Hi Gavin! Thanks I really appreciate that.
I’m going to source petrol stations near me that do 98-99 Ron. Tyres I’m going to leave on for a bit then when I can I’ll change them to all round better performance ect. With the plan I’ll be covered for any parts ect for servicing and mot ect, Oran just the breaks tyres ect that obviously I have to pay for which is with most ads anyway. I’m not bothered about deprication as it’s my dream car so I want to keep it for a while, even after like 5 years he mileage on it will still be less than 50k miles if that.My running costs are pretty similar to AlexM's too. Just totted it up and I've driven just over 56k miles in a Biturbo E63 since April 2014 and every one of those miles has been enjoyable.
I run mine on Momentum 99 pretty much exclusively, partly because I have to detour off my usual route to get V-Power, and partly because I object to Shell's premium pricing (ludicrous, admittedly, in the whole scheme of E63 ownership). Even when I've run successive tanks of V-Power my bum-dyno has detected no difference in performance to running Momentum, and mpg is no different either. So I save around £8 a fill and amass ClubCard points at a pleasing rate that gives me a couple of free Eurotunnel crossings a year
For tyres, I've run Pirelli P-Zeros, Conti 5P's and Goodyear Asymmetric 3's and of the three I reckon the Goodyear's give the best overall performance, with the Conti's a close second and, if you take cold & wet weather conditions into account, the Pirelli's are a distant third.
The M157 engine does use a bit of oil, but as others have said it gives you a warning in the instrument cluster if it needs topping up. Be aware that the warning will often only appear during sustained motorway-speed runs, so it's worth checking the dipstick every 3-4k miles too.
An MB ServiceCare Plan (£46 / mth currently for an E63) makes sense unless you are going to use a trusted indie, especially if you can time it so you get B-A-B services, and at least one of them includes a set of plugs and/or a transmission oil change.
In terms of total cost of ownership, the biggest single element is depreciation which is eye-watering in the first couple of years and then slows to just "very painful" level. The difference between dealer forecourt and trade-in prices is pretty large, even on a three or four year old car (typically £6-7k), so unless you want to be royally reamed don't even think about getting out of one in less than two years. Bearing in mind the high depreciation and the fixed service intervals, the cost per mile of ownership (if that concerns you) can be quite astronomic if you only do a small annual mileage. I solve that problem by driving around 13k miles a year in mine
Never actually heard anyone getting IPE downpipes for the E63. Didn't even know they exist. Is there any particular reason you want IPE?Yeah mines about about 10 miles away for v power but there are closer Tesco’s and bp ect so will glance around.
I’ll look into pads too, I’m looking to get remap and ipe downpipes from MSL
I think we're talking on crossed purposes: I fully understand about the anti-knock properties of 98- vs .95-octane fuel and am well aware that the E63 (and my wife's SLK55) both mandate 98 RON fuel as a minimum octane rating.
Are you sure you're looking at downpipes for the 5.5 biturbo? I can understand if it's the old 6.2 but a lot of youtube videos of IPE (the catback) on E63 are of the 6.2.
I was just clarifying that better performance only comes from the cleaning additives in that it restores performance rather than the fuel itself magically increasing BHP or MPG. For this reason, 'some people' should have no reason to expect better performance provided they use premium fuels from time to time i.e, fuels with additives.
Actually looking back at it, it does say 6.2l hmmm don’t suppose anyone has any videos??
You mean Amo's cl63?
Yeah that’s him! I didn’t was say his name Incase I wasn’t allowed. I follow him on insta, I’ve seen your profile a few times too! Ah makes sense now! Yeah it’s loud but I like the raw sound to it. Nice car mate that sounds amazing!!!!
I’ll see what they come back with, with the vids but I’ll let you know.
In my experience the better fuel economy is due to being able to maintain a constant speed for longer periods when driving in Continental Europe as opposed to the regular accelerate, short cruise, coast down, brake, accelerate again that driving in the UK entails.
Wasn't that as a lot of the driving were passes like the stelvio grimsel gotthard and others driven fairly briskly. I meant compared to days doing these passes when I had only 95 or 97 ron in the car due to availability
Don’t worry ive got a 2013 eclass facelift pretty much exactly the same set up, does have annoying rattles here and there but I usually blare our some radio to compensate Hahahaha!!
