Well I pulled the trigger and bought myself an early Christmas present this year. I just purchased my first Mercedes, a '99 CLK 320 with just 55k miles. The car is beautiful and looks/drives as if it were brand new, for the price I paid I am truly impressed! It came with a clean Carfax and all the service history since new (big plus for me). It appears that many of the common issues have been addressed already (MAF, trans seal, power seats along with all scheduled maintenance). I've only put a few hundred miles on the car myself but so far it's been great. One thing it did not come with is the owner's manual, only a "quick reference" guide which has been helpful. I purchased an owner's manual online but in the meantime I have a few questions about the car.

1. At night, when I open the car door the parking lights and fog lights turn on. Is there a way to disable this feature?

2. I live about 45 miles from the nearest Mercedes-Benz dealership, which is the reason I've been somewhat deterred from owning a Mercedes for awhile. However, in another thread I read that MB offered free roadside assistance for the life of the car. Is this true? What services does roadside assistance provide?

3. On the climate control, I know if you press the warm and cold arrow simultaneously it will jump to the comfort setting of 72*, is there a similar way to jump to max hot or cold? Also, if I press the economy button does that disable the A/C compressor completely and just run the blower motor?

4. Before purchasing, I was reading about common issues and came across moisture in the fog light housings causing bulbs to blow. I was thinking about pulling my housings to see if I could seal them up better with some silicone sealant. However, I can only seem to find this problem on '00 and up CLK's. Does the moisture in the housing issue affect the '98/'99 model since it has a different style bumper?

I think that's all for now, thanks in advance!

 

1.) When I had my shop enable Netherlands mode (alarm beep when you lock/unlock the doors) using STAR, this feature got disabled. Note that the panic button will no longer work on your car if you enable Netherlands mode.

2.) Roadside assistance is apparently valid for any MB, regardless of mileage and number of owners. A few of the services they provide off the top of my head: bringing a few gallons of gas to you, unlocking your car for you, fixing/changing flat tires, changing your battery for you should it die, and towing to the nearest dealership at a reduced rate per mile. I don't know if they offer more than the mentioned services.

3.) I don't think there's a way to jump to max hot/cold. Can't answer your question about the EC button.

4.) Don't know anything about this problem.