Yamazaki's '05 M-B E500 8/23/15 Gone!

[Yamazaki]

This is the wife's daily since I am taking the H6 offline to do its restoration.
Pics from the day I bought it:



Stats:
5.0L V8
All wheel drive
5 speed auto

Options:
COMAND Navigation
Dynamic seats
Airmatic suspension
Keyless GO
Headlight sprayers
HID Xenon adaptive headlights
Parktronic
Premium Audio
Heated seats
Power rear roller blind
Updated electronics

Modifications:
Sport front grille
Hood emblem delete
Tint (35% all around)
Aftermarket taillights

To do list:
Trunk lip spoiler
Rear window spoiler

[amgarrety]

...taking it to the dealer and getting charged a Spanish galleon full of gold doubloons every time I retrofit an option on the car...

Sounds about right. Do you have to take it to the dealer to get the electronic options enabled? I could see why the would charge an arm and a leg. Those would've been options you had to pay quite a bit for when buying it new, and the software to do it yourself isn't easy to get.

[amusa]

...taking it to the dealer and getting charged a Spanish galleon full of gold doubloons every time I retrofit an option on the car...

Sounds about right. Do you have to take it to the dealer to get the electronic options enabled? I could see why the would charge an arm and a leg. Those would've been options you had to pay quite a bit for when buying it new, and the software to do it yourself isn't easy to get.

No. Used to be back in the day if the vehicle was not equipped with HIDs. To put in HID's in you had to have the dealer with the STAR tool to enable the setting in the software. Now you don't have to anymore just get a CAN-BUS HID kit. Same as for LED's they need to be CAN-BUS.

2005 the Tele-Aid was switched to digital from analog. For me and other owners have (2) options is to do the upgrade for $2,500 or get lucky and have it turned off from using the STAR tool. For me I did not get so lucky so I have ignore the error message since day 1.

I have owned my 2004 Mercedes CLK500 for 6+ years now.

YamazakiSubaru
I have a mechanic in G'burg that does all my general maintenance on all my vehicles incld the Mercedes. For any major work I have a guy that I know is a mechanic for Euro Motor Cars in Germantown. That does it on the side at his house in Frederick. I would be concern with the transmission that was the first year that they came out with the 6 gear. I know people were having issue on the 2005 model.

[Yamazaki]

I would be concern with the transmission that was the first year that they came out with the 6 gear. I know people were having issue on the 2005 model.

The trans has been great so far. No issues at all. In fact, it's the reason we got the RWD instead of the 4matic. I didn't like the 5peed, but the 7 speed is amazing (which first came out in '03). I don't know about a 6 speed.
As for everything else, I plan to get ahold of the SBS myself so I don't need to worry about the programming when I retrofit the more technically challenging options like Distronic.

[Yamazaki]

As promised, here are pictures of the car:

[Yamazaki]

And here's what it looks like now:

[rkrenicki]

Wow, amazing work in such a short period of time!

[geckoboy86]

Lol.

[amgarrety]

I knew it was just a matter of time until it became some shade of blue.

I should've put money down on it.

Who did the work? The same guys who did the Blitzen? Or somewhere better?

[Yamazaki]

I knew it was just a matter of time until it became some shade of blue.

I should've put money down on it.

Who did the work? The same guys who did the Blitzen? Or somewhere better?

No, I actually bought another car. No joke. I didn't like the prospect of the retrofit, and everything else, so I traded it in for another '05 E500. But this one is loaded with options. It has a couple downsides, but the trade offs were worth it.

Items added:
Parktronic
Dynamic seats
Keyless GO
HID Xenon headlights
Headlight sprayers
Premium audio
Navigation
All wheel drive

Items lost:
Black interior (it's grey now)
Sweet 7 speed trans (it's 5 speed now)

[Dead91silvia]

Oh brother... You are crazy man. How did the wife take it?

[Yamazaki]

Oh brother... You are crazy man. How did the wife take it?

She said this better mean that I am not going to mess with it. And plans I had for the Impreza also got scrapped. So it's basically "no more money on cars".

So I'd like to say there will be even less activity in my threads than usual. We'll see how well I stick to that.

[98legwag]

The funny thing is I was thinking "did he buy a different one?" That was a lot of changes pretty quick.

[amusa]

Never knew the 500 came in 4matic....

[Yamazaki]

So much for no more mods. I put on a new grill and did the emblem delete. I'm ordering taillights next.

[MRLancaster]

Hehe, looks great! I knew the no more mods wouldnt last long.

[geckoboy86]

That grille makes it look like a proper merc

[amgarrety]

Hah! Of course there were going to be modifications, I mean, you already had the grille.....

Also, is this the Merc you first passed up on for the 7 speed?

Also also, are these headlights less dangerous than the halogens? I would imagine so, but the lack of light output from the halogens was outstanding. I was wondering how much of a difference there was.

[Dead91silvia]

So much for no more mods. I put on a new grill and did the emblem delete. I'm ordering taillights next.

Are these that same parts you had got for the original car?

[Yamazaki]

Are these that same parts you had got for the original car?

Yes they are. That's why there wasn't even a day between the time I got the car and the time I put that stuff on.

Also, is this the Merc you first passed up on for the 7 speed?

Also also, are these headlights less dangerous than the halogens? I would imagine so, but the lack of light output from the halogens was outstanding. I was wondering how much of a difference there was.

This is a different car. The one we passed up was black with black interior, but only the same options as the first E500 we got. All else being the same, I'd still take the RWD 7 spd over the AWD 5 spd.
The headlights are amazing. They work very well and are 'adaptive', meaning when I go around a corner they turn in the direction I am going.

However, I am not a fan of the place we got the car. They gave us two keys but one isn't even for this car, and the owners manuals are all for an '06 S class. To top it off, even though the car is navigation capable, they kept the navigation disk.

Ghey.

[98legwag]

Just curious as to where you bought this one? When I bought my 3.0R they gave me two keys. One had a dead battery which was slightly annoying. I bought it as Koons Ford/Nissan in Falls Church, VA.

[Dead91silvia]

Thats a drag... Have you talked to them about the key and the disk?

Does this one have the radar cruise or no?

[MRLancaster]

Glad to hear the headlights are much better! I hated driving that thing when it came to the lack of light!

[Yamazaki]

This post is about a week late, but...

It turns out that the "new" car already had its electronics upgraded, so that spares me about four hours at the dealer. I also subscribed to the mBrace service. It's gimmicky, but I will definitely cancel it before the trial period ends. It isn't worth the yearly fee, even if it were free. Taillights should be here in a few days and tint should be done in a couple weeks (the shop I like is backed up).

After that's all done all I want is a trunk lip spoiler and a rear window spoiler and I can call it good. Maybe down the line I'd like axleback exhausts and a bumper that shows them off, but that'll cost a bit so I'm not in a hurry.

[Dead91silvia]

Your not going to do the tail lights yourself?

[Yamazaki]

Your not going to do the tail lights yourself?

I am, but I can't change them until they get here and that'll be a few days.

[Dead91silvia]

Oh, ok. I miss read it. Your talking about the tint shop. I dont do tint either. Though I have thought about giving it a try on my Ford truck.

[Yamazaki]

New LED taillights and 35% tint all around (I didn't want to wait, so I went somewhere else). I wanted 45% in the front, but they said they didn't have it. The tint looks la little too light to be 35% though....

Tint:


taillight comparison:


Installed!

[amgarrety]

Everything you're doing to this car is right.

[Dead91silvia]

Like the tint, not a fan of the tail lights though.