Picked it up today, drove it home. I'll post in the appropriate places, but time to start throwing (a little) money at it. The importer, Daniel Strubel (very decent, very honest, very much living in the real world), had already thrown a fair bit at it...
To try to cure the tailgate problem, based on a diagnosis from a 'Mercedes expert' who I suspect doesn't have STAR, or doesn't know how to use it, he'd had a brand new pump, 'SAM' (I think he means ECU) and struts fitted. It's not fixed, so I rather think the problem isn't hardware... I bet Terry Gates can sort it out.
The transmission downshifts rather sooner than on mine, and flares and hangs on to lower gears longer on downshifts on the overrun. Fluid level? Maybe it needs a service; Terry Gates again.
Apart from that, it drives fine; just like my other one. Unlike many, the pics in the ad did not lie; it looks pretty much the same in the metal, i.e. excellent condition, and the interior is pretty well mint.
Japanese drivers must be worse than most; when reversing, a warning chime sounds repeatedly
inside the cabin. Anybody on here have problems noticing they are reversing?
It's got a couple of aftermarket electrical items, including dashcams front and rear, which I may or may not be able to get to work, and an override switch so you can watch TV while driving; maybe that's why there's a reversing audible warning. Whether that works with the new head unit I don't know - probably not - but if it does I certainly won't be using it. I'm not so sure about the dashcams; they are also evidence for the prosecution if I were the one at fault...
I thought the displays had already been changed to English, but nearly all were still in Japanese Kanji characters, and I was almost at the point of baling out after the test drive. HOWEVER... I'd read about changing the language, and scrolling at random through every screen I could find, I happened on one where everything was in Kanji except the one word 'ENGLISH', with a + sign next to it. So I pressed + on the steering wheel button, pressed one of the buttons on the left side of the wheel, and Bingo! It's all in English now.
According to Mr. Strubel, all the Japanese ML63s he's seen have red calipers. Some light-fingered little sh1t must have liked the red valve caps, because it had none when he picked me up. I don't mind; they're not to my taste anyway, and I have plenty of plain black ones in the garage.
So that's it. I like it, it drives well, it looks ace (Tanzanite with a light brown interior always does...), it's low mileage, cherry on the top I negotiated a couple of grand off the asking price. JDM relative rarities like this are difficult to value, but I reckon it's a bargain too, so I'm a happy bunny...
