Used Car of the Day: 1996 Mercedes-Benz C280

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Today we bring you a rust-free 1996 Mercedes-Benz C280.


The seller says it's all stock except for a front sway bar and it has always been garaged -- apparently it's "like showroom" in terms of quality.

Well, almost -- the head gasket is leaking. So the car runs but would need to be towed until that can be addressed, since coolant is leaking too quickly. There are also some minor dents and dings.

Our New York-based seller is asking just $2,000 and the miles are a tick under 100K.

Click here to see it.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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2 of 22 comments
  • Ras815 Ras815 on Apr 16, 2024

    "Showroom quality"? Which showroom would that be - a rural small-town used car lot?

  • Cprescott Cprescott on Apr 16, 2024

    Remember the days when German automakers built reliable cars? Now you'd be lucky to get 40k miles out of them before the gremlins had babies.

  • Mike Beranek 2004 Buick LeSabrepurchased in 2017, 104k, $3,100currently 287knever been jumped never been on a tow truckstruts & shocks, wheel bearings, EGR valves. A couple of O2 sensors, an oil pressure sending unit, and of course the dreaded "coolant elbows". All done in my garage with parts so plentiful there are a dozen choices of everything on Rock Auto.I've taken it to the west coast twice and the east coast once. All-in I'm under 5 grand for over 180,000 reliable miles. Best used-car purchase ever.
  • Jalop1991 Our MaintenanceCosts has been a smug know-it-all.
  • MaintenanceCosts If I were shopping in this segment it would be for one of two reasons, each of which would drive a specific answer.Door 1: I all of a sudden have both a megacommute and a big salary cut and need to absolutely minimize TCO. Answer: base Corolla Hybrid. (Although in this scenario the cheapest thing would probably be to keep our already-paid-for Bolt and somehow live with one car.)Door 2: I need to use my toy car to commute, because we move somewhere where I can't do it on the bike, and don't want to rely on an old BMW every morning or pay the ensuing maintenance costs™. Answer: Civic Si. (Although if this scenario really happened to me it would probably be an up-trimmed Civic Si, aka a base manual Acura Integra.)
  • El scotto Mobile homes are built using a great deal of industrial grade glues. As a former trailer-lord I know they can out gas for years. Mobile homes and leased Kias/Sentras may be responsible for some of the responses in here.
  • El scotto Bah to all the worrywarts. A perfect used car for a young lady living near the ocean. "Atlantic Avenue" and "twisty's" are rarely used in the same sentence. Better than the Jeep she really wants.
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