The focus of this article is on the costs to own this car and if it was a good financial decision or not.  There are a few reasons why we chose this path.

1. My wife desires a car she doesn’t have to care much about.   She obviously wants it to be reliable and safe, but the idea is that having to care about if it gets a scratch or a knock on it, or if the wheels get curbed is stress she doesn’t need.  It should be possible to drive it wherever she wants, park it wherever she wants and transport anything inside it, without having to worry.   In her mind, a new car would be ‘obnoxious’ because she would need to care about these things.
2. Both of us have an aversion to leasing cars or borrowing money on a depreciating asset.

What this meant was buying a nice car that had some of the technology that my wife desired at a price where we didn’t care about it very much.   The E350 wagon fit this bill.  It was a nice car that we could treat as fully depreciated.

Depreciation

In August of 2016, we paid $18,000 for the car.   I just sold it for $6,000, so the wear and tear / depreciation cost over the time was $12,000.   That was slightly better than our expectation when we purchased it.

Petrol Costs

Over the 88,500km, we used 12,076l of Petrol, either 95 or 98.  Around town, the E350 did around 15l/100km, and on the highway around 10l/100km.  This cost $20,494.76.  The petrol costs were also in line with our expectations.   While the E350 is not a particularly fuel efficient car by current standards, it was pretty good for its time.    Our usage was around 80% city / 20% highway.   City trips were mostly very short.

Service Costs

At the time of purchase, I did a lot of research on the models.  I specifically purchased this car because it was outside the known range of the Balancer shaft issue that plagues the M272 engine.   I’ve since learned that this known range of engines is a load of nonsense.  I know of at least three cars that have failed balancer shafts outside this range.   What appears to happen is that the shafts just fail later, but they still fail.   Ours became apparent at about 175,000km.   My theory is that they went to an improved part after that range, as the earlier cars were failing much sooner.   The ‘improved’ part still failed, just later.

The M272 engine is also known for the plastic rods for the intake manifold flaps failing.  This is another fundamental design issue with these engines.   The combined cost of repairs related to things I regard as basic design flaws was over $10,000 and about a third of the total maintenance bill for the car.

Over the whole period, we spent around $33,000 for maintenance on the car.  If you exclude the two large issues related to design flaws, this would have been around $20,000.   I feel that $20,000 is reasonable, but $33,000 is not.

Insurance and Registration

Insurance and registration is expensive in NSW.    The actual registration fee is around $650 per year, plus green slip of around $650.   Insurance was around $1600 this year, putting the current annual figure around $3,000.

Generally insurance rates have been out of control in Australia over the duration of owning this car, and the total cost of registration and insurance was $22,000.

Totals

• Kilometers Driven:  88,489
• Petrol: $20,500
• Servicing: $33,000
• Depreciation: $12,000
• Registration: $12,000
• Insurance: $10,500
• Total Spend: $87,500
• Per Year:  $9,500
• Per Kilometer: 99c

In looking at these numbers, most people are very focused on the fuel consumption of their vehicle.   However, when you look at the actual numbers, in this case it’s less than a quarter of the ownership costs.

Taking out costs related to fundamental design flaws, the total spend per year goes down to $8,300 and 87c per kilometer.

Alternatives

What could we have done instead?  At the time I ruled out a Series 1 S211, due to the troublesome SBC brakes.  Had I known about the balancer shaft affecting cars outside the known range, I would have looked at a series 1 E320 wagon.  The engine in those cars is bulletproof and the SBC brakes are much cheaper to fix.   Or buying a 2005/2006 Series 2 car where the balancer shaft failed earlier and already been done.

Obviously, a Mercedes-Benz was not the only option.  At the time we looked at two other alternatives.  A Toyota Tarago or Honda Odyssey of similar vintage.   I think the main difference for going with either of those options would have been the $10-12,000 in design flaws inherent in the M272 engine.  So probably similar to a Series 1 S211.   My wife didn’t like the sheer size of the Tarago to drive, nor its lack of ‘mod cons’.   The Odyssey used such thin cheap leather, most cars that were 10 years old already looked like somebody had a knife fight in the interior.

An alternative we didn’t consider was buying new.  A new Kia Carnival would have been about $55,000 on the road at the time.   At the time, they were offering a 7 year warranty, which would have protected us from major issues like balancer shafts.   We still would have needed to pay for servicing, tyres, battery etc.  If I assume this was $1,000 per year, that saves $24,000 in maintenance. Had done this, I would now be selling that car for around $15,000, so the depreciation would have been $40,000.   Petrol and registration would have been similar, but Insurance slightly more.   Either way I would have been $16,000 worse off and been driving a car larger than some hotel rooms I’ve stayed in.

Conclusion

I don’t regret the S211. Its been a very good family car.   What I do regret is relying on the ‘known range’ service bulletin for the Balancer shaft problem.   I think a Series 1 car would have cost $3,000 less at the time, and cost $10,000 less in maintenance.  The purchase price savings alone would have paid for an SBC unit.

For the replacement of the S211, we’ve got for a M276 naturally aspirated S212 wagon.  According to my research, this should get around all the design flaws in some of the alternatives.

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About 5 years ago,  I was in the market for an E350 Wagon for my wife.   We wanted an occasional 7 seater that wasn’t an SUV.   Based on the service bulletin, we purchased a 2007 rather than the 2005 we were looking at.   The car we eventually purchased was well outside the known range of bad M272 balance shaft issues.

About a year ago, we started getting codes from the car indicating the the timing was off in one bank.    Based on the knowledge that the car was outside the affected range, we started looking at other sources for the problem.   First, I tried changing the magnetic adjusters.   These are a known problem also and an easy fix.    After a while, the light came on again, so next I tried the sensors.   This didn’t have much of an impact.    I took the car in to be looked at, and it was suggested that the broken intake manifold flaps may be to blame, so I had those fixed too.    Again, same problem.

From there I was becoming more and more convinced that despite being outside the published range, I had a bad M272 balance shaft.   I took the car to another shop who had done hundreds of these repairs to check.   they took off the cam covers and were able to spot the worn balance shaft.     The quote to fix is $6,000 which is in line with other good independent shops in the area.   This includes 24 hours of labour and taking the engine out completely.

As can be seen above, the part is quite innocuous, but a lot of the engine must come apart to change it.    As well as what is pictured above, normally the head gaskets, timing chain and sometimes sprockets are changed.

I suspect the M272 balance shafts are harder after the known range, but still fail.   Our car now has almost 180,000km on the clock.   It had about 170,000km when these symptoms started occurring.  I suspect these issues could also affect the M273 V8.   Those engines do not have a balance shaft, but they do have an idler sprocket there.   That sproken was also known to be soft in the early engines.

I have been thinking long and hard if I will fix the issue.   I have decided to fix it.   Used car prices have gone so high since COVID that the car is worth more than what we paid for it 5 years ago.   Buying a different S211 would also have the balance shaft risk, plus not have the work I’ve done on this car recently such as rebuilt front end, intake manifold, rear air springs etc.   With used car prices the way they are, a S212 wagon is still more expensive than we would want to spend.

It will likely get booked in for the job in the first half of 2022.   While the update 211 is a good car,  there are a number of design flaws.    Obviously there is the balance shaft issue.   There is also the plastic intake manifold flaps, other plastic parts in the engine that don’t last very long, and rear air springs with a short service life.

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This was enough to put me off buying a car I would have otherwise bought.   Most likely I’ll be looking for an ’04 or ’08 model instead. Late 2007 models are also generally fine.  Its a shame as it was a nice car.  From what I read, repairing the M272 balance shaft means a partial disassembly of the engine and at least $7,000.  The dealer was also unwilling to let me have a mechanic check to see if the job had been done.   That was a showstopper for me.

The link to the Topklasse forum above also contains the factory documentation to look up the engine numbers of affected cars with this M272 balance shaft problem.  It also outlines the scope of the work required if such a car is to be repaired.  The early build M273 V8 engines also have problems, although not as severe as the V6.  There was a class action lawsuit in the USA that provided relief to those owners.

Update January 2017: I later purchased a 2007 model E350 Wagon that falls outside the affected engine numbers.   The Wagons can be hard to find as they were more expensive than the equivalent SUV.   They are a much better car though.

Update December 2021:  Turns out you can have Balance shaft issues outside the published range.   My car is now affected by this issue and is well outside the engine numbers listed.

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