Paddy Comyn

AS THE FACE of DoneDeal Cars and with 25 years’ experience in the industry, Paddy Comyn is ‘the’ car guy to everyone in his life and he has widened out that role to you, The Journal readers.

In his Car Clinic series, he answers all your motoring questions and queries. Have one? Send it to with the subject line CAR CLINIC to motoring@thejournal.ie – we will publish all answers on Mondays on The Journal. (Your questions will be anonymised.)

Please let Paddy know what your budget is if you’re asking about your next big purchase.

Here’s this week’s question:

I’m thinking about buying a fairly low-mileage Mercedes E300de and was wondering about your thoughts on them?

I’m looking at a 221 AMG with 95,000km and a full dealer history from new. Very clean with good tyres all round and showing up as perfect on a history check. What do you think of them, and roughly what should I be paying for it? Thanks for your thoughts.

The E300de is the plug-in hybrid diesel version of the W213 E-Class (2019-2023 facelift era) and it comes with a 2.0-litre diesel engine paired with an electric motor and a bigger battery than most PHEVs, so it gives a decent EV-only range for short runs and very low fuel and CO2 figures.

This is a really comfortable car, well-built as you might expect and a great car for long motorway drives, with superb seats and the AMG trim looks brilliant.

If you are thinking of one, bear in mind that the battery and extra hybrid hardware add weight and complexity versus a straight E300d, it is not a car you want out of warranty with unknown service history so you would need to be fastidious with the service history on this one.

You will need to ask specifically about battery health / state of charge capacity if the dealer can pull that data, and get a look at the service history for anything hybrid-specific (12V battery, coolant systems for the battery pack, etc). Tyres and brakes wear faster on these than you would expect from a diesel due to the extra weight, but you’ve said the tyres are good, which is a positive sign of an owner who looked after it.

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In terms of price, we found a 2022 with 111,000km from a good dealer for €34,950 and another with 86,000km for €39,996 so I’d expect it to be somewhere in the middle of those, less if it’s private. But the service history is key here.

Paddy Comyn is the head of automotive content and communications with DoneDeal Cars. He has been involved in the Irish motor industry for more than 25 years.

Journal Media Ltd has shareholders in common with DoneDeal Ltd.