stevebez

I have a complaint !

The steering wheel is a plastic POS . Even a VW GTi comes with a leather steering wheel for goodness sake. I think this is a absolute joke.

Why do I have to go to MP designs or whoever and spend ~$2000 for a wheel that should have been fitted on this car in the first place?

Also - it is stated in their standard fitment that other E's get a "Leather trimmed steering wheel" ... and the E55 is the runt of the litter and gets a piece of plastic ? Whats worse is they try and make it look like leather, with that stitching !

Sorry - but had to get this out of my system!!!!!

jangy

It isn't leather? Hehe.

stevebez

Well what annoys me is its not leather ok , but more that they try make it look like leather. The stitching in the plastic rim is plain horrible.

The rim is also too thin and not padded like any GT car should be....

CynCarvin32

Like Jangy said it is leather.

But in the case of the W211 they use the worst quality leather known to man kind and it looks about equal to the plastic leather on the sprinter van I drove over the weekend - no it looked better than my E55's wheel.

Buy an MP design wheel and you will be far happier. They make wonderful wheels for a very respectable price.

Not only is the E55 wheel tacky looking, it gets very shiny with age, and it also is far to thin for a car of this level.

Just my thoughts.

RJC

Yup too thin and the leather is not very good feeling to the touch. I also posted before that the center section used to be covered in leather and say AMG but the cost cutters at MB took care of that too.

stevebez

Yep - a friend who is quite objective about these things (does not own a car) commented on the dash board being a bit poor in terms of trim ... not very plush for this type of car... anyhow enuf bashing ... but my car did feel a little slow over the w/e.... must be the steering wheels fault

I bet they have impregnated the steering wheel "leather" with polyurethane... or some other cr*p. Even if it is leather its still a POS.

Jakpro1

I punish any critiques of my interior/the car with giving the passenger an instant stomping up to 135mph run....seems to take their mind off it.

davidhung78

Can anyone suggest where to buy the MP Design steering wheel? I tried performanceproducts.com but when I select the 2003 E55 as my vehicle it doesn't give me the option to buy the wood/leather sports steering wheel. only when I select E500 for some reason. It should be compatible for all 211's right? Is there someplace with more detail and better price for steering wheels?

2K6E55

Guys,

Buy one from Adam @ Kronen Tunning... I think it costs ~ $2600?

cte430

$2,600??!! Hopefully you can find it elsewhere, because that's a rip off. I paid $1,300 for mine. There must be more places that sell this wheel.

Fast55

If that's the only thing wrong with your car, I'd be freakin' ecstatic if I were you.

davidhung78

I think the $2600 is the Carlsson wheel. $1300 for the MP Design sounds about right. Question is where?

JLP

Someone was telling me that AMG has a F1 wheel for our car.......?? Anyone know about this wheel? I do agree that a car costing $90 K with close to 500 bhp should have a better wheel, when I test drove the C55 its wheel was much thicker with better leather.

jangy

Then buy a C55 wheel.

davidhung78

You can get the F1 wheel with some wait time from Steve_BenzNL. I believe this wheel is actually from the E55 safety car used in Formula 1.

As for the Mp design one, I found out that performance products does in fact have them and it costs around $1300 with tax and shipping. I actually just called them right now and ordered one thats on its way this week. They don't have it listed as a E55 accessory on the website which I find wierd, but if you call them they will give you the right part number. This wheel is in my opinion the best looking one and a bargain compared to the other wheels out there Carlsson, Brabus, Kleeman, etc.

MP Design


Kleeman


AMG Safety Car w/Alcantara

JLP

Have you seen the C55 wheel? Its nicer than ours. Not a bad idea but I'm sure it cost's close to the MP wheel which is much nicer than the one in the C55.

jangy

That AMG Safety car pic is of a CLS, not an E right?

davidhung78

I couldn't even tell you to be honest. But I know this wheel is available for the 211.

JLP

It sure looks like a CLS

Torquey55

I agree totally that the E55 steering wheel is a POS. Why do replacement wheels cost so damn much? $1300 is outrageous, and $2500 + for Brabus/Kleemann? That's freakin' insane for a steering wheel. They are sweet looking though! I don't know why they can't use the same wheel as the CLS.

vixapphire

man, doesn't that bill gates quote in your sig betray a serious lack of imagination on his part?!!! aside from making him sound like a complete ***, that is.

rusbel

I think the wheel is just fine...i don't mind the leather quality either. Then again, I also have a Camaro with " leather" steering wheel so i have something to compare it to...

stevebez

Unfortunately its not the only thing... but since you brought it up i'll go through them....

- in case you all did not get it ... Steering wheel is POS!!!

- Gearchanges are too slow in any setting

- no matched engine revving on downshift

- a few very annoying rattles from dash and roof liner

- The rear TV screen is a POS - dont option this - get it done aftermarket. The frame rattles and the picture quality with any source is very poor.

- The instrument display for the functions menu does not follow any logical order. The menu item should be numbered so crolling up / down would be allot easier. I suppose over time I will learn them, but obviously I cannot !

- Traction / no LSD. Get the car slightly leaning and gas it and we have a carnival of lights and power evaporates as ESP kicks in... probably due to poor driving ... but an LSD would help.

- Fitting of dash components ... where CD changer meets storage concole / ashtray beneath its probably out by qtr inch from flush.



On plus side ... yes there are some ...

- Keyless go is a great party trick , as is boot closer / opener.

- Torque ... geez you gotta love this torque - that is when the ESP light is not blinking or the ECU has shut the S/C due to heatsoak, O, hang on thats not a good thing.

Fast55

WOW. I have none of those complaints. My Pano roof has been squeek free so far (1900 miles, knock on wood) The trans in my car is a POS though. There is a huge delay engaging drive after backing out of the driveway cold, and it "clunks" into gear. Even warm, it's slow, and it shudders on gentle upshifts. As far as all around shift speed, the tricky ECU reset and some spirited driving in manual mode gets it working OK, but it aint no BMW or Ferrari SMG that's for sure. My biggest gripe is a momentary stumble on acceleration, usually from a stop, followed by the horrific droning at 2100 RPM (right at 71-73 mph in drive of course), and finally the *****ty Continental tires that have the absolute worst case of tram lining I've ever experienced. All of which was noted twice now, with nothing more than a "here you go".

Anyway, the MP wheel looks good, as do the others, but that doesn't get rid of the big "SRS" on the wheel instead of the embossed "AMG" it should have.

RJC

Steve in order to get the downshift blip you'll need and SMG type trans, so this is not a defect or problem with the MB trans. Rattles and poor fitment hopefully can be corrected by your delaership. With respect to the supercharger shut down; I asked all those that have participated in the AMG challages if any of the 55 kompressor cars had this problem especially after a full day of very hard running and the answer was no. So if you or anyone is having this problem it can and should be corrected. I agree LSD would make sense in this car. I don't want rapid gear changes unless I'm really on the power,as I prefer smooth imperceptible shifts during normal driving. I agree about the menu, it could be improved. We talked about the wheel it's weak, and the airbag cover should be in AMG leather. My only issues/complaints are as follows:

The car should have come with a rear lip spoiler standard.

The exhaust thud/resonance is annoying at times (a common E55 malady)

Car idles rough during cold start (a common E55 malady)

The leather on my drivers seat back side bolster won't stay in place and causes a nasty wrinkle no matter how carefullty I get in or out of the car. Dealer ordered new cover.

Got to give MB credit, as they added some nice touches for the 63, it would have been nice however if they gave the last of the E55's a special edition treatment with a few small and unique goodies for 06.