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Thread: Samoht - Mercedes C55 AMG Estate

  1. #1
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    Samoht - Mercedes C55 AMG Estate

    Have to admit, I'm a bit excited to write this

    The seller wanted to head up North to look at an E63, so we arranged to meet at Stevenage station. This made it a 40 minute train ride and similar-length drive back, rather than more than twice that to get down to the far side of London. So an easy trip, and a familiar 45 minute drive home.

    Paid the seller by bank transfer from my phone, ensured he got his stuff out of the car, and opened the laptop to tax it online. Paid for the car parking and eased out onto the ring road.

    First impressions - the car is mint inside, genuinely could be new despite its 99k miles. The parking sensors are smart, with a little display in the roof so when you crane your neck backwards you get the visual feedback about how much clearance you have. Visibility is generally decent, you can see plenty to your left when pulling in after overtaking, the bonnet slopes down more than you'd think, so the low nose gives you a good view of the road immediately ahead. You wouldn't think it has such a big engine up front, but of course that's what the V8 package gives you.

    This is the first automatic I've had, which took a tiny bit of getting used to especially the feeling that you have to fight the engine when starting to apply the brakes. Having said that, it has a lot of benefits, makes entering roundabouts easier for one.

    Taking it cautiously across a dual carriageway roundabout, a red Audi TT came past me at speed. As he passed I pulled out into his wake and instinctively squeezed the throttle, this wonderful bub-bub-bub growl arose from behind - not super-loud, but enough to make me start laughing in the car There's a single-carriageway leg of the journey later, and I was behind another driver who was obviously keen to press on, so we both made a couple of overtakes when it was clear. The engine and gearbox team up well together, it's always 'ready to go' when you see the opportunity, so with the visibility makes overtaking straightforward.

    The cruise control is also good when passing speed cameras.

    The car felt good in roundabouts, the steering has a reassuring weight and 'tips in' to turns nicely. At lower speeds when you try and spin the wheel quickly, I felt a bit of inertia in it, unsure if this is the PAS or just how it is. So perhaps not the best for autocross, but in higher speed turns it's rather good. Overall it's a fairly compact car (68" or 173cm across) which feels wieldy with the good visibility and taut well-weighted steering, just how I like it.

    A few pics of the car on my drive. The seller washed it last night, but it's done 100+ miles on damp winter roads so is far from pristine. The car's on it's 17" winter wheels with Pirelli Sottozero winters; the original staggered 18"s in mint condition are now tucked up in my garage. The winters are same size all round so don't fill the rear arches, but a small price to pay for not crashing in the snow ;-)




    Last edited by samoht; December 5th, 2020 at 08:40 AM.

  2. #2
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    What a nice looking and fast, yet practical ride!

  3. #3
    Corvette Enthusiast Kchrpm's Avatar
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    Seems like quite the catch, glad it all worked out!
    Get that weak shit off my track

  4. #4
    Junior Potato
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    The topic title almost reads like Sauber Mercedes C55 AMG

  5. #5
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    Fucking sweet

  6. #6
    Jedi Cam's Avatar
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  7. #7
    Spiny beast TheBenior's Avatar
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    Very nice, I wish we had more of these in the states.

    Heck, I wish VW had sold the MK7.5 GTI in wagon form. I would've bought that instead of my hatchback style.

  8. #8
    Looks brilliant! What year is it again? Again with our similarities - I bought my German comfort-mobile with 98K miles on it. Approaching 120K now, having traveled across the US 5 times.

    How does the suspension feel? One of the things that has been love/hate about my 328i is the suspension. I love it when there are bumps in the road as it just soaks them up. On the other hand some of the engineering seems too overboard in that direction, particularly for a Sport package car. It doesn't feel connected enough through my bum. I suspect much of it is bushing compliance - some of the bushings have quite a bit of void area in them. The car tightened up a lot with fresh dampers and mounts, and I've added a stiffer front sway bar which also helped with front end response and composure. I feel like there is more needed particularly at the rear. Subframe bushing inserts are next on the list. I think I really wanted an M3. [Much better bushings all around]

    Compact/midsize RWD wagons are the best.

  9. #9
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    This car was registered Jan 2007, so one of the last of the W203 C-classes, before the W204 arrived. The previous owner put 20k miles on it in under two years, I probably won't rack up as much as that.

    Suspension is fairly taut, it does bump a bit over poor surfaces around town although probably no worse than the Z, probably slightly better and the comfortable seats help. This was seen as an E46 M3 rival at the time, although obviously back then, Mercs were always more isolated than BMWs. Haven't really driven it enough to judge the handling feel.

    The traction is surprisingly good on the winter tyres, it's cold and damp here now, I joined an empty motorway yesterday and it just squatted, hooked up and went, love the torque of this thing and the way it pulls smoothly through the revs. The autobox works well when you want to accelerate, seems to get the power flowing smoothly yet immediately.

    On a less positive note I put some CDs in the changer in the glovebox and it promptly jammed - pressing eject does nothing, I can see one of the CD trays is extended so presumably failing to return to the changer. Hope I can fix this!

  10. #10
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    Time to upgrade to Android Auto.

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