I absolutely love this car. I traded my E500 sport for it. There is a noticeable difference in ride. My E500 had 18 inch wheels with 245 and 275 tires. The E55 feels much more planted. Also, small vibrations made it through in the old car. There are none of these in the new car. The E55 actually feels smoother. Overall, the E55 has a more substantial feel to it. It feels more expensive.

Obviously it's fast. The places it's most noticeable is off the line and on the highway. Half throttle will put the tires at the limit of traction off the line. Out on the highway even part throttle gets acceleration the E500 wasn't capable of. I only stepped on it once as I have mor break-in miles to go. It is tough to make seat of the pants comparisons, especially with different types of cars. The car is definitely not as fast as my Corvette, but considering the way that car will pull from a 996 Turbo, I would guess this car might actually beat the Porsche out on the highway.

Other notes and comparisons:

The car looks much more agressive than the sport models. The
lower stance, the ground effects and the tail pipes combine for a much more dramatic difference than pictures show.

The steering wheel is a bit smaller. Has more pronounced grip sections as well.

The guages are more noticeably different than in pictures. I was expecting the same guages but with "AMG" and "Kompressor" added. The numbers are different and give a more sporty look.

The alcantara headliner is beautiful. Makes the inside look richer.

The bolsters are not only much deeper, but fairly narrow as well. I am 6' and 195 LBS. The bolsters fit me properly. I would think someone more heavily set might find them uncomfortable.

The damned car pulls to the right worse than my 500 did when I got it. Doesn't anyone test these cars? No motor mount noise though

The brakes are much easier to modulate than on the 500. I don't know if something changed between Car and Drivers test and me receiving my car, but the modulation problems are gone. Maybe you could still say it is different from a traditional brake setup, but at best it is a little different and certainly not worth the attention they gave. In the 500 I got used to it after a couple of weeks. With this car I would have never noticed it.

The exhaust note is worth the price of admission. It is not real intrusive, but you always know it's there. I no longer hear the tire noise I could hear in the 500.

I took a couple of pics.

 

Thanks. Please keep us informed about how you like the car after the break in.

 

Pic 1

 

Engine

 

Very nice. What kind of tires did she come with?

 

congratulations on such a stunning machine. Black looks great. Looking forward to your review post break-in.

 

great writeup.
Which Corvete do you have? I assume you have the Z06, because the new E55 will have the others for lunch.
Can someone actually clarify how tall the E55 stands? CD mag, has listed it in two separate occasions as being 51.0 inches tall, when a regular E320 (211) is 56 inches. Can it be that the car was lowered a full five inches? The new SL has the exact same height, and I know that the E55 is taller than the SL.
I read the RT article as well, no numbered measurements, but the E drawing is clearly shown to be lower than the Jag, M5, and RS6. I'd be interested to hear from anyone about this.
By the way, the color in this car is phenomenal.

 

Thanks for the commentary, blocktrader.
Nice choice of colors.
Congrats.

 

All I can say is I wish you were going next week to Daytona. May you have many days of safe , fast, violation free use. The dealer here in WPB hasn't gotten one in yet and won't for another month. Do you have any idea how many people are on the waiting list at your dealership for a 2004?

 

Thanks for the writeup. I can't wait to hear more from you about your experiences with the car. I can't wait til you past the break in to tell us what the acceleration is like.

I read in one of the magazine articles that they were only able to shave off .1 seconds off the 0-60 with esp off because the engine just had so much torque that the ESP (for the most part) did as good of a job as their test driver. Many times, the driver would be slower because of too much wheel spin. I am just so anxious to hear people experience of this fantastic car.

amgB

 

Thanks for the great first impression and even more for the comparison between the E55 and the E500. I am hanging on every word you write as I am deciding between those very 2 models. Thanks again and I look forward to more posts from you!!

 

cant wait till i get mine, you got yours with now navi?

 

Aren't these engines broken in during the bench test?

 

Is your corvette modified otherwise E55 should be slightly faster.

 

I'm sorry, I thought I had posted that here, Corvette (C5) is modified plus supercharged and has over 520 RWHP, so probably about 100 more HP. Based on seat of the pants, I would say the E55 will edge out a Z06. I will find out soon as my cousin lives in the same neighborhood and has a Z06. I really like the supercharger choice. This car has great low end power. You would be hard pressed to tell this car is supercharged. I haven't noticed any whine.

I did hit a resonant frequncy with the exhaust on the freeway. it was kind of strange. Higher in pitch than would be expected. Almost like the tire was going over a strange groove or something. Keep in mind I'm really nit-picking here. To give perspective, the tire noise from new potenza S03's on my E500 was louder, and the 996 turbo I drove was a booming noise chamber in comparison. I thoought I would mention it in case someone noticed the same though.

Tires are Continental ContiSportContact 2, sizes 245/40 18 and 265/35 18, both with the MO designation.

I'm going to try to make it to Moroso two weeks from today. We will likely take both Vettes and the E55, so we'll see how it stacks up then. I suspect there will be a few impromptu races between the E55 and the Z06 as soon as the car is broken in though.

 

Very nice blocktrader... probably i should do the same thing huh? switch from e 500 to e 55? how much do you paid for the diff?
congrats

 

Congrats! Beautiful car.

Lease or buy?

 

Congratulations! How much out the door?

 

gorgeous looking car! tell me about the difference in ride. is the e55 more stiff? are there different settings than the e500?

 

Iam dying to know how the E55 stacks up against a Z06 from a roll....PLEASEPLEASE take your car to the track so I can see what type of 1/4 mile times and MPH to expect, magazine times mean nothing to me!! Enjoy my friend.
Jay

 

Glad to hear the comments about the brakes. Maybe Mercedes "fixed" them up a bit?
This car sounds like the ultimate driving machine!!!

 

Blocktrader, were the 265/40 in the back stock? I thought the sidewalls looked thinner at the auto show.

This is the most prolific thread I have seen in some itme! You really started something!

 

Oops! edited the post about tire size. Backs are 265/35.

Difference was about 30k. I ordered pretty much everything but the phone(as a matter of principle) and the distronic. No lease, I paid cash, so I can't help much with payment info.

I haven't spent any time with the suspension settings. It has the same 3 way swith as the 500. I had it on the middle setting. This setting feels similar in spring stiffness to the 500's middle setting, but with more shock damping. I will report back on this after more time with the car.

Total was almost 90K. I'll post sticker info later.

 

I have a good question....when you lock and un-lock the doors, are they silent or do they make any noise?? My '99 CLK430 had silent locks. Couldn't hear anything when they moved up or down. But my '99 Ml430 has these locks that make a loud noise when locking or unlocking. Sounds like a clunking noise! Please tell me the E55 has quiet locks!!!

Also....whats the deal with all this pulling to the right?? Are you getting it fixed??
Thanks

 

Hey Blocktrader, please keep me posted about your trip to Moroso because I'd like to attend. I live in PB Gardens not too far away. Are you going to go during the day or at night?