Anonymous wrote:DH says modern cars can get up to 200,000 miles
He’s looking at buying a 2007 Mercedes with 80,000 miles for our 16 year old daughter.

Your DH is right. That's a good idea. A low mileage Benz like this is a great buy. I'm sure for the same price, you could buy a used 10 years old Honda or Toyota. Don't do it.
Your daughter will enjoy that car more than a boring Toyota or Honda.
It's your daughter and safety should be your first priority. Mercedes are very safe cars. Much more than the Japanese brands.
Don't be scared by the maintenance. Any used car you buy will require maintenance, even a Toyota or Honda.
A Mercedes is certainly more expensive to maintain than a Toyota. But that's if you do your maintenance your at the dealership.
Find a good independent mechanic and you'll save a lot of money.

Anonymous wrote:The issue we had with buying used cars for our kids was with the tech in the cars. They want a car with Bluetooth so they can listen to music on their phones. As a parent you want a car that plays phone calls through the speakers and reads them their texts and allows them to do talk to text while driving. You don't want anyone fumbling with a phone while driving. old cars can't do these things.

Young drivers don’t need phone music, speaker calls or disembodied text voices. They need to pay attention to their driving and what other drivers are doing.

What did you buy op?

Yes, it is a mistake. It will need repairs and Mercedes parts are expensive. Like really expensive. Many car insurance policies will not cover the whole cost even of windshield replacement on Benzes.
You are better off buying a used Toyota. Reliable cars with car parts everywhere and pretty cheap if needed. With mechanics being able to fix anywhere, whereas with Merc you often need to go to the dealer.

Anonymous wrote:Weird choice. Repairs will cost an absolute fortune.

This. Years ago I bought a used BMW. The car itself wasn’t that expensive given it’s age, but holy cow, the repair costs were insane. I put thousands into it before I finally gave up. It was fun while it lasted, but never again.

Anonymous wrote:Love Mercedes, but 2007 was not a good year. This was before Mercedes revamped their lineup after divorcing from Chrysler.

Here's a good video of a mechanic's take on Mercedes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDJQa0VGMho

For a young person's first car, the W204 C-class is probably a good starting point. This model stayed in production for 8 years, from 2008 to 2014, with a major refresh in 2012.

My wife had a 2012 C300 and loved that car. Looks like plenty of those around for about $10k without a ton of miles.

We had a 2011 w204 - it was bombproof - very simple car with non-turbo v6. Never did anything more than regular maintenance (oil, filters, brakes once). Lower miles than the OP is considering tho. Sold it for 12k early pandemic. I will say it was getting to feel very dated - very small inside given size of car, slow and thirsty. I loved how it looked, but it just stopped making sense. We had 3 cars tho and wanted rid of one so I didn’t buy anything else with the cash - it probably was a great car for the money…

Weird choice. Repairs will cost an absolute fortune.

Anonymous wrote:DH says modern cars can get up to 200,000 miles
He’s looking at buying a 2007 Mercedes with 80,000 miles for our 16 year old daughter.

That's cheesy. Kids whose parents can afford new ones will joke about it. Better to buy more average, newer car.

Anonymous wrote:Nope.
Get a Mazda, Toyota or Honda with as many of the latest safety features (lane keep assist, blindspot monitoring, rear camera).

Not for less than $10k... which is what a 2007 Mercedes sells for...

Nope.
Get a Mazda, Toyota or Honda with as many of the latest safety features (lane keep assist, blindspot monitoring, rear camera).