Originally Posted by HM12460
Drove/looking at a used 2008 Mercedes Benz CLK-350 this afternoon. Car sales are a go in Michigan. This car has 41,000 miles on it and appears to be in fine condition. The 3.5 V-6 DOHC engine is rated for, i believe, 275 horsepower give or take. I was absolutely amazed how nice this car was to drive. It runs fairly strong too. Spoke with the local Mercedes dealer in Grand Rapids, Michigan about maintenance/repairs/general upkeep. The dealer wants $600 to service the transmission every 40,000 miles and this car is due. After speaking at length with the service advisor it became apparent these cars are quite expensive to repair and maintain. My concern is the long term reliability of the engine, transmission, I.R.S., and honestly, the whole car. Any knowledgeable comments concerning reliability and cost of maintaining, good or bad, I would love to hear.
I'm not too familiar with that particular model but I have a 2008 E-350 with a little over 110k on it. Had it for almost 6 years at this point. I'd say the engine in the E-350 was rated at 268hp. It's very expensive to maintain if you take it to the dealer. I take mine to an indy. Indys are also all over the place on price. Some that specialize in MB charge almost as much as the dealer and at least the dealer gives you a free car wash, rental and sometimes free breakfast/lunch depending on the dealer. But the good indy to use would be one that does all cars and doesn't charge extra for MB. For the transmission fluid, it uses ATF 134 which you can get from a shell dealer, about $60 for a case of 12 quarts whereas the dealer charges around $20+ a quart. I had mine changed for around $200, I got the fluid from the shell distributor so I still have some left and I think I paid around $100 for labor at an indy. There's two transmissions, the 5 speed is if you have 4matic and the 7 if RWD. The 5 speed is considered better but perhaps the 4matic may be problematic but I haven't had any trouble with mine. The 5 speed you need to change the connector at the fluid change, the 7 speed doesn't have that but the conductor plate can go which is more expensive to repair. Engine wise,it just requires regular maintenance. I've done things like replacing the oil cooler gasket, thermostat, tensioner/pulleys/belts, alternator, centrifuge etc. Haven't had to do camshaft/crankcase sensors yet but that's an occasional problem. Balance shaft issue was just 2006-2007 so the 2008 engines should be fine. Only other issue would be the intake manifold where the flaps go bad, around $600 for a new manifold but they tend to go when you're up there in mileage say 80-140k, mine is still fine so far. Other than that, you should be able to get good mileage out of it. I've done a lot of other maintenance on it like brakes, sway bar links, tie rods, control arms etc. Parts are just a little higher than Japanese maybe 2x American. I get them either from FCPEuro for their lifetime warranty, rockauto, Amazon, Autozone/Advance Auto etc. Still on original AGM battery so far.
I also like some of the Mercedes engineering and you can pick up a knock off version of EPC which is their parts catalog and WIS which is the repair manual on eBay for about $10. You can use a vin look tool like this one to see what options it had. Took me months to find one that was loaded, but I just threw all the vins into the decoder to find one that was loaded. There aren't that many out there.
https://www.lastvin.com/
As for expensive, my latest project is to replace the front springs and struts. Going to be around $750 I think. That's Bilstein struts which were around $250 from Rockatuo for a set, springs and mounts were from an online MB dealer which was a little over $350. I think my indy will probably charge me in the $100-$150 range, depends how long he takes. I'm thinking maybe less. He already had it all apart a few times to change the axle (replaced boots on both sides) and control arms. Oh yeah, forgot the axles, the aftermarket ones are no good at $100 and MB charges $1000 for their new ones. It was cheaper to buy a $40 boot kit and replace the boots. Luckily I caught each one before the joint went. You have to get MB parts for certain things like the springs because there's no aftermarket parts for certain things. No one makes a quick strut for the car which is why it's so much more expensive.