C32 AMG, C55 AMG (W203) 2001 - 2007

For those of you who DRIVE your cars

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Old Feb 26, 2011 | 08:50 PM
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Current: C217 V12TT AMG Previously: C55 AMG, SL65 AMG
For those of you who DRIVE your cars

For those of you who use your AMG's as daily drivers, or at least a minimum of 3 days during the week for your usual doings.

Shoutout to all the door dings, nicks and paint chips, bent wheels, number of times you've had to take the bumper grills off to pop the mesh back out, number of fog lights you've replaced, number of swiss cheese holes you can see in your windshield when you're driving against the sun, number of specimens you've collected, number of quarts of Mobil 1 you've gone through, number of times you've really gone around slow traffic, number of times you've worried about who's going to park next to you.

Drive on.
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Old Feb 26, 2011 | 09:51 PM
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2002 C32 AMG, 2013 GLK 350/4, 2015 E63S AMG Wagon
Is everything OK? Are you just feeling sentimental today? Delayed Valentine's day message?
But thank you for your message anyway. I drive the C32 5 times a week into beautiful Newark NJ and dealing with everything that you described made me a much stronger person.
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 03:33 AM
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Every day. I cringe at the two missing paint chips from my drivers side rim
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 04:57 AM
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a car that can't do the throttle reset.
How do you remove the bumper mesh grills? Mine needs to be popped out. haha!
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 07:47 AM
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PLAID
Originally Posted by Viper98912
For those of you who use your AMG's as daily drivers, or at least a minimum of 3 days during the week for your usual doings.

Shoutout to all the door dings, nicks and paint chips, bent wheels, number of times you've had to take the bumper grills off to pop the mesh back out, number of fog lights you've replaced, number of swiss cheese holes you can see in your windshield when you're driving against the sun, number of specimens you've collected, number of quarts of Mobil 1 you've gone through, number of times you've really gone around slow traffic, number of times you've worried about who's going to park next to you.

Drive on.

None of the above...............Mostly highway, some country back roads and MY OWN parking space make my commute and damage less frenetic than those going to "beautiful downtown Newark."

Don't know the total of Mobil One..............only my dealer knows for sure..
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 09:05 AM
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Lol yes I was feeling a little sentimental yesterday as I was washing the car and just saw flaw after flaw after flaw. Oh well, that's the fun in actually driving your car.

I also found it kinda thought provoking, and was wondering if others would have things to add, more for fun and laughs than anything.

As for removing the mesh grills, on the C55 if you look at the edge of the grill you can see U-shaped clips that have a little tab holding the grills in. Use a small flathead to push the little tab up while you bring the grill out.
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 09:35 AM
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I drive mine as long as it isn't raining but I do still drive my Trailblazer when it's nice because I really love that truck about as much as the car. I don't (EVER) park next to people so no dings. I do have one of my C63 wheels bent from when they were redoing the roads by my house, but it isn't that bad but did **** me off. I use no oil between changes (but I don't ever go near the recommended 10k interval, just not worth it to me) since I got all my leaks fixed. Still have original fogs and grilles. My windshield is sand blasted (at only 36k miles!) and that drives me nuts but it was already like that when I got the car.
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 10:04 AM
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a C32 AMG & S-Works Tarmac
At a tad over 91K miles, my DD 2002 C32 is looking pretty nice for her age but, many of your listed nits are showing up. Numerous small scratches on the bumpers are showing up. The meshes are no longer straight.

The worst door ding was the one I watched happen: a 14 year old high school girl, warming up for a Lacrosse practice bounced the ball off a wall, all the way across the parking lot and into my driver's door, all as I was walking towards the car. She was scared and ran off. What was I going to do? Chase down a scared 14 yr. old girl and make her fix it? Oh well, just another battle scare on the old girl (my car, not the kid).

All 4 rims have some curb rash (although 3 were rashed when I bought them).
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 10:48 AM
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C32/C55 AMG
I drive mine daily and the front end has all sorts of paint chips, I even have paint chips on the roof. The clear on cl grill has come off and now it's starting to spider web. 3 of my 4 rims have slight curbage, but I plan to have that fixed when the weather warms up. One thing that pissed me off is that my hood developed large spots in the middle where is seems the clear is starting toe delaminate. I'm pretty sure that the paint is original, but you never know. I'll have that taken care of soon.

I have a few oil leaks to deal with and I think I need to replace the strut bearings as well, but she's still going strong.
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 12:57 PM
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Drive it every day. My rims are chipped, I have dings and paint chips, and it still Woops everything that tempts it.. Lol
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 01:06 PM
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2002 C32 ///AMG
Funny thing about my C32 is that I'm pretty **** about nicks, scratches, dings and such but I also have a Jeep Wrangler that I really don't mind these same nicks and scratches on. In the Jeep world there is a term called Rocky Mountain pinstriping and It really doesn't bother me at all on the Jeep. Now the C32, that another story. How can I be this way??
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 01:18 PM
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'03 C32 AMG
Some chips, scratches and dings here and there, but I'm not too worried about it, the car has almost 80k on it anyway. Might replace the windshield though, it's the one with the most damage from stones.

Yes I drive it every day, and plan on keeping doing that. Just got it though, so can't say much on reliability yet, but it seems rock solid, especially compared to my old Mitsu Eclipse.
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 01:23 PM
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Daily driver... Good amount of chips on the front. Window isn't nearly as bad as my old Sportcoupe was. I'd say about 80 quarts of oil so far since buying two years ago. Passenger side skirt is damaged. Key fob unlock sometimes doesn't work, or only close to vehicle. Wheels are in poor condition. Lots of areas where the paint has chipped away. Oil level sensor error even after replacing sensor. The backside of my driver seat broke and is barely hanging in place. Shift *** AMG section is about 40% chipped off. Broken forward/reverse driver seat motor. Driver door lock is damaged and bounces. Most of the clips for fog light mesh both sides are broken. Broken clip on air box and intake splitter. Destroyed all clips on hood vent trying to remove it. That and the twenty other things I can't think of at the moment.
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 01:38 PM
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In my parking garage with RESERVED parking...three dings on the rear right passenger door where the child enters in the Acura MDX would swing his door to. I put a very polite note on the Acura, to which I got a call saying, "nope you have no proof it was my car! I am not taking any responsibility for it." Except...I am super **** about my car and know that the dings happened after I parked my car each time...

I really hate people sometimes.
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 07:34 PM
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a car that can't do the throttle reset.
Originally Posted by Viper98912
Lol yes I was feeling a little sentimental yesterday as I was washing the car and just saw flaw after flaw after flaw. Oh well, that's the fun in actually driving your car.

I also found it kinda thought provoking, and was wondering if others would have things to add, more for fun and laughs than anything.

As for removing the mesh grills, on the C55 if you look at the edge of the grill you can see U-shaped clips that have a little tab holding the grills in. Use a small flathead to push the little tab up while you bring the grill out.
Thanks!

And I completely agree with your original post.
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Old Feb 27, 2011 | 07:59 PM
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SL 65 AMG, Porsche 911 (993), 2014 Cayenne GTS, 2013 Toyota Highlander Limited
Great thing about driving in Atlanta every day is that you can cruise at 90 in the outer left lane on 285 perimeter with a big smile on your face)) Makes the dings seem like nothing..
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Old Feb 28, 2011 | 04:39 AM
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From: Syd, Australia
2012 C63
100kms per day, pretty much every day of the week. It's great when it's out on the open road where I can really fang it. It's not too much fun around the city or in traffic. The transmission jerkiness just gives me the sh*ts at times. It's been mentioned to death through the various posts. The ECU reset helps but then I get lazy or couldn't be bothered waiting for 2 minutes to lapse.

The car has a few minor dings, nothing overly obvious. I did park too close to a carpark concrete hump recently and heard an awful grinding noise. i didn't think much of it but I found out a few days later that it dislodged the centre mesh grill. I ended up getting a replacement from eBay. It just looked weird without it, glad I got a replacement right away.

One nice surprise I found recently was the rear blind started to work. When I bought it, the dealer knocked $2k off the price because they said it would cost too much to fix it. It's actually a nice feature, especially driving with the setting or rising sun behind you.
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Old Feb 28, 2011 | 08:46 AM
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Drive just short of 100 miles per day

1. Paint chips = 500+ paint is not very hard(all on the front end. looks like someone spattered my car with white paint)
2. Grill Mesh got pushed in Friday by one of those little corrugated viral signs that flew out of the back of a pickup.
3. Windshield looks like glitter when in direct sunlight.
4. 3-4 Quarts between service (7500+/-)
5. Daily REALLYdrive around slow traffic (land of bluehairs Tampa Bay)
6. Average fuel mileage = 18.6MPG
7. Passenger side front wheel has a little curb rash

Last edited by thtguy; Feb 28, 2011 at 09:01 AM.
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Old Feb 28, 2011 | 10:31 AM
  #19  
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2005 E55
Love it. My front bumper cover looks like it's been sand blasted. I've replaced my cracked windshields twice and need to do it again. And there's rust emerging in more places than I'd like to admit. Thanks PA!
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Old Feb 28, 2011 | 11:38 AM
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How to keep the mesh grill in? I have lost two so far!

Originally Posted by pointman
How do you remove the bumper mesh grills? Mine needs to be popped out. haha!
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Old Feb 28, 2011 | 06:43 PM
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3-4 qts between service is a lot, I lose about 1 qt. Might want to check your gaskets (pull the airbox off).

You may need to look to see if your clips are broken if you keep losing grills....

And glitter is probably a better windshield description
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Old Feb 28, 2011 | 08:12 PM
  #22  
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From: queensland australia
2009 C 63
i use black plastic zip fasteners like police handcuffs after loseing all 3 pieces cost aus. $ 1000.00 to replace
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Old Feb 28, 2011 | 10:01 PM
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C55 AMG
Every Day, All Day

My C55 is my one and only car, so if you see me you definitely see her!!!! I love having it as my day to day. I can't lie, I do chuckle when I read all of these post with folks who have loooooooooooow miles. I'll admit, I know it has to be a good feeling know that you have kept your car is "showroom shape". But for lack of a better way of describing it, I almost view that as the man who treats his lady like a princess, but when she is looking for fun she is looking for somebody she can "be herself" with.

I'm happy I like my C55 be the beast that she is
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Old Mar 1, 2011 | 11:27 AM
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2014 E350 4Matic
DD, almost 85k miles on my C55, suprinsingly, no dings or defects in the front winshied at all. PPG glass is much stronger than the sekurit glass that came on my C43 and was utterly pockmarked in no time. Because my front end looked sand blasted, I had it resprayed last summer. I've had my summer wheels refinshed twice, replaced the center mesh in the bumper once, replaced one fog light, two drivers' side seat heaters, 4 xenon bulbs, 2 O2 sensors, 2 accessory drive belts, 2 tranny fluid changes, one diff. fluid change, one brake fluid change, 2 sets of brake pads, 2 sets of rotors f/b, control arm bushings up front, one flex disk, 2 sets of plugs, 1 set of wires, 3 sets of air filters, change the oil and filter every 5k -- don't know how many quarts.
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