The E500 Cabriolet / Coupe Thread

[PaulXC]

A black cabrio as well as a blue coupe! Spoilt for choice

That was for sale a few weeks back asking £1500 more. Looks like the wheels need a bit a refurb but good spec - even has heated cup holder!

 

[PaulXC]

You don't use VPower in that beautifull engine

About every third tank it gets VPower but tbh I can't feel or tell the difference.

 

[Abb]

even has heated cup holder!

Now that is rare! Haven't seen one advertised with that since we bought our ML which has heated AND cooled cup holders

 

[deron]

^^^ To be fair, they have probably done the potential buyer a favour. The diamond cut wheels will have needed doing at some point as they don't suit the UK weather at all! No need for the £500 price hike though, but there again that will just be the dealer on trying to get the refurb cost back with interest

In the interest of fairness, I went to have a look at it. It was lovely, but I just didn't get on with it. I'm fairly wide shouldered and found the seats quite narrow. They wouldn't negotiate on price at all, so I walked away.

It's now been dropped £200. I've put a deposit down on a Lexus ISF today, so that's the end of my brief Mercedes adventure.

 

[Abb]

They wouldn't negotiate on price at all, so I walked away. It's now been dropped £200.

Love it when this type of thing happens

 

[SJ007]

I think there are a couple of other E500 Cabriolet / Coupe owners on here.

I thought I’d start a thread about these rather awesome cars. I love they way they look like an E200 / E 250 / E350 but … the V8 rather transforms them.

I decided on an E500 through process of elimination - following a brief grown-up moment where I had a CLS350 d Shooting Break for a year.

My Mercedes history goes back to 1998 with the purchase of a new SLK230. Since then we have generally had an estate and a cabriolet in the household. (Our 2006 E320Cdi Estate is now 11 years old & the best car we have ever owned).

Cabrio-wise I’ve owned, in the following order…

1998 SLK230
2001 CLK320
2003 CLK 55 AMG
1988 420 SL
1995 E320
2010 E350 Cdi

My thoughts were that my next car needed to be a bit special, a cabrio, a four seater, modern, owned outright, sub £25k, had to have a spare wheel, acceptable mpg, not in the £500+ tax bracket & not diesel (I had already owned a 2010, E350 Cdi cabriolet).

So ....

This pretty much steered me towards to the last of the E500's or the newer E400 Cabrio.

The E400’s were a little out of budget and I was hankering after a V8 really, the the older 2010 - 2011 E500's, whilst having the 5.5 naturally aspirated engine were slightly heavier on fuel and in the top road tax bracket.

So … the 2012 V8 4.7 bi-turbo engined E500 Cabriolet it had to be.

Problem is that only 30 or so E500’s were ever registered in the UK - that figure includes both the Coupe and Cabrio. So I guess there are only about 15 or so Cabrios in the the UK.

That saying, they do come up for sale from time to time - over the past year or so I’ve seen 6 for sale but they were usually the wrong colour., spec, price or condition for me.

About 6 weeks ago I noticed on Autotrader a 2012, E500 - private sale, badly written advert, poor pictures but a very low mileage at 13,900.

Obsidian Black, Dark red leather, HK Audio, Distronic, Lane Assist, Blind spot warning etc etc

I went to London to have a look and figured that the car was in fact very good but needed a serious clean and wheel refurb.

A deal was done and now it’s on my drive.

I’ve spent many hours cleaning it and managed to get most of the minor scratches out of it. Just had the wheels refurbished today - note the black centre caps!

As far as mods go - I think I’ll change the bonnet badge for the new style black one and maybe debadge it.

800 miles so far, average 26.9 mpg. Wow - this engine has some serious torque and go.

Off to France in a couple of weeks on a 1500 mile jaunt - should be just the car for the job.

Hello. I am picking this up next week. https://www.autostradacars.com/our-cars/somerset-mercedes-e-class-e500-sport-4100/ My first Mercedes car! I would love to talk to other owners of the same model. Thanks James

 

[SW18]

Hello. I am picking this up next week. https://www.autostradacars.com/our-cars/somerset-mercedes-e-class-e500-sport-4100/ My first Mercedes car! I would love to talk to other owners of the same model. Thanks James

That’s a lovely colour combo, almost all cabrios that I’ve seen are black/black.

I have a estate so can’t talk characteristics of the cabrio, but the engine and gearbox are awesome!

 

[SJ007]

That’s a lovely colour combo, almost all cabrios that I’ve seen are black/black.

I have a estate so can’t talk characteristics of the cabrio, but the engine and gearbox are awesome!

Thanks. Really looking forward to getting it. So thrilled by taking the spare wheel out I can fit my wheelchair in the boot

 

[BaldGuy]

Very nice high optioned rare car - .... lovely colour scheme - Congrats!

 

[SJ007]

Very nice high optioned rare car - .... lovely colour scheme - Congrats!

Thanks very much. I know these are quite rare. Does anyone know how rare please?

 

[SW18]

Thanks very much. I know these are quite rare. Does anyone know how rare please?

Yes: the website howmanyleft.co.uk lists stats for vehicles in the DVLA database. It doesn't differentiate between E class coupe, cabrio, saloon and estate, sadly. But in the category E500 Sport it has 154 vehicles registered between March 2009 and March 2011, so a small portion of them will have been the cabrio, maybe just a couple of dozen. Judging by what's on sale, most E500 Sport were coupes, then there were some saloons and only a very few cabrios and estates.

The website carcolours.co.uk lists stats from the same DVLA dataset, but can be sorted by colour. It has 51 silver E500 Sport in that time period, so that suggests about a third of all E500 Sport were silver. So we could guess that your combo of E500 Sport Cabrio Silver might be one of just a handful. And with the red seats... wasn't that quite a rare option? It's my guess that it is probably unique in the UK and you may well never see another.

 

[SJ007]

Yes: the website howmanyleft.co.uk lists stats for vehicles in the DVLA database. It doesn't differentiate between E class coupe, cabrio, saloon and estate, sadly. But in the category E500 Sport it has 154 vehicles registered between March 2009 and March 2011, so a small portion of them will have been the cabrio, maybe just a couple of dozen. Judging by what's on sale, most E500 Sport were coupes, then there were some saloons and only a very few cabrios and estates.

The website carcolours.co.uk lists stats from the same DVLA dataset, but can be sorted by colour. It has 51 silver E500 Sport in that time period, so that suggests about a third of all E500 Sport were silver. So we could guess that your combo of E500 Sport Cabrio Silver might be one of just a handful. And with the red seats... wasn't that quite a rare option? It's my guess that it is probably unique in the UK and you may well never see another.

Thanks. Really appreciate knowing that. Interesting.

 

[SJ007]

Thanks. Really appreciate knowing that. Interesting.

 

[SJ007]

So got the car home, really pleased with it and lots of button and menus to learn. I have an android phone. Is there an easy way to play music from it through the car please?

 

[MrGreedy]

On my E class (2011) I connect the COMAND to the phone via Bluetooth to my Android phone.
Then make sure I'm in Audio mode (and not Navi) by hitting the radio button on the main dash panel if you're not sure.
Then I used the silver jog wheel to navigate through the menu at the bottom of screen to access the Bluetooth audio.

 

[SJ007]

On my E class (2011) I connect the COMAND to the phone via Bluetooth to my Android phone.
Then make sure I'm in Audio mode (and not Navi) by hitting the radio button on the main dash panel if you're not sure.
Then I used the silver jog wheel to navigate through the menu at the bottom of screen to access the Bluetooth audio.

View attachment 116783

Thanks so much. I'll give that a go.

 

[SJ007]

Thanks so much. I'll give that a go.

That worked. Thanks!

 

[SJ007]

Has anyone on here done any exhaust mods to their E500 to make it sing a little more? I've been recommended a company near Bristol called Infinity Exhausts but don't want to rush into anything I may regret.

 

[SW18]

Has anyone on here done any exhaust mods to their E500 to make it sing a little more? I've been recommended a company near Bristol called Infinity Exhausts but don't want to rush into anything I may regret.

I've pondered this but never taken the plunge. There are lots of YT videos of US owners' mods, you have to search "E550 exhaust modifications" as the model name is different there. Have a listen and see what you think! I gather that the usual modification is to remove the centre resonator(s) that you can see under the middle of the car, as these smooth out the V8 'woofle' and reduce the deeper notes.

 

[Londonscottish]

Changed my mind about the one I was going to view. They refurbed the wheels and in the process changed them from the chrome finish to a gunmetal grey and added £500 to the price.View attachment 79203 View attachment 79204

Urrgh....those rims now look awful.

I never buy cars with black wheels because I'd have to immediately book it into First Aid Wheels and spend £400 putting them back to factory.