Sensible family daily wagon - Mercedes Benz S211 E500
Discussion
Always love reading through your updates.
We have the Meguiars headlamp cleaner but are yet to use it yet, you've had great results from it going by your photos.
I'm jealous of the luggage organiser in your boot, I don't have anything currently in my 3 series. I looking at purchasing a luggage net to keep some smaller items from sliding around though.
Look forward to more updates!
We have the Meguiars headlamp cleaner but are yet to use it yet, you've had great results from it going by your photos.
I'm jealous of the luggage organiser in your boot, I don't have anything currently in my 3 series. I looking at purchasing a luggage net to keep some smaller items from sliding around though.
Look forward to more updates!
richatnort said:
Well that was a great morning read so thanks for sharing! Seems like a good purchase and a car you enjoy driving which is also a bonus!
How are you getting on with the niggle list? Any big plans for this year with it?
Thanks Rich. TBH, taking it upon myself to catch up to the present day with the tale of my ownership is quite an undertaking! Thankfully, I have a chronological record on my onedrive which is making it a bit easier to piece everything together, though the architecture of the pistonheads forum is really pants as I have to enter How are you getting on with the niggle list? Any big plans for this year with it?
I do happen to have a current list of 'bits' and there are a few others to boot, too:
Chassis:
WDB 2112702A434458
RJ04 AZB
Parts.brooklands at daimler.com (Steve) add email details
LEFT = N/S
RIGHT = O/S
Right Exhaust (O/S)
A2114904059 £432.90+VAT
Left Exhaust (N/S)
A2114904159 £315.00+VAT
rear seat bench handle (back rest of kids seats)
A21168021847F72 £19.47+VAT
seat belt clip
A21169202147F72 £1.71+VAT perhaps this is O/S because of the even number?
Rear bumper chrome:
Left: A2118850374 (N/S) £44.28+VAT
Right: A2118850474 (O/S) £44.28+VAT
Folding bench seat 'belt outlet third row left/right'
Left: A21169203597F72 (N/S) £3.01+VAT
Right: A21169204597F72 (O/S) £3.01+VAT
Cap Wrench
A2215810001 £11.61+VAT
Spare Wheel Protective Covering Shroud
A0005851803 £2.25+VAT
Tool Bag
A2035850001 £9.45+VAT
O/S Mirror 'Direction Indicator'
A2038201421 £24.66+VAT
N/S rear passenger door insert ashtray (the silver flap is broken)
A2118100133
Missing clips below wipers:
A1239900592
Missing rubber caps on the wiper arm bolts:
A0009983521 3x £0.85+VAT
Cap to luggage rail
A21184901257F72
Missing clips in o/s boot panelling
A0079889978?
Front seat rail shrouds:
Outside front left (N/S)
A21191905207F72
Inside front left (N/S)
A21191909207F72
Outside front right (O/S)
A21191906207F72
Inside front right (O/S)
A21191910207F72
Outside rear left (N/S)
A21191907207F72
Inside rear left (N/S)
A21191911207F72
Outside rear right (O/S)
A21191912207F72
Inside rear right (O/S)
A21191912207F72
N/S Front passenger carpet lug? Onto what do the two holes locate?
N/S Front plastic door entrance foot guard
Front inside Left (N/S)
A21168051357F72
Front inside Right (O/S)
A211680050357F72
Rear right (O/S) panel light
A2118201664
Damaged Boor Chrome Handle
2x A 124 464 00 23 plastic £1.15x 2 +VAT
1x A 211 740 04 93 handle £81.50 +VAT
Edited by bolidemichael on Saturday 18th December 07:43
In Ghent, I awoke to a loft street view on a sodden morning. It was a little irritating that in a house sans children I didn't lie in, but on the other hand, I needed to breakfast and vamoosh en route to Germany.
And taking a closer look, it seemed as though I had already fallen prey to 'European' parking habits. Gulp.
Oh well, that was a post-breakfast issue and upon closer inspection:
So off I went to Munich, with various shots of indistinct service stations. They are generally more convenient that UK stops, as you can drive swiftly in and out, without having to negotiate car parks. Nevertheless, when one is enamoured by their car, pointless photos ensue:
There was some good tat and smut on offer in the outlets too:
This was quite a wonderful journey. Despite being on the autobahn for the first time with Magnus, I just couldn't be arsed driving quickly and besides, the roads were quite congested and a number of German pedallers with powerful vehicles and absolute bloody morons and completely irresponsible with their driving.
Happily, BBC iplayer was working on the iphone and since I can stream through my audio with a rerouted cable from the six cd changer and a converter to lightning cable, I caught up on the preview show, 1st, 2nd and 3rd practice, whilst rolling into the live coverage for the Sao Paulo grand prix. It began to snow on the way down and I was grateful for the switch to winter tyres.
I arrived in Grafelfing and hunted down a comfortable and familiar Greek restaurant. At least there was one language that I could speak in Bavaria!
I will never, not love lamb chops. In Greek - 'baa-yee-da-kia'!
And taking a closer look, it seemed as though I had already fallen prey to 'European' parking habits. Gulp.
Oh well, that was a post-breakfast issue and upon closer inspection:
So off I went to Munich, with various shots of indistinct service stations. They are generally more convenient that UK stops, as you can drive swiftly in and out, without having to negotiate car parks. Nevertheless, when one is enamoured by their car, pointless photos ensue:
There was some good tat and smut on offer in the outlets too:
This was quite a wonderful journey. Despite being on the autobahn for the first time with Magnus, I just couldn't be arsed driving quickly and besides, the roads were quite congested and a number of German pedallers with powerful vehicles and absolute bloody morons and completely irresponsible with their driving.
Happily, BBC iplayer was working on the iphone and since I can stream through my audio with a rerouted cable from the six cd changer and a converter to lightning cable, I caught up on the preview show, 1st, 2nd and 3rd practice, whilst rolling into the live coverage for the Sao Paulo grand prix. It began to snow on the way down and I was grateful for the switch to winter tyres.
I arrived in Grafelfing and hunted down a comfortable and familiar Greek restaurant. At least there was one language that I could speak in Bavaria!
I will never, not love lamb chops. In Greek - 'baa-yee-da-kia'!
Edited by bolidemichael on Saturday 7th April 00:20
The next day, it was cooooold and the heated seats were a great comfort to me:
The very polite dining area for breakfast in the German three star in which I was staying. It was a good proper three star, whatever that entails, but it just felt like a good quality 320i for example, in comparison to a Mondeo, in class.
My stats when I remembered to capture them after the first day:
Given that I was on the Chunnel at 188,104, I covered 969km.
The very polite dining area for breakfast in the German three star in which I was staying. It was a good proper three star, whatever that entails, but it just felt like a good quality 320i for example, in comparison to a Mondeo, in class.
My stats when I remembered to capture them after the first day:
Given that I was on the Chunnel at 188,104, I covered 969km.
Edited by bolidemichael on Friday 6th April 21:54
The next Sunday I drove to Stuttgart for a visit to the Mercedes Benz Museum. As the roads were very quiet, I really gave it some on the autobahn. Effing hell the barge has some boot. with heated seats. On these roads, the vehicle is really in its element and feels solid, Germanic and purposeful.
Here in the MB car park, Magnus is surrounded by vehicle renovated and sold under an 'MB Classic' banner.
MB Museum is a wonderful place to spend the day. One starts at the top and spirals their way down, chronologically. On each floor there is an additional room with has a rotating feature. I got free entry as a member of the MB Club.
A rare 600 SL:
Here in the MB car park, Magnus is surrounded by vehicle renovated and sold under an 'MB Classic' banner.
MB Museum is a wonderful place to spend the day. One starts at the top and spirals their way down, chronologically. On each floor there is an additional room with has a rotating feature. I got free entry as a member of the MB Club.
A rare 600 SL:
Perc.y said:
Always love reading through your updates.
We have the Meguiars headlamp cleaner but are yet to use it yet, you've had great results from it going by your photos.
I'm jealous of the luggage organiser in your boot, I don't have anything currently in my 3 series. I looking at purchasing a luggage net to keep some smaller items from sliding around though.
Look forward to more updates!
Quite a lot of elbow grease with the grit paper! I was in Halfords today and there is a more expensive Megs one for £30 that promises 'no more sanding'! I'm not entirely happy with the results so will have another go soon. Nevertheless, the improvement over the original was immense and makes the car appear much more handsome.We have the Meguiars headlamp cleaner but are yet to use it yet, you've had great results from it going by your photos.
I'm jealous of the luggage organiser in your boot, I don't have anything currently in my 3 series. I looking at purchasing a luggage net to keep some smaller items from sliding around though.
Look forward to more updates!
The luggage organiser is quality and in the coming months, I add another OEM item. Much happiness ensues!
In my six series, I used the Raptor brands bungees that I bought from Costco that were verstile and excellent.
So after two weeks and an accreditation as a 'Water Sommelier' in hand (the only British water sommelier, no less), the day came to leave Germany and my pension.
If you recall, the day I arrived was -1degC. This day was T shirt weather!:
So off I headed to the next leg of my journey, a morning meeting with a producer of mineral water in Nuvolento, Brescia, with whom we work. The involved crossing through Austria and over the Dolomites.
Not a van, but mountains in the distance:
On the continent, they appreciate that travellers would like the liberty of stopping for a break and perhaps even a comfort break, without having to consider the purchase of anything at all; how refreshingly civil. I asked a random smoking man to take a photo of me at the lovely pit stop, with the sunlight shimmering off the 'pool'. Randomly, I stopped for another break in Austria and saw him again!
In Italy, I spotted a random BMW test car thing:
and appreciated how much we take the spectacular road engineering for granted when traversing in our luxo barges. Appropriately, this was on the entrance to the gents, not the ladies!:
It is worth noting that every coffee that I had in Italy was spectacular. It is not even comparable to the coffee served in comparable UK outlets.
The pre-dinner snack in our hotel was suitable for the context:
If you recall, the day I arrived was -1degC. This day was T shirt weather!:
So off I headed to the next leg of my journey, a morning meeting with a producer of mineral water in Nuvolento, Brescia, with whom we work. The involved crossing through Austria and over the Dolomites.
Not a van, but mountains in the distance:
On the continent, they appreciate that travellers would like the liberty of stopping for a break and perhaps even a comfort break, without having to consider the purchase of anything at all; how refreshingly civil. I asked a random smoking man to take a photo of me at the lovely pit stop, with the sunlight shimmering off the 'pool'. Randomly, I stopped for another break in Austria and saw him again!
In Italy, I spotted a random BMW test car thing:
and appreciated how much we take the spectacular road engineering for granted when traversing in our luxo barges. Appropriately, this was on the entrance to the gents, not the ladies!:
It is worth noting that every coffee that I had in Italy was spectacular. It is not even comparable to the coffee served in comparable UK outlets.
The pre-dinner snack in our hotel was suitable for the context:
Saturday morning was... interesting. The company's British representative and I decided that it would be nice to drive to Lake Garda for breakfast and coffee prior to our meeting. The weather was atrocious and the COMAND sat nav told me to turn right down a very steep road. Initially, I had my reservations and wanted to reverse out, but Stephen encouraged me to soldier on - "It'll be fine!" he said...
Once we got past that insanely tight 'APE' appropriate road, we weren't out of the woods..:
Note the folded wing mirrors (thanks to the wonderful little button) and the scrapes on the walls, though I didn't contribute, thankfully:
Breakfast consisted of coffee and a pastry 'thing'. At least the coffee was good! I had two, each with a teapot of hot water in order to lengthen the coffee drink:
Sodden:
But we made it for the meeting. There is an industrial element to a great deal of Northern Italy, it is the economic powerhouse of the country after all:
They also skipped some stock from our container prior to my departure for Germany and we calculated that we should run out just as I was due to return to the UK in two weeks... so here I am taking advantage of the loading capacity of the S211 and grateful that I found winter tyres with a load rating of 99.
When I left, I gave a lift to Stephen until Maplensa (Marco Polo?) Airport. Annoyingly, on this cold day, the heating wasn't really working. To this day, it's the only time this has happened. Who knows - the only thing that I think I did was to turn the 'auto' function on and off and on again...
Once we got past that insanely tight 'APE' appropriate road, we weren't out of the woods..:
Note the folded wing mirrors (thanks to the wonderful little button) and the scrapes on the walls, though I didn't contribute, thankfully:
Breakfast consisted of coffee and a pastry 'thing'. At least the coffee was good! I had two, each with a teapot of hot water in order to lengthen the coffee drink:
Sodden:
But we made it for the meeting. There is an industrial element to a great deal of Northern Italy, it is the economic powerhouse of the country after all:
They also skipped some stock from our container prior to my departure for Germany and we calculated that we should run out just as I was due to return to the UK in two weeks... so here I am taking advantage of the loading capacity of the S211 and grateful that I found winter tyres with a load rating of 99.
When I left, I gave a lift to Stephen until Maplensa (Marco Polo?) Airport. Annoyingly, on this cold day, the heating wasn't really working. To this day, it's the only time this has happened. Who knows - the only thing that I think I did was to turn the 'auto' function on and off and on again...
Edited by bolidemichael on Sunday 8th April 00:22
Edited by bolidemichael on Sunday 8th April 00:24
The next stop was Geneva for an overnight stay, before heading home the next day. The final F1 GP of the season was taking place, so I caught up on the practice and quali sessions which I find very relaxing when I drive.
Here I arrive at the entrance to Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco in Italian). It's rather similar to my daily commute in that there is a tarmac road, but dis-similar in every other way:
There were some very interesting conditions on the way:
We visited a nice whisky bar in Geneva:
Has anyone seen Swiss cash recently? It's eye catching!
The next day I was up and off, after breakfast of course! Driving through the Jura mountains with the wonderfully engineered roads was marvellous, though I have no photos for posterity. I was making serious progress.
Eventually, I arrived in Calais after some risky speeds on the final stretch. It was worth it though as the Euros stayed in ma poche on a sleepy Dimanche. Notice the congregation of salt on the o/s rear panel where the body was slightly depressed thanks to having 'smooched' the metal bracket in the Waitrose car park.
This was my day, Considering that about 98% of the journey was on the autoroute, an average speed over 529 miles from Geneva to Calais of 74mph says it all. This was even considering the persistence of idiocy as displayed by the Belgians and Dutch convoys in the Northern parts on France where my patience was tested. Once again, I had the F1 to keep me company, this time the final race of the season - the snoozefest in Abu Dhabi.
Eventually, I arrived home, after capturing a nice odometer reading:
A summary of my long stretch driving day:
And of my total driving over two weeks, door to (the same) door:
I thought that the V70 was the most comfortable car that I would have owned to date, but the initial firmness of the seats in the S211 make for durable long distance comfort. In combination with a long wheelbase, adjustable airmatic suspension and a naturally aspirated engine with eight cylinders in a V for Victory (or f
k off) configuration and five litres, it is a fantastic way in which to carry load across distance. It's even better if you love the smell of petrol as the fuel stops are numerous!
Here I arrive at the entrance to Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco in Italian). It's rather similar to my daily commute in that there is a tarmac road, but dis-similar in every other way:
There were some very interesting conditions on the way:
We visited a nice whisky bar in Geneva:
Has anyone seen Swiss cash recently? It's eye catching!
The next day I was up and off, after breakfast of course! Driving through the Jura mountains with the wonderfully engineered roads was marvellous, though I have no photos for posterity. I was making serious progress.
Eventually, I arrived in Calais after some risky speeds on the final stretch. It was worth it though as the Euros stayed in ma poche on a sleepy Dimanche. Notice the congregation of salt on the o/s rear panel where the body was slightly depressed thanks to having 'smooched' the metal bracket in the Waitrose car park.
This was my day, Considering that about 98% of the journey was on the autoroute, an average speed over 529 miles from Geneva to Calais of 74mph says it all. This was even considering the persistence of idiocy as displayed by the Belgians and Dutch convoys in the Northern parts on France where my patience was tested. Once again, I had the F1 to keep me company, this time the final race of the season - the snoozefest in Abu Dhabi.
Eventually, I arrived home, after capturing a nice odometer reading:
A summary of my long stretch driving day:
And of my total driving over two weeks, door to (the same) door:
I thought that the V70 was the most comfortable car that I would have owned to date, but the initial firmness of the seats in the S211 make for durable long distance comfort. In combination with a long wheelbase, adjustable airmatic suspension and a naturally aspirated engine with eight cylinders in a V for Victory (or f
k off) configuration and five litres, it is a fantastic way in which to carry load across distance. It's even better if you love the smell of petrol as the fuel stops are numerous!Mr Tidy said:
Great thread OP. 
And a lovely car too!
I bought my first ever estate car in January, and I'm really starting to appreciate how useful they are as a daily. Mind you by your standards I've only got half an engine - it's an E91 325i!
What a very tidy car too. I love the shape of the E91 with the crease along the body. I love the six cylinder Beemers. The big E definitely trumps it for immense carrying capacity however!And a lovely car too!
I bought my first ever estate car in January, and I'm really starting to appreciate how useful they are as a daily. Mind you by your standards I've only got half an engine - it's an E91 325i!
bolidemichael said:
What a very tidy car too. I love the shape of the E91 with the crease along the body. I love the six cylinder Beemers. The big E definitely trumps it for immense carrying capacity however!
Yes, the Beemers are a "sort of" estate - the boot isn't huge. But it seems big after an E46 Compact! It seems like you had an epic trip in an epic car - I'm just looking forward to the next instalment!
dave_s13 said:
Great read and a great car.
As a fellow e class estate owner I salute you!
Mine is a penny pinching deisel though, just couldn't find a petrol with 7 seats when I was looking.
I do love my s212 tho.
Damn, that's good looking. I like the evolution of the E class, though the 211 has definitely mellowed in my eye since ownership. I would love an S212 E500, though I cannot see how much improved it would be over my model. As a fellow e class estate owner I salute you!
Mine is a penny pinching deisel though, just couldn't find a petrol with 7 seats when I was looking.
I do love my s212 tho.
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