[Boring] Daddy taxi - 2010 W212 E350 CDI

[qska]

So.

It's my turn now.... Get ready to be bored to tears, as am I.

Purchased on 28/04/2015 to fulfil my boring 110 mile (per day) commute. Luckily only 3 days a week.

I think I paid a bit too much, (£16,000), but the dealer was nice and local and it was in really good condition, one owner (so 5 years old).

41,000 miles on the clock, full Merc service history - can't be argued with

Replacing a Mondeo 2008 Auto TDCI 2.0

Mondeo did average of 41 mpg on my commute, the E class - 37 mpg. Not bad for a 3.0 litre V6!





These pictures are from the sales ad I placed a few months after buying it, it was properly hard to gel with it.... It's amazingly competent, but leaves me cold, it's NOT a driver's car to any extent.

But - the job of transporting me to the office and back - it does admirably.....

[qska]

Boring update 1. (end of 2015)

For me - the car has a "hesitation from start" problem - you can press the loud pedal, and for 1.5 second - NOTHING happens.

I paid Merc dealership to diagnose that - they reset the adaptations in the gearbox, but other than that it was a case of "they all do that, Sir".

I can only assume that is one of the reasons for a reasonably good economy - 37 mpg from a 3 litre V6 after all.

But it's just bloody annoying.

Filter left, brake.... get off the brake, press the accelerator... car slows down... car slows down... oh - now car goes faster....

I got used to it now, but it takes away any "driver involvement", that the previous Mondeo had.

Steering lock is also funny - it really needs the steering wheel yanked to the side, to notify the car that you REALLY want to turn.

On twisties, it's a matter of shuffling master, Mondeo I could steer pretty much holding the wheel at 9 and 3, the Merc needs a lot more input to do anything.

Purchased a service plan from Merc, £55 a month. Kept that going for a year, and used one service.

Car bought at 41,000 miles, nobody bothered to change the gearbox/torque converter oils... To be rectified next year...

[qska]

Maty said:

Isn't the hesitation just the nature of auto boxes? Any I've ever driven have been exactly like that, floor it, wait an awfully long time, kick down, and then your off!

Ford one was much more responsive throttle wise, and wasn't using such high gears to start with.

So I'd say the lazy gearbox and a turbo lag combined

[qska]

spookly said:

I had a manual W212 E220d and it didn't do that.... so I suspect it might be the gearbox which causes it.

Never had a problem with the steering either. It was certainly no sports car, but was precise and responsive enough for a barge.

I didn't say "problem" with steering - it's lovely and light, doesn't make me tired after a 3.5 hour commute

But just it takes much more lock for the car to notice that you really want to change direction :-)

[qska]

But... That's not the end of the story... 12 months ago I thought I'd like to go back to Mondeo, to:
- have more fun driving
- save some money (Sell Merc - buy Mondeo, save £5k)
- have more practicality (Estate vs non-folding seats of the saloon).

I bought this....







After one trip to work, I knew it wasn't the right choice.
- Large 18" alloys, harder ride. It didn't help that the previous owner overinflated the tyres :-)
- sports seats (hard)
- very boomy (estate) shape was much louder at 70+ mph
- squeaks and rattles.... main console (where the gear lever lives) lost the mouting bolt again...
- halogen lights can't shine a light to a Xenon of the E class. Even the "smart" ones (projectors that tilt and swivel)

So I ended up selling it a week later, for a £50 loss.

Back to the utility motoring (Merc).

The Merc is just less tiring to drive, although boring as hell.

[qska]

In the next instalment - a brief fling with a sister to the Merc... a 2003 CLK convertible... :-)

[qska]

Ben Jk said:

Is this a wind up?

Huh?



Here she is with her sister :-)

There was also a thread...

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=159...

CLK is now long gone, it lasted 3 months, mostly due to parking disputes with the neighbours. And STIFF suspension.

[qska]

To add to the travails, I'm now looking at getting a Volvo V40 Cross Country D2...

It might be better suited to the NEEDS (transporting me and my laptop to work).

A nice SLK is also considered, but I occasionally need to do a school run for 2 young un's, so it could complicate things.

I guess, at this point, the depreciation has pretty much levelled off, and it doesn't make any financial sense to sell it whatsoever - I'd buy a Merc like that for £10k after all... It'd be a great deal!

Details re running costs, repairs and servicing to follow...

And hang in there, I even modded it... with a piece of wood! Stay tuned!

[qska]

ajb85 said:

If the E class isn't particularly inspiring to drive... a Volvo isn't going to be any more thrilling!

Have you thought about a BMW 5 tourer?
Earlyish E60 have come right down in price.

True. But lots cheaper mpg and VED wise.

I heard lots of horrors about 5 series reliability over the years.

This E is very reliable so far.

[qska]

... And this happened...

The day before, coming back home at night, I drove into SOMETHING.

It looked like a bottle laying on the street - I couldn't swerve, as there was oncoming traffic - and figured it's only a plastic bottle - drove straight over it.

The damn thing bounced off the kerb, and damaged my passenger door, leaving a golf-ball sized dent in it.

I reviewed my dashcam footage, but couldn't really see what the damn thing was.

Somehow - this happened the next day.

Apparently the power steering pump failed, and pissed all the power steering fluid on my driveway.

Recovering a rear wheel drive automatic is always fun, so a flatbed lorry was called out...

New pump plus fitting £600.






And this is the said dent - paintless dent removal guys gave up... :-( As it's on the side impact protection bar.

So it just stayed like that.

Edited by qska on Sunday 19th March 10:52

[qska]

MattHall91 said:

Not really sure what else to say, other than that there are many, many other car options than Mercs and Mondeos. ??

Hahaha good point.
I had a total of 2x Focus and 6 Mondeos so far, plus a C Max and a S Max.

VAG would get a look as well, if they didn't purposefully poison people.

I think I'll keep the Merc until there's a reason to sell. The current job it does great (not tiring me out during commute), still low mileage and a known history.

More updates to follow

[qska]

The main reason why changing it is hard - bendy Xenons.

50% of my commute are twisties and pitch black.

Edited by qska on Sunday 19th March 19:31

[qska]

RC1807 said:

Re the PDR, surely the guys could have glued on a puller and popped the dent from the outside?

Interesting. I think it's also quite stretched, I was advised to treat as normal damage, ie fill in and paint over.

There's no exposed metal, so I'll leave it for now as it shouldn't rust.

[qska]

This is the amazing mod I did in my first month of driving it.

Apparently Germans were too cheap to fit a proper dead pedal.

The carpet thing was also too narrow for my shoe, and an inch too far deep.

With this mod, the ergonomics are what they should be all along

[qska]

It could also do that...

3,000 miles over 2 weeks, we drove to Poland and back - we averaged around 3-4 hours in the car per day.

Didn't miss a beat, and took us there in supreme comfort.

Shame that we had the roofbox on, we couldn't use the performance on the Autobahns

Wife complained about the cramped cabin in the front (having food and snacks for people at the back), people at the back had it quite well, but filled the cabin up with their cuddly toys and stuff...

The boot was great, 500l, and the Saloon shape was not a problem at all.

Last year, to France - we took the S-Max Diesel, as the family liked it more.

This year we're taking the S-Max Diesel again (boo!), but I dread the wind noise at speed (with the roof box on).

[qska]

Expense wise, it's been really good... Apart from the £290 per month personal loan that is

£144 for diagnosing of slow start (hesitation). "They all do that, Sir", but at least they returned it washed...
£55 per month service contract for the first year, one B service carried out as part of it. Later cancelled.
£35 car wash (after holiday)
£115 brake pads
£525 new discs and fitting of the pads (MB prices)
£7 car wash
£42 4 wheel tracking
£7 number plate screws, the old ones rusted through
£30 wiper blads
£8 wheel centre caps (eBay)
£405 Service A1 plus oil changes in gearbox and torque converter (mobile Benz specialist, carried out on my driveway)
£630 power steering pump (see entry above, possible road item damage)
£385 4x Toyo Proxes T1 Sport
17,000 miles later:
£172 Toyo Proxes T1 Sport for rear + £32 fitting

Total fuel was 4369 l, distance covered 33,901 miles. Works out as 35.86mpg average.

Average cost per mile (fuel only) £0.139,
Average cost per mile (all in) £0.44

Edited by qska on Thursday 23 March 20:41

[qska]

Small update.
Next MOT time, time for new rear tyres. They did 17,000 miles and were down to 3mm.

I modded thd car even further. Bought black centre caps for all four wheels.

Most recent mod - a steering wheel cover, as Merc didn't put any padding below the leather on the wheel. I ended up with a pain in the base od the middle finger

Got bored with it again and looked for replacements. Found something cheap and cheerful, but without Xenons.

These bloody Xenons don't let me swap it for anything. They're just so so good.

Side note - test drove a Volvo V40 Cross Country.
Found the ride too firm, engine not that efficient, and electric steering completely alien.

Still bored with the E, steering too loose, gearbox too lazy. But it's oh so competent as a commuter barge. Great for overtaking, although people don't seem to like being overtaken. To be fair, on tge A road part of the commute, there's all of 3 decent spots in 20 miles where it's safe.

Next service is B3, we'll see how my mobile tech does his trick.

Oh, almost forgot. Side mirrors intermittently stopped unfolding on tge passenger side. Since I bought the car they also squealed after folding. Very easy fix - disable auto folding in thr car menu Only disadvantage is that I can't tell if the car is locked by just looking at the mirrors

[qska]

And this happened.

Knocking a bit when driving around town.... Should I be worried?

[qska]

No, not really. It's plenty fast enough for my licence, and I paid so much for it that I'll have to keep it for ever in order to make financial sense.

Hence - reliability is paramount. See another thread about a guy who borked his Audi gearbox due to remapping.

The picture of suspension was supposed to show something falling off, but as far as I'm concerned the clip is meant to look like that.

Weird, as it has developed a knocking noise "around town", and also gave a one-off "piiiingggg" sound, like a spring letting go. Very loud.

I was rearranging the glovebox and boot to rule out any crap rolling about and knocking, but the noise is still there... But handling and road holding are as good as ever.

Mobile Merc tech comes next week, so the mystery will be solved!

[qska]

colinjy said:

Well you don't have to have a performance map, you could go for a eco map to give better mpg and still get the lazy auto box sorted.

That sounds interesting.
Any specialist recommendations?

Merc dealer told me to basically go away.

I know the car could probably support Bluetooth audio streaming, and also wanted nre software for the gearbox. Apparently their computer said "no".

Even though manufacture date is 7 years ago, and there's been facelifts and further upgrades, so news software must be available.