I am looking to get into the Mercedes world from my ST3 Focus and have been doing a bit of research on different models. From what I can establish I would love a 2013MY P31. However it seems that sometimes the developmemt package was actually added to P30 models with an additional code rather than being called an outright P31 on Mercedes internal system.

Am I better off just searching for cars post 2011 with red calipers and then ask it LSD was added as an option or shall I just go for a fully loaded 2013MY and forget the extra drivers package benefits brought over from the SLS? I am honestly very confused and sorry for the long post.

Thanks

Just get a 2013 the radio color alone is worth it over the yellow in the 2012s.

what? sorry im fairly new to the forum, can you clarify what you mean by radio color being yellow in 2012s?

Mines a 2011 and uses the P31 package. LSD was an option which mine has as well. I probably wouldn't purchase this car without an LSD. Not sure why mercedes didn't have this option as a standard. You get a cool carbon fiber spoiler neat pretty steering wheel brakes and internals along with upgraded HP. Which is regardless as soon as you tune the car. The brake job on the car will set you back about 1k for using brembo parts. OEM will set you back over 2k. Keep that in mind. I personally only looked for a car with the P31 package. Figured it would hold value a bit better and the cool red calipers make me a full on bad ***. Just wait a month or two find urself a nice p31 package car its worth the investment of having an LSD. Just make sure it was optioned with it.

I think my issue is finding one. No one ever says p31 in their descriptions when selling

P31 cars have red brake calipers, it's a quick way to reference while looking for a car, base has silver calipers.

Yeah, I went ahead and created a spreadsheet for all the cars currently for sale in the range I'm looking at with price, mileage, color, VIN, and options based on the free VIN decoders online. That way I can sort by whether or not they have a LSD and/or the Development Package. This was the decoder I used, look for Equipment 471 (LSD) and P30 (Development Package) when you run a VIN:

https://www.mbdecoder.com/

Just be sure to double check using the VIN decoder, I've come across a couple online with red brake calipers that did NOT have the Development package and either had them painted or painted them themselves to appear that way.

This is my annoyance too. People could have just painted the calipers. I think the carbon spoiler is harder to put on.

the steering wheel is even harder and more expensive than painting calipers or doing a CF spoiler. if you see a steering wheel with alcantara on it, it's probably a P31 car.
P31 recce features:
-CF spoiler
-Alcantara steering wheel
-red calipers
-dark grey intake manifold (not sure if this was for all years?)
-1.5 piece front rotors (hard to see from pics and can be swapped in)

If you plan to mod, maybe look for a non-P31 car. an off the shelf tune will result in roughly the same horsepower regardless of P31. I have heard that P31 cars make 15-20 whp more with a dyno tune versus a non-P31 car though. your call.

i agree with this, if youre not into or capable of doing any work yourself (brakes, fluids, etc) then i think get a p31. if you plan to mod and do your own brakes etc.. get a cheap base, and used the saved money to mod.

Comment on the radio
You have to see it to understand but basically the audio/navigation screen is color in all models

BUT
2013+ the colors are more modern

Datacards never refer to the "P31". Always look for "P30". If there, that vehiclehas the development package that was available that year. If an advertised car is listed as P30, then it has the package. However, dealers have been know to falsely indicate a car has the dev package. To be sure, get a datacard and look for the "P30".