I've been in my neighbour's W220 S500L a few times and that is a fine car , although I know he's had a couple of large bills to do with strut failure in the suspension !
Think I'm after a w221 s320. Does this sound right?
- Thread starter DriftworksJames
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
I've been in my neighbour's W220 S500L a few times and that is a fine car , although I know he's had a couple of large bills to do with strut failure in the suspension !
ianrandom
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2010
- Messages
- 1,000
- Car
- 1986 420SE, 1990 420SEC, 1989 2CV6.
I personally would not want to risk a W220. Lovely as they are, I do find them a bit Japanese in feel and they seem to have a lot of problems. Not the finest years for MB quality wise I don't think. Great features and drive though, as you'd expect from an S class.
I've only driven the six cylinder petrol w220 though, my friends one.
I've only driven the six cylinder petrol w220 though, my friends one.
DriftworksJames
Active Member
thanks guys, I've done a bit of reading about and searching out options and that makes things a bit clearer for me.
Something classic and older like an R129 misses the point for me. I have a busy life and a 120mile round trip to the office and want to make that part of my day as relaxing and stress free as possible, which means as quiet and refined as possible and with the assistance of gadgets like distronic and multi function seats.
Also I'm not looking for an investment. I'm looking to buy a 10 year old luxury car for around 10% of it's original cost and run it for a couple of years. If I lose a couple of grand a year in depreciation and spend a couple of grand a year keeping it running, it's still cost me less than going and buying a new mondeo or vauxhall.
I do like the look of the CLS and it seems to be in the right budget, but from a quick look, they seem far less likely to have been specced up with stuff like distronic compared to the S class, the interior controls appear (from a rough glance at a few pics) to be from a previous era compared to the modern command-focussed computer-driven interfaces of the w221 S class. I also guess that a CLS would come second compared to a W221 S class in terms of refinement and luxury? Feel free to correct me, but it seems to have a different focus. Maybe I just need to go and test drive one.
So it looks like the W221 is probably the one for me. I'm gutted I missed out on a really good one a couple of days ago with a huge list of options (distronic, night vision, HK, multicontour seats, AMG kit, D6 remap etc etc etc) full main dealer service history, excellent condition and a good price, but I was an hour or so too slow. bugger....
As for S500 vs S320 CDI, that's a tricky one... I am a petrolhead at heart and I do appreciate a good engine, especially a v8, but I also have a couple of other cars including a track car with a tuned 500bhp 6L v8 in, so I'm perfectly happy to have something more pedestrian for commuting if it saves the equivalent of a half decent bottle of wine per trip to work...
But that said, I have owned enough second hand diesel cars to know that the cost of ownership is a lot more than just fuel and it only takes 1 issue a year with a DPF, turbo vanes, injectors, actuators EGRs etc etc etc to leave you wishing you had something simpler and making that more thirsty, but less complicated petrol engine sometimes a more cost effective choice.
The second hand S500s do seem to be better specced generally speaking too, especially as far as stuff that benefits the driver is concerned. So I'm not so sure there.... Is the S500 insurance generally a load more?
I'm guessing S320 cdi is sort of 36mpg cruising at 85mph and the s500 is closer to 30mpg. Does that sound about right?
thanks all,
James
Something classic and older like an R129 misses the point for me. I have a busy life and a 120mile round trip to the office and want to make that part of my day as relaxing and stress free as possible, which means as quiet and refined as possible and with the assistance of gadgets like distronic and multi function seats.
Also I'm not looking for an investment. I'm looking to buy a 10 year old luxury car for around 10% of it's original cost and run it for a couple of years. If I lose a couple of grand a year in depreciation and spend a couple of grand a year keeping it running, it's still cost me less than going and buying a new mondeo or vauxhall.
I do like the look of the CLS and it seems to be in the right budget, but from a quick look, they seem far less likely to have been specced up with stuff like distronic compared to the S class, the interior controls appear (from a rough glance at a few pics) to be from a previous era compared to the modern command-focussed computer-driven interfaces of the w221 S class. I also guess that a CLS would come second compared to a W221 S class in terms of refinement and luxury? Feel free to correct me, but it seems to have a different focus. Maybe I just need to go and test drive one.
So it looks like the W221 is probably the one for me. I'm gutted I missed out on a really good one a couple of days ago with a huge list of options (distronic, night vision, HK, multicontour seats, AMG kit, D6 remap etc etc etc) full main dealer service history, excellent condition and a good price, but I was an hour or so too slow. bugger....
As for S500 vs S320 CDI, that's a tricky one... I am a petrolhead at heart and I do appreciate a good engine, especially a v8, but I also have a couple of other cars including a track car with a tuned 500bhp 6L v8 in, so I'm perfectly happy to have something more pedestrian for commuting if it saves the equivalent of a half decent bottle of wine per trip to work...
But that said, I have owned enough second hand diesel cars to know that the cost of ownership is a lot more than just fuel and it only takes 1 issue a year with a DPF, turbo vanes, injectors, actuators EGRs etc etc etc to leave you wishing you had something simpler and making that more thirsty, but less complicated petrol engine sometimes a more cost effective choice.
The second hand S500s do seem to be better specced generally speaking too, especially as far as stuff that benefits the driver is concerned. So I'm not so sure there.... Is the S500 insurance generally a load more?
I'm guessing S320 cdi is sort of 36mpg cruising at 85mph and the s500 is closer to 30mpg. Does that sound about right?
thanks all,
James
alanuk400
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2006
- Messages
- 474
- Location
- Belfast NI
- Car
- 2018 W222 Mercedes S-Class LWB & 2006 R171 SLK 55AMG
I have owned both, the W220 S500 LWB and the W221 S320 cdi, I thought the V8 was a much less stressed engine, returning only 10 mpg less than the cdi, when I was looking for a W221, at the time I couldn't find a V8 at all, also a second hand petrol S-Class is less lightly to have been used as a chauffeur car and will more than lightly have more options
Alan
Alan
Anthony 69
Member
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2015
- Messages
- 51
- Car
- W221 2012, previous MB's quite a few
I think it may depend on the engine spec, is it the 5.5l or 4.7l twin turbo. I have had a W221 S500L with 4.7l twin turbo for approx 9 months now, have done more than 8k miles in her. Average which includes a good amount of town and congested driving is 29.2mpg, it was 30.5mpg until recently when I spent a fair few times in really congested situations.
The best I have seen was a 400 mile, 6.5 hour run all within the limits, and she returned 35.8mpg, the engine sits at approx 1,600 rpm at 70 mph with hardly a whisper, (not exactly stretched I would say !!!!)
It really does suit the car extremely well, go for it if you get a chance of a good one would be my advice. BTW in the past one of my previous MB's I had a W126 S420L, also a very nice car in its day, sold her at just coming up for 100k, frankly she was no problem at all, just regular servicing and some consumables.
DriftworksJames
Active Member
Thanks again, I found a 2008 s500 with a real high spec, so I've just put a deposit down 
excited
excited
Thanks again, I found a 2008 s500 with a real high spec, so I've just put a deposit down
excited
Looks like a good spec although I have no idea what is standard and what is optional as yet.
I think this is my preferred choice of next steed as well!
jonnyboy
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2005
- Messages
- 2,564
- Location
- Camberley, Surrey
- Car
- 1991 sl300-24 project,s124 280,w115 no interior, w108 project no engine
Same here, made the mistake of letting Mrs JB drive a 2013 s350cdi lwb that we cant really justify or afford!!!
ianrandom
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2010
- Messages
- 1,000
- Car
- 1986 420SE, 1990 420SEC, 1989 2CV6.
Sounds lush, hope it does you proud.
