S30MSN
Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2015
- Messages
- 49
- Location
- Essex
- Car
- VW Golf 1.6 TDi (Work Horse), C63 507 Saloon (Sold)
I’ve not been on the site for a while due to work but I sold the beast a few weeks ago….what a car it was and there genuinely hasn't been a day where I haven’t regretted it!!
But after nearly 2 years (a record for me as I only keep my cars approx. 9 month) it was time to move it on and let someone else experience the animal.
So to fill the void I’ve been searching for a replacement. I’ve got beyond the “trawling through Auto Trader” and dreaming phase and have actually been to view/test drive a few cars.
From the Merc stable the choices are either an E63 (W212) or an SL63 (R231), polar opposites I know as ones a saloon and the other is a 2 seater GT/Roadster but there is logic to my choices (kind-off).
The two cars I’ve looked at and test driven are both 2015 so running the M157 and are:-
I’m not sure if it’s just me but I wasn’t blown away by the performance, don’t get me wrong they were both quick cars but I just had this vision of driving them (especially the SL)….of pootling along in comfort and then when the opportunity presented itself – pushing the loud peddle into the carpet and being thrown back into the seat and pinned there until I let off….which didn’t happen in the way I’d imagined….again they were quick but not as fast as I’d thought. This may have been down to not having enough time with the cars so I’m not giving up.
However following the viewing/test drives the above two are no longer on my shortlist.
As I’ve got the time to post on the forum I might as well make the most of it and ask a few questions from owners who own/have owned either an E63 or SL63, and this primarily revolves around the Gearbox, Is the gearbox the same as the one in the facelift W204 C63 (i.e. MCT Wet Clutch)? The reason I ask is that the two cars I drove the Gearbox didn’t behave the same as my 507?
The SL was smooth from cold when driving around town however when pulling the left paddle to shift down the change wasn’t a quick as my old car and also when I used to press and ‘hold’ the left paddle in my old car it used to drop from say 6th to 3rd or even 2nd depending on the revs but it was one quick & seemless process. Doing the same thing in the SL (pressing and holding) it dropped one gear first and then another two afterwards so it was like a 2 stage process, is this normal?
And there was also a visible delay in the shift, so the small display above the cluster which shows which gear you are in, when doing the above the display would change from say 5th to 4th and then down to 2nd but the actual change wouldn’t happen at the same time. I pointed this out to the salesman but he didn’t understand what I meant at first so I did it about 4 times before he saw it/understood what I was talking about. He said it may need a software update to resolve, again is this normal?
The E on the other hand was not smooth when it was cold, and moving away and at slow speed it was jerky and not refined, after driving around town and once it was warm it was much better and as you would expect, however it did something that was quiet alarming when it happened! Nearing the end of the test, and getting to a long open road that was thankfully clear of other traffic I asked it was ok to open it up, when I did it kicked down and took off from around 35’ish, it continued to accelerate until it went to change from 3rd to 4th it felt like it had hit an invisible wall (it was in S+ at the time), at first I thought the limiter was on but it wasn’t and I had definitely not touched either of the paddles. It was quiet alarming and I asked the salesman what the hell was that? He looked as puzzled as I was.!
Without realising I had completely lifted off the accelerator and the car was now coasting, as we approached a roundabout I’d moved my foot to cover the brake pedal whilst looking through the menu’s to check if anything else was ‘on’ that could have caused it to do that, but there wasn’t. As there were no other cars around I continued to coast the car onto the roundabout whilst applying a small amount of pressure on the brake (I was doing around 15mph now, half way round I touched the accelerator to continue round and off the roundabout, when I did this the pedal felt light (almost like it was in neutral), the revs shoot up and there was the typical growl from the exhaust but no increase in speed. I looked down whilst going to press the accelerator again, the car was in ‘D’ but the same thing happened. At this point another car had approached and joined the roundabout and was approaching from behind. There was nothing I could do than to put the hazards on as I exited the roundabout at about 4mph, it had enough momentum for me to crawl the car to the side of the road. When out the way and completely stopped I pushed the brake pedal and pressed the P button to select park, when I lifted of the brake the car very slowly started to roll so I had to press the brake, I then moved it back into D, as I lifted of the brake the car started to roll again but this was not a ‘creep’ type roll, it was the same as when I put I’d tried to put it in Park (as though it was in neutral/freewheeling). The engine was responding to the throttle however there was no drive. The salesman asked me to switch the car off and then restart which I did and it was fine afterwards, we went up that same stretch of road again and it was fine afterwards. Has anyone experienced this before and do you know what could have caused it?
Thanks
But after nearly 2 years (a record for me as I only keep my cars approx. 9 month) it was time to move it on and let someone else experience the animal.
So to fill the void I’ve been searching for a replacement. I’ve got beyond the “trawling through Auto Trader” and dreaming phase and have actually been to view/test drive a few cars.
From the Merc stable the choices are either an E63 (W212) or an SL63 (R231), polar opposites I know as ones a saloon and the other is a 2 seater GT/Roadster but there is logic to my choices (kind-off).
The two cars I’ve looked at and test driven are both 2015 so running the M157 and are:-
I’m not sure if it’s just me but I wasn’t blown away by the performance, don’t get me wrong they were both quick cars but I just had this vision of driving them (especially the SL)….of pootling along in comfort and then when the opportunity presented itself – pushing the loud peddle into the carpet and being thrown back into the seat and pinned there until I let off….which didn’t happen in the way I’d imagined….again they were quick but not as fast as I’d thought. This may have been down to not having enough time with the cars so I’m not giving up.
However following the viewing/test drives the above two are no longer on my shortlist.
As I’ve got the time to post on the forum I might as well make the most of it and ask a few questions from owners who own/have owned either an E63 or SL63, and this primarily revolves around the Gearbox, Is the gearbox the same as the one in the facelift W204 C63 (i.e. MCT Wet Clutch)? The reason I ask is that the two cars I drove the Gearbox didn’t behave the same as my 507?
The SL was smooth from cold when driving around town however when pulling the left paddle to shift down the change wasn’t a quick as my old car and also when I used to press and ‘hold’ the left paddle in my old car it used to drop from say 6th to 3rd or even 2nd depending on the revs but it was one quick & seemless process. Doing the same thing in the SL (pressing and holding) it dropped one gear first and then another two afterwards so it was like a 2 stage process, is this normal?
And there was also a visible delay in the shift, so the small display above the cluster which shows which gear you are in, when doing the above the display would change from say 5th to 4th and then down to 2nd but the actual change wouldn’t happen at the same time. I pointed this out to the salesman but he didn’t understand what I meant at first so I did it about 4 times before he saw it/understood what I was talking about. He said it may need a software update to resolve, again is this normal?
The E on the other hand was not smooth when it was cold, and moving away and at slow speed it was jerky and not refined, after driving around town and once it was warm it was much better and as you would expect, however it did something that was quiet alarming when it happened! Nearing the end of the test, and getting to a long open road that was thankfully clear of other traffic I asked it was ok to open it up, when I did it kicked down and took off from around 35’ish, it continued to accelerate until it went to change from 3rd to 4th it felt like it had hit an invisible wall (it was in S+ at the time), at first I thought the limiter was on but it wasn’t and I had definitely not touched either of the paddles. It was quiet alarming and I asked the salesman what the hell was that? He looked as puzzled as I was.!
Without realising I had completely lifted off the accelerator and the car was now coasting, as we approached a roundabout I’d moved my foot to cover the brake pedal whilst looking through the menu’s to check if anything else was ‘on’ that could have caused it to do that, but there wasn’t. As there were no other cars around I continued to coast the car onto the roundabout whilst applying a small amount of pressure on the brake (I was doing around 15mph now, half way round I touched the accelerator to continue round and off the roundabout, when I did this the pedal felt light (almost like it was in neutral), the revs shoot up and there was the typical growl from the exhaust but no increase in speed. I looked down whilst going to press the accelerator again, the car was in ‘D’ but the same thing happened. At this point another car had approached and joined the roundabout and was approaching from behind. There was nothing I could do than to put the hazards on as I exited the roundabout at about 4mph, it had enough momentum for me to crawl the car to the side of the road. When out the way and completely stopped I pushed the brake pedal and pressed the P button to select park, when I lifted of the brake the car very slowly started to roll so I had to press the brake, I then moved it back into D, as I lifted of the brake the car started to roll again but this was not a ‘creep’ type roll, it was the same as when I put I’d tried to put it in Park (as though it was in neutral/freewheeling). The engine was responding to the throttle however there was no drive. The salesman asked me to switch the car off and then restart which I did and it was fine afterwards, we went up that same stretch of road again and it was fine afterwards. Has anyone experienced this before and do you know what could have caused it?
Thanks
