RE: Mercedes-Benz E320 (W211) | Shed of the Week

RE: Mercedes-Benz E320 (W211) | Shed of the Week

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evo69

33 posts

134 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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BFleming said:
The last paragraph of the article, referring to the Airmatic suspension... does this car actually have it? It failed its MOT in 2008 at 55,000 for 'Nearside Rear coil spring fractured' - so I'm thinking the Airmatic guff is just that. If you notice it lower, it'll just be a broken spring - and there's plenty of W211's with broken springs. AFAIK Airmatic was optional - some did, most didn't.
Doesn't look like it has Airmatic, as there would be buttons below the gear selector area for raising the ride height, plus Comfort and Sport modes, etc.

Augustus Windsock

3,340 posts

154 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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I’m sure if you get a good one you really do get a good one.
I remember going to Gran canaria and taking a taxi from the top of the hill to the bottom in Puerto Rico.
Ok, the driver just free-wheeled down the hill and the only strain was on the brakes but obviously it was a steep climb back up.
And of course it’s a dry climate so rust isn’t an issue.
Speaking to the driver in broken English, he’d had the car from nearly new (it was the diesel version, naturally) and it had done circa 240,000km at that point
I returned two years later and the same guy ran us around a couple of times and by this time the very same car had done around 450,000km.
Thr only noticeable difference was that the car smelt very noticeably of Factor 50 suncream...

J4CKO

41,274 posts

199 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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That is a good shed, nice engine if a little thirsty but its enough to shift the car convincingly.

It wont have Airmatic as mentioned so one less thing to worry about, though its not that bad really. Loads of parts for these are cheap, suspension and service bits, loads in breakers as well.

I had a CLS which is the same stuff underneath and that was holding up well rust wise.

Think these are a good looker as well, get Alex 225 to give it a clean and it will look like a new car, amazing how cheap these have got.

It lacks Sat Nav but you can get a specific fit Android Unit that you just plug and play and it adds Navigation and all the other functionality for a couple of hundred quid or not much more.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Android-9-0-DAB-Mercede...

Court_S

12,764 posts

176 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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On the face of it, that looks like a lot of car for the cash. I quite like it.

KillerHERTZ

935 posts

197 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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Pre-2004 cars will rust, not to the same extent as the W210, but the rear arches will go.

Also the SBC suspesion will likely be at the end of its life on this car possble huge bills.

Otherwise great cars.

Twoshoe

847 posts

183 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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Augustus Windsock said:
I’m sure if you get a good one you really do get a good one.
I remember going to Gran canaria and taking a taxi from the top of the hill to the bottom in Puerto Rico.
Ok, the driver just free-wheeled down the hill and the only strain was on the brakes but obviously it was a steep climb back up.
And of course it’s a dry climate so rust isn’t an issue.
Speaking to the driver in broken English, he’d had the car from nearly new (it was the diesel version, naturally) and it had done circa 240,000km at that point
I returned two years later and the same guy ran us around a couple of times and by this time the very same car had done around 450,000km.
Thr only noticeable difference was that the car smelt very noticeably of Factor 50 suncream...
Yes, there are plenty of these blatting around Cyprus too, also W210s, W124s and even W123s, all happily soaking up the miles.

diddy_p

36 posts

236 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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Augustus Windsock said:
“In reality of course you'd have about as much chance of getting somewhere with your local M-B dealer as Shed would have with the village postmistress, unless you could somehow prove that the car's body was perforated due to corrosion 'from the inside out'. Good luck with that.”
Exactly
My godfather had one and, hey pesto, as Peppa Pig would say, the dreaded ferrous oxide reared it’s crusty head.
Now said godfather did very low mileage and cared for the MB like his child, having it serviced ‘every’ year and not bi-annually. He also ensured that the rust inspection was completed.
When the rust appeared he popped to his supplying dealership who rejected his claim on the spot, with the usual mantra of it was rust from the outside in
Any fool could see that was total hollyhocks and as he pointed out, the annual inspection had discovered nothing 2 months previously.
My godfather was then in his 60’s, having retired from a high-up position in Lloyd’s Bank and was nobodies fool, yet they attempted to confound him at every turn
Eventually his patience expired and in his own inimitable style he parked the MB on the road outside the supplying dealership with a big sign in the window advising that the MB anti-corrosion was worth diddly-squat
His east-end sense of humour meant that heplaced a plastic dog turd on the rear shelf next to a toy bucket containing rust
Needless to say the Main Stealer didn’t see the funny side and sent letters threatening court action
My dear old godfather took great pleasure in returning them in the same envelope with a post-it note saying he would enjoy meeting them in court
Too and bottom he wasn’t sued, but they didn’t fix his car, and so he part-ex’d it against a new car from a competitor.
Shame really. Well it was for MB as he was just looking at replacing his W211 with a new S class.
Their loss, etc etc...
(Sorry for the long tale but thought it might bring a smile)
This more or less aligns with an uncle's experience, owned several brand new s-classes through the 80's and 90's, culminating in an early w220. always serviced on time, garaged, used as a 3rd car on occasion, so totally mint (inside).

car began to rot but fortunately had some of the early rot (rear arches) repaired by a dealer under mobilio life, when the fronts started to rot, they refused to repair.

I acquired the car 3 years ago, was mint and covered a mere 8.5k miles, i've since had the rust sorted privately, but it does reemerge in random places from time to time... in my case the car is still in original condition with very low mileage, so i'm keeping it looking fresh.

prior to acquiring my uncle's car, i had my own 2003 s320cdi early facelift (52 plate), the damn thing rusted so badly along with airmatic and electric failures that meant i PX'd it for a honda insight... luckily i was able to get the car to stay at seemingly normal height as the stealer took it in, and the thing didn't go into limp mode the one time i needed it to work... as we signed the paperwork for the insight, the s class car sunk down to a super low rider

soad

32,825 posts

175 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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Court_S said:
On the face of it, that looks like a lot of car for the cash. I quite like it.
yes

AC43

11,433 posts

207 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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Fastchas said:
AC43 said:
The quality issues coincided with MB's purchase of Chrysler (1998).

Some people blamed cost cutting or the fact that MB took their eye off the ball.

Another issue was (apparently) the move to water based paint at the time.

One of mine was a affected (a 1999 C Class) but my 2000 C Class was fine. As were my subsequent E Classes. The previous generation E Classes were also badly affected as were most of the other contemporary models.

The move to galvanised shells ( which the SOTW will have) seemed to sort the whole thing at a stroke.
Didn't Audi famously move to galvanised shells in the 80's? I seem to remember their 90 or 100 model being galv'd.
Why wouldn't every other manufacturer follow suit, it obs benefits against rust.
I think you're right - I think it was the 100.

But the article posted up about MB's push for world domination at the time rings true. Pumping cash into basket cases like Chrysler to get the global sales volumes up and paying for it from the Mercedes car profits.........

richinlondon

591 posts

121 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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nice shed, but the world's obsession with silver!! argh, look down the recent sheds and every carpark everywhere

ralphrj

3,507 posts

190 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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Fastchas said:
AC43 said:
The quality issues coincided with MB's purchase of Chrysler (1998).

Some people blamed cost cutting or the fact that MB took their eye off the ball.

Another issue was (apparently) the move to water based paint at the time.

One of mine was a affected (a 1999 C Class) but my 2000 C Class was fine. As were my subsequent E Classes. The previous generation E Classes were also badly affected as were most of the other contemporary models.

The move to galvanised shells ( which the SOTW will have) seemed to sort the whole thing at a stroke.
Didn't Audi famously move to galvanised shells in the 80's? I seem to remember their 90 or 100 model being galv'd.
Why wouldn't every other manufacturer follow suit, it obs benefits against rust.
The merger with Chrysler is often mentioned as a cause of MB quality issues but they were present before the merger took place. For example, the 210 series E-Class was one of the most notorious models for poor quality and it was launched in 1995. The merger with Chrysler was in 1998.

I think that MB did galvanise their cars for several years but then developed a method of painting the car that (theoretically) negated the need for the body to be galvanised. It didn't work and they re-introduced galvanising.


8IKERDAVE

2,278 posts

212 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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That would make a lovely cheap cruiser. I have the later model and absolutely love it, but my dad used to have this exact one which drew my attention to Mercs. My car doesn't actually ride that great for what it is (AMG LIne model). But I took styling over comfort and often wonder whether I'd have been better off with the waftier model in an Automatic! I would certainly snap this up if that was my budget!

AC43

11,433 posts

207 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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8IKERDAVE said:
That would make a lovely cheap cruiser. I have the later model and absolutely love it, but my dad used to have this exact one which drew my attention to Mercs. My car doesn't actually ride that great for what it is (AMG LIne model). But I took styling over comfort and often wonder whether I'd have been better off with the waftier model in an Automatic! I would certainly snap this up if that was my budget!
My 211 was on Air and 17's and very wafty.

My 212 came on 17's (and Air) and was even waftier.

But I changed it to (AMG) 18's for the looks and introduced some nuggetiness.

The next step is staggered 18's then 19's.

Best ride by far is on the 17's.

Jimmy Recard

17,540 posts

178 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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B'stard Child said:
My SLK from 2001 has bloody rust everywhere but mechanically it's excellent - currently looking for a newer SLK (without rust) to transplant the engine into biggrin
Much like my 2003 ML. Covered in rust and looks atrocious, but mechanically and electrically it's completely faultless.

I'll just ignore it because it's a shed for towing and carrying crap around, but it is pretty bad. None of it is structural though

knebworth01

160 posts

119 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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Great cars, I had a 2007 280CDI a good few years back and it still is the most comfortable car i've ever owned. Liked a drink mind, rarely saw above 30MPG.
The following shape was never as good as Merc cottoned onto the trend for rock hard seats like all cars seem to be now! (is it just me or are the french cars the only ones with squidgy comfortable seats these days?)

The Mad Monk

10,474 posts

116 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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AC43 said:
My 211 was on Air and 17's and very wafty.

My 212 came on 17's (and Air) and was even waftier.

But I changed it to (AMG) 18's for the looks and introduced some nuggetiness.

The next step is staggered 18's then 19's.

Best ride by far is on the 17's.
Even better on 16s.

Sheepshanks

32,517 posts

118 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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rallycross said:
It looks good to me an impressive car for shed money.

I’ve a 2005 C class estate which is a rotten as anything with holes in the bottom of the wing and doors absolutely poor quality cars to rot through at that age (it had bad rust at 10 yrs old).
That's odd - they were galvanised and I have one of those (actually late 2004 but it's the 2005 facelift model) with no rust on the body. Everything else is pretty rusty though.

Thewelshpanther

1 posts

55 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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My 2004 e class estate c270d avantgarde is still going strong at 228000 miles. Love this car. Changed from automatic to coils earlier this year....

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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My 55 plate E class estate doesn't seem to be visibly rotting, just an advisory on the brake lines I need to get done.

One thing I would say about the weird braking system - if you lose electrical power, you also lose braking assistance and it takes a fking hard push on the pedal to stop it. Which is fairly terrifying on the motorway.

ZX10R NIN

27,490 posts

124 months

Friday 30th August 2019
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The rust issues affected cars pre 2003 so the artical is off in that respect otherwise it seems like a good car.