piper

Been shopping a preowned 2010, but got antsy and picked this up over the weekend on a great lease deal. White/Almond/Burl Walnut, P1. I was looking for Iridium/Ash/Black Ash for a more sporty look rather than a luxurious classic, but this was available and now glad I took this one. I really like the contrast of the 3 different interior colors and think the drop & wheels will give a nice clean modded but not modded OEM look. Does that make since!

I had springs & wheels purchased before I signed on the car. H&R's go on tomorrow and hopefully the 20" AMG split spoke replicas will be here soon as well. Tint goes on Saturday and will be ordering clear side markers and rear spoiler soon. I will post the play by play as these parts go on.

BenzE350

Seems like a lot of mods for a leased car.

I am impressed by your sportless garage. Very nice.

Congrats on your new car!

hyperion667

agreed, seems like a lot of modding for a leaser.....but to each their own right?
20' amg's are expensive I'll bet.....ching!

looks nice though......wish I had a garage.........(staring at picture)
what is that floor? concrete or something decorative?
looks nice in there.....the step up and everything......

piper

Thanks on the garage compliments! I blow it out weekly and mop about every two weeks. It's so easy to maintain with the full granite chip apoxy coat. The golf cart occupies the third car portion.

As for the modded lease...I'm not spending a bunch of money on the mods. $500 installed & aligned on the springs, $800 for wheels, $900 for tires, $300 for misc. and I have the car I want for 2 years...maybe I buy out the lease and maybe I don't. Put the stock wheels back on and turn it in. If someone gives me a few hundred for the wheels, great. If not, no big deal.

Every car I have purchased and added wheels to I seem to just give away with the deal anyways. I think it all works out fairly similar in the end.

EmE247

Nice golf cart. Where are the chrome wheels for the girly bike?

piper

Actually Santa is bringing her an upgrade.

GuyFawkes

Loooks great!

Does your lease contract have any restrictive covenants about not modding the vehicle? Just be careful on that, you don't want them to 'fine you' to put it back in 'original order'

MCF

Where are you getting wheels from?

clmulli

Sweet

BPhillyBenz

Congratulations. Your going to love it. I like your attitude regarding the car...you only live once. If you go with the Sprint Booster, lemme know. Enjoy.

golfster

Congrats! The car looks great. Looking forward to seeing pictures of the mods when completed.

K-A

Congrats, good choice!

I can't believe M-B's doing 2 year Leases right now, I missed that by like 4 months, as I got the 39 month Lease. I guess if I decide to purchase the car afterward, I'll be better off with the 39 month, as the residual will be lower, and I'll know if I want the face-lifted W212 more-so, which will be just about out by then.

Also, feel free to post your Lease details if you choose, for the Forum Members to see!

piper

Thanks to a post in the Price thread, I feel I worked a real good deal. The car was $54,700, $0 out of pocket, and I mean $0, dealer covered first month, all fees & reg., $685 per month including AZ tax, 24 months, 12k per year.

piper

Ordered from OEM Wheels Plus, but rears aren't in so it will be a few weeks.

piper

I just had H&R springs put on this week and since it has settled I really don't like it. The ride is definitely much stiffer with a little bit of a bounce and the front is lower and more raked than I prefer. However, I like where the rear sits. I now feel like I have taken a nice sporty sedan that could use a slight drop to a low rider. I'm considering buying a second set of Eibach springs just for the front and see if it will get close to leveling it out and improve the ride a little. The Eibach rears aren't enough of a drop so I am thinking of having two different brands for front & rear. I'm driving myself crazy over this! I'll post up some new pics for review once shined up tomorrow.

Still trying to figure out exactly what to do about wheels. I am also thinking the look of the stock wheels with the drop could be playing with my mind in a negative way.

hyperion667

I hope you're actually enjoying the car too.............LOL

piper

I am enjoying it, but you know how it is when something just isn't working out exactly how you envisioned? Kind if nerve racking till it's just perfect.

mg-E550

Congrats on the ride! I think I would need a small nuclear device to get my garage that clean

Enjoy it.

piper

Thanks! My wife & neighbors think I have a problem when it comes to keeping my cars and garage clean. However, I know that I do!

piper

Here are the updated photos with the H&R springs installed and pretty well settled. The pictures don't look as bad as what I see when I look at it from a distance. I see a lowered teenager car instead of an nice sporty sedan. I think if the front were a tad higher I would be ok with it. Eibach's in the front would bring it up about a 1/2 an inch and possibly make it perfect in my eyes. The design of the car already rakes toward the front, so any lower than the rear and this what I get, which is not appealing to me. Any comments would be great!

K-A

It looks good, but I see what you mean, the stance is a bit "off" from being a classy Luxury Sedan. Perhaps some of these lowering kits are designed (drop wise) with bigger wheels in mind?) And the W212 indeed does rake heavily toward the front, so it doesn't need much more help there.

Personally, and this is just me, but I would never lower an E-Class, and ruin that greatly balanced, and engineered ride. I have some experience with dropping my cars with only lowering springs (never thought to do something like that on a Benz, I did do it on a Mustang though), and they always ended up busting the shocks, and the car would ride really rough, and handle bumps terribly, in due time. I'd hate for that to happen on an M-B. Maybe their shocks are better at handling it though.

piper

I hear what you are saying. I am not the type to lower a sports sedan, but when you apply 20's and lower profile tires, which in my opinion is the right size wheel for this size of car, it adds a huge gap in the fender well and looks off also. It might be too low and it might be the wheels. I am test fitting a set of AMG S class stars on Monday to see if the offset will work, which I think the ET43 is going to be perfect. This will tell me if its just the lower stance and small wheels playing tricks on me or if it really is too low for my preference. In which case I plan to add Eibach front springs which will raise it about a 1/2 an inch and level it out. If that looks odd, I will just do Eibach's on both front and back, however I feel the Eibach's are still a little high in rear.

K-A

Ah, yeah, changing the rims, especially to a bigger size, definitely requires a mandatory lowering. Didn't know you were going with new rims.

I'd definitely see them with the new wheels, before you made the decision for sure.

vcruiser

yes, i'd wait for the new wheels to come on before changing springs and all that.

piper

Opinions?