My C200 drove through a big puddle on Renown Rd in North Rocks, flooding the engine and requiring a tow truck. GIO assessed the damage and declared it a write off. As a result, I'm now looking for another car.
Criteria
The criteria are much the same again:
- Auto transmission, Kat needs to drive it
- Hatchback or wagon is nice, if it's not fugly
- Features like bluetooth and satnav would be nice
- Cruise control and the like is mandatory
- Parking distance sensors are 95% mandatory
- Not expecting to drive heavily, maybe 100km every week or two, plus the odd long holiday/photoshoot trip
- Higher running costs are okay with me
The insurance payout is $14,269, meaning I've got a budget of about $15-20k. I'm willing to stretch to the higher end if it has the nice things that I wanted to add anyway.
Examples of some things I would've paid to add to the C200 as aftermarket:
- Fat wheels
- Bluetooth/newer entertainment system
- USB ports up the wazoo
- Fold-down wing mirrors to aid parallel parking (good view of gutter)
- Flappy paddle gears, because I'm a bad person
Really good features
I loved a great many things about my C200, and it turns out that many of the features that I took for granted in my 10yo car **aren't standard** nowadays on lesser vehicles.
- Speed limiter for effortless driving at the speed limit
- Climate control, vs. abstract fan speeds
- Vanity mirrors
- Automatic headlights
- Automatic wipers
- Heated mirrors, not as important here but nice
What's new and shiny
We went and had a squiz at some dealerships, there's some nice offerings these days. A new car is mostly out of my budget, but a newish model that's a couple of years old will probably have most of the nice modern tech.
Mercs
I've taken a good sample from Carsales and whittled down to a few good examples.
- A 2-door coupe with very low mileage, 2006 model, $17,900 asking price. The fitout is on the bland side (small wheels, no hood ornament), but 50,000km on the clock should be worth a couple grand in saved servicing costs.
- Sporty steering wheel and pedals, sporty Merc rims of normal 16" size
- A sported-up sedan with 100,000km on the clock, 2006 model, $17,950 negotiable.
- Flappy paddle gears, sport everything, classic W203 body shape, nice hood ornament even though it's labelled as Avantgarde
- Sporty sedan, 2007 model, 79,000km, new W204 body shape, $19,990 negotiable for moving overseas
- Very fat AMG wheels, no hood ornament, interior plastics might be a bit worn
- A few years older 2-door coupe, a beast of a thing, CLK500, $19,500 with no mention of negotiability, listing hasn't been touched since 2015-15-23, suggesting they might take a hit on price
- Sports wheels and suspension
- Airbags only for front row (not sure if they were available for back row)
- Leather trim and woodgrain everywhere (wood looks very light in colour), electric seats, has satnav?
- Claims to be Elegance trim, but has no hood ornament