Buying used 2017 MB250e?

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hferi

New member
Joined
Oct 11, 2019
Messages
4
Hello,

I am thinking of purchasing a used MB250e with about 18,000 miles on it. Private seller is asking $19K firm in California. Car has been services regularly, and MB dealer confirmed it. This would be my first luxury brand purchase. I typically buy and keep cars for about 8-10 years.
Here are my worries, it would be good to get thoughts from all of you on these.

1. Resale price of the car may be quite low after 5+ years as battery degrades, and newer EVs with longer ranges come up for sale.

2. If the battery degrades significantly after 5+ years, it is out of warranty and I am stuck with unknown costs. Does anyone know how much it would cost to replace the battery with a new one?

Thanks in advance for your time.
-hferi
 
HFeri,

Welcome. This is a nice EV a cut above materials wise than other EVs. Plus its a Benz.

Let me cut to the chase. In order to meet your criteria, which by the way is mine as well, these things have to come into place:

1. See all the maintenance invoices. Pay special attention to confirm the annual battery certification which is needed to maintain the battery warranty.

2. Stick to a 2017 with remaining warranty on car and battery, they are separate. This will cover you for buyers remorse.

3. Drive the car and confirm that the only motor noise you hear is a pleasant hum.

4. Check prices on cargurus.com.

5. Understand that these are first generation electrics so while there are less mechanicals to malfunction, if the new tech goes, harder to deal with.

6. I leased two of these cars, a 2014 and am driving a 2017. Understand that this model has been discontinued and is being replaced by a 2020 hybrid version. Getting parts like headlamps has been problematic, i.e. takes time. This may or may not improve with the new hybrid.

7. Very few cars are worth a lot after 10 years. A low mileage EV may perform worse than average unless everyone is required to junk their ICE cars.

8. If the battery goes, and you are out of warranty, assume this is in insurance terms a totaled car. This is not likely to happen given the Tesla battery experience to date.
 
Thank you for the reply.
I also looked at 2016 and 2017 models at a dealer. They are quoting about $700 per annual service. Is that correct?
 
the desiccant pack they replace is $9 online autoparts store. they will top your wiper fluids. i think you need 2 packs. i would feel ripped off even if it was $100. now what is the status of the battery warranty? mercedes has been cagy about transferring these. their inspection is required to maintain battery warranty but $700/yr will wipe out your gas savings.
 
hferi said:
Hello,

I am thinking of purchasing a used MB250e with about 18,000 miles on it. Private seller is asking $19K firm in California.

Welcome! I think you are our newest member, which means I'm no longer that person.

I bought a 2017 M250e this summer from the M-B dealer who took it back from a lease. It had 9,800 miles and qualified for the MB extended warranty (limit is 10k or less) We saw a second one at a non-M-B dealer, with only 5k miles. Total B250e sales are about 4k units covering all years (2014 - 2017) so it's a rare and unique bird.

This is the first M-B in the family, and immediately noticed the M-B Marque's quality and appointments in this vehicle. Haven't been back to the M-B dealer yet, so I can't comment on expectations and satisfaction, not to mention cost of service. Clearly, having M-B cover the service and warranty o a first gen EV, that is now an orphan, is the way to go.

As you are in California do you plan to use this as commuter? Does it have HOV stickers? That was my number one deal breaker, as cutting my commute time was top priority. I was also curious about an EV, and don't have a Tesla budget. That all made the B250e perfect for me!

Have you owned/driven an EV or Hybrid? It's quite a different experience to an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicle. Will you have access to a public charger, or at work, or do you plan to charge at home? This is probably the top challenge when you step away from an ICE vehicle.

I don't expect to keep this B250e for long. A big decision will be when the HOV stickers expire in 2022. Usually I drive vehicles into the ground (my last vehicle was a 2005 Nissan Murano, and had just over 180k miles at trade in)

So far the B250e has been a total joy to own and drive, and together with HOV lane access and free charging at work, I am completely sold on it.

As you may know the B250e motor, transaxle, battery and electronics are made by Tesla Motors. Longevity and maintenance issues for the B250e will likely track the Tesla Model S (pre-2016 models) The only fleet issue I'm aware of is failure of the Model S computer, due to excessive wearing of the NVM (non volatile memory) chip. This can't be fixed by OTA (Over The Air) software updates (unique to Tesla Motors) Service requires a $2k replacement module.

Hope to see you on the the local California highways in your new B250e!

Peter,
 
Thanks Peter for the reply. I am in the Bay Area.
Some of the one of the cars has valid HOV stickers (red), but my commute is quite small, so I am not worried about it.
As my post indicates, my concern is buying a discontinued EV right now, only to see it has depreciated significantly (50%+) in value 3 years later.
Otherwise I am quite impressed with the car itself.

The $700 per service quoted by the dealer has me puzzled. Is this mandatory to retain the warranty? My impression was that EVs would be much cheaper to maintain. Can I just do the free battery service and do other services (wipers, brake fluid etc) myself or elsewhere?
 
hferi,

To maintain the warranty, need to service the car regularly, not necessary to go to dealer. I go to mine and his hourly rate is half of the dealer's. The annual battery check has to be done at the dealer. I am bringing it in to do next week on its second birthday.
 
Very interesting learning about the required maintenance of the battery to keep its warranty. Certainly something I'd not thought of. I'll be sure to check that when shopping if we go the B250e route.
 
With computers in our cars, any dealer can access the car and their records to confirm the battery warranty and what the service record is. So make friends with you local MB even if you are not buying it from them. Of course, caveat emptor, most dealers don;t know much about our cars but they have access to all the info you will need.
 
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