RE: PH Heroes: Mercedes 300 E AMG Hammer

RE: PH Heroes: Mercedes 300 E AMG Hammer

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Discussion

EDLT

15,421 posts

205 months

Monday 4th January 2010
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daveco said:
Gridl0k said:
EVO has a long history of doing exactly that sort of comparison.

288GTO vs F40 vs F50 vs Enzo comes to mind (pretty memorable..)
True, but it seems they haven't done one for a while. The last one I recall was the M car issue but that seemed to be a hurried article. They should feature old and new in each issue.
Maybe Mercedes don't want them to point out that this car has a higher top speed than anything they've made for ages (barring the McLaren SLR). tongue out

Redbaron1973

637 posts

252 months

Monday 4th January 2010
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Gridl0k said:
You've obviously not bought a 220 or 250 CDI then - there must be over a thousand Mercs at the dealerships right now waiting for a resolution to the failing injector problem. I know of many customers who've been in Enterprise rentals for months.
Good job they have cured the issue then...

tedzwedz

80 posts

188 months

Monday 4th January 2010
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LukeBird said:
Awesome! thumbup

Good point regarding the 500E/E500 though... they look much more subtle... smile
and are far less powerful..

and bespoke

and those 50,000£ prices are the base price, with no options like those electric recaro seats and full wood trim you see here..

brams

29 posts

184 months

Monday 4th January 2010
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Wonderful car, I've never seen one in real life only ever heard about them, would love a blast in one to compare to my E500.

Rob Crutch

232 posts

189 months

Monday 4th January 2010
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900T-R said:
Love those two-piece wheels. Whatever advances there have been in the past 25 years, they don't really include road wheel design (witness the otherwise lush Aston V12 Vantage yuck and the new Mégane 250's 19-inchers hurl )...
I owned a set recently, sadly they have a common fault where they crack between the bolt holes and the centre cap, so be careful if you look to buy a set (especially as a good set seems to go for around £1k at the moment).

Paddski

5 posts

180 months

Monday 4th January 2010
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Indeed a great car from the past

I have owned many a W124 and currently am the proud owner of a 500E, which incidently will be up for sale very soon!!!

Email me at paddy@polypostalpackaging.co.uk, if you would like details on my 500E

Paddy

The Wookie

13,909 posts

227 months

Monday 4th January 2010
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daveco said:
Love it!

On a separate note why don't modern mags do comparative pieces of these cars with their newer siblings? Or head to heads with older cars? EVO and CAR would be excellent if they took some of the focus off slightly banal newer cars and onto these characterful beasts.

Probably because it would stop the journo's waxing lyrical every month about how such-and-such a model back in the day was better than the overweight, overassisted, overcomplicated version you get today when confronted with a rattly old machine with crap brakes, a curmudgeonly gearbox and the steering response of a challenger tank which, being a pristine, low mileage museum piece, has no excuse for being old hehe

<legs it back to GG before the modern classic brigade let rip>

900T-R

20,404 posts

256 months

Monday 4th January 2010
quotequote all
The Wookie said:
daveco said:
Love it!

On a separate note why don't modern mags do comparative pieces of these cars with their newer siblings? Or head to heads with older cars? EVO and CAR would be excellent if they took some of the focus off slightly banal newer cars and onto these characterful beasts.

Probably because it would stop the journo's waxing lyrical every month about how such-and-such a model back in the day was better than the overweight, overassisted, overcomplicated version you get today when confronted with a rattly old machine with crap brakes, a curmudgeonly gearbox and the steering response of a challenger tank which, being a pristine, low mileage museum piece, has no excuse for being old hehe

<legs it back to GG before the modern classic brigade let rip>
B*ll*x - the problem is that doing so would highlight the magazines' problems that they need headlines every month and 'the new XYZ - it's pretty decent but the old one was, too' doesn't stand out the way 'Sensational new XYZ takes the fight to A, B and C' does. It's like the German hi-fi mags where they score equipment out of 100 and new moderately priced gear gets unfeasably high scores compared to pretty high end stuff of 10 years ago. Then you listen to an 'old' and a 'new' model back to back and conclude you can hardly tell them apart even if the 'old' one scored 50/100 and the 'new' one 85/100. The reason? Well, there's five generations of that piece of equipment separating them and every one was hailed as an improvement. Mainly because the reviewers expect improvement, so they find it no matter what (and know the new item not yet well enough to tell what it doesn't do that well in comparison to the old). Of course, by and large things improve over a longer period of time - but not nearly by as much as the media would have you believe.
Which is natural, as mags live from telling people what's new and hot and interesting, and they need to fill loads of column inches every week or month so there will always be a subconscious tendency to exaggerate (the impact of) any new development. And virtually no one buys car mags or hi-fi mags or fishing equipment if they don't have at least a latent interest in buying stuff - so telling people that they'd just as well keep what they have, is not such a commercially viable proposition even apart from advertisement sales... hehe


NickyTwoHats

2,093 posts

240 months

Monday 4th January 2010
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I remember going absolutely flat out in a chipped (Ur)Quatro on the way back from Le Mans in 1989, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a black car about a mile back, looked again it was 1/2 a mile back...looked again and it was a few yards behind. It went past me at a relative speed of about 40mph so I have no doubt they really could do 186 (I have a photo of the Audi speedo reading 153 at about the same time).

I really wanted one at the time (well it was the '80s)

N2H

Gridl0k

1,058 posts

182 months

Monday 4th January 2010
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EDLT said:
Maybe Mercedes don't want them to point out that this car has a higher top speed than anything they've made for ages (barring the McLaren SLR). tongue out
...because it's not a Mercedes and the German tuning houses (hauses?) don't feel bound by the 250kph agreement?

FWIW mine tops out at 158, not the advertised 155. Presumably this is so I can overtake lesser German Bahnmunchers at a stately 3mph relative..

Edited by Gridl0k on Monday 4th January 16:40

autoemotional

13 posts

182 months

Monday 4th January 2010
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BY FAR ONE OF THE BEST MACHINES EVER MADE. OWNING A 300E MYSELF MY LATEST OF AROUND 70 CARS I KNOW A THING OR TOO ABOUT MOTORS AND THESE THINGS WILL GO ON FOR EVER. THERE IS HOWEVER ONE MORE BEAST THAT IS EVEN RARE. THATS THE E60, YES ON A W124 SHAPE AND TRUST ME THEY FETCH £20K IN PRISTINE NICK AND WOULD SPIN RUBBER AT 150MPH..NOW THATS A MACHINE...

The Wookie

13,909 posts

227 months

Monday 4th January 2010
quotequote all
900T-R said:
B*ll*x - the problem is that doing so would highlight the magazines' problems that they need headlines every month and 'the new XYZ - it's pretty decent but the old one was, too' doesn't stand out the way 'Sensational new XYZ takes the fight to A, B and C' does. It's like the German hi-fi mags where they score equipment out of 100 and new moderately priced gear gets unfeasably high scores compared to pretty high end stuff of 10 years ago. Then you listen to an 'old' and a 'new' model back to back and conclude you can hardly tell them apart even if the 'old' one scored 50/100 and the 'new' one 85/100. The reason? Well, there's five generations of that piece of equipment separating them and every one was hailed as an improvement. Mainly because the reviewers expect improvement, so they find it no matter what (and know the new item not yet well enough to tell what it doesn't do that well in comparison to the old). Of course, by and large things improve over a longer period of time - but not nearly by as much as the media would have you believe.
Which is natural, as mags live from telling people what's new and hot and interesting, and they need to fill loads of column inches every week or month so there will always be a subconscious tendency to exaggerate (the impact of) any new development. And virtually no one buys car mags or hi-fi mags or fishing equipment if they don't have at least a latent interest in buying stuff - so telling people that they'd just as well keep what they have, is not such a commercially viable proposition even apart from advertisement sales... hehe

It was only a little joke hehe

But having said that, my experience is that things have moved on significantly in most types of cars over the years... except French stuff. That definitely peaked about 10-15 years ago hehe

Gridl0k

1,058 posts

182 months

Monday 4th January 2010
quotequote all
autoemotional said:
BY FAR ONE OF THE BEST MACHINES EVER MADE. OWNING A 300E MYSELF MY LATEST OF AROUND 70 CARS I KNOW A THING OR TOO ABOUT MOTORS AND THESE THINGS WILL GO ON FOR EVER. THERE IS HOWEVER ONE MORE BEAST THAT IS EVEN RARE. THATS THE E60, YES ON A W124 SHAPE AND TRUST ME THEY FETCH £20K IN PRISTINE NICK AND WOULD SPIN RUBBER AT 150MPH..NOW THATS A MACHINE...
WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING?

And there's a W124 that's rarer than the "E60", and which you'll pay more like £150K+ to get your hands on - but you know a thing or 2 about MOTORS so I'm sure you kno what I'm talking about biggrin

Hint - it shares an engine with a car that comes with Pope shoes..

stats007

531 posts

234 months

Monday 4th January 2010
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I don't think anyone is going to pay £150k for any W124 - be it an E73 or not.

nav p

324 posts

186 months

Monday 4th January 2010
quotequote all
Great car,as a previous owner of a 500E and several other W124 cars,they are sublime(i just could not live with LHD)

I have toyed with the idea of an E36...(W124 one of the Great modern Benz's)

Rollcage

11,327 posts

191 months

Monday 4th January 2010
quotequote all
Gridl0k said:
autoemotional said:
BY FAR ONE OF THE BEST MACHINES EVER MADE. OWNING A 300E MYSELF MY LATEST OF AROUND 70 CARS I KNOW A THING OR TOO ABOUT MOTORS AND THESE THINGS WILL GO ON FOR EVER. THERE IS HOWEVER ONE MORE BEAST THAT IS EVEN RARE. THATS THE E60, YES ON A W124 SHAPE AND TRUST ME THEY FETCH £20K IN PRISTINE NICK AND WOULD SPIN RUBBER AT 150MPH..NOW THATS A MACHINE...
WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING?

And there's a W124 that's rarer than the "E60", and which you'll pay more like £150K+ to get your hands on - but you know a thing or 2 about MOTORS so I'm sure you kno what I'm talking about biggrin

Hint - it shares an engine with a car that comes with Pope shoes..
I think there was an E60 in the "Supercars Spotted......" thread a couple of months ago!

Caused quite some excitement, I can tell you. Darren ,can you confirm?

Gridl0k

1,058 posts

182 months

Monday 4th January 2010
quotequote all
stats007 said:
I don't think anyone is going to pay £150k for any W124 - be it an E73 or not.
The last one I saw for sale was up for €250K (car in Monaco, seller in Moscow...) - not sure if it sold but seeing how there's less than 20 in the world (only AMG know, and they're not saying) I'm sure you could find a buyer at a price not dissimilar.

One of the most legendary Mercs ever made with one of the finest engines Germany has ever produced, in a package only available to those who knew to ask? In a world where internal combustion has a shelf life (for us plebs) and all the "new" money (Russia, China, Middle East) comes from countries where the 3 pointed star is next to godliness?

I'd bet you people will.

dpbird90

5,535 posts

189 months

Monday 4th January 2010
quotequote all
I now have a purpose in life. To be able to afford, and then buy, this car.

Why can't car makers give their new offerings names this cool these days? Instead of Toyota making a "Prius", they should fit it with the LFA's V10 and call it Toyota Space Thruster Chainsaw Massacre.

Gridl0k

1,058 posts

182 months

Monday 4th January 2010
quotequote all
Are you suggesting the LFA is made by Toyota? eek

900T-R

20,404 posts

256 months

Monday 4th January 2010
quotequote all
The Wookie said:
But having said that, my experience is that things have moved on significantly in most types of cars over the years... except French stuff. That definitely peaked about 10-15 years ago hehe
Hmm, having started my career as a car hack I must say it's not only the French...

Boring cars -> overweight boring cars with toys
Small Japanese cars -> small Japanese cars with more airbags and lower EU driving cycle consumption that somehow doesn't translate into the real world
Alfa 156 -> Alfa 159 From lithe and full of verve to a bloated would-be German
BMW E46->E90 early E46s were a bit shakey, but I think I'd have a late one over its successor
E39->E60 as above
Mini R50 -> R56 Better engine but lost a touch of the magic in its steering
Ford Focus Mk1 -> Ford Focus Mk2 The newer one has lost is freshness and is not as engaging to drive either; engines haven't changed much and well off the pace now

Loads of cars that have 'done an Elvis' in that they became fat and rubbish. Especially Peugeots. hehe