First Post - W211 E55 wanted

Cyclone1

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Hi All,



First Post! Great Site.



I am on the lookout for an E55 AMG (W211), I have been following all the usual places such as Autotrader, Pistonheads and various Mercedes forums, but so far to no avail.



If you have an E55 that you are looking to sell, or if you know of anyone who is selling one, then please let me know.



ps. Prefer black exterior but silver is fine, prefer mileage to be sub 70k and must be in very good condition.

Would have put this in the wanted section....but there isn't one.



Kind regards

Jules.
 

Alex M Grieve

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I am on the lookout for an E55 AMG (W211), Prefer black exterior but silver is fine, prefer mileage to be sub 70k and must be in very good condition.

Hi Jules, and welcome to the Forum!

What a suitably understated entry level car with which to join us! What led you to this sudden urge?
 

100%Bitch

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He has the need - the need for speed. :lol:

Seriously, he recognises class in abundance.
 
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Cyclone1

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Hi Jules, and welcome to the Forum!

What a suitably understated entry level car with which to join us! What led you to this sudden urge?

Alex,

Firstly Hi!

I think Helen sums my current situation up nicely...... :)

My last few cars have been TVR Cerbera 4.2, Audi S4 (B5), TVR Cerbera 4.5 and have recently sold my BMW E90 335d.

Given the ridiculous prices of the E55's at the moment then it'd be a shame not to delve into ownership now that the opportunity arises.

Let me know if you know of any....

Jules.
 
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Cyclone1

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Short Notice....

Going to look at an E55 tomorrow (2004), is there any obvious things specific to this model that I need to look out for?

Any advice welcome.

Thanks
Jules.
 

ricky s

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Hi jules, FMBSH got to be a big big must with this car, spec also, my own car is low spec, and one of the main things I would have speced, should I have been blessed to afford a brand new one at the time, is comfort ventilated seats,(Dynamic seats a further big plus), Harmon Kardon is worth its money in my view, and I use my linguatronic all the time, and if a family man, TV front and rear would be good, keyless go, in my eyes is not that useful, I have always like the pano roof on silver E classes, but not everyones cup of tea. Seems to me that 02 to 04 E55s apear to have good specs, later cars seem much lower speced (perhaps not so much money about in 05-06). Mechanical, well pot luck, seems to be very solid engines etc, with the odd story here and there of negatives. If its a trade buy, hopefully you would get a reasonable warranty, if private, best to get it checked out. Just assure yourself its not abused, I brought my own car unseen, and prevously to that had various MB dealerships check out 5 no. private buy E55s at £100 a time, to save me travelling to see them, I personally think it was worth the money. Be very intrested in what you purchase in the end, best of luck, they are currently great value, and wonderful cars to drive, please let us all know how you get on.
 
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Cyclone1

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Hi Rick,

Thanks for the reply.

The car is an 03 plate with one previous owner, it has full MB SH and has just had a major service including plugs at £1,300. I have contacted the MB Dealership that had just serviced the car and spoke to the Service Manager, he knew the car straight away after giving him the reg number and he verified that the car had been there for it's last 2 services and that it was a "good, strong and cared for example". They took the car in as a p/ex for an E63 AMG and it is being sold through a Trader who deals direct with this MB Dealership. It has dynamic seats, HK7, Keyless Go, sunroof, Command / TV front only and also had new pads and discs all round in May. I just need to check now whether I can re-instate the extended MB warrenty.

Jules.
 

ricky s

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Sounds like its been well cared for, the recent disc and pads are well over £1K, and a very nice spec, (for me those dybanic seats, are great), hope it all looks good when you see it. My Extended MB warrenty was £1130, expenscive if you dont use it, but potentially very cheap if something breaks, let us know how you get on.
 
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Cyclone1

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Sounds like its been well cared for, the recent disc and pads are well over £1K, and a very nice spec, (for me those dybanic seats, are great), hope it all looks good when you see it. My Extended MB warrenty was £1130, expenscive if you dont use it, but potentially very cheap if something breaks, let us know how you get on.


Will do.

Jules.
 
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Cyclone1

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Hi All,

Went to view the E55 (2003 65k)yesterday and have to say I was impressed, however I didn't buy it as there were a few things that need sorting first.

Visually the car looked very nice, but on closer inspection I found the the under side of the front bumper (drivers side) was cracked and had started to seperate, you can only notice this when looking underneath but I assume it'll only get worse, the crack was a good 5 inches long. I am not sure whether this can be repaired as its plastic? Or would need full replacement - how much would a front bumper be?

I took a friend along with me and he is a Pro Detailer, so he checked the paint thickness on each panel, all of the panels were about the same apart from the passenger front and rear doors which were double the thickness. The car is HPI clear so I am not suspecting it has had accident damge and there was certainly nothing visual underneath to suggest this, so it appears it may have had some kind of scrape on that side and has had the respray to sort it. That being said the quality of the spray is excellent with perfect colour match and no signs of running etc, my friend believes the respray is not recent and thinks it may have been done early in the cars life. The rest of the exterior was pretty much spot on. Two of the alloys had been refurbed and the other 2 had very minor nicks in them, so ideally all 4 would need doing properly and together for a perfect match.

The interior was in very good condition and all of the electrics worked.

The car drove very well and it actually felt stronger than I expected. There were no noticeable knocks, bangs or clunks. The steering wheel did feel a little "jitterry" though at slow speed (if you lift your hands off momentarily) so I suspect maybe balance or tracking.

The only mechanical noise that worried me was a very short "squeal" when hitting the accelerator pedal, this seemed to be coming from under the bonnet and I suspect it may be one of the bearings around the supercharger, it didn't do it all the time but was more noticeable when putting my foot down from very slow sppeds.

What should the engine sound like under load? It sounded to me like it was almost like a "fluttering" noise under full acceleration, does this sound right for a 55? Performance wise it felt very strong indeed.

Under the bonnet I notice that there was some light oil residue (film) around the coil packs, is this normal, elsewhere was dry. I got as far under the rest of the car as I could and I could see no sign of oil leaks anywhere.

Only other things that I through into the buying equation were that it needs 2 rear tyres, it needs taxing. Positives are that it has full MBSH and was last serviced (major) in May, it has also had recent front discs and pads all round.

Any advice welcome,

Jules.
 
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Hi All,

Went to view the E55 yesterday and have to say I was impressed, however I didn't buy it as there were a few things that need sorting first.

Visually the car looked very nice, but on closer inspection I found the the under side of the front bumper (drivers side) was cracked and had started to seperate, you can only notice this when looking underneath but I assume it'll only get worse, the crack was a good 5 inches long. I am not sure whether this can be repaired as its plastic? Or would need full replacement - how much would a front bumper be?
They are expensive, the bottom edge is very low and easily broken, they are easily fixed with a metal plate behind fixed on with countersunk screws. You will never really see it unless laying down.
http://www.detali.ru/cat/oem_mb2.as...GA=722.643&CT=F&cat=64U&SID=88&SGR=030&SGN=02


I took a friend along with me and he is a Pro Detailer, so he checked the paint thickness on each panel, all of the panels were about the same apart from the passenger front and rear doors which were double the thickness. The car is HPI clear so I am not suspecting it has had accident damge and there was certainly nothing visual underneath to suggest this, so it appears it may have had some kind of scrape on that side and has had the respray to sort it. That being said the quality of the spray is excellent with perfect colour match and no signs of running etc, my friend believes the respray is not recent and thinks it may have been done early in the cars life.

Its not easy to find a car that has not had a small scrape, you say the finish and match is good, so you could over look this



The rest of the exterior was pretty much spot on. Two of the alloys had been refurbed and the other 2 had very minor nicks in them, so ideally all 4 would need doing properly and together for a perfect match.

You are looking at say £300 here then

The interior was in very good condition and all of the electrics worked.

It is harder to fix interior faults than exterior, more expensive too, bare in mind that the TV will soon be dead but you can convert to digi

The car drove very well and it actually felt stronger than I expected. There were no noticeable knocks, bangs or clunks. The steering wheel did feel a little "jitterry" though at slow speed (if you lift your hands off momentarily) so I suspect maybe balance or tracking.

The only mechanical noise that worried me was a very short "squeal" when hitting the accelerator pedal, this seemed to be coming from under the bonnet and I suspect it may be one of the bearings around the supercharger, it didn't do it all the time but was more noticeable when putting my foot down from very slow speeds.

If the car has not been driven recently could be a belt

What should the engine sound like under load? It sounded to me like it was almost like a "fluttering" noise under full acceleration, does this sound right for a 55? Performance wise it felt very strong indeed.
Thats normal on an AMG

Under the bonnet I notice that there was some light oil residue (film) around the coil packs, is this normal, elsewhere was dry. I got as far under the rest of the car as I could and I could see no sign of oil leaks anywhere.

If anyone just spilt a touch when filling the fan blows it along the coil pack, oil leaks are not a problem on this engine

Only other things that I through into the buying equation were that it needs 2 rear tyres, it needs taxing. Positives are that it has full MBSH and was last serviced (major) in May, it has also had recent front discs and pads all round.

Any advice welcome,

Jules.

The rear tyres do not last that long, so no worries there, there are not many around with a good spec, I had the same problem in buying my SL as I like and want all extra's, is the price a little adjustable
 
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Cyclone1

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Malcolm,

Thanks for a prompt and detailed reply.

I agree that most of the external isues are very easily resolved. I probably wouldn't have spotted the paint but my Detailer friend did and he admitted that the quality of the blend and respray is very good but not recent.

The squeal noise does worry me a little. The car has been driven daily by the Guy who is selling it so maybe there is a bit more to it. It didn't do it all of the time just at slow speed when hitting the accelerator, I was just hitting the accelerator on and off at low speed and it made the noise 50% of the time, it was as if the squeal occured for a spilt second as the car came under load, it didn't do it at +40mph. I just wouldn't want it to be an expensive initial fix but suspect a bearing or as you've said one of the associated belts.

I am off to look at another one later today so it should give me a good comparison and I should learn a bit more about the car.

Thanks for your advice, very re-assuring.

Jules.
 
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100%Bitch

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The squeal noise does worry me a little. The car has been driven daily by the Guy who is selling it so maybe there is a bit more to it. It didn't do it all of the time just at slow speed when hitting the accelerator, I was just hitting the accelerator on and off at low speed and it made the noise 50% of the time, it was as if the squeal occured for a spilt second as the car came under load, it didn't do it at +40mph. I just wouldn't want it to be an expensive initial fix but suspect a bearing or as you've said one of the associated belts.

I would say the squeek is probably the one described in this thread: -

http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t=48151&highlight=supercharger

The remedy is in there too.
 
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Cyclone1

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OK, Been to see another today...

This one is also an 2003 E55 in silver. It has less spec (no Keyless Go, Dynamic Seats, Sunroof, or rear blinds) and has more miles 76k v 65k. It's had the same amount of owners but the current owner has had it for 2 1/2 years, the slight down side is that it has MB SH up to when the current ownr bought it, since then he has taken it to a local MB Indie specialist, this is not necessarily a problem as the standard of work and attention may be better than that of an MB Dealer?

This car was much nicer and appeared to have been looked after better than the one I viewed yesterday. It drove better in that it was smoother than the one yesterday and there was no jitteryness in the steering wheel. Driving this car confirmed that the one I drove yesterday might be modified, this one was still very quick, but the one yesterday was brutally quick.

The downsides with this car are that its history shows no evidence of the car ever having its spark plugs changed....and at 76k miles then it's a worry. It also had quite worn rear discs and the pads needed changing all round (maybe another 1.5k miles). It had a D service being indicated in approx 3k miles so pretty soon really. There were no odd noises from under the bonnet and the car felt much more planted. All electrics worked well. This was a cared for example but the owner was not really mechanically minded and seemed unsure about plugs etc, he had his faith in the Indie that services it.

Both cars are up for the same price and while the second car is the nicer example, I feel it'll need more money spending on it initially. I've virtually ruled out the first car now as it might be modified, I don't see this as a bad thing though, but if it has then I'd like to know what has been done, by whom and when.

Jules.
 

ricky s

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Having read both of your posts on the two cars you have test driven Jules, I am more inclined (if I were you) to walk away from both these, for different reasons ,to which you have already detailed Any car that is of an age to which you are viewing is going to have the odd issure, but your in a driving seat, you have the money, these people want that money, and given patience, the right car will come along, bide your time, there will be more E55,s coming along, and hopefully you will know that one is worth your hard earned money, but my own main minimal bug given your situation, would be FMBSH, its got to have it, but its your money mate! Hope you find the right car in time. said it before cars will be the death of us, but I love em! keep us updated as you have been doing.
 
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Cyclone1

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I totally agree and am going to give both of these cars a miss.

The search continues...........

:D

Jules.
 
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Cyclone1

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Hi All,

Been to look at another E55 earlier in the week, this one's a 53 plate (Dec 03) so had a few revised bits inside than the two previous cars I viewed. This one has lower mileage (40k) and has full service history. It is due a service C is 7k miles. It has very good spec including Keyless Go, Command, Dynamic Seats, Sunroof etc. The only rpobelm was it was throwing down with rain when I got there to view it so have arranged to go back again tomorrow.

If anyone is in and around the Matlock area tomorrow afternoon (or knows of any Indies in that area who might help) and would like to help me view then it would be very much appreciated. We will be taking the car to a place with a ramp so I can see it underneath.

Jules.
 

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All of the extra's are very nice to have,,and I love and use all of the ones mentioned by you.

Any indies in Derby ???
 

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