Mercedes owners obsession with OEM+ Wheels?

[Will]

I think one of the main things to consider is what you've just mentioned - the upgrading/modding route as it applies to Mercedes - for 90% people on here, the most dramatic and cost effective mod is to change the vehicle. Why bother pumping thousands into, say, a W202 if your main objective is to obtain speed/style or specification when you can buy a C36 or a C43 for as little as £5-10K.

A less dramatic example for me from a few years ago was that I owned a C200 Esprit when I was 19/20, a nice car in general but it lacked a bit of power, leather and air con (plus a few other extras I was looking for). I sold the car for around about the same as I paid for a newer, lower mileage and better specced C230 Kompressor Sport.

I could've upgraded my existing car but what would have been the point?

I know this doesn't answer the serious 'modding' question - eg flip paint jobs and rolled arches with massive chrome wheels but that's probably more a matter of personal taste.

In all of this I appreciate the effort that car modifiers such as yourself put in

Will

 

[Howard]

My paint's flaking where someone rolled the arches ......

Not me i might add, but the muppet who owned it before me .....

 

[Chris Murray]

interesting post. The tuning industry haven't really addressed the needs of a lot of owners, particularly 2-10 year old Mercedes where value is sought, but dealer prices aren't. oem products still sell very well but are difficult to obtain outside the official dealer chain. Today we sold our first set of wheels to a main Mercedes franchise dealer, the first of many I hope.

 

[Flash]

interesting post. The tuning industry haven't really addressed the needs of a lot of owners, particularly 2-10 year old Mercedes where value is sought, but dealer prices aren't. oem products still sell very well but are difficult to obtain outside the official dealer chain. Today we sold our first set of wheels to a main Mercedes franchise dealer, the first of many I hope.

I hope that these were not "used" alloy wheels going on to a brand new car that the Stealer purchased from yourselves...

My guesses are that they were probably for a used car ?

 

[Alps]

David, there are actually a few people on here who do modify their mercs: -

a few examples: -

Me- blanked out indicators, lowered on H&R`s, ICE install, custom hi-flo cats

MAFF- see posts on engine section

Koolvin- Turbo`d a c180

Shaz & co - various CLK`s, C-class`s etc.

some people do spend alot of money on their cars , some just cant afford to do so, im totally happy with the way my car runs and looks, if i wasnt id modify it, and as will has already said, mods on mercs are expensive, if you want bigger power, its sometimes most cost efficient to get a bigger more powerfull car.....

quiet a few people on here are club202 members, and yes the club202 lot do spend alot of money on their cars.

 

[david_h]

I agree about it being more cost effective simply to upgrade the car to a more well equipped model than spend time/effort modifying a base model.

Upgrading a backbox, or fitting a hifi in the orignal speaker apertures is not what I would deem modifying. These are base level beginner mods. No one executes aesthetic modifications, no bodywork/smoothing etc, even debading of rear star is not done because people don't want to pay to have the boot resprayed.

Those that have executed engine mods have invested a lot of money and outsourced it to someone else. The price these Mercedes tuning companies charge are laughable. Anyone can throw a load of money at an engine, pay someone else to do all the mods. What I like about the US guys is they get their hands dirty. Plus they like their turbos

I'm toying with dropping an E55 (W210) engine into mine. Even if I could find a C55 it's going to be LHD. Any later than 1995 and the W202 shells seem to rot. At the same time I can transplant all the electronics, climate etc. The rate these cars are rotting, it's not too difficult to find one that's been smashed up in salvage and written off for reasonable money. Another £3k gets you a vortex charger that bolts straight on to the E55 engine, now we're talking power Again it comes down to money. It'll make the car totally unsaleable BUT I'll end up with a truely undercover car, something that people think is an AMG wannabe, but is actually faster than any AMG, that to me is perfection in modifying.

 

[Alps]

David,

have explored this avenue before and you`ll find your bulkhead will not enable a E55 engine to be transplanted! C43 has a different bulkhead and innerwings, unless you were going to change this, it would be cheaper buying a C43 and doing the e55 engine swap, i know a few people who have done this (not on the forum), so if you need some contacts to reassure you, please PM me.

David, why not come to one of the meets next time and see for yourself peoples cars and the people themselves, this and the general everyday knowledge of the people here is why Im still here!

you said it yourself " It'll make the car totally unsaleable " this is probably why most people on here dont want to do it! majority of the people who would want to buy a merc will not want it smoothed out and messed about with. I for one have spend £1000`s on keeping this thing in normal working order, let alone playing with the engine and risk something else going wrong!

Even a simple thing like a K&N can cost a MAS failure which will cost £300 to replace.

Alot of people on here, buy a MB, drive it, then move on and sell it. Ive had mine over 5 years and when I can afford anything better, i`ll sell it and move on too!

I totally back anyone who can afford and wants to modify their cars, but dont look down on the people who enjoy their cars for what they are! the smallest changes like "Upgrading a backbox, or fitting a hifi in the orignal speaker apertures" can be enough of a modification for alot of people!

 

[GSBellew]

I agree about it being more cost effective simply to upgrade the car to a more well equipped model than spend time/effort modifying a base model.

Upgrading a backbox, or fitting a hifi in the orignal speaker apertures is not what I would deem modifying. These are base level beginner mods. No one executes aesthetic modifications, no bodywork/smoothing etc, even debading of rear star is not done because people don't want to pay to have the boot resprayed.

Those that have executed engine mods have invested a lot of money and outsourced it to someone else. The price these Mercedes tuning companies charge are laughable. Anyone can throw a load of money at an engine, pay someone else to do all the mods. What I like about the US guys is they get their hands dirty. Plus they like their turbos

I'm toying with dropping an E55 (W210) engine into mine. Even if I could find a C55 it's going to be LHD. Any later than 1995 and the W202 shells seem to rot. At the same time I can transplant all the electronics, climate etc. The rate these cars are rotting, it's not too difficult to find one that's been smashed up in salvage and written off for reasonable money. Another £3k gets you a vortex charger that bolts straight on to the E55 engine, now we're talking power Again it comes down to money. It'll make the car totally unsaleable BUT I'll end up with a truely undercover car, something that people think is an AMG wannabe, but is actually faster than any AMG, that to me is perfection in modifying.

I think its more to do with people just not wanting to smooth their bootlids rather than not wanting to pay for it.

The way I see it is that there are different types of people with an interest in cars, some are hell bent on making theirs "unique" but they end up making it look like every other modified car on the road, pointless.

There are those for whom performance is king, they spend their time and money researching the best way to get the biggest gains from their engines / cars and in my experience the best of these performance minded individuals never brag about what they have done, you will never see their car on the net or on a Magazine cover, why? because they did not build the cars for vanity, to get recognigtion, they built them for themselves for fun.

Then there are the purists, who keep it oe and original, the show n shine / concours crowd who take pride in keeping their car as the designers intended which in my opinion takes more effort than to modify your car, these people will spend years hunting down trim parts that have been made obsolete rather than sticking a halfords special on the car.

I know where I fit in, I think everyone on here knows where they fit in themselves, But I dont think any of us have to justify that to you or anyone else, you want chrome wheels? away you go, have fun, I wont be joining you though.

 

[chrisbala]

David, I am interested in some aftermarket wheels, do you have a website or anything which I can look at?

 

[pawmaro]

Yuk hidious or what makes them look more like beemers think ill keep the 18" AMG's Thanks

 

[com]

I have recently been thinking of either having my wheels re-furbed or changing them completely and those BBS LM do seem to be rather nice !

 

[Spinal]

Can we have a "Slap" button next to the "Thanks" button?

Anyhow, my thesis is done, and the printer is happily churning away (had to pop by Tesco at 1am to get more paper )

Now lets hope there is enough toner!
Michele

 

[COUPE FREAK]

I'm sorry to be so harsh but I don't understand the obsession with Mercedes owners and OEM+ alloys in the UK. I may be biased as I sell aftermarket rims, but I also come from tuning cars for 10-12 years now, and in other brands outside of BMW & Merc, OEM+ obsession does not exist.

For Merc owners it appears that anyone who can't afford the real deal AMG, Carlsson, Brabus, buys copies. Does no one have any individuality these days? Also fitment wise the wheels are way too narrow, and the offsets are unduely high, far too high to merely justify caliper clearance.

Sorry to be so harsh, but newer Mercs are some of the prettiest cars out there and have soo much more potential than going down the Brabus/AMG/Carlsson replica route with the wheels. Look at Akash's CLK when it had the MAE's on, nice and fresh, and different.



Not criticising, just observing, don't slate me.

yes, your right,, if it's not factory, they dont want to know,, toying with the idea of a set of saab aero 3-spokes or 928 slabs,, or even old wolfrace slots,, anything but amg's,, common as muck,, why follow the heard,,

 

[KLP 92]

yes, your right,, if it's not factory, they dont want to know,, toying with the idea of a set of saab aero 3-spokes or 928 slabs,, or even old wolfrace slots,, anything but amg's,, common as muck,, why follow the heard,,

might want to follow the 'herd'!

Personally i wouldn't put on 3 spokes or Saab wheels as they will look completely odd on the car! I'd stick with david_h's wheels over those!

But i do however agree that the majority of the forum is probably against serious mods. But this isn't a performance/tuning/seriosu mods orientated forum! Its a place you come to for advice/help/friendly chat. They're a few people on this forum that are very quick to condemn peoples mods but its a public forum and not everyone has the same opinion.

I regularly use this forum for advice on my mods, i take heed of all the comments made, good or bad.

 

[glojo]

But i do however agree that the majority of the forum is probably against serious mods.

Oi........... I'll have you know that thanks to this forum I've changed the sidelights on our 211, how serious is that???

John

 

[GrahamC230K]

Oi........... I'll have you know that thanks to this forum I've changed the sidelights on our 211, how serious is that???

John

On the edge pushing he boundaries I'd say.

 

[david_h]

I think KLP has hit the nail on the head, I tend to agree.

Certainly when I posted I didn't expect anyone to agree, it's my own opinion.



I'll post some pics of my W202 as soon as it goes on the new 18" Work Wheels.

 

[Lekan]

Harsh but true

 

[glojo]

But i do however agree that the majority of the forum is probably against serious mods.

are you serious? Look at Ian's thread on his major modification. I accept he might not be doing any major bodywork modifications but it is a popular thread with lots of very constructive advice... Like PULL YOUR FINGER OUT

I was hoping to see the completed car at last years GTG, but 2007 is now looking good .

Would it be more accurate to say that most members prefer to keep their vehicles relatively standard and usually just like to improve the specification?

I love the look of your car and am sure you are delighted with how it has turned out? The Mercedes-Benz in my personal opinion does not really lean to major bodywork modification, but putting a thumping V8 AMG engine and all the other ancillaries certainly works for me Have you investigated this idea???

John

 

[Kam]

why buy such a lovely car that already comes beatufily equipped and then spoil it buy putting some aftermarket alloy wheels on it, if i wanted to do that i would honestly buy a Ford or vauxhall.
I would never buuy a mercedes with after market alloys as i think if they can play with the wheels then what else have they played with,
The best way to upgrade your alloys on a merc are to go for original alloys meant for an merc.
You want boy racer look car then just hav a look at BMW 3 series that car has been ruined buy evrey young guy buying it and putting on cheap alloys you see on essex boy fords and then changing small little things that devalue the car