My CTS-V lease is coming to an end. Due to a growing family I no longer want extravagant monthly car payments, and I am over expensive new cars. So in the next few months I will be in the market for a used one. I never loved the E43 when it first came out, I even made fun of it, but now I think that it just may be enough to get around the city in. Yes I know, the E53 is better, and the E63 is the best, but those are not an option right now.

What are some of the must have options or packages that I should be looking for in E43?

OR... should I forget the E43 and look for a solid G30 M550i instead? TIA

 

Is the E43 in the price range of the M550i? If so, you owe it to go drive both and see for yourself. If you’re trying to be responsible fiscally, then you definitely can not afford buyer’s remorse even on a second hand one. To me, and on paper the BMW seems more appealing with a bigger engine and more power.

I’d say look for a CPO one whether it’s the Benz or the Bimmer. Now for the E43; If you drive in the city a lot, one with adaptive cruise would be nice. Plus it would include all the safety features you’d want in a kid hauler. I think that the one must have option if I was looking for one. That and rear seat airbag of course. It’s an additional airbag for the rear seat passengers. The E53 you can spec a sports exhaust, not sure if that was an option in the E43, if so it would be nice.

Good luck.

 

I have driven both. E43 has a better interior and handles better as well, the M550i has better acceleration and has an exterior with stronger presence IMHO. Honestly, I think I'd be happy with either one certified as long as the color, options, and price are right. M550i needs a Dynamic Handling package, which could make it a harder vehicle to find, but getting 600HP out of it with Dinan through a dealer may just be worth it.

 

What is your price range and how old/used? I was recently looking at low mile 2018 and 2019 M550ix, and ended up buying an untitled/new title 2019 AMG E53 Cabriolet with a few thousand miles that had been driven by a Mercedes exec. The price was basically the same. I would think a used E43 would be $10-20K less than a used 2019 E53 or a used 2018 M550ix.

Possible options to look for:

(1) Heated or heater and ventilated seats (unless you live somewhere with 4 seasons of constant 72 degree weather).
(2) Massaging seats if you want them.
(3) Driver Assistance Package: Active Distance Assist DISTRONIC® $2,250 which includes the following:
-Speedlimit Assist
-Speed Limit Assist
-Steering Assist for driver's assistance package DISTRONIC PLUS (with PRE-SAFE Brake) Driver Assistance Package code
-Route Based Speed Action
-LED lighting

 

I couldn't get out of our '18 M550i fast enough. Here's my $.02
After saying that let me say this. For the money the M550i is a better performer. The E43 is more refined though. We went with the M550i strictly for the performance when we purchased ours and couldn't see paying that much for a V6 MB (the E63 was held up at the port for ever and we got tired of waiting). But after have several problems with the BMW and having switched to a different brand, we wanted back in an MB. The BMW was great when you wanted to drive fasr or zip around town but it did not do luxury well in our opinion. For example, the seat controls are in a hard to reach place. The seat memory controls are below the line of sight when trying to control it from the outside before entering the vehicle (when switching drivers). The adaptive cruise in the BMW is more agressive. It bounces back and forth between the lines a lot more and is a lot hard to over come it if you change lanes without using a signal. The suuround cameras are not as precise as those in the MB (altough our '19 E63 is worse than my '16 GLE400 and I don't know what the E43 uses precisely) and the turning radius seems to be a lot worse. Those are just a few examples of how the BMW is not an easy DD.
Now some of the other things we did not like about the E43 when we looked at them. It sounds horrible! No seriously, it sounds like a bee buzzing in your ear when you press the skinny pedal. We also test drove several different ones over time and the all had a lot of noise coming from the rear and trunk area during the test drive. The E43 does not have a touch screen, the system is harder to navigate, and does not support wireless carplay (although we never used carplay in the BMW becuse the regular system was just as good). For the money, the E43 is still a V6.
Strickly for preformance (and excluding all the problems we had with ours) the M550i is a good buy. I have explained it this way to a few people that have asked me. BMW makes a fast car that they try to make into a luxury car. Mercedes makes a luxury car that they made in a fast car. If this is a DD and you've owned MB in the past, I'd go for the E43.

As for must have options: I love our adative cruise, acustic package, night package, lighting package, and dual screens (I think the dual screens are an option in the E43).

Ok, I'm off my soapbox and back to my beer. Good luck.

 

Funny because I was going to get a CPO CTS-V and ended up with a 2018 E43 in January at a huge discount because of the E53 pushing it aside. I had a Challenger SRT and I miss the exhaust and brutal power.

PII is a must have because it gets you all the basic goodies. PIII gets you all the bells and whistles including the adaptive cruise. If the car is used/CPO you can get these options at a pretty good discount. I like the pano sunroof much more than I thought I would.The acoustic package is meh and makes it hard for prox card parking cards to register unless you stick the card in a couple of small areas on the windshield, I'd pass on that if I were to do it again.
On thing I wish i did NOT have is the 20" wheels. Ive already bent one and ruined two tires in 5000 miles and the car rides pretty cr@ppy. Make sure you go for a test drive if the car has the optional 20"s!
Good luck!

 

Thank you guys for the feedback! After a few test drives the M550i (fast but no passion) was just not doing it for me and neither was the E43 (slow when not wound out, laggy, twitchy, and did not sound good). I did like the E53, and LOVED the GLC63. Hopefully I can find a way to move to either one of those. I'll wait to see what happens in the 1st Q of 2020 with pricing.