Thinking of selling my old Mercedes E Class because of the gearbox, am I being silly?
-
My husband says I am overthinking this, but I cannot stop going back and forth, so I am asking here. We have a 2014 Mercedes E Class that we love. It has been in the family since my father in law gave it to us, and it never gave any trouble until this summer. Now when I start the car in the morning and put it in drive, there is a small delay before it moves, like it is thinking about it first. Sometimes it also shifts down very hard when I slow down for a traffic light. My husband thinks we should sell the car before it gets worse and buy something newer. I do not want to, because I like the car and I know exactly how it has been looked after. I started reading online about automatic gearboxes just to understand what could be wrong. I kept seeing the phrase Leading Mercedes automatic transmission specialist in Sharjah on some pages, and it made me curious, because I always thought only the main agency could touch these gearboxes. One website had a whole page about Mercedes cars and explained things like worn clutches and sensor problems in simple words. It did not tell me what is wrong with my car, of course, but it made me feel the problem might not be the end of the world. Still, I am scared. Everyone around me has a different opinion. My cousin says gearbox repair never lasts. My neighbor says his was fixed and ran fine for years. My husband says repairs cost almost as much as the car is worth now. So I am stuck in the middle. What I would like to know is how you decide when a car is worth fixing and when it is time to let it go. Is there a rule you follow, like if the repair costs more than half the car value then sell? Also, if you did fix a gearbox on an older Mercedes, how many years did it last after that? And did you notice any problems later, like leaks or noises? I would also love to know how long the car stayed in the garage, because I only have this one car and I drive my kids to school every day. Please be honest even if the answer is that I should sell. I would rather hear the truth now than spend money and be sad later.