New car - battery fubared?

Bought a car at the auctions last night (perhaps a stupid move for a pleb like me), drove it 12 miles home, no issues just went out to start it and nothing.

Gave it a jump off my trusty golf (which is the car the new one is supposed to be replacing) and it fired up, left it running a few mins and turned it off, just went back out there and nowt.

It is a fairly hefty old lump of a car Mercedes E220 estate, the first time it went to start but sounded like it didn't have quite enough juice.

Is the battery completely knackered or is it likely to be something else?

Do you have an optimiser for your bike?? If so put the merc battery on charge and see if it can be recovered. Or take it to halfords and they will test it for free usually.

No I use the bike every day so have never needed one...I get free RAC with my bank account so have given them a shout, but they could be 4 hours apparently. I wanted to go and give it a test drive too.

I'm thinking it could've been stood for a while, the auctions often gives cars a jump and the car was running for a while, so by the time I had the bid accepted and paid for it was no more than 20-25 mins and it started again fine, but overnight has lost its charge for some reason.

when you jumped it off the golf then diconnected the leads did the battery light warning light come on to tell you its not charging?? If not i'd take it for a brisk drive

No no battery warning light but it had a reasonable drive last night and there isn't much jungle juice in it, which was where I was going to be taking it.

In that case hopefully its just the battery and not the alternator then.

I had a C200 - completly reliable unless I eft the couretesy lght on

[timwilky]

Batteries have a finite life, a dead cell in these temps and it causes all sorts of issues.

The 7 year old car I bought a week ago worked fine, just a tad slow turning over but started first attempt.

The cold happened and despite being on a trickle charger overnight it would not start.

Problem being that I had changed the timing belt/water pump, plugs, oil, filters etc. And not starting, turns over just wont catch.

Brand new battery fitted and it still wont catch. Damm is my service (cam belt) or is it the starter etc.

On the jump leads, fires up first time. Yippee.

Since then fine, I guess the brand new battery was not quite fully charged

If it starts with a jump then I would say the battery. Just make sure that when you turn the ignition on ALL the dashboard lights come on as people remove warning bulbs to hide expensive problems. If they come on and the car starts and the lights go off then the battery. You cant beat a Merc IMO.

The car has only had one owner since 1999 (bloke paid £19k for it then) and I have a pile of bills and old MOT's, so I believe it is a genuine motor that hasn't been used and abused.

I'm going to let them RAC come and check it over. If it is a battery then £50 should sort it.

I didn't pay anywhere close to £19k for it!