seabadger
Senior Member
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2006
- Messages
- 110
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- Borsetshire
- Your Mercedes
- W218/2013/CLS 250CDi
I shed a tear, so to speak, when I chopped in the old girl. I was still in love with her subtle curves and I loved the gentle sweep of the dash board. The white head lining and the light grey leather interior that created a spacious ambience. Externally the same colour as the one on the brochure - Tealite Blue. Light years forward in design from the W210 (on the surface) - a modern European classic.
Despite some early difficulties inherited from 2 previous owners I got her into fine fettle and she never let me down. Bought at 21 months old with 45,000 miles on the clock this was an Autotrader bargain buy from a private seller. Price paid £23,500. {list price new including extras £40,000} It is the extras that individualise these cars - mine included full leather, Harman Kardon hi-fi, pointy arrows and voice Sat Nav (APS 50) (she pre-dated Comand with mapping), folding rear seats gave station wagon floor space, 17" alloys, phone pre-wiring and cradle, 6 disc CD, lecky memory drivers seat, 4 zone electronic climate control. Enough toys to keep me satisfied.
Those early W211's suffered from quality problems, as we know, and so I kept the MB service history running till the warranty expired. I had several warranty jobs done including heater solenoid valve (heater not working when I got it), ball joints gone at 50,000 miles, near side mirror wiring harness worn through. Previous warranty history included phone, audio, electric seat, and autobox. I came out of warranty with 75,000 miles on the clock and fingers crossed.
She didn't let me down though. No serious problems and I did all the services since myself. Over the last 70,000 miles she averaged 37.2 mpg. On the last farewell journey she shot me up from Yeovil to Manchester in just over 3 hours - the journey trip recorded average speed 74mph, with 39.3 mpg. It was a ‘Jezza Dilema’ journey - I wanted to get there before 9.00pm but I wanted a decent mpg. I had 40 at Birmingham after driving at pace but then the M6 was relatively traffic free and I let her have her head. Driving more sedately, with my good lady wife on board, she managed 48mpg going Bristol to Ramsgate last summer.
Steering violently to the left was my big problem at first. MB wouldn't acknowledge or rectify on warranty ("they all pull to the left") and it took me a long time to diagnose the problem. Terribly worn tyres when purchased. Initially stabilised by swapping wheels around, then problem returned after purchasing new tyres. I was distraught! Eventually I discovered and fitted camber correction bolts and she felt like a new car. I had realised the front wheels were leaning in too far. Amazingly the car is engineered to take these camber correction bolts (when the springs get tired I guess). It did the trick but I had to wear out another set of badly worn tyres before I got full straight line stability without veer.
More statistics ...... I got through 2 sets of Falkens which did just over 20,000 miles per set. Then I bought Michelin Pilot Primacy and got 30,000 miles out of them. I changed all the discs at 85,000 miles. (Thanks to Malcolm for help sorting out the SBC system - we now know to pull the plug). I changed the fuel filter at 90,000 miles and on her fifth birthday I changed the dust filter and discovered the second battery (for the SBC).
A recent frightener was the intermittent appearance of a 'Visit Workshop' warning in the speedo referring to Brakes. Turned out to be a £5.00 stop light switch - Thanks to Ellsey Tanners for this tip.
So why at 128,000 miles and after being together for 3.5 years did I part with her? Did I crave a younger model? Was I getting bored? ........ Well yes.....but what really pushed me to trade her in was the possibility of the Valeo radiator problem. She didn't have the problem but she did have a Valeo. I know for £300 I could have bought a new radiator and after sacrificing a weekend under the bonnet the threat would have been eradicated. Had it been summer ……….
And ......yes.....I confess.....I was seduced by a CLS......going cheap!
I miss those bright Xenons, headlamp washers, and white dials. A great car!
Seabadger
Despite some early difficulties inherited from 2 previous owners I got her into fine fettle and she never let me down. Bought at 21 months old with 45,000 miles on the clock this was an Autotrader bargain buy from a private seller. Price paid £23,500. {list price new including extras £40,000} It is the extras that individualise these cars - mine included full leather, Harman Kardon hi-fi, pointy arrows and voice Sat Nav (APS 50) (she pre-dated Comand with mapping), folding rear seats gave station wagon floor space, 17" alloys, phone pre-wiring and cradle, 6 disc CD, lecky memory drivers seat, 4 zone electronic climate control. Enough toys to keep me satisfied.
Those early W211's suffered from quality problems, as we know, and so I kept the MB service history running till the warranty expired. I had several warranty jobs done including heater solenoid valve (heater not working when I got it), ball joints gone at 50,000 miles, near side mirror wiring harness worn through. Previous warranty history included phone, audio, electric seat, and autobox. I came out of warranty with 75,000 miles on the clock and fingers crossed.
She didn't let me down though. No serious problems and I did all the services since myself. Over the last 70,000 miles she averaged 37.2 mpg. On the last farewell journey she shot me up from Yeovil to Manchester in just over 3 hours - the journey trip recorded average speed 74mph, with 39.3 mpg. It was a ‘Jezza Dilema’ journey - I wanted to get there before 9.00pm but I wanted a decent mpg. I had 40 at Birmingham after driving at pace but then the M6 was relatively traffic free and I let her have her head. Driving more sedately, with my good lady wife on board, she managed 48mpg going Bristol to Ramsgate last summer.
Steering violently to the left was my big problem at first. MB wouldn't acknowledge or rectify on warranty ("they all pull to the left") and it took me a long time to diagnose the problem. Terribly worn tyres when purchased. Initially stabilised by swapping wheels around, then problem returned after purchasing new tyres. I was distraught! Eventually I discovered and fitted camber correction bolts and she felt like a new car. I had realised the front wheels were leaning in too far. Amazingly the car is engineered to take these camber correction bolts (when the springs get tired I guess). It did the trick but I had to wear out another set of badly worn tyres before I got full straight line stability without veer.
More statistics ...... I got through 2 sets of Falkens which did just over 20,000 miles per set. Then I bought Michelin Pilot Primacy and got 30,000 miles out of them. I changed all the discs at 85,000 miles. (Thanks to Malcolm for help sorting out the SBC system - we now know to pull the plug). I changed the fuel filter at 90,000 miles and on her fifth birthday I changed the dust filter and discovered the second battery (for the SBC).
A recent frightener was the intermittent appearance of a 'Visit Workshop' warning in the speedo referring to Brakes. Turned out to be a £5.00 stop light switch - Thanks to Ellsey Tanners for this tip.
So why at 128,000 miles and after being together for 3.5 years did I part with her? Did I crave a younger model? Was I getting bored? ........ Well yes.....but what really pushed me to trade her in was the possibility of the Valeo radiator problem. She didn't have the problem but she did have a Valeo. I know for £300 I could have bought a new radiator and after sacrificing a weekend under the bonnet the threat would have been eradicated. Had it been summer ……….
And ......yes.....I confess.....I was seduced by a CLS......going cheap!
I miss those bright Xenons, headlamp washers, and white dials. A great car!
Seabadger
