Picked the car up on Wednesday afternoon. Tectite ext/Charcoal int. Options are phone, parktronic, active vent. seats, tire press. and CD. Total price was $83,880 plus tax. I bought it (traded in my CLK 430 cab).

Here are my initial impressions:

First, as everyone else has said, this car is a rocket. I had no ability to wait 1000 miles (I also eat all the french fries out of the bag before I get home). Driving on country roads, when you pull out to pass a slow moving vehicle, you hit the gas and you are just gone, and I mean gone. Its amazing. On the highway, 100 mph + feels like 50 to 60 mph. The car is rock solid.

Second, I have a slight steering wheel shimmy at higher speeds (that then disappears at even higher -- 80 mph plus -- speeds) and a slight drift to the right. I'm going to take it to the dealer soon to check tires/alignment. Other than that, no problems for all of the 250 miles I have driven. Well, maybe one other minor nit. The darn passenger seat makes a little rattle noise when it is unoccupied (which is the vast majority of the time for me). I thinks its at the headrest. So far, tire pressure monitor works well. 40 psi at all four corners -- no false alarms yet.

Third, love the interior. The seats are fantastic. Love the active ventilation. I highly recommend it for the $650. Kind of wish I had tried the drive dynamic just so I could have the pulse feature. The side bolsters of the seats are not too tight (I was a little worried after reading some of the posts on that topic) they hug your sides perfectly. And nothing better than the smell of that new MB leather.

Also, the black birdseye looks better on this car than on my CLK. I think its the small chrome strip that separates the wood from the dash that breaks up the "all black" look that makes it look better. I no longer regret not ordering burl but I think burl looks great too.

Dash looks great, particularly at night. I'm having a dilemma with installing my K40 radar detector. On the CLK, the black dash hid the two small warning LEDs, and you could not really tell that the dash had been drilled to install them. The only time you really saw them was when they were lit. I'm afraid that the same will not be true with this dash. I really want to put the K40 in, as I hate having a radar detector in the window (I bought a Solo S2 to have until I got the built-in detector re-installed in the new car). But, at the same time, I don't want to mess up the dash. Any thoughts, comments, etc. on that issue?

Fifth, my review of the "gadget" options is positive. As I said above, the active ventilated seats are a nice feature and definitely keep you from sticking to the seat on a hot day, or at least significanlty diminish the amount of sticking that occurs. Parktronic, in my opinion, works great. The indicators are inconspicuous and the warning comes on at exactly the right time both when pulling into the garage at home and the parking garage at work. Guess I can take the tennis ball on a string down. And so far tire pressure monitoring is working, although I'm still skeptical about that one.

Sixth, the HK stereo in nice but I'm not overly impressed with the sound. Maybe I need to adjust the different levels. I wish that you could could boost it a little with aftermarket but those that I've talked to say its very difficult without starting from scratch.

Finally, overall the car looks great. Lots on comments both on the car itself and the color. I don't think you can miss with any of the available colors but I really like the Tectite.

Anyone have any thoughts on polishing the exhaust tips? Mine are already a little black (maybe my punishment for not waiting the 1000 miles).

That's it for now I guess. Sorry no pictures yet but I'll try soon.

 

Congrats and good luck. I've had mine 2 months and love it.

To keep the chrome tips looking great, I wipe them down with a damp paper towel after each time it's washed. The bottom edges tend to discolor a bit after a months or so, so I use some P21S Multi-Surface Finish Restorer Polish (got it at http://www.carcareonline.com/detail....oduct_id=10417), and they look like new.

I also ordered RejeX (http://www.corrosionx.com/rejex.html) which has gotten rave reviews on one of the Porsche boards. Supposed to make cleaning alot easier (I plan to use it on the exhaust tips and wheels).

Now, let's see some pix!!

 

Damn, everytime someone posts one of these type posts drives me crazy! Makes waiting for delievry that much tougher!

Congrats!

 

If your car is pulling to the right, check the pulling to the right tread. There is a lot useful information there.

 

Norb, sorry because I know how hard that wait was. All I can say is that it is worth in more than you can even know. Hang in there.

Chip, thanks. I have seen the pulling to the right posts and hope mine is not as bad and that some alignment adjustments will cure it. I think most people might not even notice but I'm finding that I'm very picky when it comes to these things.

 

Congratulations! Do the ventilated seats have the perforations or are they smooth? I like the look of the smooth (no holes) but I'm hearing good things about the ventilated seats. I still have time to change my order.

For a concealed radar detector, try these guys. They put a V1 in the rear view mirror.

http://www.ultrasmith.com/

 

I have the ventilated seats, and the leather in the center parts of the back and bottom of the seats are perforated. The rear seats are the same (and not ventilated), so I suspect all the E55 seats have perforated leather in the center sections that are nubuck, whether you have ventilated seats or not. My '02 Carrera also had perforated leather, but no ventilated seats.

I highly recommend the ventilated seats. Even in the SF bay area, where it doesn't get overly hot and humid, I use them alot when wearing shorts, and they work great.

I guess when it comes time to Lexol them, I'll have to be careful not to apply it too liberally.

 

Thanks for the info. I guess that Nappa leather is the one without perforations. Is it possible to get seats without perforations with or without ventilation?

 

depending on the car, sometimes nappa has holes and sometimes not.

in the 03 S-class, nappa is solid. in the CL, the center panels have holes.

so on some cars with nappa,, the ventilated seats are *not* available

 

The '03 E55 has nappa leather seats with perforated nubuck center panels. From the MBUSA website (http://www.mbusa.com/brand/container...E55&class=03_E):

AMG-design two-tone leather upholstery featuring soft sanded Nubuck leather for perforated seat center panels and door trim inserts.

 

I saw that too and I thought the W210 model was the same but my W210 has the Nappa in the center panels.

Maybe I'm just confused.

 

I've been using regular chrome polish (pretty generic stuff from generic auto parts store) on my chrome tips all along and they look brand new with only about 30 seconds of polishing every couple weeks.