W211 E500 Buying Advice

[speedyyellow]

This weekend I am hoping to go and see a couple of early W211 E500's and I was wondering if I could get a bit of advice on what to look for?

I've read a lot about the valeo radiator issues that the early cars suffer from and think I've read enough and looked at enough pics to hopefully be able to identify which radiator is fitted. I'm hoping that by now if the rad was going to fail it would have or it would have been replaced as a precautionary measure so fingers crossed on that!

So other than checking that everything electrical works, and the radiator isn't the valeo one, what else should I be looking for?

The two cars are This '02 with a pano roof & this '03 without.

Thanks for the help!

 

[SL300-24]

Hi, Welcome.....
Check the mileage on the '03 as it is not stated. I like the pano-roof, but others say they are troublesome.

 

[speedyyellow]

The '03 is also up on Autotrader and is listed with 110k miles. I like the idea of the pano roof myself as I'm coming from a Boxster, so anything I can do to simulate the top down motoring is good in my book!

 

[Palfrem]

I have a pano roof - love it!

The silver one does look the best buy

 

[shorty]

They dont seem to have to many extras fitted , like Parktronic and Comand . Id reckon that if I had the V8 engine id also have lots of toys fitted as well .

If i was still buying one of these cars id have to go with the 03 , that colour is class .

 

[HowardD]

They dont seem to have to many extras fitted , like Parktronic and Comand.

The silver one is advertised as having navigation, i cant make it out clearly from the photos though.

Both are on a 52 plate, but for 1k higher asking price, the silver has 30k less miles, and nav and pano.

The front passenger side of the bumper of the other one looks scuffed too. HD

 

[e55]

Check EVERYTHING electrical and make sure it all works.
The pre facelift 2006 models were know to have alot of electrcial problems.

 

[greggster]

i had a 53 plate W211 with 140k on it, never skipped a beat and no electrical gremlins. I looked at the E500 for a while and would definitely go for the pano roof but as others say i would wait for one with all the toys. They did some with twin exhausts with rear bumper cut outs and amg alloys that looked really nice.

 

[jorjXmckie]

If the silver one has Navigation but not Comand it's likely the AP50 unit I have in mine; works well enough with up to date discs, but it's turn by turn and no map display and no Postcode input
Love the Parktronic on mine, it's got me out of a lot of tight corners
Having had a silver W211 and a black one, I can tell you that Grey will need more frequent cleaning if you want to keep it looking it's best, and I like the Pano roof too so I'd be tempted to go for the silver of the two.
GL whatever you decide

 

[speedyyellow]

Thanks for all the advice, I'll make sure I post my opinions when I get to see them (Sunday hopefully).

 

[speedyyellow]

Well the dark grey one sold before I got chance to try it, but I did go and see the silver one today. The car looked nice in the flesh, and was tidy inside. It drove well and was very smooth.

Unfortunately, there were a few issues. The panoramic roof wouldn't open, the blinds worked but the glass would not move. There was also an aftermarket nokia phone kit in it that looked a bit naff (and I don't have a nokia phone) and it didn't have parking sensors. The biggest issue though was the radiator. After having a nose around under the bonnet I saw the radiator crimping that indicates that it has a valeo radiator fitted. I've got the chassis number and am going to try and check out the radiator situation.

Looking around at some others there are none that have the exact spec I'd like. With that in mind how viable is it to do things like install parking sensors or swap the wood inside for a darker colour? I'm assuming both those options would be prohibitively expensive but thought I'd ask anyway.

 

[corned]

Yeah - it gets expensive and difficult if you go down that route. And it's not really necessary either - there are enough around if you are prepared to look and wait a bit.

There are plenty more fish in the sea, as they say. The number of options fitted varies wildly, so it can take a while to find what you are really after.

Best to bide your time, in my humble opinion, and you will find the right one.

Good luck!

 

[speedyyellow]

Next up to view is this one: 2002 MERCEDES-BENZ E500 Elegance

It has a lot more options, but I really don't like the wheels (although I guess probably the easiest things to change). The colour of wood wouldn't be my first choice either, but it looks better against the dark interior than the light as I've seen in other examples.

This one also has the sat-nav but not the command head unit. Does the fact that it has 'nav already make fitting of command a straight swap?

One other question, all the cars I'm looking at come with a warranty of some sort, if the car has the old radiator do you think it would be possible to get the radiator replaced under the warranty?

 

[Tan]

Hi

I have a 52 plate E500, which i bought in Jan 2009. The only real issues that I have had are Suspension and Keyless Go. I really advise checking the air suspension, I have had two air shocks fail and at over £1000 per corner they are not cheap.

I have taken the extended Mercedes warranty through mondial, its about £1100 per year but is very comprehensive and in my opinion worth every penny.

I was lucky with my car as it has pretty much every extra available at the time, Distronic, Keyless Go, AMG wheels and bodykit, Pano roof, Heated and Cooled Memory seats, Solar panels in the roof, APS 50 Sat Nav, Phone, Partronic.

They are complex cars, but if well looked after are absolutely fantastic. The sunroof issue that you mentioned may just be that the sunroof is out of sync, this has happened to me before and just needs to be reset, which is something that you can do yourself.

I may be considering selling mine as we have a W140 s-class sitting at home doing nothing and that way we could justify having an SL again.

 

[speedyyellow]

Checking the air suspension, is there something specific to check for, or is it just a case of making sure it responds to the buttons in the car? Does it change the ride height, or just the stiffness?

 

[Tan]

There is one button that adjusts the ride height and two that effect the stiffness. you need to check for leaks, as even if they have a slight leak, the different modes may still work.

If the car has adaptive seats then check the bolsters on these also.

 

[speedyyellow]

Well last night I went and looked at another E500, This one.

First impressions of the garage were not great, I was greeted by a chap smoking a cigarette who shook my hand and pointed me at the car.

There were lots of little scuffs at the front of the car, and the alloys were not in the best condition at all. The keyless entry worked and I hopped in and thumbed the button on the gear lever to start her up. As I was checking all the electrics worked the engine cut out. I started it up and again it cut out. It was out of petrol, so they dispatched someone to go get some.

It was also flashing low battery warnings on the dash, and asking if the emissions service & maintenance service were overdue. When I asked about those messages I was told it would always show those and it just meant it needed servicing in a couple thousand miles...

Once it had some fuel in it I took it for the shortest of test drives up and down basically a straight road and to be fair, it drove very well. Smooth & quiet and like a loon when you boot it. My biggest concern with this one was the wood trim, in the photos it looks very loud. I'm please to say that in the flesh I really liked it, it wasn't nearly as bright and looked really good.

I don't think I'll be chasing this one though, the part exchange offer for mine was low, and I just didn't get a warm & fuzzy feeling about it. There is another one I'm going to try and see tomorrow, and I've also found what sounds like the perfect car for me, although its 100 miles away and I haven't seen any pictures of it yet.

 

[Alps]

Hi, just caught this thread

it took me 8 mnths to find an E55 of the correct spec\standard, so dont rush into it! also try and get a later one.

air suspension - raise and lower the car using the buttons make sure all the corners are equal height. anyone else have any suggestions?

electrics - make sure all the seat buttons work, also if it has dynamic seats, make sure these work on BOTH sides (drivers and passengers).

there were quiet a few E500`s with the AMG styling package which made them look more like the E55`s, so worth looking at that too.

Pana roof \comand\keyless were all must haves for me, go to the parkers website and see the options list on the w211 e500 and try and get one with as many toys as possible.

good luck!

 

[Tan]

I don't understand how people choose their options sometime, like the above car that has lots of extra's keyless go, distronic etc, yet no Parktronic, seams odd to me.

 

[speedyyellow]

Tell me about it, I was sure that one had Parktronic, because well, with all the other kit it had why wouldn't it??