zoink

I'm about to pull a trigger on a C55 (still need to negotiate the price though.... so cross your fingers ).

Any problems / issues that I should watch out? I hate to bring the car back and forth for warranty work after bad experience w/ '03 E55 lemon'd couple years ago.

Appreciate any info.

Thanks.

desertsun

Mine is 2 months old...1500 miles hiway (fast trip back roads to Vegas) and short bursts in town. No problems or complaints. Solid as a rock..no squeaks or noises except the great sound of the big 8.
Love it

Catapult

I have had mine for three months, all city driving. No problems and I look forward to driving it every morning.

lv42day

I've had mine for 6 months and no issues, amazing car to live with on a daily basis.

PC Valkyrie

Given that the C55 became available in the fall of 2004 in North America, no one can really comment on the long term reliability. In the short term I too have had no problems whatsoever since I took delivery of the car in May 2005. No electrical glitches and no mechanical problems.

This is in contrast to my old 2002 C240. There were many more glitches, even within the first year of ownership (ESP/ABS malfunction, power windows not working, CD player malfunction, squeeky rear suspension, rattles in the interior).

knepster

14 mos. 12000 miles, no problems

kjb55

Ditto. 7,200miles. Mix of city and highway. No problems.

RI55

1 year and 24K miles. Trouble with "comand/radio" upon delivery,fixed no real issues since. Plan on a set of rear tires each year LOL, got 16K miles out of first set :v

zoink

Thanks guys.... make me more comfortable making an offer.

Marktini

16 Months 15,000 Miles:

Problems to date:

COMAND/Navigation was acting up (replaced under warranty) my dealer could have chosed to try and figure out the problem however they did the right thing and replaced it.

Passanger seat vibrated at 63 MPH, loose connecting bolt (fixed under warranty).

Driver door speaker vibrated a little (replaced under warranty).

The issues although annoying are minor in my opinion, no issues with engine, drivetrain or suspension.

I use the car as a daily driver and the performance and MPG have improved over time, the car is as "tight" as when I first drove it off of the lot.

1V8C55

After 4 months and 2100 miles...

After driving the car and parking it in the garage, I smell coolant or something similar to it coming from my C55. I've checked and there's no leak. Everything seems normal. Has anyone experienced this too?

Also, the car squeaks when I step out of the driver's side. The sound comes from under the car. I'm not sure if this is normal.

These 2 issues don't bother me that much and I love driving this car.
Welcome to the forum.

sdsilverm3

I've had mine for 6 months and 5800 miles with no real problems to report. The engine (or variations of it) has been out since 98-99 so I would imagine the bugs have been worked out.

I do HATE my climate control though. Seems lke it has a mind of its own. That is one thing I'm going to see my dealer about.

AMGpowerc55

Had my car for 4 months 4400 miles. The only problems I have had is a fog light going out, but dealership said it cracked so I couldn't get it fixed under warranty. In addition, first day the engine stalled out but the dealership said it was bad gasoline in the car. The radio didn't have any sound one day and they told me it happens once in a while and the car just needs to be turned of and back on to reset the computer. Besides that, I love the car. You'll love it...best car I have ever owned!

cldriver

12 months.

No major issues, mostly electronic glitches.
Rear subwoofer speaker cover rattle.
Auto-up-down on driver side window acted up twice.
No radio reception once.

jpog

9000 miles. No issues. A blessing coming from a ///M3 that lived in the shop.

gthang

12k miles and no issues...

ricc55

Have my 2006 for just over 4 months and 3500 miles. Same type NAV/stereo problem as above. Problem seems to have gone away. Had to take NAV dvd out and reinsert a few times.

Definetly love the car. Just wish the weather was better here in MD more of the year. Don't want to take it out unless it's nice. Kept my 2000 BMW 328ci that now has 128k miles for most daily driving.

zoink

I pulled the trigger..... the C55 is now in the garage joining her old AMG sister

Will post pics and some comments soon....

jpog

Congrats on the new addition!! You won't be sorry.

JPOG

cntlaw

cntlaw C55, 14 mths, 23,500km, 18th August on the ground.
- After 2 Weeks, passenger side window rain wiper failed under black rain, fixed , no parts need to be replaced. No reoccurence.
- After 6 mths, 'Starter' malfunctioning could not start car with no prior warning. Car was towed away and Starter replaced, no reoccurence since.
- After 6 mths, BiXenon blinking and on/off intermittently. Replaced signal processing circuit board. Problem seems tocome back after 3 mth but not as serious and not as frequent. Now under close monitoring. ( According to the dealer, this circuit problem also affected the folding side mirrors to fold automatically after locked car by remote control )
- After 6 mth, battery was weak. ( could be due to the Bi-Xenon problem). Replaced.
- Front ****pit serious rattling after 4 mth, fixed by dealer. No recuurence.
- Driver side door speaker Rattlings when playing muic loud, could be due to the lossy window switches unit.. Not yet fixed. Will do.
- Dealer proactively replaced motors of the folding mirrors as they suspected that caused some noise when the mirrors are folding.
- Seats rattlings over bumps , seems getting worse but still tolerable.
- A/B Pillars rattlings - this did not happen when the dealer was fixing the front dash rattlings. So I suspected they screwed it up. Will ask them to fix in next service.
- Noise generated from the hand brake underneath the seat when I am getting out from the car.


This car is not free of problems but in terms of drive safety and performance components such as engines , transmissions, brakes - these are just perfect and they are just operating as good as new and even better!


Highly recommended people go for a C55 W203.

zoink

*KNOCK*KNOCK* Hope mine is not as problematic as yours..... so far my E55 is quite trouble-free. I hope my C55 is too..... could it be because yours was built in SA instead of Germany and SA has lower QA?

jsaccio

Mine is 6 months and 7000 miles. Only one problem with COMAND/Navigation. Sometimes the dash display says "Please wait" and the NAV and audio info does not come up until the car is restarted. Dlr could not duplicate problem.

Love the car every day!

C50FIVE

13 months 9k miles.

Memory seat settings no longer adjust steering wheel.

Climate control is adjusted by aliens, or has a mind of its own.

Heated drivers seat intermittantly feels like its on fire, works normal for a few weeks then doesn't. Wife fixed it by carrying a cooking hot pad in the glove box.

Largest problem so far is, when you mash on the right most pedal the rear tires like to spin up.

SoulBladeZA

I can assure you SA manufacturing is atleast on par with the rest of the world. Otherwise they wouldn't be manufacturing more and more cars here. BMW and M-B, in their local press literature, claim SA to be amongst their best factories

Just had to do my part to pimp SA a bit

zoink

No offense intended..... just my wild guess. May be CNTLAW just got a slightly bad apple

Just like I got a very very bad apple (W211 E55 couple years ago).