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Please consider this my request for 1st dibs on purchase of your 6-series in ~5yrs ��
I think I exceedingly qualify for first dibs here! Yeah, I'm going the dawn route. I'm big in radio control models, have CRC cleaner and a MUCH more expensive electrical cleaner. They are very harsh and I'm not risking what it will drip to, I think dawn will get it clean enough.
Got my Coolstream CarPro BT adaptor from Amazon today and it's made for Mercedes and works great. Now I can stream BT audio from my phone and the steering wheel button lets me skip tracks. Very happy with it. It just plugs into the iPod adaptor in the car. Also finally got my tag after the sticker shock from the state. They increased the cap on sales tax from $300 to $500 last year, unbeknownst to me. Not bad you say? This was in addition to the $315 in property taxes for the car, plus tag and registration fees. Cost almost $900 to get a tag. I'm a bit miffed, actually I'm livid, but it is what it is. Now we are trying to figure out why we are getting so raped on our insurance. We have perfect driving records and credit and they want over $1200 as a occaisional use car. My buddy in Orlando pays $1200 for his NEW $110K Corvette Z06! Something's not right. And he pays $2400 for his Hurrican. I'm getting hosed!
Got my Coolstream CarPro BT adaptor from Amazon today and it's made for Mercedes and works great. Now I can stream BT audio from my phone and the steering wheel button lets me skip tracks. Very happy with it. It just plugs into the iPod adaptor in the car. Also finally got my tag after the sticker shock from the state. They increased the cap on sales tax from $300 to $500 last year, unbeknownst to me. Not bad you say? This was in addition to the $315 in property taxes for the car, plus tag and registration fees. Cost almost $900 to get a tag. I'm a bit miffed, actually I'm livid, but it is what it is. Now we are trying to figure out why we are getting so raped on our insurance. We have perfect driving records and credit and they want over $1200 as a occaisional use car. My buddy in Orlando pays $1200 for his NEW $110K Corvette Z06! Something's not right. And he pays $2400 for his Hurrican. I'm getting hosed!
$1,200 per year? I paid $1,500 per year to insure it.
The annual tag renewal (what you call the property tax) on my CLK was around $600. The SL is closer to $800 - that's every year. And we actually live in a county and city that has lower taxes on cars that some surrounding areas.
Insurance is an odd thing. We have excellent credit and driving records. When we had the CLK550, C240 and my wife's Jeep Grand Cherokee, we paid just over $1200/year for all three together. When we dropped the C240 ("sold" it to the kid), it went UP! Some BS about regular rate increases and losing the multi-car discount. When I sold the CLK and got the SL, it went up just a little, maybe $100/yr. Then, last year, it DOUBLED! I called my agent (independent insurance agent) , and he told me the company (Hartford AARP) was trying to get out of Alabama, so they were raising rates to "encourage" people to change companies. He shopped us and got good rates with Auto Owners. I also did some shopping with other companies and found some really strange things. First of all Geico was within a few dollars of Auto Owner's. Several companies were ridiculous on the SL. Allstate wanted $2800/yr just for it! I found several companies that would not even rate it. Last August, my wife traded her Jeep Grand Cherokee for a Cadillac XT5 (mid-sized CUV in case you don't keep up with Cadillac's crazy nomenclature). For some reason, that cause her insurance to go up a few hundred a year (newer, more expensive car, so OK), but the SL's went down by almost the same amount! I hesitated to ask and it had something to do with the SL being listed as "pleasure" (I work from home, so not commuting) and when that happens, it's rating is based on the primary car's rating, so that helped. Like I said, insurance is odd!
Had my first real drive in it today... Wow it has a lot of torque. It will scoot off without even needing a downshift. If you get too frisky, it gets going way too fast real quick. I like having a luxury car again, and finally having a convertible that I wanted since before I had my first car. It rides comfortable, but there is enough handling and control there. Really I just bought it to cruise, not beat on it, but of course I had to see what she could do. Very nice on the highway after work. I had a horrible hard day at work today (UPS driver), and once I hit the on ramp with the top down all that went away and I had a smile on my face. Seat is comfortable but supportive. I still have yet to figure out all the adjustments. This car really has a dual personality and I like that about it. Only complaint is that the audio engineer who tuned the stereo system is obviously deaf, funny that they would employ a deaf person at Harmon Kardon, equal opportunity I guess! LOL! I wonder if anyone had made mods to the stock system in the form of new drivers or something to improve it. I'll have to do a search. Transmission shifts lazy, like it is supposed to, I leave it in S mode all the time since it's aggressive like that mode in my Mustang which is too aggressive to leave in that mode all the time. I need to do that relearn reset for the transmission. Now this weekend after finishing my taxes I need to make room in the garage for it! If I can get it in here, maybe I can adjust the parking brake myself. By the way I named her Ursula. I thought a stern sounding German woman's name was appropriate.
Ive got the HK in my 09 clk, it the best unit Ive heard.
Brother has a Bose in his MB..he wishes he had my system.
what do you mean by a deaf person at HK? Have you played with the levels?
You've got a great Benz, well taken care of and still turns heads..pretty damn nice for a 10 yr old Benz
Ive got the HK in my 09 clk, it the best unit Ive heard.
Brother has a Bose in his MB..he wishes he had my system.
what do you mean by a deaf person at HK? Have you played with the levels?
You've got a great Benz, well taken care of and still turns heads..pretty damn nice for a 10 yr old Benz
Yes, I love the car, yes I have played with the adjustments. Midrange is way off. Voices are way unatural. It's 10 years old, maybe something is broken, not surprised or disappointed by that, maybe there is something I can fix or replace or modify. It's a far cry from the stereo I had in my Acura with real 5.1 DVD-AUDIO and DTS audio, but they don't make a nice convertible that goes like stink like this! THat's why I came to the BENZ club! Tweeters are not blown, I can hear them. We all have different standards, once you have heard reference quality audio, anything less sounds sub par. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the car at all. I'm fine leaving it alone, but if there is something wrong, I would love to fix it. This audio can't be what was intended when new. If it is, the sound engineer needs to go back to school. Yes, It's beautiful, I already got 2 compliments at gas stations and the guys at work love it. Can't wait to drive it again but I don't jump in my cars for a wasted trip so it sat today. Tomorrow I am clearing a space in the garage to preserve all the great care Yidney gave it. I have a 2015 and a 2016 car as well and this 2008 car is going in the one spot in the garage. I love it... But as any car enthusiast, I want to make the best I can afford to. Please don't take offense. It is well known that in years past Mercedes put the audio and electronics last. Remember the 80's Becker radios? They thought those sounded good back then... Becker systems were total garbage. I like it all, nice car, place to blast my music where I wont annoy the family.... If I could just access the parametric EQ that I know is embedded in the software somehow. My wife and kids love this car too. The whole family is gaga over it!
There's another thread about the HK audio not sounding good and thinking something is wrong with it. I've never been an audiophile, and with age, my hearing is declining so it's not that important to me, and I rarely hear a car audio system that I think is either really bad or really good - most of them just sound OK, and all about the same. The other issue i have is that with today's compressed MP3 audio, nothing sounds all that great to me anyhow. Even when CD's came out, I thought they sounded "artificial" and not as rich as vinyl. Now, with all these online streaming services, things sound even worse. I even spent a bunch of money on a decent home theater setup but with all the streaming stuff we watch, it's not that great. Every now and then, I watch a 4K disc with some really wide-range audio that sounds good, but that's rare. Most of it sounds over-compressed and over-processed.
There's another thread about the HK audio not sounding good and thinking something is wrong with it. I've never been an audiophile, and with age, my hearing is declining so it's not that important to me, and I rarely hear a car audio system that I think is either really bad or really good - most of them just sound OK, and all about the same. The other issue i have is that with today's compressed MP3 audio, nothing sounds all that great to me anyhow. Even when CD's came out, I thought they sounded "artificial" and not as rich as vinyl. Now, with all these online streaming services, things sound even worse. I even spent a bunch of money on a decent home theater setup but with all the streaming stuff we watch, it's not that great. Every now and then, I watch a 4K disc with some really wide-range audio that sounds good, but that's rare. Most of it sounds over-compressed and over-processed.
I'm with you. I can't tell good wine from cheap wine either. Shahram, nothing is broken. That's how it sounds. Remember that sound in a convertible is going to always be worse. The acoustics are not there, and speaker placement is more limited. Often there are fewer speakers, as well. It sounded fine to me, but then Rachel Maddow doesn't sing very often. I'm sure the car will appreciate you giving it a garage space. Its condition is even more remarkable when you consider that it sat in the blazing Colorado sun 24/7/365 for the last 7+ years. It was never garaged. My wife's car got the space in our tiny, ancient garage.
Yidney.... This car was never garaged??!?!?! Are you kidding me? I told my wife this car was obviously garaged. You parked in a garage at work, right? There has to be some garage time in this car's history! I am just concerned about the expensive top and preserving that. It's so powerful. The comfort mode is typical Mercedes with the huge exponential throttle curve and then Sport mode feels more typical. I am so glad it has two modes as I'm not used to giving so much throttle at start up. It rides very smooth on good pavement but the suspension does not roll over and play dead when you turn. I have not pushed the car hard and don't really plan to, that's not what this car is about but the power is there and it's crazy fast for what it is. The engine feels like it's not even trying. Stereo is fine, this is typical for this era German car. I can tell nothing is broken with the speakers it's just the way it is. Heck half the time I am listening to podcasts or audio books on my work commute. The CD changer is giving me a little resistance to my choice of music but there is a place in Charlotte that repairs these things. It probably just needs a lube service. I think I'm going to get that done because I have a large collection of old CD's and would be nice to use that. But I use my phone mostly as that tech has improved greatly and that Coolstream adaptor for the iPod connector works great. My wife and I love the top down driving but I did not use it today, a bit cold. Maybe tomorrow then the rest of the week I will drive my Mustang and let the wife enjoy the car. I don't know why she got bent out of shape when I said I wanted to drive it to work again tomorrow.... Guess she's tired of driving around her CR-V I bought her. She's spoiled. Had the luxury of staying home with a sick dog today while I worked. Dog is fine now, but you worry when they don't want to eat! Oh, and it's nice to have heated seats on cold mornings again.
I have no doubt the original owner garaged it since he lived in Manhattan, but I never did - not at home or at work. It was parked on the street both places - not even in a driveway. As for the top, I sprayed it with Raggtop now and then, but not even once a year.
OK it's the wife's turn to drive it for the rest of the week, I haven't touched my Mustang since last Thursday and she needs to be driven and enjoyed too! Today was perfect weather for top down on the way home and I found the radio's strength. It is loud and clear even at 70mph on the highway! Sounded great streaming Pandora from my phone. As I got closer to home I switched to FM and back to a disappointing sound quality from the tuner. I sat in the driveway setting the presets and then I realized, the sound settings are independent for each source, not just bass and treble, but sound mode. I looked there and for FM is was set to "speech" I switched it to Logic7 and the sound came ALIVE! There it is. Not so bad after all! I also took the time to program some common addresses into the NAV memory as well. It's great that it has updated map disc as when I go to my parent's condo in Jacksonville Beach in 2 weeks, they have a lot of new freeways in the past decade, so hopefully they included those updates. It's going to be nice having a convertible in this beach town, can't wait to go over the big river and intercoastal bridges and on A1A with the top down!
I have been enjoying my new to me CLK500 vert. Other than the recent ice storm!
Amusing about the mpg comments. My last garage queen was a 1969 Thunderbird. 7 liters (429 cubic inches) of V8 with a 3 speed auto in a ~5000lb car. Averaged 23L/100LM of premium in the city.
I was thrilled to fill the CLK and discover ~14L/100KM of my first tank (mostly around town and secondary roads).
Today was perfect weather for top down on the way home and I found the radio's strength. It is loud and clear even at 70mph on the highway! Sounded great streaming Pandora from my phone. As I got closer to home I switched to FM and back to a disappointing sound quality from the tuner. I sat in the driveway setting the presets and then I realized, the sound settings are independent for each source, not just bass and treble, but sound mode. I looked there and for FM is was set to "speech" I switched it to Logic7 and the sound came ALIVE! There it is. Not so bad after all!
I'm glad you got that worked out. I just could not imagine that if the radio and speakers were working properly that the sound would be as bad as you said. Another thing to "commit to memory" is that if you ever disconnect the vehicle battery, all of those sound settings will return to default. You won't lose your presets, though.
I am thinking about replacing my 64 Dodge Dart convertible with a 07-09 CLK350. Anything I should watch out for while shipping. I live in sunny Phoenix AZ area and the Dodge does not have AC.
Well, I hope you have an extra garage slot and keep the Dart - it's a classic! My advice - get a MY2009.as i will be the most reliable. MY2008 as a second choice, but honestly, I'd avoid the MY2007. If you do find a MY2007 you just must have, check the engine serial number (post the VIN - we can look it up) to make sure it's beyond the balance shaft failure range.
04-10-2018, 10:18 PM
