W221, is the 2010 on facelift model a lot better than the pre-facelift

[gus0898uk]

Hello members, I have a 2006 pre-facelift S class (132K) which I bought last October, my first Merc.

I did go to a dealer to look at a 2010 post facelift model first, but I was unable to get a deal done, so I bought my 2006 from another dealer.
I have been pretty happy with my car, but there are 2 or 3 glitches and next week I am having a new air con compressor fitted as my AC has never worked,

My annual mileage is very small but I can afford to go for a 2010-2012 model which seem very good value for a 90K-100K car, would I really know that I had a better model car if I upgraded? TIA

 

[John]

If you are just upgrading for the sake of it, you are playing the lottery somewhat because you might end up with something better but you might also end up with something worse than what you have!

Have a look at the Wikipedia for the W221 and scroll down to the 2009 (MY2010) facelift changes:

Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W221) - Wikipedia

The main thing that is different visually I remember (I've not looked into it for 5 years when I was considering a 2010 S500L) are the tail lights. On the facelift they are mostly red with no body-colour.

In terms of engines, not sure what you have now but from 2011 (so beyond the facelift), you get the 4.7 twin turbo V8 with 7g+ gearbox in the S500L instead of the older 5.5 NA with older 7g. 7g+ is a lot more refined and fuel-efficient (not that it makes much difference on an S500L but you get the same newer gearbox on all models from 2011).

Don't know about other engines though as I would never and will never buy a diesel and the V12 is not for me given the extra weight and the fact the coil packs die quite a bit!

Would you notice much difference? It's subjective but I would be surprised if you could really tell the difference if you bought two similarly-spec'd cars, but one post-facelift and one pre-facelift.

I had a 2013/63 CL500 (which was actually built in 2011) and that is an S500 with a coupe body. I never had any issues with that but I did have quite a few glitches with my previous 2004/54 W211 E55K.

Really depends what glitches you have at the moment and whether those are underlying and not a result of say your main and / or aux batteries in poor condition.

 

[gus0898uk]

Thanks very much John, I am still pretty open about upgrading. It sounds a bit ladylike, but I do like the colour of my present car, it is a grey colour rather than silver and has a black interior. I have no sunroof though, my steering only goes in and out and not up and down and I do like models with the passenger side wing mirror that dips when reversing.
If I did upgrade it would be through a dealer and the car would have to be as straight as possible.

 

[Smiley]

If you are currently running a diesel and you "upgrade" to a newer facelift diesel then it will be euro 6 and have the ad blue system fitted - and you can look forward to a world of pain with ad blue system problems, failing sensors and DPF issues. The one to have is the S500.

 

[John]

Thanks very much John, I am still pretty open about upgrading. It sounds a bit ladylike, but I do like the colour of my present car, it is a grey colour rather than silver and has a black interior. I have no sunroof though, my steering only goes in and out and not up and down and I do like models with the passenger side wing mirror that dips when reversing.
If I did upgrade it would be through a dealer and the car would have to be as straight as possible.

Colour was always a big part of my decision-making when I bought cars I really wanted in years gone by. If a car is not for A to B, then usually a number of factors are important to fellow petrolheads.

You could argue with no sunroof there is less to go wrong (I have no sunroof in my 222 S500 either!).

You could get the steering adjustment fixed. You are not a million miles away from MSLP in Brum who would be able to sort that out at reasonable cost. Sounds like just a duff motor / stalk swap out within a steering column casing removal / refit.

You may have the dipping mirror (I've no idea if an option but I suspect standard) but it needs "setting" to dip.

Every car I've ever had this feature on "forgets" and ends up not doing it.

I've read the procedure on here but I think what is required is to set the mirror to passenger side, put the car in reverse and adjust the mirror down.

Then the car must have the passenger mirror selected for it to work in reverse.

That could well be why it didn't work for me as I usually end up leaving it on driver side mirror!

My personal view is it is quite expensive to change cars (especially when trading and buying from a main dealer - that's one of the larger "gaps"), so unless you are changing from say a cooking model to an AMG, or vice versa, or you have another reason (like your current car is unreliable or not longer does what you want/need), I'd save the cash and then upgrade it later on.

 

[gus0898uk]

Thanks very much John a lot of good info there for me to get my head around.