The E500 Cabriolet / Coupe Thread

[SJ007]

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.

Okay so no exhaust news yet but in a month or so I am unexpectedly inheriting a car. This will leave me with 4 and potentially no garage space for the Mercedes. I am torn what to do bur would let it go to a good home for a fair price. I paid £19,750 around 3 months ago and have enjoyed 500 miles. Let me know if anyone on the forum is interested. Thanks

 

[trezona]

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.

Hi a few years late to this one but we have just purchased a 2011 E500 cab - not sure if this small group is still active / any still owned etc?

 

[trezona]

Hi a few years late to this one but we have just purchased a 2011 E500 cab - not sure if this small group is still active / any still owned etc?

And picture

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

And picture

Lovely car

 

[PaulXC]

Hi a few years late to this one but we have just purchased a 2011 E500 cab - not sure if this small group is still active / any still owned etc?

Yep .. still here !

I've had mine seven and half years. To be honest it doesn't get much use nowadays - maybe 2000 miles a year. I don't drive it for months on end and so think about selling it .. and then I drive it and realise that that big V8 up front would be to hard to replace.

What spec and goodies do you have on yours?

 

[trezona]

Yep .. still here !

I've had mine seven and half years. To be honest it doesn't get much use nowadays - maybe 2000 miles a year. I don't drive it for months on end and so think about selling it .. and then I drive it and realise that that big V8 up front would be to hard to replace.

What spec and goodies do you have on yours?

Hi thanks for the reply I know what you mean - that V8! Managed to obtain an original brochure and price list from eBay and (think) these are ‘extras’….

• Intelligent (cornering bi-xenon) light package
• Memory package (seats) -
• Distronic Plus (early distance assisted cruise control) –
• COMMAND multi-media -
• Reverse Camera-
• Metallic black paintwork -
• Air scarf neck heating -
• Harman Kardon Logic 7 surround sound
• DAB radio tuner
• Black ash trim

 

[PaulXC]

The Distronic is very good but not as smart as the newer version. There are a couple of areas in the UK where is doesn't work, something to do with radar freqency is operates on.

I find it quite amusing heading up the M6 on Distronic, after passing Junction 17 Northbound it deactivates. Something to do with not interfering with the telescope at Jodel Bank.

 

[trezona]

The Distronic is very good but not as smart as the newer version. There are a couple of areas in the UK where is doesn't work, something to do with radar freqency is operates on.

I find it quite amusing heading up the M6 on Distronic, after passing Junction 17 Northbound it deactivates. Something to do with not interfering with the telescope at Jodel Bank.

Interesting, I assumed it only worked in reaction to car in front (ie had no connection with web or sat nav)?

 

[PaulXC]

Interesting, I assumed it only worked in reaction to car in front (ie had no connection with web or sat nav)?

Somewhere in the of the handbook it lists the locations where it won't work. I guess it must use GPS for this.