And so, it begins.

How does that old saying go? The longest journey starts with a single step? Well, I hope this does eventually become my longest journey with a car because I've always loved Mercedes cars and I finally have one!

 

The catalyst was the sudden, and apparently permanent, death of my previous runaround, a 2008 VW Passat 2.0 diesel. On the way to an important (of course) appointment it suddenly just died in lane three of a main road through town. After pushing it to a position of safety on the grass verge, and whilst waiting for a recovery that would take place three hours later, I opened a car dealing app on my phone...just to window shop. 

 

One of the top results based on my applied filters was a 2011 ML 350 3.0 V6 diesel with only about 89k miles on the clock. The dealer's pictures showed it to be quite a nice tidy example, although there were a few blemishes that could be seen when zooming-in. It was definitely worth a look at least. The Passat died on Wednesday, and I was viewing the Mercedes on the following Friday. 

Soon after arriving at the prodigiously well-stocked dealer's premises, I noted that the potential purchase must have been sitting for a while as there was a slight build-up of moss around the window seals and the paintwork hadn't seen any wax for quite some time. The alloy wheels were also showing signs of their years and had flaked-off in places as well as displaying evidence of some kerb rash, plus one of the exterior mirrors wouldn't automatically fold. The interior looked and smelt fantastic (no mould thankfully) but the interior lights flickered and there was a hole in the rear seat around where child seats are secured but looked just to be a missing plastic surround, not the results of some intentional damage. The flickering lights and non-folding mirror caused a bit of worry though as I had to consider the potential that there were electrical gremlins. I reluctantly walked away...

 

...and then I came back. After a stroll to a local bus stop, where I sat and contemplated my options (and sanity) and discussed it with my lovely wife, I thought I had better take another look. After all, it's an old car so I had to expect some issues...right? I grabbed the keys from the dealer and took it for a test drive and that's where I fell in love with it. After owning Ford, Mazda and VW products, this just felt on another level, even considering its age. The big V6 felt incredibly tight and responsive, and the gearbox shifted so smoothly. The ride was amazing and not a single creak or rattle could be heard from inside. The suspension didn't show any signs of age and the brakes grabbed confidently at the discs and brought such a large (around 2.2 tons) car to a rapid stop. After returning to the dealer sooner than I'd hope (low fuel level) I knew what I had to do...

...hand over the cash!

And there it began. The start of what I hope will be a long and positive ownership experience. I want to document my life with a large Mercedes SUV via this blog, both for myself and anyone who might get some entertainment or useful information from the perspective of a new Mercedes owner.

The next update will list the jobs that I need to sort with successive posts showing how I go about them and the results. 

Hope to see you back here again soon.