HOW MUCH PLASTIC?
 

today, i was working to remedy some deficiencies in the CPO'ed 2006 CL500[ that i acquired some weeks ago] with the regional tech rep for MBUSA.

finishing our work, i asked him how much of the body was plastic. he confessed that he hadn't a clue...had never considered that issue before. so, i introduced him to my "knock-knock" exam, asking him what sounded like metal, what sounded like plastic.

when that "knock-knock" scrutiny concluded, he said that he thought that i was correct... that virtually the entirety of the body of that car is plastic.

i have read reviews of these post-2000 benzes. in no review have i read that the entirety of the "superstructure"[so to speak] is plastic. as i surveyed the body, the front and rear quarter panels would seem to be plastic. the hood may be aluminum.

if my analysis is accurate, is the the 2006 215 chassis unique? or do all the post-2000 benzes have bodies that are principally plastic?

I doubt the whole body is plastic....aluminum and plastic sound similar when given the knock knock test.

Front and rear fascias perhaps are plastic/urethane...but I think plastic wouldn't fare well for energy absorption as a crumple zone.

The C215 chassis was the 1st production MB that used plastic fenders & other plastic body "skin".

I found this from edmunds.com:

"With its hybrid body consisting of aluminum (body and roof), magnesium (inner door panels) and composite materials (front fenders and trunk lid), the CL500 still tips the scales at a hefty 4,155 pounds, shaving 580 pounds from the previous generation."

Plastic seems rather far-fetched to me too.

Hey, at least you know your $80k car is dishwasher safe...

Plastic does have its advantages....no body rust, ever! That'd be awesome. They need to build a MB with an entirely aluminum alloy structure and aluminum or plastic body....then it will not matter if they salt the roads here!

A magnet would at least rule out steel. But you'd still have to determine aluminum from plastic.

Aluminum corrodes too.

The hard top on my SL600 is aluminum, and I've had to have corrosion/pitting shaved off and the paint blended already, and the car is only a 2001 build-date. The car's steel panels, meanwhile, have been fine.

I remember reading somewhere that body shops require certain certifications to work on those CL's because of how they are constructed...

Everyone knows the benefits of aluminum body panels (lighter weight for equal dent resistance), but few know all the disadvantages. Compared with steel, the downside of aluminum is:
- it is harder to paint (adhesion).
- it is harder to weld and repair.
- it is harder to form in the factory (galling).
Looking at all that body panels must do, it seems that steel still rules.

And then you can have plastics that don't do well with UV light, age, heat, etc.

Anybody remember those Cadillacs with the plastic pieces between the rear bumper and the body? They all rotted away.......

I know they use all sorts of artificial aging to see how the plastics will hold up over time, but I have seen plastics that were supposed to last 50 years, and held up less than 10 in Florida heat and sun.

If I had $80K to spend on a car, I'd buy a W126 for each day of the week.

Another problem is that dents are stretched, making it very difficult to remove a dent and return the part to its original shape.

well, i have been doing a knock-knock test on all my other benzes....

1979 6.9

1986 560sel

1987 560sec

1995 e320cab

1997 s500coupe

and it is pretty clear to me that front and rear quarter panels are plastic. MBUSA tech now confirms that.

trunk lid is plastic.

hood is aluminum.

roof may be steel. doors may be some aluminum or some other composite.

i thought it interesting that a mbusa regional tech rep hadn't a clue.

my other benzes are either all steel, or have some aluminum parts such as trunk lid and hood.

but virtually no plastic[except for some lower level cladding].

the odd aspect of all this is that this vehicle weighs almost the same as my 560sec.

oh, and i purchased this off someone else's lease. 19, 675 miles after two years. depreciated by more than 50%. a good price for a plastic benz?

the last product of the bruno sacco design department. that is why i acquired it for my little bruno sacco collection. i consider it an automotive work of art. but it does have some odd flaws. this undiscussed overabundance of plastic is one of them, in my view.

Remember? I owned one, the piece of crap, a 1974, that gave me nuthin' but problems. That was first and last ghetto-cruiser Cadillac I bought new......the POS. What an embarrassing piece of crap it was.

The trunk-lid on my '83 300SD was definitely aluminum - that knew I for sure. The quarter panels and doors of my E300TD, I would surmise are steel. The trunk-lid may be steel, too.