Predictions on facelift enhancements...
 

I was wondering what you guys think will be changed when the w211 get's its facelift next year.

Here are some of the things that I think could be improved on the current model.

1. Somewhat boring rear end. Don't know if there needs to be more tailight lens (like on the trunklid itself) or what but it just seems like something is missing. (Not as noticeable on darker colors but on silver and other light colors it's really noticeable)

2. Headlight looks terrible at night. I think it's because of the split where the blinker section is and because it is a projector style but it just looks way too small for this car. If someone else knows what I'm talking about maybe they can explain it better. For instance, on my sister's 05 C240 with xenons, the whole headlight housing is open so it has a more bolder appearance.

That's pretty much it. Please don't take this the wrong way as I still think that the w211 is the most beautiful car in this class right now and it is still the car I am planning to get next. I just was curious what others think about the upcoming facelift. The thing about Mercedes is that as beautiful as we may think a certain car is, when it is facelifted it makes a 100% improvement. How do they do it?

I have given this a lot of thought also. I was wondering if the taillights might see a treatment like the current S. If this happens, would you guess that the size and shape would be the same so we could just swap ours out???

M-B won't change any sheet metal, so any changes will be limited to minor things like the lights and grille. I wouldn't assume that they will change anything much at all. Here are pictures from Edmunds.com that purport to illustrate the 1996 and 2001 E320. Can you tell the difference?

http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/1...1/007179-E.jpg

http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/1...9/007225-E.jpg

And that's when the current motors were introduced.

I agree if any changes do happen it'd probably be very minor.. possibly bumper changes etc.. but nothing to the sheet metal as stated above.

-Danny

Probably mascara and eyeliner for the upcoming E's.

will there be a facelift next year?
 

How come there will be a facelift so soon? The current c-class only just got a facelift this summer - wasn´t that model launched in 2000?

The 2006 model year will be the fourth year of the W211 generation of the E-Class, and mid-generation is the logical point for a facelift if there will be one. What I haven't seen here, or elsewhere, is any indication that DCX is, in fact, planning a "facelift" for the W211. BMW will supposedly release a significant sheet-metal revise of the 7-Series as a 2005 model, but that's a special case - the current 7-Series has been poorly received, in part because of the styling. In contrast, would anyone seriously claim that the styling of the current E-Class is broken and needs to be fixed? Change for the sake of change is not the M-B way.

Where did this "rumour" get started that there is going to be a facelift?

It has gone from discontinued, replaced, engine change to facelift.. Ug..

They should "facelift" their electronics first and formost.. fix the little things like RDS, a map that actually has street names, steering wheel presets, eliminate electrical glitches (seat randomly adjusting, DD seats stop at random, radio static martian attack sounds, etc). Not much to improve on body wise IMO.

I think the original question is interesting, but I cannot envisage any huge changes. Judging by the slow down in complaints about 'electronic glitches' it would appear that Daimler Chrysler are addressing this issue. My car has a number of electronic options and 'touching my wooden head' all are working as designed.

Sadly the majority of issues raised by 'Brav' are MBUSA problems.
We have RDS,
I cannot complain about street names, the only one's that are missing are newly built streets that have not been added to the DVD.
Furthermore I believe we have steering wheel presets,
and the martians have not been heard yet???

I am certainly not criticising 'Brav' because I have been on this forum long enough to have read more than just one or two complaints from US members all refering to Brav's issues.

In the UK I believe most owners will generally use the FM waveband, my son uses AM to listen to football commentaries or radio talk shows, but for music FM is by far the clearer station (this also applies to domestic radio) . Could this perhaps be why we do not hear the radio static?

I am sure I read somewhere that when Mercedes-Benz were designing the new 211 they were told to retain the twin headlight design of the E-class, so I cannot see to much of a change being made in that department.

Bye for now,
John
Night time in Torquay

my guess would be '03 + s and cl-style taillights (with the white lines across) and some slight modification to front and interior, and of course, the engines

Furthermore I believe we have steering wheel presets,

I believe what he means is the ability to press the "station up & down" arrows on the steering wheel and have the radio tune to the next memorized personal station preset, not the next higher or lower radio frequency available on the "dial".

This feature is not user configurable in set up on the W211s, as it was in previous E's

(In the USA, AM is used only by non English audience stations or sports talk or Talk Radio format stations. FM is pretty much all other music formats, although I believe in the next 5 years, max, Satelite is going to do to FM, what FM did to AM.)

The current W203 (C-class) was introduced in the US in the 2002 model year

I agree that I think they'll probably put the new w220 tailights on it and change the bumper a bit.



There is actually a noticeable difference on the front grill and hood, which seems like it would involve a slight change in the sheet metal but I'm not sure. Kinda like what they did with the w220 facelift in the MY 2003 S classes.

Like Hal pointed out, the w203 got it's facelift on it's 4th MY. Historically, the average MB facelift occurs around it's 4th MY.


w208 - Came out in 1998 facelift in 2000 (3rd MY)
w203 - Came out in 2002 facelift in 2005 (4th MY)
w220 - Came out in 2000 facelift in 2003 (4th MY)
w210 - Came out in 1996 facelift in 2000 (5th MY)
w211 - Came out in 2003 facelift in 2006? (4th MY)

It was introduced as a 2001 model.