hello. i haven't been on this board for a long time. some of you might recall that i started a collection of pre-2000, pre-comand benz coupes in 2000 when i refused to accept an S500, ML500 because of the LCD screen-oriented control systems.

the other day, i stumbled into a very low mileage 215 coupe. in an exterior color that i favor - anything but black. 1 owner. apparently cherry condition. at a very fair price. similar to what i paid for the 1997 c140 that i acquired in 2003.

i think i know that early production of these comand cars had so many electronic[comand] problems that they were considered garage queens. in your opinions, were those problems resolved by the 2006 model year?

is this a worthy addition to my coupe collection[1987 560SEC @ 100,000, 1995 E320 CABRIOLET @ 30,000, 1997 S500 Coupe @ 62,000]?

all ears. thnx

Beginning in model year 2004, MB Tele-Matics systems were vastly improved with regards to reliability. IMHO, the biggest improvement has been in the area of the integrated phone. Bluetooth technology has worked wonders! The NAVI system still leaves something to be desired, but it will still get you where you're going. Most other problems can be easily fixed with improved software. The CD changer is the weakest link in the system, since it has moving parts, but I don't see them fail very often.

If you want to add a nice MB to your line-up, the CL is a great choice.

thnx for that info.

could you tell me how many 215's were manufactured, sold?

Would these improvements also be true of the other electronics and comuter systems after 2004? I love the CL, but have been sccared off by horror stories of electronics and computer failures.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

That's a tough question for me to answer, when you consider the fact that nearly every car I see at the shop has something wrong with it! (FWIW, I've never had a client stop by just to tell me "everything's fine with my car )

What I can tell you is that over the last few years, I see many more cars in the shop for scheduled maintenance, with no customer complaints. A few years ago, there would be a laundry list of complaints/issues, in addition to the routine service. That doesn't mean that the newer MB's never have problems, though. We still get plenty of CEL's, squeaks, leaks, etc., but not nearly the amount of complaints that we used to get.

Most "horror stories" I've heard about (many of them on this Forum!) can be traced to a lack of knowledge/understanding by the repair facility, whether it be an MB dealer or an independant shop, IMHO.

Nice to have you back.

Not to hi-jack the thread, but do you still enjoy driving your 560SEL?

How many miles does it have now?

__________________
Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

255,000.very well-maintained miles.

and i must confess that unless i have to transport more than one individual it gets little use these days.

my favorite vehicle when the weather is suitable is the e320cab. then the c140. then the c126. the 6.9 can be fun, but it doesn't have enough brakes. can be very scary when you have to haul it down.

i think i keep the 560sel because it was such a refrigerator of a vehicle. i bought it new in 12/86 and drove it daily, at high speeds, all over tejas.

you know, it was the last of the benz sedan sportscars. it has a ride harsher than my old lotus europa t/c. in a sense, it was this m-b addiction to sportscar ride quality for a sedan that gave toyota its break into the market with its lexus line.

toyota did fabulous market research. discovered that the market wanted something more reliable than a cadillac, a lincoln, but did not want the harsh ride of the sonderklasse m-b's. my analysis. i could be wrong.

what continues to surprise me is how benz continues to get ride quality so wrong on so many of its offerings.

i find this cl500 to be different.

but the ml, gl, c, e vehicles are horribly rough riding. all of them are more uncomfortable than any in my fleet. and have an interior design that is so antagonistic that i have been forced to finally conclude that m-b has adopted gm attitudes[designers no longer drive what they design].

i have acquired this cl500 because it is the last of the design bureau headed by bruno sacco. and i call my fleet the bruno sacco collection.

in my historical appraisal, bruno sacco will be considered the preeminent automotive designer[design manager] of the post ww2 era[if not the 20th century].

thinking on the benzes that i have owned and loved....my first was a 1973 220. what a wonderful work of art. what a wonderful car. i drove it everywhere. all over the usa. all over mexico. all over the oil fields of western canada. i traded it in for the baby blue benz, a 1976 450sel.

perhaps the most fun to drive big car that i have ever owned. because it was "balanced". the brakes matched the engine.

i can only say that i wish that i had had the presence of mind to retain all of these vehicles. as i have said on previous occasions, the notion is that the future will be better than the past. this is not necessarily so.

i also wish that i had kept my lotus europa tc/big valve.

my vw scirocco. my honda crx.

and some other big american iron.

but who knew that the past was going to be better than the future?

not having lived with the cl500, i can only say that i have added it to my collection because it fits into my sacco collection. and it is a beautiful design[another work of art]. and because i stumbled into this one as i stumbled into so many of the others. as if i was being instructed to rescue it, give it a refuge.

i recognize that this probably sounds absurd. but, as a collector of books and of what is thought to be art, i see these sacco efforts as art. deserving of preservation.

and to conclude, the 126 designs i consider the zeniths of automotive design and engineering. they will be recognized as the vehicles that changed the automotive world. forever.

i don't get many bleacher seat comments concerning the 560sel, but the 560sec gets lots of comments. it is a design that satisfies.

the e320cab also elicits "thumbs-up" when i am driving it. and i have been noticing that the c140 gets a focus.

so the public has an eye for great design.

saludos, bruno. for a life of great successes.

So you bought the CL500. Bravo.

For some reason, I was under the mistaken impression that the W124 / W126 vehicles were the last that Bruno Sacco designed.

I admire your love of the cars the bruno sacco designed, and I concur 100% with your sentiments.

__________________
Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

thnx.

i am a designer. of the minimalist persuasion.

and that is what i prize about sacco's design bureau. those designs were streamlined. uncluttered. minimalist.

if you are interested in sacco's work, i can recommend this book from the series CAR MEN, VOLUME 4. BRUNO SACCO: MERCEDES-BENZ BEREICH DESIGN. ISBN#: 8879600907

this book doesn't get to the 215, because it was published in 1999.

but it does feature the best of his design regime. for my money, the 124 cab is the niftiest of that bureau's work. every time i look at it i think of the great chris-craft runabout boats of the 1950's[also design classics].

all the best.

Thank you. I'm going to do a search for that book. As a fan of Bruno Sacco, I'd like to have this book in my library.

__________________
Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

as to reliability of this 2006 cl500. i have its maintenance history, now. in 2 years and 2 months, the lessee only took this car in for scheduled maintenance. in 19,675 miles, no maintenance out of the scheduled.

i think you can conclude that by the manufacturing end of this model, daimler had gotten it right. and this particular car may have been the last 215 manufactured[10/06].

regrettably, in the jurgen schremmp[sic] era, first year versions were not so stolid.

this history goes back into the 140 era. prior to 1996, you didn't want to acquire one.

post 1996, they became pretty bullet-proof.

the same can be said for all of the "command" vehicles. from 2000-2004, i think that the record is clear that they were garage queens.

when you are acquiring any vehicle, never acquire the first model year. i learned that lesson the hard way with the first e300 in metro-houston. a lovely car in many respects. just not prepared for an area with incidents of heavy rainfall and high humidity.

so it goes.