A little late to the party... (new car)
 

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06 CDI, purchased from another forum member. Done about 500 miles so far in it and have been absolutely loving it. Car has pretty much all the equipment except for panoramic roof. I'd driven these back when they were new, but hadn't driven on in years, still a fantastic machine 10 years later. The power and the fuel economy has been staggering.

May do a ecu flash to turn off the EGR, and may look for some E63 wheels, but that will be about it. Need to do some preventative maintenance like service the trans and some other things, but the plan is to just drive the hell out of it.

Weirdly the alignment shop claims the car needs front springs, the car does seem to sit low, they say I've got 1* of negative camber in the front wheels they can't get out, and they say its the springs. Called the dealer and they had springs in stock (in the correct paint marks as well) for $47. So I picked up a new pair of springs and will put them on soon. Sort of surprised to see springs go bad this early on, I've had 300,000+ mile 123s and 124s rocking original springs all around.

Springs have a shorter legit life than most people realize.... your prior vehicles simply had a larger margin of adjustment which could compensate for the fatigue. And miles are not what counts... if the car is being held up by the springs that is enough to ' age ' them.
New springs are a wonderful and relatively cheap improvement to old cars... If one has a good spring and brake shop available they can redo the springs you have in the car now.
But those are getting farther and farther apart like most specialized services.
I worked a summer in a shop like that in Austin... which also re treated , re arched the huge springs on the City of Austin truck fleet....

The 06 E320 has almost zilch "spring" action to the front end. That's one of the first thing I noticed about mine in test driving it. The movement as related to travel value of the front suspension just isn't there. I chalked it up to the particular car model - since mine had low, low miles on it when bought, as well as it's near pristine condition 360*. It would help to know the tolerances of what wear is on one of these vs new. As far as I know, my shocks are still in good shape with just 66K miles on the car.

I suppose that's true even sitting still the springs are constantly loaded and are in some ways "aging" obviously slower than a car being driven, the metal is still fatiguing.

At less than $50 each for brand new Genuine Springs, its not really worth the time to type spring refurbishment shop into google.

I am looking forward to observing the (improvement) in the way the car drives with new springs. Because it drives very well as is.

I was not suggesting that for you at all... if one can buy new springs from the manufacturer almost always the cheapest best way to go...
but some old cars do not have that option and I was just mentioning it since springs are one of those metal objects which can have the original curve and spring put back into them .. if one can find a place which can do it properly . The temperature the spring metal is taken to...and the temperature of the quench and tempering is crucial... but a shop which does lots of big trucks will be able to handle it fine.. and this applies to round springs not just flat rear types... they need to know the uncompressed height you want it brought back to....

Does anyone have or could refer a newbie to a C43 or E55 AMG btw 1996 and 2001 for sale? I'm itching for one of these and would take good care of it...for sure with the vast information on here.


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It is a nice car indeed. I drive 03 E320, but taxes are damn high here.
I'm wondering what a mark II E320 do cost in the USA and what taxes are..

Had a test drive in a E300 07, and it's quite a difference. So I'm slightly looking for another car, like E320/E420

Really those years? I don't know where you live, but here in quite wet and sometimes salt environment they are quite often brown colored. Mercedes started using water based paint that wasn't really good, so here they are famous because of corrosion issues..

I've put almost 25K miles on mine in a little less than 3 years.....

Fantastic car. I've been driving MB diesels since 1990, virtually every iteration from a 220D W115 on, and the CDI is amazing. Never before I have driven a diesel with so much raw power, and when the Jeckle turns into Hyde, mileage I could only dream about on the older cars.

Much as I loved my older diesels, I'd never go back. More complex, sure, but the rewards are well worth it in my opinion. From what I've observed, these CDI cars are good for a lot more mileage than the older cars, I know of two that are well past 250K, and have required very little other than routine maintenance. There was one pointed out on the list a year or two ago with close to 400K on it. Notable, though, is ball joint consumption, but these are cheap and easy for DIY types to change.

I really liked my W115 220D cars, then I got a W123 240D which I really liked until I got a W123 300D turbo.... Concurrently we had a W124 300TD for my wife for years, which we really loved, then I got a 95 W124 E300D which I liked even better, until I got the CDI. The old cars are nice in their way, but for a daily driver, there is no way I'd want to go back.....

Jim

I plan on exporting it and driving it back home in West Africa. I'm 32 years old now and I want to reincarnate and experience the craving of cars I fell in love with which I couldn't afford during my college days. Someone please help. Thank you.


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