glocati

Congrats Glyn. A true beauty. Enjoy !

anonymousmoose

Its probably an option, like it is in Australia, and they don't come standard. Some people just tick all the boxes when it comes to adding accessories to a car. And sometimes items like heated seats come in an options pack with other accessories. My Benz came with headlamp washers which I've never used. I doubt many people ticks 'headlamp washers', they it just came in a package. Mine came with the AMG Sports package.

johnand

Glyn, nice find! What happened to the Tanzanite Blue one? No doubt the Iridum Silver will be much more easy to keep detailed to your standards. Congrats!

mtnman82

Congrats Glyn!!! May you enjoy her for many years to come!

C230 Sport Coup

Congrats Glyn! To hell with the Turkey, bring on the new Mercedes!
I was sitting in traffic the other day and saw a beeeeuuuuutiful CL55 next to me.
I briefly considered owning one, and the cost of ownership.
It could be that bad could it? Ha.
And then there's the Hooligan factor.

alpinweiss

Wow, that is a fabulous-looking car, Glyn. It is interesting that it does not have a moonroof. My W203 also has the moonroof deleted (I special-ordered it that way), but this is very rare in the US.

MbzShah

Congrats!! I love the clk's I hope you enjoy yours

Glyn M Ruck

Thanks guys for sharing my enthusiasm

Nah! we have a number of really good guys like Johnand & splinter etc. We all help one another & in that lies the technical strength of the 203 forum. I'm so pleased we have John now that I have an M272/722.9 rig. He knows it better than I do.

Salary sacrifice works well in Aus from a tax perspective. The Crossfire is a fugly beast!

The SLK55 is a funny beast as spec'ed for SA. It's full house apart from Parktronic which is the only option. Don't know why they did not just put it in the spec & make the car whole.

They did come in diesel but never seen one in SA

Yes - the base spec on the SA model includes heated seats, heated mirrors, heated windscreen washers & heated headlight washers before you start ticking the options boxes - Go figure

Indeed! - Damn Govt. gets rich on car sales in SA. Anyway - not as bad as places like Singapore or Finland.

John. The cost of the retrofit of Parktronic killed the Tanzanite Blue car with Pebble Beige leather. $5000 before fitting the genuine kit & spraying the bumper plastics via Steve - much more via MBSA. The cost of the option in SA if fitted at build is $1000. Once you've had Parktronic it's hard to live without. Especially with the ingress to & egress from my garages on a steep slope. BiX & Parktronic were both deal breakers for me in the end. The aftermarket PDC fitted was crap & looked crap. BTW - the impact strips are not removeable on later cars. The bumpers are one piece moldings.

Yep - I did not want a sunroof or moonroof. I've had crap with every one I've had & my bald patch gets sunburned Deleted sunroof on my 203 as well.

Glyn M Ruck

Detailed the C240 with the friend that has waited 8 years for her yesterday. He is one excited puppy. Has never owned a Benz before & knows my car's trouble free history.

Boom vang

I can't imagine that your car would ever need to be detailed, perhaps it is was that one nano speck of dust you needed to rid of.

Trouble free C class??? I think that you were the only one in the world that got one, perhaps you had an inside to Benz and they gave you 'the car' In the automotive world it is the rare car out of the production run that is a 'lemon', for Mercedes it is the opposite and you got the only one that was perfect!

I am sure you will enjoy the extra 100hp

Glyn M Ruck

Yes - She only needed a "nano" detail More drinking than detailing.

SA built W203's gave a fraction of the trouble that ROW experienced. Much of the crap was worked out of them in very early production here in East London.

My 240 has had 2 X Castor bushes under warranty - redesigned ones have been fine. One tranny plug crush washer to stop a fluid weep & one RHS brake light lamp. The rest has been servicing to the book, brake pads & tyres.

The factory did get a letter from Jurgen Schrempp telling them to build me a good one.

MW_ATL

Congratulations on the new car Glyn. I'm sure after you get it, you will have days of getting it tweaked just the way you want it.

Boom vang

Jurgen Schrempp the worst man that Daimler could have hired who basically ruined the MB brand, under his rein the proud marque really suffered and has been recovering ever since

Ribo89

Congratulations on a beautiful car! But 100K is Crazeeee.

Glyn M Ruck

I actually don't agree. I have known Jurgen right through his stunning career which started in SA in the early days as Technical Manager, then Technical Director, then off to the US to sort out the Euclid debacle, then back to SA as MD then to CEO of DB & it's old fart board in Germany. Jurgen dragged them kicking & screaming into the 20th century. He almost single handedly stopped them building stodgy cars for an aging demographic to what we have today. He was always hamstrung by his board some of which are Govt. appointed. One should also consider the great job he did of the truck & bus division. Remember Benz makes it's real money selling trucks not cars. The dumb board stopped him from going into the FAW JV in China that would have secured Benz number one position in heavy truck sales virtually in perpetuity. He is also behind ensuring that East London remains one of the finest Benz plants in the world. Just look at all the awards they have won.

Anyway. Jurgen still sits on the MBSA Board & we as a country are delighted to have him.
He is a massively capable individual. Like Steve Jobs he knows how to put a couple of sensitive noses out of joint!

Glyn M Ruck

It is - I did not pay that fortunately but more than the new US price by a long way.

FraKctured

Hearty congrats Glyn--that's quite a bump up from the C240, and its a GREAT looking car!!

W203E35

Congrats Glyn!! Beautiful car, how do you like the 350 motor? 100K?? Wow that's a lot of money.

Glyn M Ruck

Thanks guys!

Karo - I warned you before about SA car prices. Half this board would be driving Toyota Corollas in SA.

I love the 350 M272. You know I like V6's. I prefer the AMG 5.5 but too heavy on gas for SA & bad for my behavior. In fact I prefer the 5.5 V8 to the 6.2.

I would like to see you drive a 5.5 AMG. It would be like Clarkson in the SLS. Rear tire life = 200 miles with bigfoot Karo

EDIT: BTW Karo. MBSA ensure me that all the little M272 & 722.9 gremlins were sorted by the time this car was built. The transmission feels great.

W203E35

I think we would still own Mercedes.

The talk would be "I'm thinking of putting a carbon fiber tail"
"I'm getting new shoes"
"check out my new led lights"

I_C_Class

Congrats! its very very clean!

MW_ATL

Glyn - I am just curious. When you do a private sale in SA do you have to go through a dealer for registration, etc? I am assuming it was a private sale between owners.

I would think you are the type person who would take the new one you get straight in anyway for a detail, oil change and other things just to start your ownership out. However, the question popped in my head tonight, as I know different places require things be done differently

Glyn M Ruck

A Benz owned dealership found this car for me. They originally sold the car new & have it's short history. I wanted to go via a dealer to get the Mobilo Drive plan made whole so I have the next 6 years/120,000Km warranty cover & maintenance plan. They do a Benz 103 point check. Ensure that all TSB's have been done & all software on the car is the latest right down to Nav. Detail you name it. This will be a so called MBSA Certified used car. They did not want to buy her back until they had a buyer. She is being given her first 15,000Km service before I take her.

EDIT - I know this dealership well. I have bought 2 cars new from them.

Glyn M Ruck

Carsy

Don't like the horizontal elephant rear views or the bot flies.