Buellwinkle

You are lucky because it took me 15 minutes to do the passenger side and 2 hours to get the bulb out of the driver's side. Finally figured out go to get channel lock pliers in there to twist it, not easy. I think it's because the metal tabs were twisted and made it very difficult to rotate.

GTIDAN

Buell
You sure you were not working on one of the those wonderful Fords you talk about?
Just a thought

F-fix
O-or
R-repair
D-Daily

F-find
O-on
R-road
D-dead

These expressions didn't just happen. My Dad owned fords and mercurys most of his life. He didn't know what a happy motoring experience was until very late in life he bought a Toyota Cressida

Every Jag owner I've ever met said "If you want a Jag..buy 2...so'll you'l have one to drive while the other one's in the shop.

You can keep them both...I'll take the German cars anyday

Buellwinkle

I believe you are mistaken, FORD stands for First On Race Day. Some other people that were also mistaken thought it was F*cked On a Raw Deal.

Now you don't have to buy 2 as most unreliable brands like MB offer loaners.

todd

Wow, this is very serendipitous.

I am at Cercuit City right now getting the unused FM Modulator pulled out and put in my girlfriend's car.

I bought myself the second gen Sony. Major difference is the remote which is larger and 20 presets instead of 5. Also the display is legible now, not the dark blue.

It's been a year since I had it installed and don't tell XM but I would pay 3 times as much a month for the service.

I have home adaptor units, which are just cradle, antenna and power supply basically, at the office and at home.

The same cradle is compatible with both gens so I just plugged the new one into my cradle and it worked.

Saving about 100 bucks by pulling the modulator from mine and putting it in hers. She has a CD indash, so can't use a direct or tape adaptor.

I original had it installed a year ago with a modulator because nobody I spoke to could tell if my Command unit had a line in, which I later found out it did. So I had Circuit City rewire it directly, but we just left the modulator in.

And ya, the antenna works great mounted on the rear deck lid of the C230.

I don't hardly use CDs or MP3s since getting it last year and am very happy with the coverage. Have over 20K miles on the Coupe this year and listened to XM in many states and even on boats.

Have Fun!

Todd

GTIDAN

Carl...buddy.........ya'allll got to be kidding. The only thing that looks like a Ford on a Nascar car is the stupid looking cutout they put over the tube frame. What's really funny is how all those beer belly Bud Lite drinkers think there watching real cars race. Heck they could enter a MB or BMW with a Ford cutout over it and the fans would never know.

The only thing good about Nascar is they do mix it up. But at no time do I think I'm watching a real Ford, Chevy or whatever.

They might start with a Ford block but from there on it's all custom stuff. At one time a few years ago (15) back I was invited by Junior Johson (Darrell Waltrop's Owner) to see their shop. I didn't find any Chevy parts anywhere....all custom...

Real racing starts with F1 and those jobs they race in Europe. Cadillac tried to cash in at La Man but dropped out this year as they couldn't match the speed or RELIABILITY of the Audi, et al

When I get 'free' tickets to the Nascar race in Fontana I always drive my 92 Camry. If one of those drunks hit it after the race I can still live with it.......

It's ok Carl I still luv ya buddy......................

Don't scare me now; I plan on installing my new lights this weekend.

Buellwinkle

Don't watch any car racing, boring to me, the only racing I watch is the 3 times/year Supercross at Edison Field (where the soon to be World Champion Angels play). When Nascar cars can jump 30' in the air to clear a '75 tabletop and survive 10 consecutive 3' whoops without coming apart then I'll watch Nascar. I would almost rather watch professional bowling than Nascar.

First On Race Day is because Ford knows how to build them fast, don't know of many MBs that can keep up with the '03 Mustang Cobra or the Ford F150 Lightning, not our c-coupes anyway. Real Fords beating real Chevy's

GTIDAN

Most surveys including JD Powers are fun reading but I don't put a lot of belief in them. Here's why. What the surveys don't tell you is the X Factor. The X factor is the human factor.

Correct me if I'm wrong but most people I know who have MBs or BMWs, etc. also wear better watches, have nicer stereos, the best tvs and live in nicer homes. The point being this: These people are generally more picky than people who drive fords or chevies. What's acceptable for a ford owner may be completely unacceptable to a benz owner.

Just returning from lunch today I pulled up to the light and a brand new Mustang convertable was along side. The fender, the door and the rear panel were all out of alignment. I guess to him it was acceptable. To a benz owner you wouldn't have driven the car off the lot.

How picky are benz owners? Well at Fletcher Jones they walk the car with you noting all the nicks and dents before you leave. Why you ask. Because they have had customers come back and say the dealership caused the dents, etc.

So I say this: Read those surveys with a grain of salt. As a retired banker we use to say: Figures don't lie, but liars figure.

Buellwinkle

I look at the surveys and see the opposite. MB owners are well treated with very nice loaners, bribes and good service. These things may make them forget their bad experience. If I had to take my Mustang in 10 times in 1 year for warranty repair, wait for the courtesy shuttle and put up with the lines I think I would remember each and every one, instead I now remember all 16 loaners I got in past year and go much better they were than my car.

GTIDAN

Well Carl..........that is one way to look at it I guess.

Man have you had 16 loaners so far? That's a bunch. May I ask what problems were you having? A lot of people on this forum report a problem with this or that. But reading further between the lines I find that they have spent their time doing burnouts. Drag racing and in general been beating up the car. Not everyone of course but many.

Still I think you will have to agree that the build quality on a benz is pretty good. At least the panels fix together without gaps. I can't believe some of the cars I see on the road...and not just fords... have body parts that just don't fit. Too me if they let the car out of the factory with that poor of a fit on the outside. What did they do on the inside........that's scary to me.

Lastly I don't see MB, Audi or BMW offering 0% loans for 5 years to get you to buy. They don't have too. There was an article a while back in Business Week discussing the quality control problems at Ford. Perhaps you can check there website and find it.

I would love to find an American car to buy but each time I go drive one I'm so disappointed. The last one I drove was a Lincoln LS V8. Boring, boring, boring and for what it was suppose to have under the hood it was a joke. I did like the Cadillac STS but the dealer was a total *** and I walked out. (Irvine) I had no idea I would end up with a benz but after the 1st class treatment at Fletcher Jones I was hooked.

Buellwinkle

I may drive my car hard but the failures were not hard driving related. I brought the car in 3 times for a bad thermostat, 3 times for various radio related problems, once to replace top vent panel that was leaving chemical deposits on the windshield, once for a crank position sensor failure, once for check engine light (replaced ECU access module), once for oil leaked caused by faulty oil filter gasket and a few more I can't remember. Keep in mind I did not mod the car at all (not even headlight bulbs) when most of these things occurred. The remaining loaners where for Service A, CD Changer install, porterfield brake pads, car detailing, door ding removal (found on delivery).

As a comparison, lets go over all the times I took my wife 1997 Honda CR-V for warranty related failures since new, 0. Lets go over how many times I took my 1998 Mustang Convertible for warranty related failures since new, once to repair sealt tensioner (wasn't retracting fast enough), once for door alignment (yes it was off but they fixed it, no questions asked), once to replace the convertible top (was worn in one area, more of a ploy to get a new top before the warranty was up). Guess what, neither offer loaners and I don't care, don't need them.

Like I said before, they treat me well and I like the car so it's a keeper (at least until the warranty runs out).

BTW: I drove several similar cars at a Lexus track event and I can tell you the best handling car there was a Lincoln LS (if you can stay in your seat, man those leather seats are slippery). At the event they gave me a Lexus ES300, IS300, Acura, Volvo S60, Lincoln LS, MB C320, BMW 325. The C320 was the most fun to drive though and that's what lead me to the MB dealer. I like small cars, but if I wanted/needed a larger car the Lincoln was very nice.

P.S. Saw your car tonight, my wife had to go to Tustin to pickup something at a dress shop and they said it was in your center but they were wrong, they were over by Good Guys across the street.

GTIDAN

Wow.............nothing to add to that story. Hard to believe one person could have so many problems. I too would be a little disappointed especially since it's a benz.

Now my story. I've owned three Honda Accords.

1) 1976....the first year. Car and Driver's Car of the year. Lets see
now. Both front fenders just in front of the windsheid rusted competely through within three years. It blew two headgaskets; one fixed under warranty the other not. The third valve springs all weakend to the extent the car would hardly run at high RPMs
I replaced the muffler twice...rusted out and the syn's in the tranny first to second gear in the end gave out and you had to double clutch it each time. All within 85 K miles.

2) 1992 Coupes, bought both at the same time (one for wife)
Brake rotors on both were replaced twice due to warping. My dash has to be loosened and rebolted as it was about an inch higher on the passenger side. Electric window motor on wife's had to be replaced. Tranny was the worst shifting auto I've ever had and they said the rough shift between first and second was normal........yeah right.

3) 1997 VW GTI VR6. Traded it in on MB. Number of calls to dealer for non-warranty related problems in five years of driving...0. I do admit that the passenger window was beginning to hang up on occasion about a month before I traded it. Warranty calls: a couple. One to replace steering rack rubber boots. One to add a weather strip around the doors to keep them from making a noise and one to add a plastic tie to secure the a/c hose to a bracket. That's it

I'll take German cars anyday..........

Did you notice where I park? Nobody near it....that's the way I like it. You should have stopped in and I could show you the Delphi XM radio. You still have to buy a second unit to make it work. I luv the menu on it........lots of info...

Hope my audio 10 gets here soon...

Just about to go out and change out the headlight bulbs...wish me luck

sissi

DC plans to have a sat radio (sirius) for the comand system next year, also.

avlis

Has anyone installed this Delphi unit with the FM modulator yet? I'd like to knwo how it sounds through the modulator. I'd like to either get this, or wait a few years for a possible factory MB statillite radio/comand retrofit.

patronus

I have installed an AudioVox Sirius unit in my C240 with the antenna on the back shelf! It works great, don't have an external antenna and the head unit fits inside the ashtray compartment!

The FM modulator sounds fine. These satellite outfits are doing some compression (ala MP3) to get that much music on a realtivly narrow band, so it is not CD quality to begin with. It does take full advantage of all of FM's range, unlike FM radio broadcasts.

I am convinced that Sirius is the way to go, especially if you live in the northern half of the hemisphere. They also share bandwidth between stations where XM has a fixed (and narrower) bandwidth per station. Finally Sirius music (60 stations) are totally commercial free. XM's fewer music stations (I can't remember how many) are not all commercial free.