2004 E500 4MATIC East Coast Road Trip
07-14-2004, 08:39 PM
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2004 E500 4MATIC
2004 E500 4MATIC East Coast Road Trip
Just returned from a 1-month East Coast road trip in my 2004 E500 4MATIC. Drove from NYC to MIA and many points in between. Started out with under 1,000 miles and ended the trip around 5,700.
To answer Hell Ona Harley's question in another thread, "Yes, this is a Hi-Way Car." While I came nowhere near his 27.3 MPG, I did manage around 22.5 on the highway--I believe this could be due to the 5-speed tranny in the 4MATIC rather than his 7-speed. I was happy with the mileage, based on the window sticker, which states 16 city / 20 highway.
A few minor issues: a wheel came out of balance at some point, and I was getting noticeable vibration between 55-75 mph. No problem: Mercedes of Buckhead in Atlanta sent a tech out on the road with me to verify, and fixed it gratis. Very good service there from Wesley Laird, my service advisor. They even called me on my cell later in the trip when I was in Miami to follow up.
The car was also pulling slightly to the right: Mercedes of Buckhead gave it to their alignment guy, and was happy to do that gratis as well, but alas, apparently there are some bolts germane to the 4MATIC and not to standard E500s--they would have had to order them from Germany, as they don't keep them in stock as they don't see too many 4MATICs in Atlanta.
Car drives amazingly well. Being the wine geek that I am, I am reminded of the phrase attributed to cabernet sauvignon: "an iron fist in a silken glove." That is as apt a description of the E500 as any. While my wife dozed, I was able to coax the car up to 116 briefly at one point, and it was begging for more! And on mountain roads in North Carolina with the Airmatic set on Sports 2, I was able to leave anything I saw in my rear view mirror in the dust.
Had some fun with a 911 who kept trying to zoom away from me in moderate traffic, much to his chagrin. 
The worst thing that happend: at one point, the COMAND system simply went dead while driving. Black screen. Zippo. Nada. I turned it back on, and things seemed to be working fine, but then when I pulled the voice-command stalk--which usually mutes everything so a voice command could be given--it instead magnified the volume of the stereo significantly. This continued for several minutes until I reached my destination, at which point I turned the car off for several minutes. Since starting it again (this was three weeks ago), there have been no more issues. I think this is related to the software flash update that has been discussed in other threads--I did have some static issues as well before I took the trip. I'll get this fixed in the next few days.
Very happy with the car, in all respects.
To answer Hell Ona Harley's question in another thread, "Yes, this is a Hi-Way Car." While I came nowhere near his 27.3 MPG, I did manage around 22.5 on the highway--I believe this could be due to the 5-speed tranny in the 4MATIC rather than his 7-speed. I was happy with the mileage, based on the window sticker, which states 16 city / 20 highway.
A few minor issues: a wheel came out of balance at some point, and I was getting noticeable vibration between 55-75 mph. No problem: Mercedes of Buckhead in Atlanta sent a tech out on the road with me to verify, and fixed it gratis. Very good service there from Wesley Laird, my service advisor. They even called me on my cell later in the trip when I was in Miami to follow up.
The car was also pulling slightly to the right: Mercedes of Buckhead gave it to their alignment guy, and was happy to do that gratis as well, but alas, apparently there are some bolts germane to the 4MATIC and not to standard E500s--they would have had to order them from Germany, as they don't keep them in stock as they don't see too many 4MATICs in Atlanta.
Car drives amazingly well. Being the wine geek that I am, I am reminded of the phrase attributed to cabernet sauvignon: "an iron fist in a silken glove." That is as apt a description of the E500 as any. While my wife dozed, I was able to coax the car up to 116 briefly at one point, and it was begging for more! And on mountain roads in North Carolina with the Airmatic set on Sports 2, I was able to leave anything I saw in my rear view mirror in the dust.
Had some fun with a 911 who kept trying to zoom away from me in moderate traffic, much to his chagrin. The worst thing that happend: at one point, the COMAND system simply went dead while driving. Black screen. Zippo. Nada. I turned it back on, and things seemed to be working fine, but then when I pulled the voice-command stalk--which usually mutes everything so a voice command could be given--it instead magnified the volume of the stereo significantly. This continued for several minutes until I reached my destination, at which point I turned the car off for several minutes. Since starting it again (this was three weeks ago), there have been no more issues. I think this is related to the software flash update that has been discussed in other threads--I did have some static issues as well before I took the trip. I'll get this fixed in the next few days.
Very happy with the car, in all respects.
05-26-2015, 12:01 AM
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W220 S500
road trip from Los Angeles to Chicago
I just did a road trip started in Los Angeles to Chicago almost non stop in my 2003 e500 with 111,000 miles . Only stopped to get gas, eat & restroom . Got about 24 mpg hwy had no problems .
