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Time for a new family car.


MikeT

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Given the make of car I would have been disappointed if it had needed any. My w115 Merc did 450,000 km before it needed an engine rebuild. Also of note, the rebuild was really easy like all jobs on a Merccedes.

 

Proper cars. :)

 

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I thought so too - this is the last of the proper FWD Mercs that's not sort of half Nissan-Renault or whatever. My Peugeot 405, which did drink a lot of oil despite not blowing blue exhaust, made it to 366,000 km before the head gasket blew and I decided to scrap it die to so much other work being needed. 

 

This one seems much more solid and 500K km is my base target.

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+1 on that.

 

Renault are the one make of car I refuse to own or work on. Anyone that designs such that you have to break the taper before you can get the nut off a ball joint needs the little white coated men to give them help.

 

One interesting fact about Renault is that they are the only manufacturer in the world that have the means to make a car from raw materials. Iron ore to car with no bought in bits.

 

They also have their own vineyards that make reasonable wine if you can get hold of it.

 

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  • 8 months later...

Update: about 12 days ago the alternator stopped charging and there was also a "new" noise from the poly-V belt. It snapped, fragmented/shredded on the way to the Nanaimo dealer and the car got hot too: 120°C or more, the temp warning came on. The temperature gauge in modern cars seems to dampen out normal temperature variations so the drivers don't get worried but this dampening meant that the temperature gauge showed 90°C one minute and 120°C the next. I thought I may have cooked it even though I shut the engine off within 10 seconds of the warning light.

 

The smart was ahead of the broken down B200, with my son-in-law driving it...

 

The root cause according to the dealer was the failure of the idler pulleys, which was making the belt slip and eventually overheated it to the point that it died. In the process the tensioner pulley "exploded" according to the work order!

 

In the end the alternator was also damaged so I authorized its replacement  - 340K km is a good innings for an alternator - along with the two idler pulleys as well as the tensioner pulley and belt. $2290 all in with labour. That's three months' payment on a new car, which I'd prefer not to have to buy right now.

 

The engine seems fine after the getting hot episode so on we go towards 400K km.

Edited by MikeT
photo link busted.
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  • 8 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Maybe I should start a new thread.....

 

With retirement possible as soon as next year, but likely just over 2 or 3 years off, we've decided that the B200 is not the car to sail deeply into retirement with. So we will be looking at a PHEV to replace it sometime in late 2025. At the moment it's looking that the Mercedes GLC 350e looks like a good one: comfortable, visually in offensive, 4WD, easy ingress and egress, safe, nearly 90 km of EV only range plus 49L fuel tank for >600 km range. 313 combined HP, and yet relatively economical. If the new car lasts as long as the current one, it would take me well into my eighties.

 

The B200 is intact and would be sold when the new car comes in.

Edited by MikeT
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Just watched a real word test of its EV only range in LA - it did 64 miles with full charge and showed 7 miles left when the trip was over. So up to 71 miles (114 km) in that case. Drive to Victoria in EV mode and drive back in hybrid mode, probably averaging under 3 L/100 km of premium for the total drive.

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Test drive today was good - the tester (2024 GLC 300) had 19 inch wheels so is likely slightly harsher than the 18s we would get. Very solid car, lots of torque (and the PHEV version has more). The fuel consumption was 9.0 L/100 on the short rainy route we tried out but the PHEV will be better as it will usually be used in EV mode alone.

 

Yes, it's a SUV, but it's also a large hatchback, and has a really nice interior. The PHEV has a 2 litre turbo plus an electric motor for 313 total HP and 406 lbs-ft of torque.

 

We're planning for a factory special order in February next year with delivery later in May.

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Just checked if European delivery was an option but Mercedes-Benz Canada does not do this anymore. Ah well - we will be in Europe in April-May next year, so that could have aligned. Mind you, the addition of a 3 month delay while it comes to Canada would have been harder to deal with, having driven it over there already.

Edited by MikeT
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