Reanimation

Too busy driving the CLK's I guest.

xsever

That and them being pretty reliable I guess so no problems reported here

Rudeney

Since most people come here to find solutions to problems, quiet is good!

tw2

I just sold mine. I'm going to miss it a lot. Oh well off to the w211 forum to solve lots of problems.

xsever

I'd be interested in reading your opinion about the difference in terms of ride and handling and power and overall feel between the parting CLK 55 and your new E55.

Oh and congrats on the purchase!

tw2

Thanks, sure, hopefully no one minds the threadjack. Handling- it is a bit different as the CLK55 had coilovers. Even before the coilovers, the CLK55 had better handling but not a huge difference between the two. The airmatic seems to keep the car quite level through the corners. Ride quality has to go to the E-class, it is very soft and forgiving. The steering feels about the same to me, it is not over-powered.

Power- the E55 is much more powerful. There is no way they make the 469hp mercedes claims, it must be closer to 500hp stock, there are plenty of 390-440whp dynos of stock cars, many in the 400-420 range. Torque is great in both, it is much greater in the E. It comes on slightly later in the E55 as the supercharger is not very efficient at very low rpm ie 1000rpm but by 1400rpm you are moving very quickly (same as with the old C32).

Cruising- in town the CLK55 is better for low rpm responsiveness which I put down entirely to the final gear ratio. 3.06 vs 2.82 for the E55 (if memory serves correctly). I found in the CLK55 you can gently put your foot down and go from 50km/hr to 60 with no gear change, no effort. The rpm is slightly too low to have the same response with the E55, at higher speeds and rpm it is not an issue any longer. The E55 purchase was an accident, I actually went to drive a 2010 E63 at a car yard but it was so harsh (much harsher than the KW coilovers), it bunny hops like learning to drive a manual with the cold MCT operation and it is gutless at cruising revs, you have to drop a gear to do what the other two cars can do otherwise the speed is only creeping up. I wrote off the E55 as being too old but I saw this one in the corner and asked for a test drive, only 21,000 miles and forgot about the E63 immediately.

megacrazy

Yeah...Other forums are more innovative...people come up with new ideas, fabricate stuff, program stuff, mod their cars etc etc. It's actually pretty depressing to read the W209 forum...all you read on here mostly is "hey my 14 year old comand system stopped working...what do I do." eh....

Reanimation

[QUOTE=megacrazy;7156260]Yeah...Other forums are more innovative...people come up with new ideas, fabricate stuff, program stuff, mod their cars etc etc. It's actually pretty depressing to read the W209 forum...all you read on here mostly is "hey my 14 year old comand system stopped working...what do I do." eh....[/QUOTE

So true, if I had a garage I would start a Project for some fun.

gaazmon

Well in regards to the MBWorld forums, the W209 CLK forum is much quieter than say the W211 (which I used to roam around previously) and W203 forums. I think it has to do with sheer volume of cars sold globally as well. Look at the number of posts and threads in the W212 E class sedan forum versus the C207 E class coupe and convertible forum. It also seems the newer model vehicles that have come out have less and less activity (W211 vs W212 forum for example). The trend in my area seems to be towards leasing especially in regards to luxury cars e.g. Audi, BMW, Mercedes due to the vehicles in general being more technologically complicated than their predecessors.

tw2

Definitely volume but I think it also has to do with modification too. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of aftermarket support for the w209 and requires a lot of effort to improve performance. 1/2 of the posts on the C63 and E55 forums seem to be related to this one aspect alone. Also I would guess a fair portion of people who buy these cars new don't tend to be forum users. Its when they start to get a bit older are purchased second hand. I doubt the w211 forum was teeming with activity in 2003-2006?