From Ibiza FR to W219 CLS63 AMG in one giant leap
Discussion
I didn’t start having lessons until I was just over 25 (I’ll be 30 this year) but figured that now was the time to be more upwardly mobile. For my first car I started looking at all the usual hatchback shaped suspects: Alfa 147s that were about 50% more expensive to insure than anything else; Mini Ones that were more expensive to buy and the ubiquitous Mk1 Ford Focus before narrowing it down to either the early 00’s Honda Civic (EP2) or the Seat Ibiza (6L) of the same vintage.
After running some insurance quotes it came to light that the PD130 equipped Ibiza in FR spec wasn’t going to be significantly more to insure than the Civic while hopefully costing even less to run.
I set my sights on finding a facelifted (2006 onwards) model as the cosmetic changes improved the look of the car and would give me that all important AUX in for the stereo. I purchased ‘HD56HZA’ in April 2015, being the first car I looked at after a brief test drive. It was being sold in Bristol (I live in Kent but I went to university in Bristol so knew my way around) by a VAG specialist who had taken care of some issues the car had and at £3k was the cheapest facelift on sale at the time that wasn’t a Cat D.
At 138K on the clocks it had already done a lot of miles but with the reputation of the PD130 engines for reliability and a reasonable service history It certainly looked the part and drove nicely.
Being a pre-DPF engined diesel it put up with doing a little 10 mile a day commute without issue (barely getting the coolant up to temp before being parked) and was simple enough for me to learn how to wield some spanners in the process when things gradually broke. Over the course of my ownership I replaced all the boost hoses with some very nice Forge Motorsport silicon ones with alloy couplers when the one off the turbo started blowing (caused by a failure of one of the retention lugs over time). I learned how to disassemble and rebuild the front suspension when the front springs snapped, replaced CV boots and brake pads & discs all around as well as calipers when they became a bit sticky - a common failure of VAG cars of this era.
About 18 months ago I added a DAB radio with Bluetooth and it just made the car a nicer place to be and made me question why I didn’t do it sooner. I made sure to change the oil + a full set of oil, air, cabin and fuel filters every year and beyond filling the tank from the black pump, that was about it for 4 years and 20K miles aside from tyres - Hankooks all around initially to replace some mixed and no-name brands and then a pair of Avons on the front this year.
Took some nice photos, put it up for sale at £995 and sold it the same day for a little under asking. I could have quite easily sold it 10 times or held out for more but with a new car already agreed upon I needed it gone and any time it would be sat around would just be costing me money to keep it legal (no off road parking available).
And that brings us on to the new car. A change of role, but still working at the same place, meant that I was earning more than I used to and had more disposable income. Over the previous 12 months I had saved about £4k without even thinking about it and with no kids I started to look at spending some of that on a new car.
I wanted something petrol as I was still only doing about 5-6K miles a year and I did briefly consider a 407 coupe as a cheapskate option but then started to look at Mercedes CLS and E Classes a bit more seriously. Initially looking at W219 CLS 350/500s there were plenty to choose from and the Best smoker barges 1-5 large thread wasn’t helping to make it easy.
Still, with the short commute, my thinking was that if I could afford to run the V6 then the V8 wouldn’t be THAT much more in terms of fuel cost and insurance was fairly equal too. Then some budget creep happened and instead of looking at £5-7K for a well specced 5.0 or later 5.5 V8 I started to look at W211 E63 AMGs as there were always about 10 on the market at any one time. I went to the bank and got approved on a loan at 3.0% and with money being that cheap, I would rather spend their money and put mine to better use.
I went and looked at 4 E63s over a period of about a month while trying to integrate looking at cars with other plans I already had. I used this to also narrow down what I thought were and weren’t important options with the only must haves being the Harmon Kardon sound system and a sunroof or panoramic roof.
The second car I looked at was this one down in Havant and it was an absolute beauty but in my desire to have a look at some more and see what was available within the market I ended up missing out on it.
My search then led me to THIS CLS63 AMG that I ended up purchasing.
From turning up to look at the car, I knew I would buy it. The car was well prepared, sat on 4 matching Contis in Mercedes 'MO' spec and the gentleman selling the car knew he had a very nice example of one. The folder full of service history and receipts made for reassuring reading and with a price agreed, deposit left and a date set for collection a week later I couldn’t have been happier and was excited all week long about going to pick it up.
It’s a Demo + 3 owner car on 77K miles with sunroof, Harmon Kardon, Keyless Go and Parktronic - the perfect set of options for a daily driver IMO.
Bank Transfer and paperwork done, I headed for a local supermarket to get everything set for the drive home. Dashcam installed, seat and sat nav set and tank brimmed with super; the drive back from Ipswich was much better than the trip to go and look at the car with traffic flowing freely even back over the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge all contributing to 25MPG - probably about as good as it will ever get.
Daily it’s more like 16MPG but with doing so few miles that’s not going to be an issue. On the few occasions I have briefly put my foot down I just start grinning from ear to ear, it’s absolutely savage. I might have to look in to one of the V-Max type events so I can stretch its legs or take it for a trip to Germany and make use of the Autobahns while they remain derestricted in parts.
Not really got any plans for it other than to keep it looking as good as it currently does. It has got a B Service due in November but it’ll be going on a service plan with Mercedes at £49/month for the equivalent of 1 service a year.
I’m heading up to Donington for British GT in a couple of weeks which should be an enjoyable weekend and I’ve also booked a spot in the Mercedes area for Deutsche Fest up at Brands Hatch on 7th July so you’ll see the car there if you are going.
After running some insurance quotes it came to light that the PD130 equipped Ibiza in FR spec wasn’t going to be significantly more to insure than the Civic while hopefully costing even less to run.
I set my sights on finding a facelifted (2006 onwards) model as the cosmetic changes improved the look of the car and would give me that all important AUX in for the stereo. I purchased ‘HD56HZA’ in April 2015, being the first car I looked at after a brief test drive. It was being sold in Bristol (I live in Kent but I went to university in Bristol so knew my way around) by a VAG specialist who had taken care of some issues the car had and at £3k was the cheapest facelift on sale at the time that wasn’t a Cat D.
At 138K on the clocks it had already done a lot of miles but with the reputation of the PD130 engines for reliability and a reasonable service history It certainly looked the part and drove nicely.
Being a pre-DPF engined diesel it put up with doing a little 10 mile a day commute without issue (barely getting the coolant up to temp before being parked) and was simple enough for me to learn how to wield some spanners in the process when things gradually broke. Over the course of my ownership I replaced all the boost hoses with some very nice Forge Motorsport silicon ones with alloy couplers when the one off the turbo started blowing (caused by a failure of one of the retention lugs over time). I learned how to disassemble and rebuild the front suspension when the front springs snapped, replaced CV boots and brake pads & discs all around as well as calipers when they became a bit sticky - a common failure of VAG cars of this era.
About 18 months ago I added a DAB radio with Bluetooth and it just made the car a nicer place to be and made me question why I didn’t do it sooner. I made sure to change the oil + a full set of oil, air, cabin and fuel filters every year and beyond filling the tank from the black pump, that was about it for 4 years and 20K miles aside from tyres - Hankooks all around initially to replace some mixed and no-name brands and then a pair of Avons on the front this year.
Took some nice photos, put it up for sale at £995 and sold it the same day for a little under asking. I could have quite easily sold it 10 times or held out for more but with a new car already agreed upon I needed it gone and any time it would be sat around would just be costing me money to keep it legal (no off road parking available).
And that brings us on to the new car. A change of role, but still working at the same place, meant that I was earning more than I used to and had more disposable income. Over the previous 12 months I had saved about £4k without even thinking about it and with no kids I started to look at spending some of that on a new car.
I wanted something petrol as I was still only doing about 5-6K miles a year and I did briefly consider a 407 coupe as a cheapskate option but then started to look at Mercedes CLS and E Classes a bit more seriously. Initially looking at W219 CLS 350/500s there were plenty to choose from and the Best smoker barges 1-5 large thread wasn’t helping to make it easy.
Still, with the short commute, my thinking was that if I could afford to run the V6 then the V8 wouldn’t be THAT much more in terms of fuel cost and insurance was fairly equal too. Then some budget creep happened and instead of looking at £5-7K for a well specced 5.0 or later 5.5 V8 I started to look at W211 E63 AMGs as there were always about 10 on the market at any one time. I went to the bank and got approved on a loan at 3.0% and with money being that cheap, I would rather spend their money and put mine to better use.
I went and looked at 4 E63s over a period of about a month while trying to integrate looking at cars with other plans I already had. I used this to also narrow down what I thought were and weren’t important options with the only must haves being the Harmon Kardon sound system and a sunroof or panoramic roof.
The second car I looked at was this one down in Havant and it was an absolute beauty but in my desire to have a look at some more and see what was available within the market I ended up missing out on it.
My search then led me to THIS CLS63 AMG that I ended up purchasing.
From turning up to look at the car, I knew I would buy it. The car was well prepared, sat on 4 matching Contis in Mercedes 'MO' spec and the gentleman selling the car knew he had a very nice example of one. The folder full of service history and receipts made for reassuring reading and with a price agreed, deposit left and a date set for collection a week later I couldn’t have been happier and was excited all week long about going to pick it up.
It’s a Demo + 3 owner car on 77K miles with sunroof, Harmon Kardon, Keyless Go and Parktronic - the perfect set of options for a daily driver IMO.
Bank Transfer and paperwork done, I headed for a local supermarket to get everything set for the drive home. Dashcam installed, seat and sat nav set and tank brimmed with super; the drive back from Ipswich was much better than the trip to go and look at the car with traffic flowing freely even back over the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge all contributing to 25MPG - probably about as good as it will ever get.
Daily it’s more like 16MPG but with doing so few miles that’s not going to be an issue. On the few occasions I have briefly put my foot down I just start grinning from ear to ear, it’s absolutely savage. I might have to look in to one of the V-Max type events so I can stretch its legs or take it for a trip to Germany and make use of the Autobahns while they remain derestricted in parts.
Not really got any plans for it other than to keep it looking as good as it currently does. It has got a B Service due in November but it’ll be going on a service plan with Mercedes at £49/month for the equivalent of 1 service a year.
I’m heading up to Donington for British GT in a couple of weeks which should be an enjoyable weekend and I’ve also booked a spot in the Mercedes area for Deutsche Fest up at Brands Hatch on 7th July so you’ll see the car there if you are going.
Thanks for your kind comments. The car has been well received by everyone with people often being surprised at how old it is - I don't blame them, it still looks gorgeous to me too.
I have also made the first purchase of something for the car. It has an older 30 pin Ipod connector in the glove box but as the Comand system is only the NTG1 version it doesn't have built in bluetooth to use with my phone. It does have the connector in the centre arm rest to connect something like the Mercedes HFP Bluetooth adapter but that would only give me bluetooth calling, not media streaming. I could have gone down the route of a Viseeo MB4 which uses and integrated FM transmitter to relay streamed music to the Comand unit however they are not exactly cheap at £250ish.
Given that I rarely get calls when driving I picked up one of THESE 30 pin bluetooth adapters for a few quid.
They are originally intended for use in older sound docks that you would have slotted an old Ipod/Iphone in to but now allows a bluetooth connection to use with newer devices. It doesn't work with the steering wheel controls to skip tracks etc. but as a simple way to stream Spotify or podcasts to the standard fit HK sound system it gets the job done while the phone sits in a cradle out of the way and means I don't have to put up with the limited local FM radio selection playing their generic pop music.
I have also made the first purchase of something for the car. It has an older 30 pin Ipod connector in the glove box but as the Comand system is only the NTG1 version it doesn't have built in bluetooth to use with my phone. It does have the connector in the centre arm rest to connect something like the Mercedes HFP Bluetooth adapter but that would only give me bluetooth calling, not media streaming. I could have gone down the route of a Viseeo MB4 which uses and integrated FM transmitter to relay streamed music to the Comand unit however they are not exactly cheap at £250ish.
Given that I rarely get calls when driving I picked up one of THESE 30 pin bluetooth adapters for a few quid.
They are originally intended for use in older sound docks that you would have slotted an old Ipod/Iphone in to but now allows a bluetooth connection to use with newer devices. It doesn't work with the steering wheel controls to skip tracks etc. but as a simple way to stream Spotify or podcasts to the standard fit HK sound system it gets the job done while the phone sits in a cradle out of the way and means I don't have to put up with the limited local FM radio selection playing their generic pop music.
I’ve been up since yesterday watching a little known 24Hr race from France and with dawn fast approaching I decided to grab a shower, freshen up and get myself ready for a jaunt out on some deserted back roads as the sun was rising. The tank was topped off with Super on Friday while gathering a variety of tasty supplies to keep me going throughout the race and the weather was thankfully playing ball.
I took it easy on the run out of town before hopping on the motorway for a couple of junctions to get to a more suitable starting point. Airmatic in to Sport II, 7G gearbox in to Sport and first up was a nice road with some flowing corners followed by a long straight that would allow me to give it some beans with good sight lines. The car felt responsive and well controlled and the V8 soundtrack was heavenly.
Then a short transit across to one of my favourite roads before the stereotypical Sunday drivers are even out of their pyjamas. Punctuated by a small village in the middle that would allow me to catch my breath, it was great fun and the 6.2 Litre engine was letting its presence be known, not that anybody was about to hear it.
It was then threading the car down some tighter country roads, barely touching the throttle as the roads were just too tight with tall hedgerows really restricting visibility before the run back home on a road I know very well but by now there were a few cars starting to find their way out so I couldn’t quite make the most of it as I was hoping to. Nonetheless it was great to get the car out and experience some of what it can really do and all in time to get home for some bacon rolls and the last 7 hours of the race.
I took it easy on the run out of town before hopping on the motorway for a couple of junctions to get to a more suitable starting point. Airmatic in to Sport II, 7G gearbox in to Sport and first up was a nice road with some flowing corners followed by a long straight that would allow me to give it some beans with good sight lines. The car felt responsive and well controlled and the V8 soundtrack was heavenly.
Then a short transit across to one of my favourite roads before the stereotypical Sunday drivers are even out of their pyjamas. Punctuated by a small village in the middle that would allow me to catch my breath, it was great fun and the 6.2 Litre engine was letting its presence be known, not that anybody was about to hear it.
It was then threading the car down some tighter country roads, barely touching the throttle as the roads were just too tight with tall hedgerows really restricting visibility before the run back home on a road I know very well but by now there were a few cars starting to find their way out so I couldn’t quite make the most of it as I was hoping to. Nonetheless it was great to get the car out and experience some of what it can really do and all in time to get home for some bacon rolls and the last 7 hours of the race.
Edited by Defconluke on Sunday 16th June 08:18
Superb choice of car OP, I'm biased as I did similar.
My daily car was a Megane Trophy but at about 32 I had a hankering for something more grown up, comfy and powerful. I ended up with a W219 CLS63 as well. Ironically I bought an old W211 for 'dad duties' once I had a hankering for the barge-ness.
Car looks like a good example too, low miles and if you're good with the 16mpg then a nice daily motor. 26mpg is literally the best I've ever seen from these cars, that's very very light footed driving at 60-65mph. Who wants to be doing that with that 6.2 up front!! haha
My daily car was a Megane Trophy but at about 32 I had a hankering for something more grown up, comfy and powerful. I ended up with a W219 CLS63 as well. Ironically I bought an old W211 for 'dad duties' once I had a hankering for the barge-ness.
Car looks like a good example too, low miles and if you're good with the 16mpg then a nice daily motor. 26mpg is literally the best I've ever seen from these cars, that's very very light footed driving at 60-65mph. Who wants to be doing that with that 6.2 up front!! haha
Ticked over 1000 miles in my ownership last week after about a month.
A couple of weeks in I already had a trip booked in to go up to Donington to watch the British GT Championship and its supporting classes for the weekend. In my preparation for that, I spotted that Mission Motorsport ( LINK) were hosting their first half mile event - Launch Control - on the Abingdon airfield which was pretty much on the way and would save me from queuing up at the Dartford crossing on the outbound journey. That would give me a good way to test the car out and experience what it can do in a controlled environment.
There were a fantastic variety of vehicles, ranging from one of Litchfield’s GTRs to an MX5 and some mad stuff in between like a Toyota Corolla with a GT4 engine that hit 150mph.
Shot by Helen Jackson-Garside @ Mission Motorsport Launch Control 1
Shot by James Wadham @ Mission Motorsport Launch Control 1
I even used my dashcam to record a run:
Looking through the sheet of results it recorded the following (0-60mph, quarter mile time, half mile speed):
4.97s, 12.09s, 134mph
-s, 12.01s, 137mph
4.91s, 12.06s, 135mph
4.95s, 12.08s, 138mph
There was another run at 4.07s, 10.96s, 138mph attributed to the car but given how much of an outlier the times are I’d err on the side of that being a clerical error with one of the other AMGs that were at the event. As impressed as I was with the speed and stability of the car, it was the brakes that I was most impressed with - hauling what has to be near enough 2 tons down from 140mph in impressive fashion. It was great fun to take part in, was exceptionally well organised and at £75 for a half day (£120 for the full day but I wanted to get up to Donington for about 2pm to catch the afternoon’s races and qualifying sessions) outstanding value for money given you could do as many or as few runs as you wanted to do.
Donington was good too - it was my first time there for racing having only been there previously for Download Festival. The weather held out until late in the day on Sunday and the view from the grandstand on the outside of Hollywood is fantastic.
On Sunday I was followed in to the car park by a CLS55 AMG and it was there when I returned to the car at the end of the day so had to take a quick snap of them together too.
Overall, the weekend was just over 450 miles and at an average of 25ish MPG was a little bit more than a tank of fuel - not too bad for long run endurance and gives me a reasonable figure to work around for future longer trips.
Next up was a trip to Brands Hatch for Deutsche Fest this past Sunday which combined a display of German cars with racing from various BMW and Porsche series including the Restoracing Boxster series that Matt Bird detailed his experience in here.
I decided to apply for a vehicle pass to display the car because it just made entry even cheaper - less than £20 for entry, a programme and grandstand seat at the top of Paddock Hill Bend is an absolute bargain! There was also a few photographers taking professional pictures but the only ones I’m tempted to purchase are of the car on the track during the low speed parade laps at the end of the day because the entry and static ones are nothing special.
This is my favourite view of the car with the doors open and frameless windows all down.
So, 1000 miles in and the car has been absolutely faultless so far (touch wood).
Next up on my calendar is Silverstone for the ELMS/WEC at the end of August, followed by a trip back up to Donington for BSB in October and then Brands Hatch for the BTCC season finale on the GP circuit. I would like to try and squeeze a few more in there but they would be more dependant on what I end up working closer to the time.
The current set of MO spec Continentals have enough on to see the year out but I will be putting a new set of tyres on when the weather takes a turn for the worse so I have maximum tread depth throughout winter. I might stick with the current Continental 5Ps but also considering Bridgestone (S001 and RE050A), Dunlop (Sport Maxx RT2) and Pirelli (P-Zero). If I was to go for other makes like Michelin, Goodyear etc. it looks like I would have to mix front to rear for example AS3 fronts and AS5 rears which unless availablity increases or there is a significant reason to go with them over one of the brands mentioned previously I would like to try and avoid.
A couple of weeks in I already had a trip booked in to go up to Donington to watch the British GT Championship and its supporting classes for the weekend. In my preparation for that, I spotted that Mission Motorsport ( LINK) were hosting their first half mile event - Launch Control - on the Abingdon airfield which was pretty much on the way and would save me from queuing up at the Dartford crossing on the outbound journey. That would give me a good way to test the car out and experience what it can do in a controlled environment.
There were a fantastic variety of vehicles, ranging from one of Litchfield’s GTRs to an MX5 and some mad stuff in between like a Toyota Corolla with a GT4 engine that hit 150mph.
Shot by Helen Jackson-Garside @ Mission Motorsport Launch Control 1
Shot by James Wadham @ Mission Motorsport Launch Control 1
I even used my dashcam to record a run:
Looking through the sheet of results it recorded the following (0-60mph, quarter mile time, half mile speed):
4.97s, 12.09s, 134mph
-s, 12.01s, 137mph
4.91s, 12.06s, 135mph
4.95s, 12.08s, 138mph
There was another run at 4.07s, 10.96s, 138mph attributed to the car but given how much of an outlier the times are I’d err on the side of that being a clerical error with one of the other AMGs that were at the event. As impressed as I was with the speed and stability of the car, it was the brakes that I was most impressed with - hauling what has to be near enough 2 tons down from 140mph in impressive fashion. It was great fun to take part in, was exceptionally well organised and at £75 for a half day (£120 for the full day but I wanted to get up to Donington for about 2pm to catch the afternoon’s races and qualifying sessions) outstanding value for money given you could do as many or as few runs as you wanted to do.
Donington was good too - it was my first time there for racing having only been there previously for Download Festival. The weather held out until late in the day on Sunday and the view from the grandstand on the outside of Hollywood is fantastic.
On Sunday I was followed in to the car park by a CLS55 AMG and it was there when I returned to the car at the end of the day so had to take a quick snap of them together too.
Overall, the weekend was just over 450 miles and at an average of 25ish MPG was a little bit more than a tank of fuel - not too bad for long run endurance and gives me a reasonable figure to work around for future longer trips.
Next up was a trip to Brands Hatch for Deutsche Fest this past Sunday which combined a display of German cars with racing from various BMW and Porsche series including the Restoracing Boxster series that Matt Bird detailed his experience in here.
I decided to apply for a vehicle pass to display the car because it just made entry even cheaper - less than £20 for entry, a programme and grandstand seat at the top of Paddock Hill Bend is an absolute bargain! There was also a few photographers taking professional pictures but the only ones I’m tempted to purchase are of the car on the track during the low speed parade laps at the end of the day because the entry and static ones are nothing special.
This is my favourite view of the car with the doors open and frameless windows all down.
So, 1000 miles in and the car has been absolutely faultless so far (touch wood).
Next up on my calendar is Silverstone for the ELMS/WEC at the end of August, followed by a trip back up to Donington for BSB in October and then Brands Hatch for the BTCC season finale on the GP circuit. I would like to try and squeeze a few more in there but they would be more dependant on what I end up working closer to the time.
The current set of MO spec Continentals have enough on to see the year out but I will be putting a new set of tyres on when the weather takes a turn for the worse so I have maximum tread depth throughout winter. I might stick with the current Continental 5Ps but also considering Bridgestone (S001 and RE050A), Dunlop (Sport Maxx RT2) and Pirelli (P-Zero). If I was to go for other makes like Michelin, Goodyear etc. it looks like I would have to mix front to rear for example AS3 fronts and AS5 rears which unless availablity increases or there is a significant reason to go with them over one of the brands mentioned previously I would like to try and avoid.
Edited by Defconluke on Thursday 11th July 16:21
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