Would buying an £8k W211 E55 be the worst idea ever?
Discussion
I cannot put into words how much I want one. It's so much my sort of car and that engine is the powerplant of my dreams. But would the whole thing be a horrifically ruinous experience? I've got an E39 540i for a bit of V8 fun at the moment so am used to poor fuel economy, and things breaking.
Lefty said:
sim16v said:
Better to regret what you have done, than what you haven't!
Absolutely spot-on!What mpg can be expected on a e55 at a steady 70mph (motorway only)?
I have had mine for 18 months and its not been too bad to run! You can get 20mpg fairly easily. Biggest issue for me was airmatic strut and pump - and I have another one on the way out and at £1k ish a piece to replace its a bit of a pain in the wallet but helped by the great indy i use. My plan is to keep the car for a few years so have it regularly serviced - first year was about £3k spent for 10k miles (excluding fuel).
turboteeth said:
I have had mine for 18 months and its not been too bad to run! You can get 20mpg fairly easily. Biggest issue for me was airmatic strut and pump - and I have another one on the way out and at £1k ish a piece to replace its a bit of a pain in the wallet but helped by the great indy i use. My plan is to keep the car for a few years so have it regularly serviced - first year was about £3k spent for 10k miles (excluding fuel).
Can't the struts be refurbished? EarlOfHazard said:
I know it's probably a silly question, but how ridiculously fast are they?
Replace the intercooler pump or find one that has had this done to make sure it's at full power.I sold mine to get a 997 turbo tiptronic and can honestly say the 911 felt no quicker.
I now have an SL55 which I've thrown a few £k at and it's putting down ~550bhp and ~600lb/ft (on an apparently tough dyno at Eurocharged) and I recently got someone to get my 911 side by side and the 911 walked very slowly away.
The E55 is faster than the SL as standard as it's lighter though. If you like a nice exhaust note, budget to have some work done as the E55 is so muted, which is a shame as the engine (as my SL now sounds) sounds like a Messerschmitt when it's allowed to breathe.
Can you get a good one for £8k?
I am averaging ~8mpg in the SL by the way - the way the power is delivered in the 55K cars makes it really tempting to put your foot down more... I drive the SL in a more aggressive manner than the 997 because the 997 needs revs to give you the major shove in the back whereas the 55K has it at not much above idle.
This shows the power curve well... you can see the before picture - my SL was down on power due to a naff intercooler pump... my E55 needed a new one too.
vinnie83 said:
Replace the intercooler pump or find one that has had this done to make sure it's at full power.
I sold mine to get a 997 turbo tiptronic and can honestly say the 911 felt no quicker.
I now have an SL55 which I've thrown a few £k at and it's putting down ~550bhp and ~600lb/ft (on an apparently tough dyno at Eurocharged) and I recently got someone to get my 911 side by side and the 911 walked very slowly away.
The E55 is faster than the SL as standard as it's lighter though. If you like a nice exhaust note, budget to have some work done as the E55 is so muted, which is a shame as the engine (as my SL now sounds) sounds like a Messerschmitt when it's allowed to breathe.
Can you get a good one for £8k?
I am averaging ~8mpg in the SL by the way - the way the power is delivered in the 55K cars makes it really tempting to put your foot down more... I drive the SL in a more aggressive manner than the 997 because the 997 needs revs to give you the major shove in the back whereas the 55K has it at not much above idle.
This shows the power curve well... you can see the before picture - my SL was down on power due to a naff intercooler pump... my E55 needed a new one too.
Do you know if the S55 AMG has one? What are the symptoms? What does the pump actually do? I sold mine to get a 997 turbo tiptronic and can honestly say the 911 felt no quicker.
I now have an SL55 which I've thrown a few £k at and it's putting down ~550bhp and ~600lb/ft (on an apparently tough dyno at Eurocharged) and I recently got someone to get my 911 side by side and the 911 walked very slowly away.
The E55 is faster than the SL as standard as it's lighter though. If you like a nice exhaust note, budget to have some work done as the E55 is so muted, which is a shame as the engine (as my SL now sounds) sounds like a Messerschmitt when it's allowed to breathe.
Can you get a good one for £8k?
I am averaging ~8mpg in the SL by the way - the way the power is delivered in the 55K cars makes it really tempting to put your foot down more... I drive the SL in a more aggressive manner than the 997 because the 997 needs revs to give you the major shove in the back whereas the 55K has it at not much above idle.
This shows the power curve well... you can see the before picture - my SL was down on power due to a naff intercooler pump... my E55 needed a new one too.
Thanks
Chris x said:
Do you know if the S55 AMG has one? What are the symptoms? What does the pump actually do?
Thanks
All of the supercharged cars have this - it cools the supercharger.Thanks
If you have a duff pump, after a few full throttle runs, the car will go into 'limp' mode and feel like a milk float. Given a chance to cool down, the supercharger works again.
It also results in higher intake air temperature which results in lower power even when not in limp mode - hence my low dyno run even when the supercharger was engaged.
I love my E55 and I can highly recommend one if you're happy with going through a lot of fuel. I get about 22-25 on a long motorway run depending on the veracity of overtakes. Around town it can be down in single figures or around 15's depending on what time of day it is and how clear the roads are. Mines had a bit of work done: larger pulley, uprated cooling pump, additional heat exchanger, remap, kleemann headers (which also deletes the primary cats).
They are utterly insane cars for the price and even stock but well serviced can be a right surprise when you hit the loud pedal. They cruise along at about 2.1k rpm at 75~mph which means the slightest sneeze and you're right into the chunky torque curve. These cars are more of a muscle car kind of feel than the scalpel sharp handling of the E63, but even with that said when you set it to M on the gearbox and Sport 2 on the suspension you can still easily get yourself in license losing territory ...
As with all Mercs this age, the engine, brakes and transmission are usually solid the rest will either rot or intermittently stop working. 04-onwards cars have galvanised body panels so are less likely to rust. I got mine without a sunroof or Panoramic roof simply because I know if I put the car upside down I don't want a shower of glass, but if you're not worried about that then it's quite a nice feature.
They are utterly insane cars for the price and even stock but well serviced can be a right surprise when you hit the loud pedal. They cruise along at about 2.1k rpm at 75~mph which means the slightest sneeze and you're right into the chunky torque curve. These cars are more of a muscle car kind of feel than the scalpel sharp handling of the E63, but even with that said when you set it to M on the gearbox and Sport 2 on the suspension you can still easily get yourself in license losing territory ...
As with all Mercs this age, the engine, brakes and transmission are usually solid the rest will either rot or intermittently stop working. 04-onwards cars have galvanised body panels so are less likely to rust. I got mine without a sunroof or Panoramic roof simply because I know if I put the car upside down I don't want a shower of glass, but if you're not worried about that then it's quite a nice feature.
TheAllSeeingPie said:
I love my E55 and I can highly recommend one if you're happy with going through a lot of fuel. I get about 22-25 on a long motorway run depending on the veracity of overtakes. Around town it can be down in single figures or around 15's depending on what time of day it is and how clear the roads are. Mines had a bit of work done: larger pulley, uprated cooling pump, additional heat exchanger, remap, kleemann headers (which also deletes the primary cats).
They are utterly insane cars for the price and even stock but well serviced can be a right surprise when you hit the loud pedal. They cruise along at about 2.1k rpm at 75~mph which means the slightest sneeze and you're right into the chunky torque curve. These cars are more of a muscle car kind of feel than the scalpel sharp handling of the E63, but even with that said when you set it to M on the gearbox and Sport 2 on the suspension you can still easily get yourself in license losing territory ...
As with all Mercs this age, the engine, brakes and transmission are usually solid the rest will either rot or intermittently stop working. 04-onwards cars have galvanised body panels so are less likely to rust. I got mine without a sunroof or Panoramic roof simply because I know if I put the car upside down I don't want a shower of glass, but if you're not worried about that then it's quite a nice feature.
I've had a look and if the speedo reads to 200mph instead of 160mph, then it's the later version with some of the electrical gremlins resolved. These seem rarer than the earlier cars though.They are utterly insane cars for the price and even stock but well serviced can be a right surprise when you hit the loud pedal. They cruise along at about 2.1k rpm at 75~mph which means the slightest sneeze and you're right into the chunky torque curve. These cars are more of a muscle car kind of feel than the scalpel sharp handling of the E63, but even with that said when you set it to M on the gearbox and Sport 2 on the suspension you can still easily get yourself in license losing territory ...
As with all Mercs this age, the engine, brakes and transmission are usually solid the rest will either rot or intermittently stop working. 04-onwards cars have galvanised body panels so are less likely to rust. I got mine without a sunroof or Panoramic roof simply because I know if I put the car upside down I don't want a shower of glass, but if you're not worried about that then it's quite a nice feature.
What about an E500? A colleague of mine has one to sell, low miles, black and black leather, one owner, FMBSH. March 2007. Working on around £10500.00. If you are remotely interested pm me and I will pass the details on.
If I didn't already have the CLK55, I would be very tempted myself.
If I didn't already have the CLK55, I would be very tempted myself.
EarlOfHazard said:
Or as someone once said, I want to look back on life and say, I can't believe I did that, rather than I wish I'd done that.
Very nice quote. EarlOfHazard said:
What mpg can be expected on a e55 at a steady 70mph (motorway only)?
OK, under 70 but you get the idea: -
Incidentally, this was the most boring run I ever had in it. I did it as I was early that morning so thought I's see what I could get out of it and that's the result. 5 miles to the motorway, but apart from that it's all M/way or DC.
This was about 5 years ago and I still regret selling it. Instant in your face acceleration and every trip was fun. Had a couple of things in between but now back to AMG again for as long as they still make silly cars.
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