designo wino CLS 55 AMG

[andy43]

tobinen said:

Wonderful colour combination. Lovely car mister

Thankyou sir. Needs the third clean of the week now - absolutely filthy roads at the moment.

Driving the CLS I've already had a couple of nice comments when I've been parked up.
In fact I've only known Bob the petrol station cashier for a week now, and he's already coming to ours for xmas dinner

[Mr E]

andy43 said:

Is it RBM of Atlanta? First one I tried and it has exploded parts diagrams - thank you
https://parts.rbmofatlanta.com/auto-parts/2006/mer...

Yup, those guys.
Most places in Europe want to change for the parts catalogue.

[Alex_225]

andy43 said:

Two CLS is just greedy
I have a real soft spot for the shooting brake, but other than the '63 none of the UK cars have petrol engines.

Well I bought my ClS63 a couple of years back, bit of a dream car and managed to pick up a 2007 with under 18k on the clock. But of a keeper.

We're awaiting a first child (I have a daugher already) so my partner had to sell her SL350 and was in two minds as to what to buy. Liked the C350 but the interior isn't a patch in the E/CLS and also the spec of the C Classes seems to offer less for similar money. We found a CLS350 CDI with 60k in the clock. Not masses of options but it's a well spec'd car and she's really pleased with it. Four proper seats and a big plenty of room for 2x baby 225s haha.

[slk 32]

As I recall that was the colour they used for the launch car..it looked stunning in all the advertising

I've never understood why designo colours and trim are not more popular in the UK..I had designo claret seats in my slk 32 which really did lift the interior.

I can only presume it's the cost..although if you're paying 60-70k what's an extra couple of grand?

I suppose with more and more cars being leased less and less people are willing to pay out for options..shame

[Smokey32]

Nice, never seen that colour on a CLS before.

Good luck with it being cheaper than a Bentley.

[Phil Dicky]

Lovely CLS 55 OP, just bought a 320 myself and totally loving it

[RenesisEvo]

Stunning car, always liked the first-gen CLS. Thanks for sharing.

[Uggers]

Very nice CLS, always had a soft spot for these and keep an eye on prices as I do like a bit of over engined Bavarian metal.

Unfortunately 95% of them vary in shade between silver and black, so that colour looks fantastic! I shall now now be tweaking my email alerts for the classifieds!

[turboteeth]

Superb car and colour combination is the best I have seen on any AMG!
I had an E55 for 3 years - expensive to run but there are plenty of decent specialists out there and it really is worth keeping yours in tip top condition given how desirable it will always be!
I love the supercharged V8 - I now have the 5.5 BiTurbo in a '63 and it's quicker but not as smooth and just a bit coarse...

[andy43]

Smokey32 said:

Nice, never seen that colour on a CLS before.

Good luck with it being cheaper than a Bentley.

Bentley motoring costs hurt from what I've read. But what could go wrong with this reliable german beast? Don't answer that - nothing so far though - I’ve piled over 500 miles on over xmas. Jinxed it now.
This car just kills motorways, it’s just so relaxing. Then you get onto the twisty stuff and the phrase shrinking around you does seem appropriate. But I am overweight, so it won't shrink much. Crap weather when I got the chance to mess about in the Peaks, but I tried.



I'm not a real driver, but front grips, feels good, digs in ok. Pointy considering the weight. Back end is quite loose – bit of an arse wiggling side-to-side motion on big undulating bumps – but the rear bushes etc were confirmed as all ok when it was up on the ramp. Maybe they do need more attention. Airmatic has three settings – I was sticking with 'comfort', should really have more of a go in sport 1 or 2 on the back roads and see if either stiffen the loose rear up.
And traction really is hopeless. Get ham fisted (footed?) with the throttle and the little orange ‘you made gearbox kick down before summer, dumbass’ light illuminates on the dash. A lot. The petrol tank appears to have a leak, although I got over 20 on a mainly-motorway trip.

I also dropped an E while cleaning it /smileyacidface



Hmmm, maybe here...



It’s close but it’s not right. Carefully cut double sided tape has fixed it back on ok but I’m tempted to remove the side and rear badges altogether.

Cleaned it three times now – can’t wait for summer – the paint is a proper pearl effect glitter close up. Sun attempted to come out yesterday...



Thank you for all the positive comments too – not as marmite as I thought. I bloody love it. It is a shame people go for 'resale' colours when spec-ing cars - there's so much more out there than grey, silver or black.

It does have swirl marks... I have emailed a local firm about paint correction, something I've never tried before. Slippery slope coming up...

[andy43]

turboteeth said:

Superb car and colour combination is the best I have seen on any AMG!
I had an E55 for 3 years - expensive to run but there are plenty of decent specialists out there and it really is worth keeping yours in tip top condition given how desirable it will always be!
I love the supercharged V8 - I now have the 5.5 BiTurbo in a '63 and it's quicker but not as smooth and just a bit coarse...

I'm kind of hoping the age of it now means there'll be enough broken '55 cars around to get sensibly priced bits - previous owner fixed the Distronic with a used radar head for way less than the near-£900 that Merc quoted!
This engine has real character - the occasional stutter when the 'charger kicks in can be annoying, and I'd like more 'whine', but it's a real stump puller and the deep deep noise is very 'merican.
I've not tried the newer turbo'd cars - turning up to a MB dealer in this might get me some test drives though...

[EJH]

That's a lovely colour and has quite ridiculous flake!

Lovely car and watching this thread with interest.

[tobinen]

I hope you never need paint work. I bet that's a nightmare to match, lovely as it is.

[Krikkit]

Lovely car, great colours. Shame you didn't get the optional half wood steering wheel though, they feel very nice.

On back roads I'd recommend sport 1/2 - my W211 has airmatic and feels much more planted in sport1 than comfort, and that's with 300hp/200Nm less to deal with compared to this!

[pidsy]

Awesome motor OP.

Congratulations.

[J4CKO]

Smokey32 said:

Nice, never seen that colour on a CLS before.

Good luck with it being cheaper than a Bentley.

They are, if you do your research, cheaper than a Bentley, say a Conti GT to own.

At the end of the day its an E Class underneath, loads of suspension and brake parts available and they arent that expensive either, front disks and pads, easy to change yourself, under £200, dont make the mistake and think that the CLS 63 has the same brakes, they are more like 2 grand.

Engine is bombproof pretty much, aside from rocker cover gaskets and charger coolant pumps not much goes wrong. Gearbox is hard as nails.

The Daft SBC brakes can get fairly expensive but a same year diesel CLS has the same setup, not that bad these days.

Airmatic can give trouble but its not that complicated really, I did the pump on mine for £104, struts are £350 ish per corner but I never had an issue.

Conti GT doesnt share much with other cars and has a lot of built in niggles, any mechanic who can work on an E class taxi will be familiar with a lot of this.

Be under no illusions it is an expensive car to run, but neither is it ruinous if you do your homework and have a tame indy and do bits yourself.

[andy43]

tobinen said:

I hope you never need paint work. I bet that's a nightmare to match, lovely as it is.

Well, after a very kind person scraped the bumper in a car park and buggered off, I have just had the rear bumper painted. It's a 'known' paint code, already in the bodyshop's computer mixing system, so no problems matching it at all, although they may have had to send out for extra flake.
I also asked the bodyshop to take the 'v8 kompressor' wing badges and the 'AMG' and CLS55 boot badges off, figuring their tools may be better suited than my special paint-tin-lid-opener chisel.
Remember this pic when an 'e' fell off? I just wiped the wing down and stuck the letter back on. Paint underneath did look a bit grungey.

Well, it appears when the last owner had the wings and bonnet done for stone chips, they took those wing badges off, left half the double sided badge tape on... and painted over the lot. Arrrggghhhh. So I had the front wings resprayed as well. Very nice job they've done too - the next Merc they have lined up belongs to a member of Pink Floyd

J4CKO said:

Smokey32 said:

Nice, never seen that colour on a CLS before.

Good luck with it being cheaper than a Bentley.

They are, if you do your research, cheaper than a Bentley, say a Conti GT to own.

At the end of the day its an E Class underneath, loads of suspension and brake parts available and they arent that expensive either, front disks and pads, easy to change yourself, under £200, dont make the mistake and think that the CLS 63 has the same brakes, they are more like 2 grand.

Engine is bombproof pretty much, aside from rocker cover gaskets and charger coolant pumps not much goes wrong. Gearbox is hard as nails.

The Daft SBC brakes can get fairly expensive but a same year diesel CLS has the same setup, not that bad these days.

Airmatic can give trouble but its not that complicated really, I did the pump on mine for £104, struts are £350 ish per corner but I never had an issue.

Conti GT doesnt share much with other cars and has a lot of built in niggles, any mechanic who can work on an E class taxi will be familiar with a lot of this.

Be under no illusions it is an expensive car to run, but neither is it ruinous if you do your homework and have a tame indy and do bits yourself.

Jobs list : atf and filter were done by Merc at 47k, but there is an occasional clonky 4/3/2 downshift when in manual, so I'm wondering about atf, filter, conductor plate and electrical plug then I know it's as looked after as it can be - there's so many 722.6 gearbox videos on youtube I might even have a go myself.
It's so cheap - this 'box was used on everything from a 210 to a Sprinter van - under £200 for all those bits inc gasket and enough oil, all genuine MB. Also keep looking at g-paddles to replace the switches.

Need to derust and paint the hubs/discs when the weather improves - really spoiling things the way they currently look.
['63 owners look away now...] They're so cheap it's probably easier to buy new discs. [sorry, I warned you]

Satnav still needs fixing. Had flat spotted wheel straightened out fine. Well over 1k miles done now. Feels bulletproof, bar a slight wobble on cold idle - but that seems a common comment. Effortless everywhere. Overtake? Yes. Any speed? Yes. In any weather? Ermm, no.
Alton Towers stomach churning has been mentioned, and I still haven't used full throttle yet.

I'm going to change the supercharger oil as it's not a service item. About £20 for 'a quart' tin, plus a couple of ebay syringes that I'm still waiting for. Best thing about preparing for this job is the oil has a Concorde logo on the front of the tin - Mobil aeronautical suppliers only

[andy43]

Krikkit said:

Lovely car, great colours. Shame you didn't get the optional half wood steering wheel though, they feel very nice.

On back roads I'd recommend sport 1/2 - my W211 has airmatic and feels much more planted in sport1 than comfort, and that's with 300hp/200Nm less to deal with compared to this!

Thanks - does make a difference I've found. There's a fair bit of side-to-side wobble in Comfort, and I have found it's tighter in either of the Sport settings. Fidgets noticeably on bumps when set to full-hard - it's give'n'take I suppose.

[J4CKO]

Not used full throttle yet ?

What you want is a CLS 320 !

Come, dry road and get on with it.

[Mr E]

J4CKO said:

Not used full throttle yet ?

I rarely use full throttle. It’s uncouth and usually not required. Nice to know it’s there though.