PeterUbers

The brake dust does suck... One trip after washing the car and they're black

geebee

You know, I (and many others) really like red in this car. Problem is, nobody at the dealers agrees w/me. Auction buyers claim NADA specifies colors for costing. According to them, the resell ranking is:

1) Black/black (please)
2) White/black
3) Black/beige
4) White/grey
5) Dark Grey/black
6) Dark Grey/grey
7) Silver/black
8) Silver/grey
9) Red/Black
10 Deep Blue/Tan - another fav of mine. That blue looks jet black at night, and sparkles slightly during day
11) Brown, other colors

the other color combos fall in place somewhere below this line

Bringing up the rear is Brown with any interior. Unfortunately, an Autotrader search shows 4 2014s in brown, 2 have been there for more than 6 months, the other 2 are private sellers. And since private sellers can rarely provide finance channels, they may take a further hit. Local GM says brown will drop $15k right off the top before they start running the numbers

I mean come on, brown isn't THAT bad

TTA850

I'm with you, the Brown is interesting and the two colors I was considering were Lunar Blue and Cardinal Red - both at the bottom of the list. I also think that it is going to be hard to recoup any of the money spent on the CCB and CF exterior package. Fortunately I lease and color is not a factor in residual value, in my case $70k (59%) after 3/36 - will it be worth that I don't know.

What I can say is regardless of color it is a phenominal car, I'm just about at 1k miles and so far the CCB have been great (no noise and good pedal feel) and the torque through the AWD is just intoxicating. Now if only I can make a decision on a tune…

ace10

Brown is Hunter Green from 15 years ago. Mark my words. If you want a brown car, lease it.

geebee

Most of the fights/arguments in the showroom are over lease returns IMHO. True, an unappealing factory paint job doesn't matter if it's a lease. But around here, a lot of MB lessee's ghetto out the cars, with $tens of thousands in 21" wheels, Lorenzer/Gucci interiors, mindless performance mods, exhaust hacks, stereo retrofits etc.

The GM told me that most of the time they're not making the lease payments anyway, having already spent the $$ on mods and such. One guy had 4-5 identities so he didn't care. Turned it in (actually they had to go get it), went to another dealer and got a new one and started the cycle again. Shame

sdg1871

Went with number 10 (lunar blue with designo light brown leather). Not sorry. I love blue and don't want a car that looks like most of the others. Zero lunar blue E63's available on Autotrader. Love it that way.

rory breaker

Good for you, the blue is great.

I'm with you on the tune decision. Leaning towards AMS or Renntech but the eurocharged deal is great.

sdg1871

Thanks. My process involved searching this and other forums to see feedback from customers of each tuner and problems reported as well. I also looked at comparo videos on YouTube for race results. I also looked at total power gain -- wanting the most.

That led me to AMS and Renntech. I went with Renntech due to the lack of complaints among its customers as compared with other tuners (AMS was also complaint free) and because of its decades of experience tuning AMGs and the company's close connection to AMG. But it was close between AMS and Renntech. I also visited Renntech's HQ/shop and met with their senior personnel. I was very impressed with them and their passion for engineering these mods.

Price was not a factor. This is $100k car. The difference between $1500 and $3500 for a tune at this price point is irrelevant to me. I wanted the best tune period regardless of price.

geebee

Thoroughly agree. I like the blue / beige combination so much I bought my E550 cab in the same combo. Its just a beautiful color but no one seems to appreciate it outside of us in this forum - and those that Ohhh at it

sdg1871

Yes my last two cars have been dark blue with light/medium brown leather (2009 BMW 550i and 2012 BMW 550xi).

rory breaker

It's not so much the price as much as the real tangible difference between the product itself and the associated outcome. If it doesn't exist, then why pay more.

Clearly you've done your homework here, so what tangible differences exist (beyond marketing BS and claims) between Renntech/AMS and Oe/euro charged/ETG/etc.

sdg1871

AMS and Renntech have the highest claimed power gains of the widely available tunes. Renntech is 701 Bhp and 839 lbs-ft and AMS is 700 Bhp and 830 lbs-ft. Renntech also has a reputation of being conservative in its power gain claims. The others' claimed power gains are less.

Also if you search forums, Renntech and AMS have few complaints from users of their tunes. Some of the others have quite a lot of complaints on the forums.

Renntech and AMS tuned E63s have been incredibly impressive at airport events and street races and drag strips. Many videos are up on YouTube of this. You will see Renntech cars crushing one of the other most popular tuners for AMGs.

And Renntech has been at this longer than anyone else in the AMG world and has close ties to AMG as the owner was an AMG engineer for many years in Affalterbach. And Mercedes often asks Renntech to make tuner cars for show such as the DJVan at SEMA.

You should also do your own independent research. Use the search function here and also check out the forum German Boost which focuses
on mods. And check out YouTube videos using the tuner names and car model as search terms. Wait till you see one of our members driving a lightly modded Renntech tuned with Rado downpipe E63 crushing an E63 with every Weistec mod available including the turbo upgrade. Watch the YouTube videos of Vasily who runs an E63 S with every available Renntech mod crushing everything on the road. Watch the videos of the E63 with the AMS tune crushing a 12C. Or the videos of the E63 with AMS tune doing 10 quarter miles in a row in 10.9 seconds.

dr. ss

vote for AMS. simply the best tune availabe.

I am Jeff

Congrats Steve! The color is definitely unique and will definitely stand out!

sdg1871

On the price issue, Renntech is now offering 10% on ECU tunes for the holidays. http://www.renntechmercedes.com/www/

That drops the price from $3495 to $3,145.50 -- $150 more than AMS. Again, when dealing with a $100K car I would not base a decision on which tuner to use on incremental differences in price.

ucla95

+1 - go with someone local if possible

sdg1871

Alas none of the major AMG tuners are based in the NYC area.

TTA850

Thanks Jeff - unfortunately it came in sooner than expected and i was unprepared with the C

It is unfortunate that no tuners are NYC based, I've still got some time to make up my mind as I want to baseline the car at the track - not much time left and the weather hasn't been cooperating. But after talking to a few people including sdg I'm leaning Renntech

Lenin

Renntech is what I'm hearing too from my trusted shop owner Harry from Bergen Imports in NJ.

rory breaker

I'm sure you have local tuners, they just may not resell the Renntech tune as an example. Likely ETG tune or some variation.

Also leaning Renntech as I can keep the warranty by going through a dealer.

abcut973

Whatever tuner you choose it will void your warranty if the cause of the issue is due to the tune. Having Renntech products sold by MB dealership does not guarantee coverage under factory warranty.
Nothing beats DINAN in this field unfortunately.

rory breaker

Well if the dealer changed their policy on that (I'll find out) then that's pretty lame but oh well, is what it is.

sdg1871

Correct. Except Installing Dinan mods will lead BMW to deny a warranty claim if it concludes that the Dinan mods caused the repair. BUT unlike any AMG tuner, Dinan provides its own warranty that matches the length of the BMW warranty and includes coverage for consequential damages from its mods. So in essence the Dinan warranty fills the gap in the BMW warranty that can result from its mods (I have several different Dinan mods installed on my soon to be turned in 2912 BMW 550xi so I researched this one extensively).

The only AMG tuner that offers any form of consequential damages warranty of which I am aware is the engine warranty by Eurocharged. That warranty, from what I understand is limited and does not match the factory warrsnty but is superior to what any of the other AMG tuners offer.

Frankly no AMG tuner has either the warranty, market power or level of dealer penetration in the MB world that Dinan has in the BMW world.

ace10

Dealers don't set factory warranty T&C's.

PeterUbers

Id be interested to see a list of warranty payouts in the last 5 to 10 years by eurocharged or other tuners that claims they have a warranty