thtguy

Just wanted to see what if any valuation hit a Canadian market E63 should have, being sold in the US, compared to built for US model. What are the differences I should look at? It has a MPH speedo and ODO. All temp readings for engine, as well as the AC controls are in Celsius. It has the rare rear seat climate zone.
Thanks

GinDistiller

While my E63 is a US car, our GL63 AMG was a Canadian import and when we picked it up a year or two ago there was no valuation difference to the US cars, and we looked at a couple. AC knobs are the only things different, engine temp display is in Celsius on US cars as well and the digital reading in the AMG menu that includes oil temp etc either can be changed in the settings menu or may already have been programmed to default to F when it was brought into the states. There shouldn't be any other differences that I know of, I know different markets received the 4matic and 2wd versions of the 2014 and newer model years (US only got 4matic) but in a 2013 I think it's all the same.

When pulling a history report, you'll need to check if Carfax etc readjusted service mileage readings to convert km to miles, but that shouldn't matter too much, just helps when figuring out certain service due dates.

One thing I was told with our GL63 - when I took it into the dealer for some wheel work, they ran the VIN and found it had some small recall about the airbag system that didn't affect safety and wasn't recalled in the US because our standards are a little different. The kicker is that if we wanted it done, it would have to go back to a Canadian dealer to do it, but the dealer here said not to bother, it sounded somewhat common and that particular service manager is trustworthy from my experiences with him.

Yakatak

Be aware that USA Carfax and Canadian Carfax are separate entities. I bought my Canadian wagon with a "clean" Carfax report. The Canadian Carfax report I obtained, after purchase, told a quite different story.

thtguy

Ok bought a Canadian Carfax and US Carfax reporting same info.

One other thing, that I guess I can get used to. the physical Speedometer reads between 5 and 15 mph lower than the digital speed display, which compared to GPS speed, the digital is spot on.
Is there a way to recalibrate, with say DAS or something?

Jeff

billvp218

The physical speedometer was perhaps an aftermarket replacement job. Sometimes these importer companies have a place that makes copies of the speedo with a kmph to mph conversion, and they may have miscalibrated where the particular values were supposed to be. The indicator will be in the right spot, it's just the values are not in the right spot.

Tell them you want it redone.

thtguy

I bought the car, it was swapped with a new from dealer analog speedo, and from what I can tell, by the paperwork, Mercedes did the conversion. I need to take to the dealer, and see if there is any calibration they can do, I just currently make sure the Large digital display is showing to know my real speed. I would love to see if the Climate control temps can be changed to Fahrenheit, I believe it might need to be replaced with a USA unit, and this car has the rear 3rd zone that reads in Celsius as well

thtguy

So observations of this car, it is highly optioned, from what I can tell the only things it doesn't have are, distronic plus, surround view camera, and night vision. It has some options not available in US, from what I can tell folding side mirrors wasn't available until after the facelift. But this car has it. Also have never seen a US spec car with rear seat climate control. I have seen rear seat heaters but rarely. This one has it. Now I just need to get speedo calibrated, and switch temps for climate control and exterior temp to F from C.
One modification it has... The previous owner is a pilot, he replaced the intake tubes that always deteriorate, with some intake tubes from a turbo continental. Much more heavy duty.

billvp218

As seen in the attachment above, the Canadian and U.S. speedos are set up differently. For example, the vertical line is at 160kmph in the Canadian version, which is slightly under 100 mph, but the same spot in the U.S. version is only 80mph.

If they just overlaid U.S. speedo markings on top of the Canadian setup (or maybe connected a U.S. gauge), then that is the cause of the differences - this sounds about like the difference that you are seeing. Up to an indicated 120mph, if you take your mph shown and multiply by 2 (to get the kmph from the Canadian speedo spot), then divide it by 1.6 (approx km to mile ratio), that is the actual speed ... in other words, your speed is 25% above whatever it's showing. This is obviously a serious problem that the dealer should address.

The large digital speedo takes what it knows the speed to be (what it would be if the kmph analog speedo was still there) and translates it to mph. Personally, I always have my car on the digital speedo, and don't pay any attention to the other. Because of that, I'd try to get some $$ from the dealer due to the shoddy conversion and then just ignore it, but that's my own preferences.

I'd also be kind of worried that if they did some kind of adjustment, it would end up with the large digital speedo being off. What seems like the simplest/cheapest thing to do is just make a new custom speedo insert with markings that have 100mph at the top vertical, etc. I assume that's what my car has now (also a Canadian import), when it originally had the Canadian kmph speedo when I first looked at it and asked the company to convert to a mph speedo ... and now it has 100mph at the vertical.

cotmfk

Has anyone bought a Canadian car that was still in Canada?

If so, what were the import fees, paperwork, and US registration like?

I'm trying to see if the perceived price differences between Canadian and US cars would actually be worth the headache and hidden costs to bring over.

thtguy

I didn't buy from a dealer it was a private party, he bought it from a dealer in Illinois back in 2016. So not much recourse from a "dealer" and the speedo issue was a disclosure.
I think I got a pretty good deal, I am not complaining, and I am getting used to the digital speedo, but would like the primary ring to read accurate.