Buying a used car in India now had become a big deal. And due to high depreciation cost on new ones, niches also tend to go very aggressively in the pre-owned car showroom.
Thoughtfully, Mercedes Benz had ruled our local shores since years and is being marked as a marquee of luxury for many of us still, in spite we have Rolls Royce, Bentley and many others on the top of line to name a few. But now due to the chauffeur driven extravaganza more of the sedans entry are being considered into our country. And hard to believe it, the makers are also making it possible with the sports oriented engine too, like AMG in Mercedes Benz. Recently launched the 2013 E Class in India, now Mercedes Benz is planning to roll out the AMG version of same very soon. E Class is one of the best selling product for MB on our local shores after the mass selling C Class. And though being a marquee of desirable luxury sedan it also possess a good pre owned value in second hand car market. With the thought of giving a sneak peek into the back view of the bespoken model plate, we went string to one of our car dealer to bet the best.
Launched in 2010, the previous generation of E Class 250 had drawn two major variants in the category and i.e. E250 V6 petrol and the E250 CDI (Blue Efficiency). And in 2009, Germans had rolled out the E350 petrol and E350 CDI powerplants to our local audience. However, over here we are going to select the E250 CDI Blue Efficiency for our used car review section, because there are lot of audience here who wants to gallop this smelting aura of elegance in their kitty for less (running and maintenance cost), so hopefully this used car review will definitely help them a lot.
Reviewing this particular car took place when one of the enquiries on our website came ringing in for this particular model, and dreadfully it wasn’t there on our portal. We were shocked to see that the particular demand of the customer (that is of 2011 make) is not available, so I and my boss went to a couple of dealer to see what the matter there is churning out in the industry. However, some of them were having selling leads of E250 V6 petrol, but they were not in the position to give in a point for the 250 CDI. Finally after a daylong search we just reached our destiny and there was a dealer who was having the same car in pristine condition. No doubt that he was asking for a beefy price tag, but looking at the car’s condition me and my boss didn’t felt annoying. On asking about the reason behind it he said, due the launch of new E Class, old ones unnecessarily is running out of the stock and most of the buyers are collector. This trend will be followed for almost another year, till the newly launched bug start pouring into the second hand market. The old ones is going for dirt cheap rate when looked as a overall criteria referring the MB image in our fraternity, but the one which one was at our located bay was quite expensive than the market condition. Undoubtedly, the owner too was willing to negotiate, and wasn’t aggressive at all. So there was a chance for us to look deep into it when we heard these words from the mouth of owners.
Being for a huge demand, used last generation E Class had lured a lot of buyers comprising many spans in its stride. Moreover, the reviewed car was just two years old, so it means the car still has one more year of warranty to go. So no issues about worrying the maintenance cost, unless and until you hit them in any of the maintenance cost. Outer body was in best ever condition, very less amount of scratches, in fact it was near to the none of them when being compared to other car of the same model, make and year. The owner too had told us that, boot mounted three star logo was once stolen when the car was parked in the parking lot of a shopping mall, and it is the only major damage that had been caused to his metal during these years. He then had planted new one on its place and had also carried out the minute paint job near to that area because of the scratches caused by thieves while removing the logo. Opened the door and there was a fresh aura of fragrance coming out, car owner seems quite plush than one being found normally. Leather seats were in good condition, no complains err stains peeping out from them. Even the leather draped steering was sparkling like new. The reason we got to learnt behind this cleanliness on the steering is chauffeur is made to drive with the gloves on every time. No exception for him on this clause whenever he touches steering. The music player was dwindling with a sound problem, but he said, that is because of the electrical gremlin caught with some of the moisture in claustrophobe. He will sort this issue out at service center before selling off the car. Now not to worries, the service history was also maintained and all the fluids too was recently checked and replaced. After starting the vehicle we had found one more issue with it and that is weak starting battery. It was in the way that owner had half a dozen of car in his garage, so the Merc gets its turns on every fifth or the sixth day of week. And due to this the battery gets drained very oftenly. As it falls under warranty, battery issues will be passed on to the shoulder of MB service center guys, and in most of the cases they replace the whole chunk when you complain a lot about it, for none of the cost.
Other tweaks that you had been waiting for is, car had covered nine thousand kilometers during the past two years and is yielding fuel efficiency of 13kmpl approximately on highways, all thanks to the Blue Efficiency who had made this possible for we Indians. Despite of travelling in luxury, 9-10kmpl fuel efficiency figures in city are also simply superb.
