GL 420 buying advice

[AR]

After leasing an ML 320 for a few months last year my wife fell in love with the car. We are looking to purchase a GL 420 and have already contacted MB and they will get back once they have the right one for us. Budget of £ 45K should get us a low miles car.

Now is there a buyers guide anywhere?

Cheers,

Ary

[After Eight]

Haven't seen a buyers guide although there is a review on autocarmag.com, just do a search for GL420.

We've had ours for a couple of months now, we are very impressed, although total fuel economy over 2000 miles has been 17.7 mpg. Never seen above 21mpg on any trip yet! (Costs over £130 to fill up) But does shift very well for a 2.6 ton car. Autocar tested the 0-60 at 7.1 seconds.

Them seem to drop a shedload of money from new so £45k will get you a high spec low miles example. (Also might be worth looking at the GL500 since the actual fuel cost won't be hardly any more with petrol so much cheaper to buy per litre.

Good luck!

[AR]

Many thanks, at the moment she has a Landcruiser Amazon HJ100, so we are used to the high fuel bills!

Now is just a matter of waiting for the right one!

Cheers,

AR

[Hunttheshunt]

I have an ML 420 and a GL 320. I wish I had gone with the GL 420 instead of the ML...its a better drive IMHO.

Mercedes were throwing money at these new....on contract or lease purchase. You may find you an get a great deal for a new one.

Great cars, but I'd buy cheap as they plummmet and will continue to do so.

[Deva Link]

AR said:

After leasing an ML 320 for a few months

Interested to know more about that, please - I know several people who get company cars on 3-4mth leases and I'd love to do that but the prices seem ridiculous.

AR said:

We are looking to purchase a GL 420 and have already contacted MB and they will get back once they have the right one for us. Budget of £ 45K should get us a low miles car.

MB were offering very enhanced PCP and lease deals on GL's - from memory they were thowing £7K at the cars (in reality easily affordable to MB as they're way cheaper in the US where they're built).

Although they're not advertising offers at the moment (it wouldn't look good for every Merc to be on offer) presumeably they would still be keen to deal.

Obviously I don't know anything about your circumstances but buying (rather than leasing or PCPing) one of these cars is an enormous risk. Ask for a PCP quote anyway, that will give you indication of where MB see the cars value in 3 yrs - might well put you off!

[AR]

Due to business use the car will rack up 25K miles per year, so I think a PCP will be out of the question, but thanks for the advice.

I don't look at them as a risk but rather as an expense.

Still waiting on MB to get back, apparently there is an obsidian black that meets our requirements in next week.

Cheers,

AR

[Deva Link]

AR said:

Due to business use the car will rack up 25K miles per year, so I think a PCP will be out of the question, but thanks for the advice.

I don't look at them as a risk but rather as an expense.

Still waiting on MB to get back, apparently there is an obsidian black that meets our requirements in next week.

Cheers,

AR

Some people think this is a legitimate strategy, although I think it's a bit cheeky, but you could buy it on HP (personally, not through your business) over, say 4 years, and then hand it back when half the owed sum has been paid. You didn't used to be able to do this on deals over £25K but that limit has just been removed.

[steve_amv8]

Bit late on this one .... my GL 320CDI has averaged around 26mpg over the last 15,000 miles and regularly does 28-29mpg on the 45 mile run to work. With the Brabus engine kit it is plenty good enough in my opinion.

[cinque]

I can heartily recommend the GL320 had mine for 8 months or so and picked it up way cheaper than list (4 months old with 3k miles at the time).

Had a Cayenne S, but needed the extra space. The rear-most seats are fantastic and can comfortably seat 2 six footers on long journeys.

One defo. on the options box is the front and rear parking sensors. These beasts are over 5m and parking in car parks and multi-stories is "interesting" to say the least.

If you want any more info. feel free to PM