new (to me) E400D

[TR750]

Finally collected my E400D this morning - its pretty damn good. Coming from a '14 SQ5 Audi to this turns out to be a very pleasant change. Smooth, very quiet, fast, and yet somehow frugal.
Selenite grey, Premmium Plus on 20" AMGs. The seats are excellent compared to the Audi; the whole interior is much more elegant / classy. I had it de-badged, and only other change I'll make at the moment is fit a gloss black GT grille. I'll post a pic or two after I've done that.

 

[SmartAmg]

Sounds great, look forward to the pics.

 

[TR750]

Sounds great, look forward to the pics.

Pics may be a little while; waiting for a warmish day so I can remove the front bumper in comfort. I have a bike workshop inside a big, dry, clean, but bloody cold barn.

This car is a world apart from my relatively well specced SQ5. Chalk and cheese.
Has some of the things I loved about the '08 CL500 I had. Gear selection on a stalk, the silent parking sensors, on all the time if ya want, unlike the Audi, with its annoying chime, and that needed to be switched on every time you parked nose first somewhere. Another simple pleasure is the silent sunroof. Q5s are notorious for rattly / creaking sunroofs. In 5 years of ownership, and a number of failed attempts to cure it, I never got to the stage of it not being an annoyance.
The GT grille should be a nice semi-subtle hint of its stealthy nature. Pity its hard to lower the car - seems the W213 doesn't have the facility to adjust the camber easily (read cheaply...).
And an unforeseen bonus? Mrs. TR750 loves it, 'very comfy and stylish' - she who has no idea of, or interest in cars (or bikes for that matter...).

 

[Benz17]

Yes the E400d inline6 engine has rave reviews.

Would love to read your overall thoughts on your SQ5, the pros and cons, they get very good reviews on You Tube, but a review from an owner is better then from the press guys, appreciate it can’t be compared with the W213, as the SQ5 is a SUV, but would like to know about the engine, comfort and the gadgets, if you wouldn’t mind.

 

[TR750]

Yes the E400d inline6 engine has rave reviews.

Would love to read your overall thoughts on your SQ5, the pros and cons, they get very good reviews on You Tube, but a review from an owner is better then from the press guys, appreciate it can’t be compared with the W213, as the SQ5 is a SUV, but would like to know about the engine, comfort and the gadgets, if you wouldn’t mind.

The SQ5 is a good car no doubt. Only niggles I ever had were the rattling sunroof, (look at the Audi forums - loads of stuff on that - people who bought new having 2 or 3 new roofs fitted etc under warranty) which I was never able to cure competely, and a boost sensor failure, but that was about it. Like all modern cars they can have electric/electronic issues but I seemed to get lucky - never had a problem in that regard.
It drove nicely, but it's not a car - even though it is 15mm lower compared to the stock Q5, and isn't a tall vehicle anyway, it did feel top heavy-ish, but that may have been more to do with seat support. Good tyres make the world of difference though.
It had loads of torque very low down so suprisingly sharp off the mark, it wasn't worth thrashing it out to the max rpm, got a tad noisy and ran out of poke quickly.
Equipt. wise it was good (mine was a 2014, so MMI was in the dash not on it - in it looks better to my eyes), and if I bought another I'd make sure it had 'Drive Select' - can play with set up a bit more although apparently they can be coded to have that.
The auto stop/start was annoying but I'm from an era where if a car stops of its own accord there is something wrong, so any car with that is a pain to me, unless you can code it off. The parking sensors were annoying - having to manually switch on for the fronts to work - that never became a habit. I came from an '08 CL500 and Mrs. TR750's Qashqai to the SQ5, so had been spoiled by the Merc's parking sensors.
SQ5 was easy to maintain, and it was comfortable but again not amazing. Seat squabs were a bit flat and side support wasn't fantastic (again I had been spoiled by the CL500).
Audi sounded nice when in Sport mode but in retrospect it wasn't that quiet with some wind noise at motorway speeds and ya knew it was a diesel as it had a mild buzz to it at idle. Can't really hear the E400D at idle.
The newer SQ5s have a bit more oomph, and more equipt./gadgets as standard, and they all seem to hold their price reasonably well, judging by the forecourt values at the moment. Low mileage examples seem to be rare which says something about them also.
Fuel ecomomy was reasonable - anything would be compared to my CL500 - but it was hard to get more than 28-30mpg around town, and best I ever saw on >100 miles run, driving reasonably sensibly, was 41mpg - it seemed to perform best around 75mph. It did have great passing 'punch' though. Gearbox was nice (was my first DSG type 'box) but was a little snatchy one or two times - very very occasionaly it got confused if you used the paddles, then stopped at a series of traffic lights, it would sort of momentarily miss then engage... Changing 'box oil and filter earlier than recommended did make a difference to the smoothness of changes.
The advances/new kit going from a 2014 car to 2019 car are quite astonishing. My E400 is a completely different vehicle, with much more equipt., its quieter, smoother, and a great deal more comfortable. The fact that Mrs. TR750 raves about the Merc., says a lot - just last night saying that she was never excited or that impressed by the SQ5, but now has the desire to drive more with the Merc. lastly one other odd thing - she can spot the Merc. in a busy carpark more readily than the SQ5, and pick out other similar E Class' in traffic, pointing out the differences - that never happened with the SQ5 or indeed any previous car...

 

[stompa]

E400d coupe or saloon?

2019?

 

[TR750]

E400d coupe or saloon?

2019?

Saloon 2019

 

[stompa]

Nice, lovely v6 and loads of power.

im thinking of changing the grille on mine.

 

[TR750]

Nice, lovely v6 and loads of power.

im thinking of changing the grille on mine.

Straight 6...

 

[TR750]

GT grille and 15mm wheel spacers fitted this morning, will take some pics. when it stops raining...
Was a relatively simple job especially if you can get access to a wheels-free lift.
Taking the bumper off required the removal of -
- 2 engine undertrays & corner sections
- forward halves of the wheel arch covers - I had a handful of new plastic rivets for the wheel arch covers, so didn't have to be particularly careful removing the existing items.
- 2 connectors (camera up top, and parking sensor loom on driver's side behind wheel arch cover).
- MB star.
- camera (take note of where/how the cable is routed)
- 2 bolts each side between bumper and wings, and 2 bolts underneath between bumper and chassis. The bumper then pulls forward to disengage the locators at each side - they are in a key hole shaped slots / fittings in the wings, the top sliding clips may need pryed up slightly to release the whole thing
With the bumper face down on trestles you unclip a shroud behind/on the grille, and a full width hard foam piece in the back of the bumper with a couple of sensors / whatever, and piping in it.
There are 6 pop rivets to be drilled out and replaced - 4 along the top of the grille and 2 at the sides.

Hardest bit? Unclipping the existing grille, but once you get maybe 3 clips eased out then the rest come out ok; it does feel as if you are going to break the clips to disengage them. A braod flat blade screwdriver is better for this than a trim tool.
The new grille has to be pushed firmly into place to get all the clips fully engaged.
I opened and shut the bonnet 4 or 5 times to get the 'bonnet to grille' gap right but that was expected. I didn't see any point in marking the old positions as the top attachment lugs are part of the grille, and the likelihood of the two grilles being identical is slim...

Most annoying thing? The bloody wheel bolts were previously tightened by The Incredible Hulk. I tried them with my 3ft breaker bar and couldn't budge them, needed a shock from an air gun to get them loose. Glad to fit the new bolts for the wheel spacers as the old ones have to have been over-torqued. Spacers were a nice push fit in the wheel so will stay in place if I need to pull a wheel off.

Initial opnion?
Car looks much better with the gloss black GT grille, (I kept the original chrome surround). It's sort of stealthy and classy at the same time.
The wheels always sort of looked narrower than they actually are because of the arch overhangs, but they look fatter and in the right place now. The slow speed full lock feel seems to be better, and the ride is a bit smoother, (it's on 20" AMGs & run-flats) but I can't really figure out why that is. Maybe its just a psychological thing.
Pics to follow soon.

 

[as400]

Finally collected my E400D this morning - its pretty damn good. Coming from a '14 SQ5 Audi to this turns out to be a very pleasant change. Smooth, very quiet, fast, and yet somehow frugal.
Selenite grey, Premmium Plus on 20" AMGs. The seats are excellent compared to the Audi; the whole interior is much more elegant / classy. I had it de-badged, and only other change I'll make at the moment is fit a gloss black GT grille. I'll post a pic or two after I've done that.

Pics or you drive Fiat Uno.

 

[TR750]

Pics or you drive Fiat Uno.

It pays to check... posted this snap a day or two ago...

 

[kam09]

I prefer the one on the left

 

[TR750]

I prefer the one on the left

Each to their own.

 

[TR750]

Pics or you drive Fiat Uno.