Hi guys,
First post here, my apologies if its not in the right section.
So I have been eyeing a 2010 Mercedes Gl with 10,000km, it is being sold at a nice price at a Volvo dealership. I’m just curious to know what problems I should expect if I purchase this vehicle. I’ve heard that if a car has been sitting for a while it could have potential issues. Any insight would be greatly appreciated
For a while? Can you be more specific?
If it’s been years, you should expect a bad battery and the gas tank and fuel lines and injectors to be all gummed up with old gasoline.
Plus any rubber may be degraded, such as tires, engine seals.
That’s 6200 miles over 17 years, very low mileage.
edit: 7 years, not 17, sorry…
1000 miles / yr is pretty low. You wonder why folks buy cars and drive so little. When u say nice price, does that mean the same price as a 50k car? No low mile premium? A 68k model is $33k and a 6k mile model is also $33k?
Bankruptcy. 
Well, the dealership says it has been driven by a lady, very rarely. I can assume that its just been sitting. for 7 years it is a very low km car.
its being sold at $38k Canadian.
38k will get you one really nice vehicle new that you don’t have to ask what kind of problems will I have.
I need a 7 seater, thats why 
That kind of money will put you in a Honda Odyssey new which is a much better vehicle.
Lots of nice reliable vehicles available with 7 seats. I would stay away from this vehicle. Even routine maintenance will be expensive.
I’d stay away because of the low miles, unless I had maintenance documented for both the miles and months requirements. Even then, I’m not a fan. An Acura MDX would have 7 seats and much better reliability and maintenance costs.
Years ago, dealerships would claim that a car had been driven “only to church, by a little old lady”, but I guess that this dealership’s questionable claim is the modern version of that lie.
If this vehicle has really been driven only 10k kilometers in 7 years (note to @BillRussell: that’s 7 years, NOT 17 years), that means–on average–that this vehicle has been driven less than 1,500 km per year, and that is not good for the exhaust system and the battery. Additionally, unless you can confirm (through actual documentation, rather than salesman BS) that the oil has been changed at least 7 times, then the engine is potentially choked with oil sludge that will lead to any early death for the engine.
Mercedes vehicles are nice to own during the warranty period, but most folks with good sense ditch them after the warranty expires, due to the inordinately high costs of both maintenance and repairs, and if proper maintenance was not done by the previous owner(s), they you can anticipate that the repair costs will be even higher than they normally are with a MB vehicle.
RUN away from this “deal”
The GL series was one of the most horrendous vehicle that Benz ever sold
They were god-awful and amazingly unreliable before the warranty was over
This car is long out of any kind of warranty, and just because it’s low mileage, you should still expect all sorts of expensive things to break, at any time, and without any kind of warning whatsoever
This probably has air suspension, and it was also very unreliable on this car, along with the engine and the transmission
So to sum it up . . . I consider this vehicle a POS front to back, top to bottom
Although he was too modest to mention it, db4690 was a mechanic at a Mercedes dealership for a number of years, so he REALLY knows what he is talking about regarding these money pits bearing the three-pointed star on the hood.
As was said, there are 7-seat vehicles from both Japanese and American manufacturers that would be FAR more reliable, and which would cost FAR less to maintain and to repair than this MB GL.
RUN!
Because they’re like my mom. Wanted a luxury car all her life. Finally got the house paid off and got a big life insurance payout, so she bought a BMW 4 years ago. But she doesn’t really like leaving the house much so she only drives it once a week to get groceries.
It has 8,000 miles on it right now.
@db4690 's post should be considered fully OP, b/c db4690 has demonstrated here in past posting a great amount of expertise and experience w/ that make. In any event, suggest that before writing any checks when buying any used vehicle to have a pre-purchase inspection done by your own inde mechanic, someone who has experience with that make and model. That usually costs around $100 and is an expense well worth the price. Best of luck.
Yeah, right. If you believe that I have a bridge to sell you.
First, used car salesman lie. That’s how they put food on their tables. No used car salesman could ever possibly know the actual history of a car… so they tell you what you want to hear.
Second, even if it WAS driven only rarely by a little old lady, a 17 year old Mercedes is going to cost you far more to own that a comparable brand new minivan (which would give you the utility you claim to seek). And this one is even priced at far more than the price of a brand new minivan.
Be honest, you’re buying it to proudly drive a Mercedes. To impress your neighbors. Trust me, your neighbors will smile to your face and be thinking “he’s lost his mind”. Everyone will act impressed, but unless you hang out with a very shallow crowd they’d be much more impressed with a shiny new minivan.
Consumer reports doesn’t have any data for the 2010 model year. They didnt have enough subscribers with the GL to make estimates until 2013. The GLK had good reliability for 2010; estimates from last year’s data. If the GLK is a good analog, then it may be reliable. It will be very expensive to maintain. My son in law has a 2005 C250, and oil changes are expensive even though he does them himself. His car has a thick fabric oil filter, and you can’t buy it at your local auto parts store. You, or your mechanic, have to buy parts at the local MB dealer. For that money you could bet a new Odyssey or Sienna. The Sienna is available with AWD if that is important. The MDX and Buick Enclave are both reliable and get good ratings. You can buy them used, and only 2 or 3 years old. The Chevy Traverse is a less luxurious version of the Enclave, and you can buy it new. All these SUVs have AWD in certain models. I’d avoid the Benz unless you can afford several thousand bucks a year in maintenance.
Local 2010 w/120k for $20k. An 08 w/80k for $18k. I think an Infiniti QX56 would be same bag of issues. Luxo barges w/lots of repair issues.
The GLK is a completely different beast . . . it’s relatively small, whereas the GL is quite large
It would be like comparing a RAV4 to an Expedition
And, as you can imagine, the GL has far more creature features, which means more expensive things which WILL break