BostonC4S

Considering purchasing an '03 with 55K miles; original owner car, no accidents or body work. What should I be looking for as far as any concerns; transmission, suspension, electrical gremlins, etc. I understand that '03 was a model changeover but is this car "troublesome" or rock solid? Any aftermarket warranty info would be of interest. Thanks.

M-bENZ

Man I am looking for this type of car too...have u driven yet??? dude this car is freaking awsome if u ask me.....

Jakpro1

We've had some reports of electrical problems in the 03's but I am an 03 owner and proud to say pretty much flawless performance from her and I am harder on my cars than some. Not a beater but when I want her to perform I want it to get up and dance.

03's do NOT come with Nav although it can be retro fitted by Steve at MBenznl.com

Benz is always tweaking the model as they go along but nothing major.

Hardest part of buying a used 55 is you just don't know if the guy that owned it before you modded it or not. LOT of guys here pop off the mods and sell um or return on lease.

If you had a guy that had a larger pullley on er plus other mods, you would have a higher chance of engine/drivetrain issues down the line but no way to really tell anyway.

BostonC4S

Jakpro1 thank for the comments. Any idea how much it would cost to retro the Nav? Also, how many miles do you have on yours? Would you recommend an aftermarket warranty?

E55BKS

I have an 03' also with 40k on it, only elec. problem to date was the radio shut down and had to be updated. Dynoed 428 rwhp stock. Strong car. Selling for $32k if anyone is interested. New rear tires, warranty until 2010.

Blacksport350

I have an '03 and have a friend that owned 2 '03 E55's. We have not had any issues that were related to the '03 model year.

I bought my '03 knowing the differences between the model years and also being able to afford a newer car (before the bottom fell out of the market). I shopped for 6 months trying to find a perfect low mile car with tons of warranty coverage, every option but pano roof (don't like it) and keyless go, a multicolored interior, and a exterior color other than silver, black, or gold. One day a stumbled across my fully loaded (sans pano and keyless go) '03 in Techtite over Merlot and the search was over.

What I am getting at is you should shop for the car as there are plenty of pristine '03 cars that are highly optioned that are far nicer than other '06 cars running around. It all depends on who owned it.

The only downsides to an '03 (in my opinion) are that it uses the "old" transmission buss which is not a big deal as I have owned 2 other AMG's with the same system (C32 and SLK32). And that MOST '03 cars did not come with NAV which also didn't bother me as Mercedes NAV is not very good anyway.

I'm not sure about an extended warranty for an '03 car but there are cars that are still under CPO. For example, mine is covered under CPO to August of 2010 so cars with plenty of warranty still exist.

Have a GOOD dealer look it over for the usual E55 stuff. Signs of prior mods, tranny issues, suspension issues (airbags, shocks, balljoints), slipping belt on the S/C, brake wear on both pads and rotors (our cars like to go through brakes), tires, and the notorious leaking $0.99 O ring on the tranny that can turn into an $800 repair when the dealer breaks the plastic connector of the tranny valve body trying to get to it(I have seen this happen more than once).

Good luck!

BostonC4S

Techtite over merlot sounds pretty darn sweet! Do you run your E55 during the winter? If yes, do you go with a second set of wheels with snow tires? Sounds like a car with CPO is a must given the $0.99 O-ring type of issues. If something breaks, whatever it is, will be relatively expensive to fix; suspension, electronics, transmission, AC, etc. Thanks for the input!

zxlr88

I have an 03 with the nav. I am pretty sure Steve put it in for the first owner though. I would have no qualms over the 03s at all. Any E55 or E63 should have warranty though. These cars are just too expensive to fix otherwise. Replacing the intercooler pump and a couple minor odds and ends will put over $3k.

Blacksport350

I have Bridgestone LM25's in the stock size mounted on the OEM wheels which I also run in the summer(I have a top notch tire guy so the wheels don't get marked up). I mount these up so I can drive the car whenever I feel like it in the winter but I use my SUV so I don't have to muck it up when it is really bad. I also don't drive it on the highway during the winter months (I hate rock chips of any size) or in any truly nasty weather as while I am not worried about the car getting through it, I am worried about getting hit by some idiot.

Blacksport350

BTW, While I am not a fan of keyless go, the panorama roof, or factory NAV, I have EVERY other available option and use all of them. The Distronic cruise control, trunk closer, and Dynamic seats are especially fun toys. I am SL65 shopping and will have a hard time buying a car without these options.

rme55

Here's my 2 cents.

I've owned my '03 e55 since Dec 2005 (so three years). I bought the car from an MB dealer here in Denver with about 18,000 miles. The car ran great until about 35,000 miles then started to have the famed "electrical gremlins." There was about a 3 month period where the car was in the shop every 2-3 weeks. I'm not kidding you. Fortunately, they finally figured it out and replaced a bunch of key electrical parts under warranty, just before I hit 40,000.

Now that I don't have a warranty, I use an independent MB shop for service and maintenance. I currently have 47,000 on the car and it's been flawless for the past 7 months (knock on wood).

I'm planning on keeping the car for a while and starting to look into some mods.

Sure, there are more reliable cars, but I don't think anybody gets into one of these things just for the reliability.

DKM

I've owned my 03 for almost 3 yrs and its never given me a bit of trouble. I have 35k on mine and I use it as a weekend driver, so mine gets driven like 1-2 times a month. That being said..sometimes its harder on a car to have it sit.

Blacksport350

Sorry to hear that. However, I think it has more to do with Denver's MB service centers than anything else. I have been down the same road with other AMGs that sat at the dealers around here forever until someone could figure out the problem and the fix was almost always simple.

For future reference, what independent shop did you find that is good with the E55 and do they have Star?

rme55

You're probably right about the dealerships...

I've been going to Sttutgart MBZ in Broomfield. They are the new sister company to Bimmerhaus, a reputable independent BMW shop in the area. They've worked on my M3 track car for about 3 years.

So far, I've been pleased with "Guy" at Sttutgart. Very knowledgeable and professional.

http://www.bimmerhaus.com/stuttgart/index.html

PS, from your pic looks like you have an "M" as well.

Blacksport350

Thanks for the heads-up. Bimmerhaus is a great shop and I would imagine that anything Bob owns would be top notch. Time to check out Sttutgart!

I have had a bunch of M's but none at the moment. The one in the photo is the gill on my S54 M Roady which I replaced with an S54 M Coupe. Which I agreed to sell to a friend of mine at a party after having one too many (he had recently parked his into a large tree). I am thinking M5 or M6 as my next M so I can sample some V10 badness.

Point2Point

I took my E55 to Stuttgart MBZ for a Service A last week. I was happy with the service.

How many of us E55 owners are in the Denver area?

I'm also an ex-M owner. I had an '88 E30 M3 for five years from new. It was one of the best cars I ever owned - great handling, incredible steering and bags of character. My next M3, a '95 E36 felt pretty ordinary in comparison. The E36 had a strong torquey motor, but just lacked the "wired to the nervous system" responses of the E30.

Blacksport350

Sandoval had an '03 Presidents Edition but I am pretty sure he has recently sold it. He is the only other CO owner that I know.

Point2Point

I'd love to meet my fellow Denver area 55 owners once the weather gets nicer. MPRESIV is another 55 guy.

Blacksport350

I would love to meet up but hopefully by the time the weather gets nicer, I will be a 65 guy.

rme55

65AMGs are incredible. Test drove an SL65 earlier this year and WOW. Those things are crazy fast.

I'm down to meet up for a beer sometime when it warms up.

Maybe we can start a thread for the Denver area AMG guys to schedule a meetup.

Happy Holidays everyone.

rme55

Glad Sttutgart worked out for you. I'm confident that they'll keep my 03 running well even out of warranty.

E30 M3- a classic. My 95 M3 is set up for AX/Track with full race suspension and LTW enhancements, but I've heard it pales in comparison to the e30 m3 in terms of "feel." at least it's faster

Blacksport350

Now that this is an officially hijacked thread....we should do something to arrange a Denver meet but it would be fun to get more people.

Point2Point

I'm in for a Denver meet. I get back into town on January 3.

JBFMCAR

Good info would like to know more about the 03 Tranny Buss? vs the newer ones and what are the negatives about this.

Justin

Blacksport350

Nothing to worry about and also not really performance or reliability related. I also believe that the '03 55K AMG cars are the only ones with a true manual mode with the shift buttons disabled in all other modes. The '04+ software allows for down shifts using the wheel buttons in all modes (M, S, & C) which I am not a fan of as I either want auto or manual, not a hybrid. Also, it is easy to get tranny software with the newer buss but so few people do this that I can't imagine it would be an issue.