Mercedes Benz and AMG Owners

[TW]Fox · 31 Jan 2016 at 15:32

You totally missed the point.

CaptainRAVE · 31 Jan 2016 at 16:04

My new toy! I cannot stop grinning. Pick it up next Sunday. I have never liked these as much in pictures, but in person it absolutely blew me away.

Next to my current SLK55 it really does look a lot better in person.

I will post thoughts on driving after I have driven it a bit more

Jester* · 31 Jan 2016 at 16:20

[TW]Fox;29119939 said:
You totally missed the point.

I didn't miss the point, your opinion of value for money is different to mine.

Roughly valuing a current R171 SLK55 at £15K is accurate and the for sale price of the R172 was £30k. Hence the £15K difference.

Jester* · 31 Jan 2016 at 16:24

CaptainRAVE said:
My new toy! I cannot stop grinning. Pick it up next Sunday. I have never liked these as much in pictures, but in person it absolutely blew me away.

Next to my current SLK55 it really does look a lot better in person.

I will post thoughts on driving after I have driven it a bit more

Congratulations, pop the feedback up ASAP.

Get the X-Pipe done

CaptainRAVE · 31 Jan 2016 at 17:41

Jester* said:
Congratulations, pop the feedback up ASAP.

Get the X-Pipe done

Will do. Will get it just in time to blast round some Welsh country roads.

Not sure if I will get an xpipe this time - the exhaust note with flaps open in sport mode is already pretty throaty. Haven't given it a good enough test yet though

[TW]Fox · 31 Jan 2016 at 17:42

Jester* said:
I didn't miss the point, your opinion of value for money is different to mine.

You did miss my point because my point wasn't that £15k isn't worth much or is worth much, my point was that £15k isn't the right figure to use.

Roughly valuing a current R171 SLK55 at £15K is accurate and the for sale price of the R172 was £30k. Hence the £15K difference.

Yes, but that £15k hasn't gone into nowhere never to return, it's purchased a more valuable asset which retains some value and can be resold to realise back a slowly decreasing percentage of the outlay.

This is why it isn't £15k to upgrade - the fee to upgrade is the difference in ownership costs going forward - for which a large portion will be depreciation - between the two cars.

The two questions to ask are:

a) What will it cost me to do nothing and keep my current SLK55 over the next X years?
b) What will it cost me to change to this 2012 model and run that over the next X years?

The cost of upgrading is therefore the difference between the two.

CaptainRAVE · 31 Jan 2016 at 18:05

Jester* said:
Interior looks better than the previous gen. But the exterior really doesn't. Super weedy looking brakes, albeit cheaper to replace.

Is it really going to be ~£15k better. Hard choice to make to be fair. I'd still keep the R171.

I agree with the look of the callipers being not as good, but in person the car overall is so much more impressive inside and out.

Whether or not it is worth the cost, well it easily puts that size grin on my face

hurfdurf · 31 Jan 2016 at 19:31

[TW]Fox;29120350 said:
You did miss my point because my point wasn't that £15k isn't worth much or is worth much, my point was that £15k isn't the right figure to use.

Yes, but that £15k hasn't gone into nowhere never to return, it's purchased a more valuable asset which retains some value and can be resold to realise back a slowly decreasing percentage of the outlay.

This is why it isn't £15k to upgrade - the fee to upgrade is the difference in ownership costs going forward - for which a large portion will be depreciation - between the two cars.

The two questions to ask are:

a) What will it cost me to do nothing and keep my current SLK55 over the next X years?
b) What will it cost me to change to this 2012 model and run that over the next X years?

The cost of upgrading is therefore the difference between the two.

Are you saying the cost to upgrade will be even more than £15k as the depreciation on the newer 30k car is likely to be more than the maintenance costs of the older car that has done most of its initial depreciation?

CaptainRAVE · 5 Feb 2016 at 17:52

Stupid DVLA, they send the V5 for my current car in 2 days (that I don't really need) and they haven't sent the V5 for my new SLK (which I do need to put my plate on). So unless it arrives tomorrow, no car for me on Sunday

. So much for 5 working days when using their online system.

CaptainRAVE · 7 Feb 2016 at 22:13

I am going to be seriously irritated if the V5 document for my new SLK doesn't come through tomorrow. Not that it will do much good, but I will be pressing the garage to phone the DVLA. I also haven't heard from the garage since last Monday - so much for 'we will be in touch with you throughout the week'.

[TW]Fox · 7 Feb 2016 at 22:18

You can check it - use the Doc Reference Number on the V5C/2 new keeper supplement on this website:

https://www.vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/

It will tell you the last V5 issue date. If it's not in the last week you are not getting it tommorrow.

It's bizarre how long it takes - after a plate transfer you now get a V5 through within a couple of days. Why is the new keeper process so much more lengthy?

CaptainRAVE · 7 Feb 2016 at 22:30

Handy, Fox to the rescue

On the website it says 5 working days, so if the application was last Monday morning it can't surely take much longer? Hopefully it will be here by the end of the week. Getting impatient

- saying that, can't collect until next weekend anyway.

Yup, the new V5 after the ref transfer arrived 2 days later. Who knows how anything with the DVLA takes as long as it does.

[TW]Fox · 7 Feb 2016 at 22:35

I don't understand - why can't you collect the car without the V5?

CaptainRAVE · 7 Feb 2016 at 22:42

I want my plate on it when I pick it up (will be nice to have it all sorted and saves me doing it) and we can only do that once I receive the new SLK V5 in my name (I think also so that they can take the current private plate off of the new to me SLK). Private plates really are a hassle.

[TW]Fox · 7 Feb 2016 at 22:44

CaptainRAVE said:
I want my plate on it when I pick it up (will be nice to have it all sorted and saves me doing it) and we can only do that once I receive the new SLK V5 in my name (I think also so that they can take the current private plate off of the new to me SLK). Private plates really are a hassle.

This seems like a really daft way of doing it.

The plate transfer process is now more or less immediate and can be done yourself online in about 4 minutes flat. It really 'saves you' nothing to have somebody else do it.

You could be waiting weeks for the new V5 - for what? Pick the car up and change the plate yourself online when the V5 eventually turns up. It seems entirely silly to have your new car sitting around at the dealer waiting for the V5 to eventually turn up. You don't need it to drive the car away and start enjoying it :confused:

CaptainRAVE · 7 Feb 2016 at 22:50

[TW]Fox;29149201 said:
This seems like a really daft way of doing it.

The plate transfer process is now more or less immediate and can be done yourself online in about 4 minutes flat. It really 'saves you' nothing to have somebody else do it.

You could be waiting weeks for the new V5 - for what? Pick the car up and change the plate yourself online when the V5 eventually turns up. It seems entirely silly to have your new car sitting around at the dealer waiting for the V5 to eventually turn up. You don't need it to drive the car away and start enjoying it

I know, wish I had done this tbh

Will pick it up next Saturday whatever plate is on it.

thewanted · 8 Feb 2016 at 07:41

Does anyone have a lot of knowledge about Merc's extended warranties?

A) Can you only extend a Tier 1 warranty annually, or can you keep it rolling monthly like BMW?

B) Does anyone know how much a Tier 1 warranty for an A45 might cost? I've seen figures of ~£1180 for the previous model C63 being thrown around.

[TW]Fox · 8 Feb 2016 at 07:55

Every time I've checked I've always found Mercedes main dealer aftermarket costs - be it servicing or warranty - to be eyewateringly expensive and an order of magnitude higher than that of BMW.

You can phone them and they will quote - the last one I had was something hilarious like £4000 a year for a sub 60k SL350...

thewanted · 8 Feb 2016 at 08:05

[TW]Fox;29149630 said:
Every time I've checked I've always found Mercedes main dealer aftermarket costs - be it servicing or warranty - to be eyewateringly expensive and an order of magnitude higher than that of BMW.

You can phone them and they will quote - the last one I had was something hilarious like £4000 a year for a sub 60k SL350...

4 grand?! That's just silly. You may as well buy a new one and suffer the depreciation. At least then it would be the spec you want, and you've spent the same type of money over 3 years.

A 12500 mile service for an A45 costs £431.12 (Service B Routine Maintenance) plus £59.28 for the pollen filter. At 37500 miles the 7G-DCT gearbox requires a service which costs £335.16 (almost double the price of VW).

My girlfriend really wants us to get an A45, but the prices for everything are high. It's the same reason why I've never explored M or RS cars. The prices for everything just seem really artificially high compared to the next model down in the range.

The A250 4MATIC probably isn't a bad compromise, although it'll be tough to go back to 211BHP.

EDIT: The 7G-DCT service for an A250 is the same price as the A45 (makes sense, but I thought that there may be 'AMG' tax)

thewanted · 9 Feb 2016 at 09:08

I got an indicative price to extend the A45's warranty, and the prices are high but not completely ridiculous:

Tier 1 (covers everything) - £1296.48 (£0 excess, includes breakdown cover)
Tier 1 (covers everything) - £1192.36 (£100 excess, includes breakdown cover)

She gave me a quote for a "normal" 2013+ A Class and it was only £392 with £0 excess, so quite a big jump for AMG cars. Extending my S1's warranty is twice the price of the A Class which is surprising.