Back into a Benz

[rayaans]

Hi guys,

Im back - didnt take long did it? Some of you may remember I had a Merc C180 Coupe pictured below.

Anyway, it was getting to around 77k miles and Id had it for two years so I fancied a change so went and bought myself a Jag XE-S 6 months ago.....

Now initial experience was fantastic. The car drives oh so bloody well and rides great despite being on 20" wheels. It was much quieter than the W204 I had at speed, better handling and more comfortable, as well as being more practical. The V6 was creamy and screams....... the spec was huge, heated seats, heated steering wheels, heated windscreen, memory seats, spare wheel etc etc etc

And then......

Things started going wrong.....

1) Headlight washer sensor £55 fitted. 2) Left headlight conked out £1500 quoted to replace but found a second hand one for £577 fitted. 3) rear diff leaking oil £700 for a seal as the whole thing needs to come out. 4) Rattles in the doors and speakers, rectified by myself with a lot of sound deadening material. 5) Ive been working since Lockdown started in March 2020 doing 250 miles a week so barely get any time to sort these issues out

Along with everything else that I had to have including a service at £400, air con service at £200 (the compressors on these are known to die if not done), rear tyres £400, its been a bit of a spending spree in the last 6 months.

So what started as a love story ended up as a horror story. The other half had enough. Im spending more on the Jaaaag than her, bla bla bla. Anyway, its been traded in for a Mercedes C200 Premium pack with about 26k miles on the clock and 2 years free servicing. Took a bit of a hit trade in wise but atleast I can sleep better at night.......

More pics to follow on collection (i dont actually know when that is yet)

 

[Sweetooth]

Hi and welcome back

 

[SarahAnn200]

Lovely looking xe. I had a 17 reg rsport from new in firenze red but it was only the 180 bhp so a bit slow. It was one of the nicest cars to drive I've ever had. Traded it for a c250d.
I'd have had another xe but it was just a bit too wide for my garage.
The 2 free merc services is great isn't it. I've just got the same deal
What colour merc did you go for? I just traded a cupra estate 300 bhp that I only kept for 3 weeks for a c300.

 

[rayaans]

Lovely looking xe. I had a 17 reg rsport from new in firenze red but it was only the 180 bhp so a bit slow. It was one of the nicest cars to drive I've ever had. Traded it for a c250d.
I'd have had another xe but it was just a bit too wide for my garage.
The 2 free merc services is great isn't it. I've just got the same deal
What colour merc did you go for? I just traded a cupra estate 300 bhp that I only kept for 3 weeks for a c300.

The Jag is an amazing drive to be fair. It just feels very fluid. The problem Jag have with the XE is the build quality and unfortunately their reliability is still poor. I've had more things go wrong with the XE than all my car's combined!

I went for the Hyacinth red. The Jag XE-S was my dream attainable car. Unfortunately it became a horrible experience owning it waiting for the next thing to go wrong.

The C200 "only" has 184hp but a remap will quickly sort that out!

 

[GeeJayW]

Hyacinth

 

[SarahAnn200]

Lovely colour

 

[rayaans]

So Ive just ran an insurance quote for the C200. It's £146 more for the year in comparison to the XE. Not really logical as the XE has 340hp and is a V6! £835 for a 25 year old in a 3l Jag was a steal I suppose.

But hey the Merc will be cheaper in VED so it's all the same overall.

 

[SarahAnn200]

My renewal came today. It's £191 for the year on the C300 but I'm nearly double your age. It will work itself out as you get older. One of the good things about getting older

 

[rayaans]

Apologies, just been busy on night shifts this week
Picked up the car from Mercedes Newcastle and Part ex'ed the Jag

Quick pics day after collection:

The vehicle has obviously been well looked after being a 1 owner and running only 26k miles since new. The paintwork was in decent nick. Had some obvious light scratches on the rear bumper which I would have thought MB Newcastle would have sorted out as they only needed a quick hand polish with some Sonax EX-04-06 to sort out.

Otherwise the sale was effortless although they tried pushing PCP and GAP insurance on me quite hard and the only issue I have post collection is that the keyless start button was missing. The salesman has since said he'll send one out. I dont expect to get it so will be pleasantly surprised if it turns up.

Initial impressions quite good - the build quality is better than the Jag XE. It feels solidly put together albeit there is a squeak from the sunroof which I had with my previous C-Class. Ill get on top of that when I get chance.

Its a smooth drive with one problem! Previous owner decided itd be a good idea to put RF tyres on it. So its smooth until you get to any kind of pothole or undulation and it thumps inside with more force than one would expect.

Clearly, its no match performance wise compared to the Jag and the throttle response isnt there unless leaving it in Sport+ mode. Essentially, Ive ended up configuring the "individual" drive mode setting to comfort steering and sport+ drivetrain.

So far, Ive managed to buy a 2020/21 SD card from ebay for the Garmin Satnav. Loaded it up yesterday and works beautifully with lifetime traffic subscription. I realise its probably a knock off albeit listed as Genuine, but it works so im not complaining. Looks much less like a gameboy now!

Few things I have lined up -

1) Debadge bootlid - I think it looks a bit unbalanced as the lettering is just on one side
2) Door card projector lights - I think Ill go for front only on this one otherwise it might be a bit too much.
3) Full wash/decon/polish and finish off with a lite ceramic coating. Gyeon Cancoat is the one I like

 

[SarahAnn200]

Lovely colour. Really nice. There were 2 that colour when I bought mine but they were diesel and I wanted a petrol. I've just bought the saloon after having a number of estates.

 

[rayaans]

Managed to do a few things recently. Got the dashcam fitted and the sunroof squeak sorted.

Initially I wanted to piggyback the dashcam to the driver side dash fuse box but unfortunately there wasnt much space for the piggyback. Instead ended up routing it to the back of the car and using a spare ignition switched fuse in the boot.

 

[rayaans]

I also got around to debadging the rear. I think it just looks a bit awkward to have lettering on one side and not the other, not to mention its easy to clean and polish. Just needed warming up with a hairdryer and a bit of dental floss to saw the letters off the glue. Finally a lot of tar/glue remover and rinse down followed by a spot polish on that area.

 

[rayaans]

Ive received the new projector lights. They are from China but they're a very high quality item. Not the cheap £20 ebay ones you get. These are about £60 for the pair delivered to the UK and as you can see have huge aluminium heat sinks to dissipate the heat generated.

Anyways, ordered on Sunday, arrived today so very quick but it seemed like I was opening the packaging forever!

 

[SarahAnn200]

It looks great. Regarding the dash cam. I usually run the cable from the camera, along the top and inside the rubber strip at the top of the doors and into the 12v socket in the boot. I was surprised when the saloon didnt have a 12v socket in the boot (I can't find it anyway) so I just have it temporarily plugged into the front 12v socket but I need to sort it sometime as it's not ideal at the moment running it down to the glovebox and along to the 12v.
I do like your colour

 

[rayaans]

It looks great. Regarding the dash cam. I usually run the cable from the camera, along the top and inside the rubber strip at the top of the doors and into the 12v socket in the boot. I was surprised when the saloon didnt have a 12v socket in the boot (I can't find it anyway) so I just have it temporarily plugged into the front 12v socket but I need to sort it sometime as it's not ideal at the moment running it down to the glovebox and along to the 12v.
I do like your colour

I prefer to wire it in with a piggyback usually. Its very easy to do. The method is the same as yours, you just need a hardwiring kit - I bought mine off amazon and it has multiple fuse sizes and connectors. It just plugs into the switched fuses on the left (pink) or if you want it on permanently, into the right (purple) fuses. Just use any as most of them will be spares anyway.

 

[rayaans]

Got the projector lights in. Will get a pic in the evening of it too but heres a teaser. The drivers door was easy. The passenger side door was a bit harder as the wire was a bit short so needed some pulling to get it out of the clips that its held into.

 

[Connoisseur]

Run flat tyres standard on W205 18” 5 spokes.