pcsgrp

Well, after speaking with several friends who had both the 18" rims and the 17" rims, I finally purchased one with 17" rims. It had goodyear eagles so they are switching them to michilines that were on another car. Didn't get a great deal but a fair one since the wife really liked the keyless option and the color. I know, but happy wife, happy life. Got them to give me some free services and some other small stuff. Picking it up tomorrow and the wife is thrilled. Not looking forward to using premium gas again but who cares. After I drove it today, everyone is right these things are really nice, I think much better then the Lexus and similar to what I remember about my BMW. I sure hope I don't have a lot of issues with it.

ddeliber

Congrats. Keyless go is actually quite nice. So then did you get the luxury or the sport?

Personally I'm with you, 17"s and the same all the way around, I don't like having to buy tires every 20k miles.

Goodyears on a new 2013? Never saw that before, smart switch there.

Enjoy the ride!

pcsgrp

Went with luxury and there are a lot of things I am trying to figure out. I didn't realize that I could use E85 is that something new?

El Cid

E85 is new. Personally I am opposed to any ethanol in gasoline, but I do use E90 as that is what is available at BP. Can get premium with no ethanol, but at about 50 cents. a gal. more than Premium and from totally independent station. E85 means a 50% increase in amount of ethanol.
I think you will enjoy the ride from the Luxury and some of the other things. If you study the styling and trim, you will notice some things different about it from the Sports.
Best advice is to very throughly read the Operator's and COMAND Manuals, make notes and don't be afraid to write in them.

Nuru

congrats, when I grow up, I am gonna get a car with the P2 and folding seats!

pcsgrp

I am going nuts trying to figure out everything. That little light on the right side of the mirror drove us nuts when we couldn't get it off but finally realized that it shuts off after about 30 seconds. I really wanted the sport but the rims and very low profile tires were going to be an issue specially since we drive into NYC all the time and when I am in the city, I drive like I used to when I grew up there....very agressive! Still wished I could have gotten HIDs I hate the stock headlights

El Cid

Got my curiosity up, so I looked at some records. This is supposedly what the Luxury version had in 2010 that was different from the Sports. No idea what differences are now.
Leather/wood four bar steering wheel (Luxury only option); four bar grille; lower bumper grille opening angles outward at top; “bright” trim on front and rear bumpers; 17” split 5 spoke wheels with all-season tires; comfort suspension; black instrument cluster surround; monochromatic interior; oval exhausts.

pcsgrp

I was wondering about the oval exhausts. My neighbor has rectangular ones on his e350. I am still finding out things about the car. My next issue is to see about putting in hids with the auto light. The regular haligons are ok but not great. I use a PIAA H7 on my motorcycle and that gives off a lot more light and is made for high vibration environment. I may just change the stock ones to one of those. I don't know if the aim is correct on the car, the driver side light really points to the middle of the lane about 45-50ft in frot of the car.

ddeliber

Yea, I like the rectangular/trapezoidal tips much better. I looked into getting a sport diffuser and those tips but I couldn't get a clear answer on fitment to the bumper. I didn't pursue it much because it wasn't worth the prices that I saw for the parts.

Better bulbs is a pretty common and inexpensive upgrade from what I have read. I also heard that one side requires taking off some stuff to gain access to the back of the headlight fixture - not a quick or easy job. I just replaced the bulbs on my wife's Volvo S80. Piece of cake - 10 minutes per side.

El Cid

I had the dealer check mine and the lights were aimed at the lowest level. They raised them to the highest legal level. Lot of improvement. They are probably aimed low at factory or at least not at highest level.
Also, service advisor said they do not necessarily aim straight ahead. Passenger side may aim more to driver's side than driver's?

New E350W4

In my search for a '11 according to AutoTrader there are over 500 within 200 miles of NY, half of which are CPO.
Seems like a ton but, I don't know if this is typical at this time of year. I would think dealers would be very aggressive in pricing and MBFS to be very lenient with the finance offers.

pcsgrp

I now had the car for three weeks and so far so good. We are expecting a big snow storm over the next few days so I will get the chance to see how the 4matic works with the all season tires. As I mentioned in one of my other posts, I have a new set of Xice-2s in the 215-60-17" size which has a 27.2" dia. These tires are great in the snow but I don't know if they are going to fit inside the wells. Does anyone have that dia tire on their car?

After looking at the amount of work needed to put in HID lights, based on some posts here I found a guy in NJ who did them. They did a really professional job, decided to take out the fender lining to mount the ballasts in good spots and the difference in lighting is substantial. Here is a link to what it looks like.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...2528061&type=1

Nuru

i am considering getting some aftermarket HID lights too. I have not plled the trigger on this purchase yet, though.