My 2010 E350 CDI Estate

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Fady

Active Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2005
Messages
474
Car
S213 E63, BMW X4 M40i & BMW Z4 28i
Wasn't planning on changing my 2004 S211 320 CDI until maybe sometime next year. I'd owned it for 7 years and it had a mere 57k miles on the clock. Probably needed 2 new front tyres (MOT noted that they were legal but worn on the outside for some peculiar reason) and the SBC system had become irritating as it started doing that annoying whine every time I pressed the brake pedal, so was going to put it in to be looked at when I could be bothered. Asides from that car still drove exceptionally well and looked good inside and out after all the TLC I'd afforded it.

However, I'm always browsing on-line car ads - Autrotrader, MB Approved Used, eBay etc. I've long since decide that the Harman Kardon audio up-grade was a must have on any replacement, so when I do a search I'm always on the look for cars with this. Easy on Autotrader and eBay but the MB site is a bit lacking as you can't actually use this as a search option. You wouldn't believe how few there are in estate guise. It's a £650 option but you only seemed to be guaranteed to find it a E63s

This particular car came on my radar quite a few months ago, but as (a) I wasn't really looking, (b) indigolite blue wasn't up there in my colour choices and (c) I thought the car was a bit pricey for the 37k miles it had on it already. Anyway move the clock on maybe a couple of months and I registered that the dealer still hadn't shifted it and had reduced the price by £2.5k. Now a bit more interesting but I'm still not really looking to change cars. Then one night I have a bout of insomnia and attempt to cure it with a early morning surfing session. I went back to bed, woke up next morning and said to the Misses - I'm buying a car today! It ticked most of the boxes with the sports spec, HK uppgrade, leather - an option on the sports model, Comand, CD player, bluetooth which is standard across the range, memory seats etc. The mileage was now factored in the price and, as I personally do low miles a year as I commute by train, it just means that it will be on about average mileage in a few years time. The colour is obviously a standard MB colour which I'd just get used to. Anyway long story short, got a smigin more than I thought I'd get for mine as px and came home with the new one last Saturday. Spent today bringing it up to my standards of cleanliness now that we have some weather and I'm chuffed to bits! Still getting used to driving it and I've yet to put it through it's paces. However it feels both agile and responsive. Still has that 'new car' smell and the cabin is a nice place to be :)

IMG_2957.jpg
 
I look forward to hearing what you think of it after you have done a few miles.

I swapped my faclift S211 E320cdi estate for a 2010 E350cdi estate and not sure about the new one.
My wife thinks it is a much better car all round, however I think I prefered the older one.

This is mine...

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/members-gallery/133508-my-e350cdi-estate.html

I have had it three months now and done 5000 miles in it and it is growing on me, but I loved the S211 straight away after 15 years in BMWs.
Maybe that is the problem, maybe I am expecting to fall for this as much and that is never going to happen?
 
indigolite blue suits the S212 very well :)
 
Very nice indeed, it really is a comfortable crooner of a car.

It'll take you a while to adjust the seat/wheel to the right settings for ultimate comfort, but when you hit the sweet spot, it's very nice.

It'll be interesting to learn of your long term opinions of it, especially compared to your old beast.
 
The seating I found was much less easy to get comfortable in.

Nicer to drive, nicer inside bar some really poor trim and cost cutting. Plastic in the footwell sides, 211 has carpet.
 
I had a 200 mile/5 hour round trip to collect the car as wasn't from a local dealer. Plush and well cushioned Avantgarde seats in the old car (with massaging function etc. which I barely used). On the return journey, being tall, I just hiked the seat back as far as it would go. The weather was appalling - it was sheeting down just for a change and there was surface water all over the roads resulting in lane closures on one of the A-roads. So all I really wanted to do was get home. It was only on arrival that realisation dawned that I'd been sitting in the equivalent of something akin to a deck chair for the whole journey! As said, the seats aren't quite as padded, but it's a question of making the right adjustments.

As regards plastic - I've yet to conduct any sort of analysis, but I welcome it in one area as the cloth on the inside of the B-pillar on my 211 was rubbed away in part by the seat belt. There's hard plastic there now which will be more wearing in the long run.

Nice car GIzzE - I'll put my own gallery up when I can find the time. I've also got the odd item that I whipped out of the 211 (as you do) for sale. I'd only just updated the Nav disc with the 2009/10 one, version 10, so I decided to pop the old one back whilst on the dealer's forecourt. Mildly embarrassing as it now wouldn't recognise it (possibly the software upgrade?), but I just though sod that and left it. When the guy went to verify the mileage, he asked if I had the nav disc because the car was saying there wasn't one in there. I just said there was and he just left it at that. I'm sure they have a pile of them lying around in any event, and besides, it makes up for the wrong model mats they left in the car*.

So have a nav disc, a cup holder and a set of roof bars for sale if anyone is interested - I'll put them in the classifieds but you can PM me in advance. Bars will have to be collected from West Sussex though.

*I asked for a set of 'new' mats to be put in. They put a set in that had obviously been used, so I bought another set off eBay and was going to keep that set as spare. However when I was cleaning the car yesterday I noted that the driver's mat at least was for a W204. The others are probably as well - they don't have the markings but they are not the same shape as W212 ones. When I cleaned them up they are actually more or less A1 - so I've a set of W204 AMG mats to go as well.
 
A very wise and tasteful choice of car and I like the colour. You also don't really see that many of the estates on the roads (at least not around here) so IMO remain an eye catching car on the street.

I also noticed that HK was a rare option. I agree the stock setup is acceptable but not great (and for some acoustical reason I find does not sound as good as in my dads W204?).

I wonder whether it is because the W212 is still quite a new model so a high proportion of the used ones are ex MB staff or other fleets, so they get more or less standard specs e.g all the v6s have Comand and leather, but none of the things like memory seats, distronic etc that you might splash out on if you were buying in your own right.
 
It does seem a bit daft having to pass over a host of otherwise well-specified cars just have one option that is a mere fraction of the cost of the whole vehicle. However, having made the mistake of believing the set-up was upgradeable the last time around, I put first things first. From reading the US forums HK seems a bit more prevalent over there as you get it as part of one package or the other as opposed to as an option on it's own. And here, opting for the estate rather than saloon further restrict the choice of cars available. But if you like decent hi-fi, I'd say it's well worth holding out for.
 
Another vote for Harmon Kardon here, I had it in my last W211 and it was leagues ahead of the standard audio in my other W211's.

Your S212 looks very nice Fady, I love that blue colour paintwork, it's striking but not too striking if that makes sense?

Congratulations on your purchase, I'm sure that you'll enjoy the car.
 

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