As some of you may know I had quite a few problems with my 03 CLK 500. I did not get much satisfaction with the dealer on the east coast of Fl that I was having it serviced at, so I contacted my selling dealer Glauser Mercedes of Sarasota FL (I live on the east coast of FL and Glauser is on the west). My rep is David Wachs, this guy is absolutely THE best sales person I've ever dealt with in buying a new car. Not only did he get Mercedes involved to get me into an 04 (and stayed on them to make it happen) but he was almost a bad as me when it came to making sure this car was 100% perfect at delivery. In addition he insisted on making our hotel reservation for us at the Ritz Carlton and got us a very nice discount. The car had a vibration at 75-80 mph and I asked if I could get a wheel/tire switch from another CLK500, I found a brand new black 500 cab and saw it has Michelin Pilot Sports instead of the Pirellis my came with. It turned out that car was the GM's brand new demo that he just got the previous day and would be driving for the next few months, David asked the GM if we could switch and the guy said "it would be my pleasure to help" what a decent person! we did the switch and all was perfect. The people at this place could not do enough to make me happy. It turns out my sales rep David Wachs is in the top 10 of new cars for MB in the US. When I bought my 03 from them back in Jan I got a very nice discount and they got me the car I wanted within a few weeks when the dealers over here said it was a 3-6 month wait plus they have plenty of all the hard to get AMG E's S's SL's and CLK's. I would highly recommend this dealership and David Wachs.

Back to the car. I decided to get a black /stone vs the silver/charc I had before, I loved the silver and know the new combo will be much harder to maintain but I enjoy taking care of that. I parked the cars side by side at the dealership and I must say the new color combo is awesome. As far as some of the running TSB changes from 03 to 04 I did use the wipers and they were perfect, the motor mount issue may or may not have yet been corrected on the asbly line as I think I here the slight noise. I'll know about the clock and sulfur smell soon, and the car seemed to track straight. I drove the car home today across the state and at 110 the car felt like it was only going 50, really. The car was tight as a drum and I hope it stays that way. I hope I have better luck with this one and I will only take it to the dealer for service if absolutely necessary. Can't wait to put a coat of pure carnuba on her once the weather clears up . There is a new color for 04, Cadet Blue its like a medium dark silver with a mild blue hue...very very nice. I also saw an 04 cab with an interior color called "grey", it looked like a cross between ash and dark ash, not bad. The GM's black on black cab really looked sharp, it seems as mentioned here before that the cab does have extra wood trim above the rear side airbags, the 04 coupes do not. That's all for now.

 

I bought mine at Glauser also. Have a 03 CLK500 & 03 SLK230. My salesperson was the best, he also got MB involved with my SLK & with the help of the sales GM they bought back my SLK & exchanged for another. Did you have to pay for the 04 or was it an even exchange?

 

All I can really say is I'm very, very happy with the help I received by David Wachs and Glauser to get me in the 04

 

Hey RJC, congratulations!!! Keep us updated on how the '04 compares to the '03 and if MB has been fixing things on the assembly line. As far as I'm concerned, if MB has made a good faith effort to fix '03 problems in the '04, I would be very happy.

Have you noticed any other minor changes yet?

 

Thank you 500! I haven't seen any cosmetic changes but I did notice the 04 runs about 2 bars higher in engine temp, this may be due the MB lowering the engine cooling fan speed as per the TSB. I'd imagine other under the skin changes/updates may have been done.

 

I did notice a few things today:

The summer/winter transmission switch is now labled C & S comfort and sport vs winter summer.

Also when in AM mode on the radio you have to press through the weather band to get back to FM and when on FM the weather band will be found going through AM, this was due to adding the satellite radio option which takes up the second key from the right that used to allow both other frequencies to be displayed at the same time.

Also the engine cooling fan in this car really howls at high speed vs my 03 and comes on and off of high speed frequently, the temp was 95 here today. You can feel a slight vibration when the fan goes into high speed but not as bad as my 03's.

The motor mounts are still an issue but I found out from a shop foreman today that the noiser mounts are a newer design than the ones they use to quiet things down...I'll leave them alone for now.

One more thing I found this little red button on top of the ECU computer box that says "push for extra engine power".............
just kidding, I can only wish.

 

LOL, the good 'ol "little red button" Thanks for the insights RJC!