Buying a 2012 S212 Mercedes E350 Wagon

Back in October, I purchased a 2012 S212 Mercedes-Benz E350 Wagon as a new family car to replace the 2007 S211 Mercedes-Benz E350 wagon.  This is a car that my wife primarily drives, I mostly drive my classics.

It wasn’t actually that easy a choice to find something we liked.  Specifically we wanted:

1. A car, not an SUV or Ute.
2. Large cargo area that can be converted into an occasional seven seater very quickly and easily, and not interfere with the cargo area when not in use.
3. Comfortable for two adults and three children for normal usage
4. Reversing camera and blind spot warning.
5. Be able to fit a roof box and have an average height woman access it easily.
6. Purchased for around $15k AUD.

Finding something with all these things was more limiting than I thought.

We specifically wanted a car, not an SUV.   There are a lot of reasons for this.  The ponderous handling, the high centre of gravity, terrible ride quality, the poor packaging and interior space usage make an SUV a vehicle that tries to be all things to all people, and as a result is pretty average at everything.

Having driven large SUVs as loaners and rental cars, they have all been highly unpleasant and they are difficult to park and maneuver in tight spaces.

The challenge is that large SUVs are very profitable for carmakers and so they no longer offer occasional seven seaters outside large SUVs.   Even medium SUVs no longer have this feature.

The other challenge is that my wife loves skiing and we have a roof box to take skis to and from the snow.  Getting access to it on a very tall vehicle would be difficult and due to annual leave constraints I don’t generally go.   An SUV with a roof box is often too tall for garages or parking lots, where a car with a roof box becomes as tall as a midsize SUV.

The occasional seven seater requirement was the one that made it the most difficult.   There were two options.   The Mercedes-Benz E-Class wagon, and the Prius V.   Both would have been about the same price and age, due to the massive depreciation on Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

The Prius V was attractive. Being a Toyota, Maintenance cost would have been much lower than for the Benz, unless we needed a new hybrid battery.   Fuel cost would have also been half.

The challenge was that the interior size was quite tight and the interior felt very basic and spartan.

We looked at Lexus, since my wife had a very good experience with her GS300.  However, to get to a seven seater, Lexus push you into the Landcruiser based model. It is gargantuan and a V8.

After all that, it came down to another E-class wagon.

Given my previous experience, I was very keen to avoid the fundamental design flaws in some of these vehicles.   That narrowed things down considerably.   First I was going to avoid any car with an M272 engine.  The M272 engine carried over into the 212 E Class for the first couple of years.  I learned a hard lesson on the old S211 that the whole ‘known range’ of engines with the balancer shaft problems is complete rubbish.

I also avoided the M271 four cylinder engine, as found in the E200 model, as the timing chain has a reputation to stretch and break.  The chain tensioner can also fail, causing the chain to skip or jump.  These failures are well documented.  The M274 is apparently better, with a double row chain, but these models were a fair bit more expensive.

The diesels were also on my list to avoid, as the emissions systems mean they don’t cope with doing lots of very short trips.  This is most of our driving.   These cars apparently need regular long drives to stop the emissions system from getting all clogged up causing very costly repairs.

That left the M276 six cylinder engine as the only engine left.   I wanted to avoid the turbo engines, it’s just yet another costly thing to go wrong.  From what I read, many other repairs require more labour on these engines as space is tight.

That left me with the naturally aspirated M273 E350 was my preferred car.  These were not sold in Australia for very long.  As I understand it, they were introduced July 2011, for the 2012 model year and continued for the 2013 model year.  In June of 2013, they were replaced with the E400 turbo 3.0 liter.     The model continued in other markets, but not Australia.

There were a fair number of privately imported Japanese spec cars for sale.  I wouldn’t have been against them per se.  The issue is that I never saw one with the folding third row seat.  Given the low birth rate in Japan, this was not standard equipment, and it looks like it was rarely specified.

I don’t think the Australian delivered cars were a big seller.  It took a while for one to come up for sale for a reasonable price.   In the end we found a car with 134,000km.   It is an Avantgarde model in Obsidian black.  I would have preferred and Elegance, as they have 17″ wheels and not 18s.  Black wasn’t our first choice.  When trying to find a car sold in low numbers over two model years, I was focused on condition, and not colour.  Our car was produced October 2012 and delivered December 2012.