Old Mercedes A class with an eml light would you buy it.

[Vince70]

I’ve just tried phoning the seller but didn’t get a reply so sent him a text saying I couldn’t risk taking a gamble at that price with the EML light stuck on the dash and didn’t want to take a chance on it being the MAF.

It’s been for sale now for two weeks I guess if he came back and said take it away for a couple of hundred then I might think about it.

It also has the dash bulbs out and has a Cat marker on it.

Looking at the pictures it’s has an early front bumper fitted so it had bang on the front.

[egg]

Any trawl of eBay or Gumtree finds a spears and reapers one of these alongside the mk2 Clios and Pug 206s. How did they not permanently damage the brand?

[Zelandeth]

Would never touch them.

 

It was Merc trying to make a car to compete with small cheap cars.  They should have stuck to what they knew.

Even when working right they're horrible to drive, and parts are truly ridiculously expensive because Mercedes - but without being decent quality like Merc stuff used to be. 

 

£150, sure...run it till it goes bang.  Beyond that, nope.

[billyboy406v6]

You let him buy a Vauxhall and he still asks you for advice on cars ???

[richardthestag]

mate had one, bought for 150, looked very tidy.

 

he paid a mate a small ransom to fix various faults then it shat its autobox.

 

hiab'd away

 

too shit for autoshite?

 

dunno, cheap enough got to be worth a go, cat marker and eml are added kudos points towards your journey to Shite Nirvana

 

question is how much hard earned folding can you afford to lose?

[Braddon81]

I ran an A160 Avangarde from near new til it was 10years old. .and yes the ride was hard.and the driving position poor.. and even after 18months old the steering had as much slack as a 1948 Land Rover.. but what endeared itself to me was that fact that it was an original concept and far far removed from what Mercedes had done before. Bought it as a demo and got my worth out of it and kept it for over 130k miles. It didnt want for that much in that time really, it went through 2pairs of rear springs and the airflow meter needed a recon from Bba at around 100k.

Would I buy one now?...not unless it was insanely cheap. The reason that there are now so many languishing in the spares or repairs sections is that for anything other that basic maintenance the engine has to come out or at very least be dropped......which makes it far far less appealing a a cheap runaround. I'd go no higher than 400quid to buy this.. and be prepared to throw it away if anything did go tits up. I'll always admire Mercedes for trying something a bit different and I still very much prefer it to the horrific new A classes which have rapidly turned in to the defacto choice for Pcp chasing chavs, but it turns out that the great unwashed public don't do flawed but challenging stuff from their Three pointed star friends... but then again probably that's why enjoyed mine so much!!

[lesapandre]

Just buy a proper Merc. Expect the E Class is to big but try an early 90' C class. The little estate looks good and they seem to hold up okish by the number I still see.

[sierraman]

Needs a service? Bollocks.

 

£600 will get you something without comedy lights on.

[richardmorris]

.

[Joey spud]

These are the only older car i can think of that drops itself in to a really severe limp home mode if an ABS / wheel speed sensor goes down.

 

Probably a safety feature / software protocol designed to keep all the wheels on the ground.

[Asimo]

I was once a rear seat passenger in an early A Class hire car driven by a guy from New Mexico. We were doing 80 plus in heavy rain at night on the M4 near Newport and he was telling his 4 very tense passengers that it was ages since he'd driven on wet roads, living in a desert area as he did, when the car hit a big puddle and got very sideways. The driver didn't react at all but all of those Mercedes stability control gadgets did, I could feel and hear them juggling with the brakes. And then we going straight again - impressive.

I'd be tempted by a Mk2, said to be much better made and (esentiall for me to want one) available as a 3 door. Better automatic too; an unusual combination of torque converter and CVT.

[wuvvum]

Where that A class is up on two wheels in and out of the cones....they very rapidly sorted this so they don’t do this anymore.

Did they "sort" it the same way they did on the Smart, by fitting 135 section front tyres so it won't physically corner hard enough to tip over?

[Guest]

Sod off with that lame Citroen in de fucking guise.

OK, 500E then

[richardmorris]

A colleague’s wife on my rsc committee has a new clk. she has it on a monthly contract service plan with Mercedes for £28 a month he said, and as long as she owns the car and she keeps paying, they’ll fix everything and service it for no extra. They’ve been out to it three times since it was new last year. Last time was new year when it lost power - six hours investigation on their drive and it was a bolt fallen off the turbo or at least that’s what they were told.

[lesapandre]

Six hours - imagine that for an amateur mechanic. A lot of these complicated cars are going to be unrepairable when older.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Sod off with that lame Citroen in de fucking guise.

 

 

 

Nowt wrong with the W116.

 

Unlike the septic shitbox that replaced it.

 

 

My Mum dropped nearly 20 bags on a new A160L (Lang) semi auto in silver with orangy tan leather in 2003. I sold it to a Merc dealer for 6 grand in 2005 after they'd emigrated. A truly hateful vehicle, they had such a poor reputation even then that a Merc dealer in Reading was the only one prepared to take a gamble on a car that was about as easy to get rid of as aids.

[Guest]

Nowt wrong with the W116.

 

Unlike the septic shitbox that replaced it.

 

 

My Mum dropped nearly 20 bags on a new A160L (Lang) semi auto in silver

Was surprised when I found the semi auto's had an emergency clutch pedal tucked up behind the dash.

[Durham850]

Bought an 02 plate a140 elegance for £200 it was really well kitted out, had all the extras on it and actually looked quite nice, 10 months mot on it too, the catch? Had no power steering, was alright when moving but trying to park it was a bit of a fucker, ran it into the ground for 6 months and then advertised it on facefuck for £200, bloke turns up pissed, had obviously not read the advert and offers £350 for it as long as I drive him home in it! Have never shook someone's hand as quickly in my life!

[twosmoke300]

I can hear the dash creaks and rattles from here

[HH-R]

I'd rather jam my testicles in a vice, but even that would be preferable to a Corsa D.

[sierraman]

The Megabus would be preferable to the Corsa D.

[Skizzer]

I need to stop looking at this thread.

 

- Brave but misguided design cul de sac

- Everybody hates them

- Worth nothing, hard to give away

 

I’m starting to want one.

[Wingz123]

I need to stop looking at this thread.

 

- Brave but misguided design cul de sac

- Everybody hates them

- Worth nothing, hard to give away

 

I’m starting to want one.

 

Hahaha BRILLIANT!

[doubleyeller]

You know one of those threads where someone is trying to find approval as they talk themselves into making a bad decision? 

 

At the end of the day, you must like something about the car, otherwise it wouldn't be gnawing at you. Really, when cars are this cheap, you've got to ask yourself what else you could get from a forecourt for your £600? Probably a Corsa C 1.2 with 90k on the clock, a noisy timing chain quietened down with BG MOA, rattling lifters on the cam shaft mount, and a dash that keeps on dying as you drive about. (First car some years ago, I've learned from it!)

 

If you want it, it's not going to be the end of the world if it FTP's, and you can afford to loose the hundreds, not thousands that it costs you, why not just do it?

I always buy for sub £500 nowadays. At this banger money, the only cars I ever had that were true money pits for me were Vauxhalls and Rovers. To be fair, these tended to be comparatively cheap to put right when they did give trouble! Anything else tended to do a few thousand between issues, and were normally minor when they did crop up. 

 

If he's gone silent, he's most probably sold it or sent it to auction. he won't bother to ring you with a lower price IMO - sub £1k cars are not where the money is made in Used Cars. It will be a trade in that he's got bugger all tied up in. Ringing round after the odd hundred here or there is not of interest to them. You've got to remember that you are probably only one of 50 or so people umming and aahhing over this car.  Your business is therefore not economically worth his effort picking up the phone. Ring again, and if he picks up offer him £300, and don't budge. You'll get it. 

[bezzabsa]

owned a 140 and quite enjoyed it..would avoid the semi auto like the plague, and the auto wasn't much better.. dad had a LWB 160 and that had its share of problems, but he threw cash at it every service ...

[sierraman]

Plenty of cars about without an issue you already know about. Plenty more fish in the sea.

[Vince70]

Thanks for the advice I would of most probably taken a risk if it had been a couple of hundred but never at the full asking price after the great advice you really stopped me from buying a pig in a poke.

 

At the moment his Poxhall corsa D is running ok but even though it’s low mileage it’s a pile of shite and did tell him not to buy one ( he bought it nearly new through the main dealer) The week after the warranty ran out the head gasket went pop and it’s always been plagued with sensor and emission problems so I’ve talked him into going for something like a Honda, Toyota or Hyundai and has just over a grand to spend.

 

But saying that we saw a beetle for sale that looked good with the old bullet proof 2 litre which was low mileage and recently had some money thrown at it for £600 so I suggested having a look.

[doubleyeller]

Sod it! Why not get the Saloon Polo that's for sale on here? It will be 10 x more reliable and much cheaper to insure and fuel than his Corsa!

 

They do have some good points - they are a quality built car, they run on veg, and they do have a few points of refinement such as colour coded mirrors and door handles. I may have denegrated the memory of my old one slightly in earlier posts, driving wise it was dull as a dead sheep in a ditch, but was certainly not without merit, and one girl did remark that "It's the sort of car I would like to drive if I couldn't afford something new - at least its got a good badge and looks smart!"

[DaveDorson]

I drove an A140 very early on in my driving career.

 

I'd not touch it with a shitty stick, and I've got air cooled VW's in my stable of shite.

[sierraman]

If he's spending a grand I'd say for minimum agg, something common enough that parts are easy to find and shows signs of being looked after. Don't fall for the usual thing of getting the lowest mileage car or he newest you can find. Buy on condition and buy with your eyes open.