superangrypenguin

The purpose of a car is to go from point A->B, above all else.

The Italians umm....don't have a great track record when it comes to reliability....so they have not even crossed my mind. That said the dealer network for Alfas is like close to 0 here.

Adi-Benz

A pack of insulation on wheels

superangrypenguin

You mean one of those $5000 Japanese massage seats, surrounded by 12" of acoustic foam, on wheels?

You got it!!!!!!!

Alfadude

Maybe you could get on Overhaulin' with your W204 where they install some trick massaging seats, add sound proof glass and tons of insulation along with an air bag suspension and high performance motor.

superangrypenguin

Certainly I have thought about this.

I'm going to address a few of these in order, but they are things I have thought of.

1) There is no maker of double glazed windows for the W204. I have searched, everywhere, and unlike, say, the W205 or the W212 where in Canada they don't come with double glazed windows and you can't buy them as an option, I know they exist in Europe/US so I can source them.
2) Massage seat retrofit: Typically speaking, even if I picked up a $200 high end car massage system from Amazon, the problem is that they have the potential to cause serious injury if involved in a car accident. (the ones that work anyways). While the MB system SUCKS (on the W222) for the massage feature, the reality is that in a high speed collision, the massage system probably deactivates (pre-safe) or if it doesn't, you can slammed into the air bladders but since they are air bladders anyways, they're likely to pop or at the very least just compress and not cause any injury
3) With respect to air bag suspensions, yes, they do exist on the 204, but there is very little reviews when it comes to ride quality. Same with just good ol' coilovers and different struts - it seems like everything is geared towards getting the car to be 'harder' as opposed to be 'softer'.

SO yeah...I'm SOL here.

Alfadude

Anything is possible if you are willing to spend the money

Adi-Benz

What's your zip code

superangrypenguin

Who me? I don't have one I'm Canadian!

Adi-Benz

Oh darn that's right. What site do you normally use to search cars?

superangrypenguin

I don't really know how to answer this question....I mean, when I do research, I typically look at www.caranddriver.com and I pull the tech specs for their instrumented tests. It gives me information like noise levels at 70mph in db which I find helpful, and then I'll generally look to carwow Youtube videos and such. From there, I hit up the manufacturer website. Why, what did you have in mind?

Interestingly enough, I got a quote from a Lexus dealer yesterday. The car I want to buy is $117,000, and got it down to $97,500. Unfortunately for the Lexus, for $3000 more, I can buy a S450 specced to the way I want it to be.

That's making me think twice, although with the Lexus I probably still have negotiation room, but for the W222, that's dealer invoice price that I'm referring to above, so not likely to go any further. Although this gem popped up yesterday:

http://www.autotrader.ca/ico/mercede...%200X1&sprx=-1

Too bad it's just out of warranty otherwise I would have bought the MB warranty extension and call it a day. That said, for $40,000 more I can buy new....and that motor wouldn't have 61,000km, but that's a whole other story. I was just surprised to see the 3D Burmester option on a used S class. Those are VERY rare.

Adi-Benz

Oh sorry, I wasn't clear. I mean like cars.com or autostrader, etc. And what city you would use for the search.

superangrypenguin

Oh, I see, sorry. autotrader.com for used cars, and Toronto would be the city.

On another note, does anyone know where this beat/song is from? It's been stuck in my head the ENTIRE day, lol.

superangrypenguin

In case anyone wants to know where I am with the decision making process on the car buying front, I have made up my mind, and have begun working through the below.

There are about 80 or so LS500s (2018s) that have not been sold in the various dealerships in the area. One dealership has offered $30,000 off the LS500 Executive (single, so no point). So MSRP is $130K, they'll sell it to me for $100K. This is NOT a new car, but a demo car, but that's a pretty substantial discount. After this happened, I started calling around and realized that dealerships here CANNOT sell the LS and are now willing to sell at a loss.

MSRP for the LS500 Lux which I want is $116K, and the dealer invoice price is $100K. What I have now done given the fact that dealers are now willing to sell at a loss is I used a service that makes dealerships reverse bid. So the dealers that are closest to me (within a 50km radius), will try to outbid each other. For those of you in Canada, this will be my first time using a service called Unhaggle. I used a 40% off discount so this entire process will cost me $66 or so. Not bad.

If I can get the car for $85-$90K, done deal, I'll buy it and then I'm done. If I'm still going to be around the $100K mark, I will no longer buy this car. (because a 2019 S450 is around this number, and a 2019 A8 is around the $90K mark too, at dealer invoice price) (both MB/Audi have significant discounts that I can take advantage of due to my eligibility)

If I don't buy the car, then I'm not buying a new car, until maybe early 2019, and if I can snag the S 450 then, I might do that, and if I hear MY20 W222 S450 will come with the new I6 engine, I'll definitely buy the S450 then with the M276. If Audi fixes their **** with their EA839 engine which is seizing all over the god damn place in the B9 S4, maybe I'll buy an A8.

That said - that's it, I'm done. If everything else fails, I'll just keep the 204. There, I've now laid it all out.

If people want pros/cons of each car, I'm happy to share my decision making process. I've been through a lot, have researched a lot, and now have made my decisions. Time to sleep in my own bed of decisions!

Adi-Benz

Good luck bud, I like the interior on those.

You didn't test one of these yet tho

http://www.autotrader.ca/a/Chrysler/300/Goderich/Ontario/5_30118700_20110519064731803/?ursrc=mhl&upsp=4&upsc=0&prx=250&orup=4_10_337&srt =12&showVs=1

Take my word for it at least and give it a shot. I'd be interested to learn how loud it is as well.

There are a few different trim features and some might be quieter than others. Our 2006, you can't even tell the engine is on...only when you turn it on in the garage. No vibration, no noise, smooth. I guess you could say it sails nicely LOL.

Actually it handles better than you'd expect but it's better that you don't tell the mustang guys that haha.

Do it. You might be surprised or ya might not you never know. But it purrs at 90mph.

superangrypenguin

Have driven one as a rental actually. You're bang on, it's a great sail boat! (it reminds me of the 1980s Buicks...and I meant it in a good way). They are a very disconnected car and it certainly appeals to that target audience!!

Adi-Benz

I can agree with that aspect for the bottom trims, I greatly dislike them and frankly they are tailored for the rental scene hence why we see them so often there.

However if you get an S model or SRT it is a very different experience, that's why I say you give it a shot. SRT is well within your budget so you may consider that.

Frankly they made those budget options to appeal to a crowd and I feel that it ruined it's image. Imagine the old 2.7 liter. Fabric interior. Disgusting.

But just try the good ones at least.

Also it's an E-class. E is slightly more agile but it's more manuverable than an S class sedan. As an added bonus you have more sidewall, tires are pretty quiet stock, I can imagine upgraded ones.

superangrypenguin

I'm open to it. There's a dealership not far from me with a few in stock! Will try to do you a solid and give this one the benefit of the doubt! Lord knows I'm giving BMW the benefit of the doubt right now which I thought I would never do.

Adi-Benz

Lol I'm pretty open to most brands. Obviously I have my preferences. BMW I'd mostly just stick to M line for myself. 3 series' vs c class for example, c class blows it away imo. Although I wouldn't mind an m3.
I just keep looking at the 3 series' interiors and gosh, they haven't done anything well lol.

Also the hemis may appeal to you? Switches between 4 and 8 cylinders so mpg is good and quiet until you floor it.

superangrypenguin

I generally don't avoid American cars because they are American (actually, come to think of it, I never do that), but it turns out that I avoid them due to poor quality craftsmanship/and interior. That said, I do agree the 204's interior is much better than the relevant 3 series, but now with the 205, I think BMW's interiors are better. Same with the 5 vs the E class, and the 7 versus the S. This was even said during the latest carwow review of the A8 vs the S vs the 7. The S class scored poorer versus the other two.

American car build quality has improved a LOT over the years. One such example is the Lincoln Continental - much better than in the past, but can't really hold its own versus an E class though. Because we all spend a lot of time with the interior of our cars, build quality, UX design of the infotainment and such are all important items to me.

I have a pretty high standard, and I'm a self professed snob, but with $100,000 going down the drain (potentially), I get to be a bit picky, I guess?

Adi-Benz

Definitely. Being picky makes us enthusiasts doesn't it? Otherwise we'd be driving "rental cars" as I call the broad span of consumer based vehicles.

Aka look for more in a car than cheap price and mpg

As far as American cars go, I like the sports cars. They make some decent rental cars. But for the higher end, Ford and Chevy just can't seem to make it. They might make one thing nice, but make 3 other stupid designs with it.

Mopar is a bit different. As far as Dodge and Chrysler go, I'd avoid base trims however Jeep's base trim beats out most in terms of quality vs other suv's, especially the Asians, although it's a close one with the 4runner.

I guess, they have some European influence.
I go to Europe all the time. Base trims mercedes arent really the best either, but with NA market we only get what is higher trim; as they do cars from NA.

superangrypenguin

Well update, Lexus LS - got the numbers back from unhaggle. They are willing to sell dealer - $1000 (so in the red by $1k), which makes the LS500 Luxury best price at $106500 or so, which is $5K more than an S class. (due to manu. incentives/discounts that are available)

*facepalm*. I did learn the BMW 5 series may be a fit for me, but all of those options will be in spring 2019, so yeah, that's it for me for now. Back to looking at subframes...

Sigh. I hate buying cars.

superangrypenguin

I'd like to bounce this idea off of folks and get an opinion here. https://tiresize.com/calculator/

Pls enter these two numbers under the "tire comparison" tab.

Size 1: 245 45 19
Size 2: 245 45 20

What I'm trying to figure out is

1) Which tire is noisier
2) Which tire is more comfortable.

Let's look at a couple of interesting facts here between these two tires, one being 19" and one being 20"

The width of both tires is 9.6"
The sidewall width is both 4.3"

So to me, it doesn't appear that one can make a blanket statement of saying "the 20" will ride harder", because, on the face of the math above, this is not true. My only thought here though, is which tire has more contact patch with the road? My immediate thought process is that a 1" wide tire (let's go to extremes), has a lot less in contact with the road than a 30" tire, so does that mean then that my two tire sizes above - the 20" has a lot more in contact with the road and thus would be noisier?

By the way, the 19" tire here is the W222 S class tire, and the 20" tire is the LS500 tire.

The LS rides rougher and has a louder ride. Both are RFTs, and I now cannot figure out why, hence this crazy question. Inputs are sought and welcome Thanks!

My question above is based on the assumption that both cars are the same weight, which is impossible, but if we strip out all the variables, all things being equal, does a tire have more in contact with the road if it's a bigger tire?

Alfadude

Just what do you mean by "bigger tire"? Do you mean bigger as in 19" vs. 20" with a bigger diameter and circumfrance or are you talking width?

I'm certainly no tire engineer, but I would think that would depend somewhat on the type of tire, the air pressure, sidewall stiffness, etc. I would think the noise and comfortableness would depend a lot on the differences in the suspensions of the two cars and also the tire brands and the amount of insulation, etc. used to isolate noise from the cabin.

Adi-Benz

Still waiting on those 300 results...lol

I've been considering the 2015+ (facelift) for my next car. Unfortunate they don't make the SRT but probably would go for a 5.7 and enable SRT software as well as do some performance mods + custom interior. Reading reviews I only see good things, but there's quite a lot of haters who haven't even driven the car.

But that's quite a bit away for now - while I'm pretty much done modding my c300 I'm not done driving it yet xD

superangrypenguin

The 300's interior just wasn't my taste.....the one I drove a fast a** car but I'm looking for more than that, unfortunately.

Here is my latest post on my next steps: https://mbworld.org/forums/new-s-cla...ml#post7559768