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Flew to the East Coast with my wife to pick up my '13 a few weeks back and drove it cross country. Had just over 7K miles on the clock when I started my westward journey. After 15 states and about 3K miles I was back on the west coast. Didn't take very long to fall in love with the car though. If it didn't happen sooner, I definitely can say I made a love connection at some point driving the Tail of the Dragon and it's 318 turns in 11 miles. Definitely a drive every enthusiast needs to experience at least once in their lifetime. It's also the first time in 10+ years I'm not driving an AWD car either. I really enjoyed all of those cars for different reasons but this car is special. The way things are changing these days with manufacturers, I'm not sure if we'll ever see a big naturally aspirated V8 offered in a passenger car this size either. It's kinda the last of a breed IMHO so I had to have it. I'm probably preaching to the choir though.
Besides the low mileage, there were two other reasons why I decided to pull the trigger on a car clear on the other side of the country. First of all, it was optioned exactly the way I wanted. It has the P31 package and really every other option you can get. I think the sticker was almost $84K when the car was new. The other big reason was the warranty. It was a Mercedes CPO with an unlimited mileage extended warranty that runs until the end of 2020. Anybody who's ever owned a German car out of warranty will appreciate that.
Also a big thank you to Joe (aka Valvestud) for the data card - not just for this car but for another 4 or 5 I looked at over the last few months. Very cool of him to make that info available to prospective buyers. The previous owner is a great guy but, unfortunately, there are way too many of these cars out there being misrepresented, either intentionally or inadvertently, by both dealerships and private party sellers. Thank you Adam and cheers Joe!
I pulled the middle pic off the web for a side view. You guys are good. I didn't cross shop anything before 2012 because of the different transmission so I really didn't even notice the subtle differences in body work until now. Top and bottom photos in the first post are of me.
Here's a better shot from the drive down highway 129 a.k.a. the Tail Of The Dragon. All sorts of professional photographers along the roadside snapping pics you can purchase online for a few bucks. Our impatient expressions are courtesy of an old man in a full-size Dodge truck who, for about 2 or 3 miles of pristine twistiness, refused to pull off into any one of at least 8-10 turnouts. Me and an extremely ticked-off motorcyclist were slowly losing our minds.
Congrats and I am jealous as hell. If I could gave found red I would be more over the top than I am with my 2013 I picked up 3 weeks ago.
Mine has the performance package and all the goodies. Obsidian black over red/black Designo. Beautiful car and yes the guys on thus site are quick.
Thanks man. And congrats on your new car too! Funny thing is, when it comes to red, I could probably take it or leave it - more of the latter really because of the attention it attracts. It's a fantastic paint job and my wife is kinda into it but I'm thinking about maybe doing one of those wraps at some point. Doesn't sound like a cheap option though so I dunno. If anything it's a great way of preserving the factory paint job. Something like a charcoal matte might be different.
Thanks man. And congrats on your new car too! Funny thing is, when it comes to red, I could probably take it or leave it - more of the latter really because of the attention it attracts. It's a fantastic paint job and my wife is kinda into it but I'm thinking about maybe doing one of those wraps at some point. Doesn't sound like a cheap option though so I dunno. If anything it's a great way of preserving the factory paint job. Something like a charcoal matte might be different.
10-21-2016, 03:50 AM
