.5K for the car and £500 for the Dension purchase and installation). Then you have to add in the fact I'd want to replace it with a car costing about the same, so that's maybe another £3000 to find. So by changing to something else I'm basically spending £3000 as a hedge against something costing even more than that going wrong with the Merc in the next 18-24 months. (As I change my car every two years or so anyway.)
3) Despite ample evidence to the contrary in my case (:D), the CLS is well regarded as a reliable car, being as it is largely based on a facelifted E-Class which executive taxi companies are very fond of, the valve body control unit is the only 'big' thing known to go on them, and that's common to the 7G Parktronic of the era, not specific to the CLS - and that's now been replaced with a brand new unit of the new design, which don't go wrong.
I've got another three months to make up my mind, but if it behaves itself for those three months, I'll probably see it out to my usual ownership cycle. (Whereas on the other hand if random shit keeps going wrong with it, I will indeed bin it off when the warranty expires.)