W211 E55 AMG - A perfect storm
Discussion
Gorgeous car OP; these are very much on my watch list for my next car, when I decide it's time to sell my import E39 touring.
I'm hankering after a V8 and the BMW ones, unfortunately, just don't cut the mustard for me. Too much plastic and too many oil leaks!
Enjoy the car and keep the thread going
I'm hankering after a V8 and the BMW ones, unfortunately, just don't cut the mustard for me. Too much plastic and too many oil leaks!
Enjoy the car and keep the thread going
OP - an epic car.
I was behind one and watched him overtake the car in front. The way the big car shifted from about 50 to considerably faster was astonishing.
Like the few above I find my S211 320cdi a great balance of power and size with very reasonable economy.
I’m insanely jealous.
I was behind one and watched him overtake the car in front. The way the big car shifted from about 50 to considerably faster was astonishing.
Like the few above I find my S211 320cdi a great balance of power and size with very reasonable economy.
I’m insanely jealous.
Edited by nobrakes on Monday 9th December 05:16
Have to love a 55. For not a lot of money, they really are a lot of car.
I've got the CLS version and have no plans to get rid of it whatsoever. In saying that it has thrown up a few big bills this year with the SBC pump, airmatic pump, new front brakes and a few other little things. But. It's worth it for the sound and the performance.
I've got the CLS version and have no plans to get rid of it whatsoever. In saying that it has thrown up a few big bills this year with the SBC pump, airmatic pump, new front brakes and a few other little things. But. It's worth it for the sound and the performance.
nobrakes said:
OP - an epic car.
I was behind one and watched him overtake the car in front. The way the big car shifted from about 50 to considerably faster was astonishing.
Like the few above I find my S211 320cdi a great balance of power and size with very reasonable economy.
I’m insanely jealous.
The midrange is phenomenal, like a remapped 737 hahaI was behind one and watched him overtake the car in front. The way the big car shifted from about 50 to considerably faster was astonishing.
Like the few above I find my S211 320cdi a great balance of power and size with very reasonable economy.
I’m insanely jealous.
Edited by nobrakes on Monday 9th December 05:16
The engine is an absolute masterpiece and I'm in awe of it. Gets through some fuel but every drive is such an event. Pure class.
Nath911t said:
Have to love a 55. For not a lot of money, they really are a lot of car.
I've got the CLS version and have no plans to get rid of it whatsoever. In saying that it has thrown up a few big bills this year with the SBC pump, airmatic pump, new front brakes and a few other little things. But. It's worth it for the sound and the performance.
Lovely, I do like the CLS shape. How much we talking to fix the above? The brakes buzz every now and then so could be the SBC, brakes very powerful though. Worked out the E is doing about 16 mpg with a heavy-ish right foot, not too bad when you consider the experience it delivers.I've got the CLS version and have no plans to get rid of it whatsoever. In saying that it has thrown up a few big bills this year with the SBC pump, airmatic pump, new front brakes and a few other little things. But. It's worth it for the sound and the performance.
Ph1listine said:
Also while I'm on the subject of justifying my purchase, consider this. If for example I instead bought an 8 grand Golf TDI, YES it'd be very frugal but it would lose at least 2k per annum in depreciation alone. Considering this E should be relatively depreciation-proof, well that's 2k extra towards fuel and repair bills 
LOVE your thinking. I used the same 'logic' buying my current car instead of a newer, more depreciable (is that a word?) car...Ph1listine said:
Lovely, I do like the CLS shape. How much we talking to fix the above? The brakes buzz every now and then so could be the SBC, brakes very powerful though. Worked out the E is doing about 16 mpg with a heavy-ish right foot, not too bad when you consider the experience it delivers.
Excellent choice OP - I also have a CLS 55K, 06 plate in Iridium Silver with the same 18" wheels as your E class. As you say, the engine is superb, just a lovely thing at any speed, and full throttle really never gets old! As to the above I'd also be interested on the SBC front, albeit mine has only done 60k miles so should be okay for a little while! As to brakes, as you probably know, one of the big advantages of the E/CLS55K is that discs and pads are actually decently-priced, unless you have the performance pack but that's really rare. Looking at Euro Car Parts right now, discs and pads are c.£400 in total all round (Pagid/Brembo) - pretty good!
Ph1listine said:
TheAngryDog said:
Good choice, I ran one of these for about 9 months (I think). Mine had 140k plus on it and had a remap / pulley, making over 520bhp and 634lbsft of torque as MSL Performance.
The gearboxes are strong but slow. Engines are bomb proof though. Enjoy the bill for the spark plugs, there are 16 of them!
Oh, btw, are you sure it was 2004? The E60 M5 didn't come out until 2005.
Well spotted! I reckon the M5 must've been the last one we test drove, in 2005. Crikey that's ludicrous torque, must've been phenomenal. Think I read your thread on this, will try and find.The gearboxes are strong but slow. Engines are bomb proof though. Enjoy the bill for the spark plugs, there are 16 of them!
Oh, btw, are you sure it was 2004? The E60 M5 didn't come out until 2005.
I didn't own mine that long but a few things started to happen with it and given that I wasn't fully in love with the car I decided to move it on.
Re the brake buzz, nine did it, it's normal. It's the sbc working away.
From memory the SBC pump was about £1200 supplied and fitted. I could have bought the pump direct and from Germany for less but thought if there were issues during fitting/afterwards I'd be footing labour bills for fitting/removal/waiting so got the garage to do it all in one hit. If there was a problem it would now solely be a problem they now own for the sake of £100/200.
The total amount was £2700 and that included the SBC pump, airmatic pump (plus new relay), 2 rear brake hoses, new fluid, fitting only new brakes discs (Brembo supplied by me and cost £193 from ECP with the 50% discount code), rear prop coupling, an A service and I'm sure there was a couple of other minor things as well.
The airmatic pump use to spin up quite quickly when I unlocked and opened up the car and it showed the arrow up message in white. It also used to hiss quite loud after turning it off and locking up. When I was on my way to get the A service (that was £200 all in) it threw up the error message in red "reduced braking" and then even an athlete would have struggled pressing the pedal as it went really hard and had little to no braking. It did use to buzz quite a lot beforehand, although that seems normal. You can plug them into STAR and see the number of brake presses. Some say you can reset, etc but I didn't want to take that chance as it's always handy to brake when you want to.
Maybe just bad luck for me that both pumps went at the same time. I did change the battery as well between the time I had the quote for the pumps and the fitting done to make sure it wasn't a duff battery as I know Mercs love electricity.
Last year I had to buy an new alloy on the rear as it had 3 cracks on it and failed the MOT. That was about £600 from Merc and it arrived the next day and luckily for me was the only one in the UK.
It does on average 17mpg and I've had late 20's on a run. One of the 1st things I had done was secondary cat delete (sounds awesome) and I do like to open it up and hear the sound track.
It's probably one of the best cars I've owned and I've owned quite a few. It has the ability to waft along sedately or the ability to get up to take off like a scalded cat and get to 150mph effortlessly. It can seat 4 with a 3 big suitcases in the boot. I don't think there is any other car out there that can match it for under £10k and I can see them going up in price as the numbers around go down.
Simply awesome cars.
Edited to add - You also need to shop around for prices. I'm in north Hampshire and some of the local places to me were coming up with some mind numbing numbers with some even wanting £3k to change the SBC pump and hoses. Some "specialists" were more expensive than Merc themselves.
The total amount was £2700 and that included the SBC pump, airmatic pump (plus new relay), 2 rear brake hoses, new fluid, fitting only new brakes discs (Brembo supplied by me and cost £193 from ECP with the 50% discount code), rear prop coupling, an A service and I'm sure there was a couple of other minor things as well.
The airmatic pump use to spin up quite quickly when I unlocked and opened up the car and it showed the arrow up message in white. It also used to hiss quite loud after turning it off and locking up. When I was on my way to get the A service (that was £200 all in) it threw up the error message in red "reduced braking" and then even an athlete would have struggled pressing the pedal as it went really hard and had little to no braking. It did use to buzz quite a lot beforehand, although that seems normal. You can plug them into STAR and see the number of brake presses. Some say you can reset, etc but I didn't want to take that chance as it's always handy to brake when you want to.
Maybe just bad luck for me that both pumps went at the same time. I did change the battery as well between the time I had the quote for the pumps and the fitting done to make sure it wasn't a duff battery as I know Mercs love electricity.
Last year I had to buy an new alloy on the rear as it had 3 cracks on it and failed the MOT. That was about £600 from Merc and it arrived the next day and luckily for me was the only one in the UK.
It does on average 17mpg and I've had late 20's on a run. One of the 1st things I had done was secondary cat delete (sounds awesome) and I do like to open it up and hear the sound track.
It's probably one of the best cars I've owned and I've owned quite a few. It has the ability to waft along sedately or the ability to get up to take off like a scalded cat and get to 150mph effortlessly. It can seat 4 with a 3 big suitcases in the boot. I don't think there is any other car out there that can match it for under £10k and I can see them going up in price as the numbers around go down.
Simply awesome cars.
Edited to add - You also need to shop around for prices. I'm in north Hampshire and some of the local places to me were coming up with some mind numbing numbers with some even wanting £3k to change the SBC pump and hoses. Some "specialists" were more expensive than Merc themselves.
Edited by Nath911t on Tuesday 10th December 10:34
Ph1listine said:
Thanks both, an E55 wagon would be so cool especially with the 2 extra seats in the boot, inappropriately fast!
Love the E500, now that's a proper sleeper and half the price of the AMG used.
I can confirm a 7 seater e55 is a superb machine. Quick, comfortable and huge. I would like a 5.5 turbo but can't really say there is anything I would like mine to do better!Love the E500, now that's a proper sleeper and half the price of the AMG used.
Top choices, W211 folk! I've had my e55k wagon for a couple of years now. It was only meant to be a fun stopgap between more grown up cars but they really grow on you, and it has stuck around.
Now approaching 170k and it hasn't bankrupted me yet. I bought it very cheaply at 158k - I paid half of the price of the next cheapest estate advertised at the time, with no service history, but the only thing that's needed doing in two years has been a front strut (£450 at an indy),and an airmatic pump (probably died as a result of the air strut leak, cost £40 from ebay and 30min DIY). Apart from that, just lots of petrol. The engine is just epic.
Now approaching 170k and it hasn't bankrupted me yet. I bought it very cheaply at 158k - I paid half of the price of the next cheapest estate advertised at the time, with no service history, but the only thing that's needed doing in two years has been a front strut (£450 at an indy),and an airmatic pump (probably died as a result of the air strut leak, cost £40 from ebay and 30min DIY). Apart from that, just lots of petrol. The engine is just epic.
TheAngryDog said:
The SBC pump can usually be reset once. After that it is a new pump time.
I avoided cars with the SBC system, all the 55's models have it, think it was 2006 and after that lost it.Don't worry about the Airmatic pump if you have one, its not hard and the pump is generic, took me about two hours to change mine and was just over £100 off eBay, not with pissing about with refurbishment kits as they are usually pretty crusty when they come off and hard to work on.
Always still find myself looking at the 55 cars, I had the 5.5 litre 500 which was brilliant and went very well but always had an urge for the supercharged version, so many barried heaps about now.
OP's one looks like the type you want to own, and for the performance they don't seem that scary, engine is solid, a lot of bits are 211/219 generic and the few other issues seem fairly cheap to sort, don't think I have ever heard of an engine going on one.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
What like, mine wasn't an AMG but with doing stuff diy it was pretty cheap to run for the two years I had it, my thinking was most of it is just E/CLS class ?Think the W211 is getting better looking with age, got a subtle, taut muscularity about the shape and stance in AMG form, without resorting to bling and spoilers.
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