2011 Mercedes-Benz E350 CDI Cabriolet

Displaying 85,752 miles with a comprehensive service history from Mercedes-Benz, backing up servicing invoices that run from 2012 to 2016 at main dealerships in South Wales – independent up to the present – there’s a lot to recommend about this classy convertible. Its silver paint (which they seem to have all come in) still looks fresh and there appears to be next to no damage anywhere on the bodywork or elsewhere. The car is purported to drive without fault and has plenty of shove from its 261bhp, 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 diesel engine – yes, we’re into the modern era here, where open-top diesels became a thing.

The history with this Benz is comprehensive and shows that its three keepers appear to have cared for it equally. As opposed to so many cars of its age, this one hasn’t seen its care regime fall off a cliff the second it left the dealer network. There are several four-figure invoices for recent work and servicing and it’s reassuring to note that the car’s care is up to date. It also has just had a MoT test on 23 January, which only advised some minor wear to the nearside front tyre.

It’s always nice to see an older car with original dealer-fitted equipment still present. Though this one’s had some newer licence plates – from its latest independent garage carer – it still retains the mounting surrounds from Mercedes-Benz South Wales. The bodywork seems to present very well. There are the usual, minor stone chip imperfections to the front, mostly on the low-slung bumper. Though the crystal-clear headlight lenses seem to have escaped unscathed.

The only real mark worth mentioning on the whole car is a small dent on the boot lid. No doubt caused by an accident during lugging luggage, there’s a corresponding scratch on the top of the rear bumper. Neither appear severe but constitute the worst maladies on this fine Merc’s exterior. A piffling scratch can be found on the nearside wing mirror, but it’s been touched-up. The wheels all look good but do have the odd minor mark here and there, the worst are two very minor spots of kerb rubbing on the nearside front. Tyres all appear fine, other than the aforementioned MoT-highlighted nearside front.

Shut lines throughout this car are as milimetrically perfect as you’d expect from a return-to-form Mercedes-Benz. Though while poking around in its gaps, we did see some extremely mild bubbling on the back of rear panel, where it meets the front of the boot lid. Though most of its brightwork remains, err, bright, there’s some discolouration to the trim on the door tops and around the rear deck – though it’ll likely come good with some metal polish. While in this area, we erected the soft-top to discover that it seems to be fitting nice and taught, but has gone a bit green in places from moss. South Wales isn’t known for its dry climate after all. A deep clean will no doubt return it to showroom order.

The cabin appears to be in even better condition than the exterior, with seemingly very minimal wear throughout. The steering wheel has a solitary scratch at the top of its central boss and that’s about it. The leather on the oft-touched surfaces (including the wheel) appear supple and blemish-free. There’s the tiniest amount of wear showing on the usual driver’s seat outer bolster but it seems to be in the very early stages. We have to applaud the previous keepers for managing to keep these cream seats in an open car looking so good. That can’t have been easy and we guess children weren’t frequent passengers! However, we did see some marks in the driver’s side door shut – small paint chips and a tiny dent – we can only assume this was caused by trapping something in the closing door?

The dashtop appears to be in great order as does the often-damaged infotainment screen and its associated controls. In fact, the plastics, switches and knobs throughout the cabin seem to have been barely used. Soft-touch was all the rage when this car came out and most surfaces this old show damage from discarded keys or clumsy finger nails, but there’s little sign of either here. Poking through the glovebox we found some audio connectors (old type) and a USB input, which hopefully still work, we weren’t able to test. There’s a proper space saver spare tyre in the boot, rather than those annoying (and often useless) spray cans. Carpets look good, no doubt helped by their protective AMG-embossed over mats. Though what the famous tuning firm did to the carpet material, we can only guess… Again, a sad sign of the times, where those magnificent three letters are reduced to a trim option.

Lifting the huge bonnet, thankfully made a lot easier with a pair of gas struts, a big plastic cover greets you. V6 badges proudly lift what is otherwise a fairly underwhelming under bonnet. Though everything appears to be clean and tidy and the soundproofing on the underside of the bonnet is still present and correct. Pretty important on an open-top diesel.

Underneath proper, there are loads of plastic covers keeping the elements from the floors and sills etc. We therefore couldn’t really grasp the true state of the underneath, but we’d assume from its age, and the remaining protective coverage, that all’s well. The metal we could see exposed showed nothing that appeared to be any more serious than some surface rust, which was limited to the front subframe and rear wishbones. Most of the rest of the suspension is made from aluminium anyway.

As said at the top, this car’s history charts a rather sedentary existence, remaining in South Wales. The history file shows annual – or even more frequent trips – to Sinclair Mercedes-Benz, Newport between 2012 and 2015. Here it received four ‘A’ minor (oil & air filter) services and three ‘B’ major services (brake fluid & trans, coolant fluid etc.). A further visit to M-B, and this car’s last, took place in 2016 (an A service) at Mercedes-Benz Swansea. The good news continues in this car’s folder as the vendor still has all the invoices and print outs from these M-B dealer visits to prove its care. All the MoT certificates are also present and back up the online data that we browsed through.

A little more up-to-date, we find a full Autodata health check report from 2017 that only highlighted low tread on the nearside rear tyre. Not bad for a car that was six years old at the time. Since leaving Mercedes-Benz care, the car remained in the local area but was now cared for by Neath-based independent, Garden City Garage. This company swapped the glow plugs and controller in 2017 and was also tasked with a further A service in 2019 at a cost of £175.57. The following year saw £858.41 invested in on-going care and in 2021, a further £436.08 was spent. That trip also saw the transmission filter and its fluid changed – the associated gearbox gaskets and O-rings were swapped out in 2019 with a big bill for £1067.56 to show for it.

The latest invoice comes from May 2021 and lists some new coil springs and lots of cleaning plus some odd gasket replacements in the engine bay. This lot came to a not unsubstantial £1484.20. Also included from the vendor comes a touch-up paint pen (oddly for a BMW…) and all the car’s original owner booklets, as well as two sets of keys.

The dream of owning a classic convertible is an appealing one, but the reality usually falls short. Modern technology isn’t always an improvement, but when it comes to weather-proofing, the newer the better. This Mercedes-Benz is designed specifically to be no more arduous to own than the hard-top coupe, so why suffer? Doesn’t it make more sense to enjoy grabbing those fleeting moments of British sunshine and still be enclosed in perfect comfort for the other 350 days per year? We think this slice of class and comfort will require its next owner to part with between £8,000 - £11,000. A very small wedge compared to its original £40k+ asking price…

Viewing is always encouraged. This particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; we are open weekdays between 9am-5pm, to arrange an appointment please use the Contact Seller button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.