R320 advice?

[mr tibbs]

Hi all. We are considering changing our car for an R320. Does anyone have one and what advice can you offer please? What should I be looking out for? Is the 4x4 system any good, currently own a Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.0 V6 Mercedes diesel engine and it is awesome....
TIA

Keith

 

[mr tibbs]

Obviously not a popular car on this forum......

Keith

 

[Giantvanman]

Keith, obviously your post was lost during the routine crops so don't take it personally.

The SL does not have four wheel drive.
As for what to look for, it really depends on the age of car you would be looking at/how much you are going to spend. Many will extol the V8 versions (a great engine, granted) and ignore or poo poo the V6 versions which is a shame because it has great character and very good in it's own right.
Post the age/price you are looking at and in the meantime, do some research on the ABC system which may help your decision, it being standard on the 500 and above but a very rare option on the 350.

No prize for guessing which engine/version I am a fan of.

Kevin

 

[reflexboy]

Had mine 4 years and loved it, but fancied a diesel. Lots of expensive things CAN go wrong but some are lucky. Get it checked throughly for the usual issues and search the forum for preventative measure and you'll have a blast. Great car in my opinion.

Sorry wrong car. Thought you were talking about an R230 SL

 

[AMGeed]

Keith, obviously your post was lost during the routine crops so don't take it personally.

The SL does not have four wheel drive.
As for what to look for, it really depends on the age of car you would be looking at/how much you are going to spend. Many will extol the V8 versions (a great engine, granted) and ignore or poo poo the V6 versions which is a shame because it has great character and very good in it's own right.
Post the age/price you are looking at and in the meantime, do some research on the ABC system which may help your decision, it being standard on the 500 and above but a very rare option on the 350.

No prize for guessing which engine/version I am a fan of.

Kevin

Kevin, the OP was asking about the R class, not SL

 

[Giantvanman]

Kevin, the OP was asking about the R class, not SL

Meant that! Time for an eye test or a brain check because I genuinely read that as R230- twice! :fail

Apologies, OP.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Never owned one, but driven a few in 2008 ish. It drove nicely, and it was a lovely place to sit. Many had panoramic roofs which made the interior light & airy.

They're fundamentally an ML320 or GL320 underneath, despite the slightly lower height - same platform, engine, transmission and built on the same production line.

The four wheel drive system seems important to you. The same transmission in the ML is excellent, and even it's off road credentials are surprising good - I have driven off road in one on MIRAs off road route, and it climbed, descended, and waded as well as the ML/GL.

 

[BTB 500]

My in-laws had an R350 (petrol) Long for a good few years, went in it a fair bit. Nice car, pretty trouble-free. The only issue I remember them having was the tailgate auto-close being a bit intermittent but they got that fixed. As mentioned it's an ML mechanically.

Obviously it's big & heavy with 4WD so fuel consumption isn't going to be great.

Earlier ones are 6-seat btw, they then changed to a 7-seat layout.

 

[mr tibbs]

Thanks for the replies chaps
We are going to have a look around at some...

Keith