OldskoolRS
Active Member
Hi, I'm new on here so I hope I'm OK to start a post in this section. 
I recently took early retirement having had a company car for many years, including most recently a 65 plate C220d Estate and then a 68 plate C220d Saloon, both AMG Line spec and autos. My wife had a 2011 SLK 250 Petrol so we decided that now we're both retired we would trade in the SLK and share a car. She wasn't particularly bothered what car, so I had free range to look at various options, of course it wasn't long before I was looking at another C Class.
We collected it yesterday, after a hot roof down last drive in the SLK to trade it in (I'd have preferred to buy and sell privately, but it just didn't work out). We'd gone over it very carefully a few days before and no signs of any overspray or any deep scratches (just a couple that will wet sand/machine polish out based on the SLK getting a few over the years). It's light metallic blue, so slightly different from my last 68 plate one which was more of a pure silver.
After our test drive last week:

Interior pictures from dealer's advert. It has the satin wood effect trim that is easier to keep looking good than the gloss black my 65 plate had. I don't think it's standard on the 2016 model as most had gloss black that I saw, so I guess we stuck lucky.

While it looks good in the photos, I knew I'd find plenty to clean up and get it really up to as close to a new car feel as I can. Yesterday afternoon was a hoover, then a deep clean of the seats, door cards, dash , etc. They'd sprayed some kind of cleaner and let it dry so all the silver trim had water marks on: A good clean with some Autoglym Fast glass sorted that out. I'd kept a set of AMG floor mats from my first 65 plate estate (it went back with lease company mats) as I planed to use them in the 68 plate assuming that it wouldn't come with them, but it did so I'd put these away and forgotten about them until we bought this car without any mats. They got a really good clean with APC, rinsed off and then left to dry on the rotary clothes line on a very hot day...came out like new with just a tiny mark where my right heel rests.

Today I started the exterior: I took the front and rear NS wheels off, cleaned the arches with Surfex HD and brush, then a strong snow foam solution and pressure washed off. I cleaned the arch edges and lower bumper with panel wipe to remove tar spots too. The front wheel was the worst (as expected):

Came up well with a mix of some old Wolfs deironiser and some Bilberry wheel clean, followed by more panel wipe to remove tar spots and a clay bar to get the last bits. A quick go with some polish and then sealed with Poorboys wheel sealant: I'm just using up stuff I already have rather than buying more, though I'm sure some newer things are popular now it's a waste otherwise.

Rear was similar, though I removed some old balance weight glue residue while I was at it:


Back on the car, the metallic paint on the spokes really seemed to glitter in the sun, though the suspension hadn't settled properly in this shot, so looks a little odd:


I made a start trying to remove some staining on the 'chrome' trim: Looks like signs of a harsh traffic film remover/cleaner has been left to dry on it. It won't wash off, but a mild polish (Poorboys again SSR 2 I think) does take it off. The lower window trim has been done in this picture, the vertical bit is as found:

If it's not too hot tomorrow I'm going to repeat on the driver's side wheels and arches. I'll carry on with the chrome trim too as I got the grille and front spoiler done today. Slowly work my way around the car until I've cleaned/deconned it and done a 2 stage machine polish, including wet sanding a few light scratches I've found if the polisher doesn't remove them. I might try putting a ceramic coat of sealant on it once polished; I never seemed to manage a long life of beading on the SLK even after good prep and polishing on the roof and bonnet, but could have been due to the microblistering paint rather than my choice of wax.
Also the small matter of a service too (engine oil and filter, plus the automatic gearbox as it's at 31,000 miles now), on the plus side the brake pads have got loads of material left, the tyres are good (rears brand new Avons) and my code reader didn't throw up any errors: Might need an auxiliary battery as the stop start isn't working even after the 40 miles drive home yesterday. It was effectively a 'trade sale' so the price was well under what I'd have paid and I plan to service it myself as we expect to keep it a long time, so don't care about MBSH (not that I rate it much anyway having taken my company car to the main dealer over the last 8 years).
I got 42mpg on the first drive too; not bad for a 2 litre automatic, though being retired and a Grandad I guess I drive slower these days.

I recently took early retirement having had a company car for many years, including most recently a 65 plate C220d Estate and then a 68 plate C220d Saloon, both AMG Line spec and autos. My wife had a 2011 SLK 250 Petrol so we decided that now we're both retired we would trade in the SLK and share a car. She wasn't particularly bothered what car, so I had free range to look at various options, of course it wasn't long before I was looking at another C Class.

We collected it yesterday, after a hot roof down last drive in the SLK to trade it in (I'd have preferred to buy and sell privately, but it just didn't work out). We'd gone over it very carefully a few days before and no signs of any overspray or any deep scratches (just a couple that will wet sand/machine polish out based on the SLK getting a few over the years). It's light metallic blue, so slightly different from my last 68 plate one which was more of a pure silver.
After our test drive last week:

Interior pictures from dealer's advert. It has the satin wood effect trim that is easier to keep looking good than the gloss black my 65 plate had. I don't think it's standard on the 2016 model as most had gloss black that I saw, so I guess we stuck lucky.

While it looks good in the photos, I knew I'd find plenty to clean up and get it really up to as close to a new car feel as I can. Yesterday afternoon was a hoover, then a deep clean of the seats, door cards, dash , etc. They'd sprayed some kind of cleaner and let it dry so all the silver trim had water marks on: A good clean with some Autoglym Fast glass sorted that out. I'd kept a set of AMG floor mats from my first 65 plate estate (it went back with lease company mats) as I planed to use them in the 68 plate assuming that it wouldn't come with them, but it did so I'd put these away and forgotten about them until we bought this car without any mats. They got a really good clean with APC, rinsed off and then left to dry on the rotary clothes line on a very hot day...came out like new with just a tiny mark where my right heel rests.

Today I started the exterior: I took the front and rear NS wheels off, cleaned the arches with Surfex HD and brush, then a strong snow foam solution and pressure washed off. I cleaned the arch edges and lower bumper with panel wipe to remove tar spots too. The front wheel was the worst (as expected):

Came up well with a mix of some old Wolfs deironiser and some Bilberry wheel clean, followed by more panel wipe to remove tar spots and a clay bar to get the last bits. A quick go with some polish and then sealed with Poorboys wheel sealant: I'm just using up stuff I already have rather than buying more, though I'm sure some newer things are popular now it's a waste otherwise.

Rear was similar, though I removed some old balance weight glue residue while I was at it:


Back on the car, the metallic paint on the spokes really seemed to glitter in the sun, though the suspension hadn't settled properly in this shot, so looks a little odd:


I made a start trying to remove some staining on the 'chrome' trim: Looks like signs of a harsh traffic film remover/cleaner has been left to dry on it. It won't wash off, but a mild polish (Poorboys again SSR 2 I think) does take it off. The lower window trim has been done in this picture, the vertical bit is as found:

If it's not too hot tomorrow I'm going to repeat on the driver's side wheels and arches. I'll carry on with the chrome trim too as I got the grille and front spoiler done today. Slowly work my way around the car until I've cleaned/deconned it and done a 2 stage machine polish, including wet sanding a few light scratches I've found if the polisher doesn't remove them. I might try putting a ceramic coat of sealant on it once polished; I never seemed to manage a long life of beading on the SLK even after good prep and polishing on the roof and bonnet, but could have been due to the microblistering paint rather than my choice of wax.
Also the small matter of a service too (engine oil and filter, plus the automatic gearbox as it's at 31,000 miles now), on the plus side the brake pads have got loads of material left, the tyres are good (rears brand new Avons) and my code reader didn't throw up any errors: Might need an auxiliary battery as the stop start isn't working even after the 40 miles drive home yesterday. It was effectively a 'trade sale' so the price was well under what I'd have paid and I plan to service it myself as we expect to keep it a long time, so don't care about MBSH (not that I rate it much anyway having taken my company car to the main dealer over the last 8 years).
I got 42mpg on the first drive too; not bad for a 2 litre automatic, though being retired and a Grandad I guess I drive slower these days.

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