Hi all!

First of all i must say that I have been impressed with your forum and the decorum here in general. For the past 2 day I have been reading galore and there is a ton of info, but if you would be so kind to answer some of my newbie questions I would appreciate it.
My situation and backround is as follows:
I'm in need of a daily driver, but I dont want to sell any of my toys ( 2 993's) to get one. I'm a "sports car" kind of guy all my cars so far have been sports cars and mainly of the aircooled variety so I have zero experience with Mercedes cars. My wife says that it is time for me to get a grown up car ( we actually need a 4 door) and been that I'm spoiled, I was looking at the Mercs for one. I test drove yesterday a 97 E320 which seems to have complete maintenance since new and presently has 104K. While I'm sending the car for a PPI on Monday I have the following questions:
1. When I test drove it, the drivetrain was quiet, the engine and tranny pretty smooth. The car felt very solid in general which is a feeling I remember when in the past I drove a 1995 S500. However the steering seemed to be a bit on the vague side like it had a play. Also the brakes , although bitting very nicely, they judder a bit. What do you think? It is because I'm spoiled driving sports cars that the steering seems vague? I have read here about some steering rack issues and they all indicated a noise, which I did not hear.
2. If the car checks out so to speak, what type of preventive maintenance do you recommend? Should I change to synthetic oil? Should I flush the tranny and water coolant? Should I change the belts?
3. Does anyone know a good and cheap independant Mercedes shop in the Vancouver ( Canada) area?

Thanks in advance! I really hope the car checks out, because I really like it!

 

Welcome to the board, you might want to spend more time and read the archieves about changing to synthetic....
Also, most important, you don't want to flush your tranny....your best bet is to do a trannny service...by draining the oil, clean the pan, change the filter....I will suggest you change the belts and the air filter too.....

that's just my $0.02.

cheers!

 

Welcome aboard, and I share your enthusiasm for sports cars A pair of 993's is a real treasure, but there are times when you need a different tool out of the bag, and these cars sure fit the bill. These cars have completely different steering and handling characteristics from A Porsche, and frankly there is nothing that is going to match the Porsche's steering.
Since these cars are recirculating ball, it's possible that there is nothing wrong with the car and it just feels vauge from what you are used to driving. However, get it checked out from a mechanic and see what he thinks. The braking you described is definately a problem, these cars do not shudder in hard stops if they're working properly. Good Luck!

 

Thanks guys for the advise and the warm welcome, the braking issue reminds me when my disks on the 993 are toast from the abuse on the track. The Porsche has cross drilled rotors though which are prone to cracking and caking from residue when they are abused, I'm pretty sure the E class does not have cross drilled rotors so hence my Q. For the miles the car cosmetically is superb and I hope that the rest of the car is solid... I'm having the car do a PPI at a Mercedes dealer as I have no clue of who is a good independant up here...

BTW here are my 2 babies, for you slk55 since you like em as much as I do