Bear Posted February 25 Author Posted February 25 About last night... Cold start the day after a new purchase is peak anxiety time. Okay - no weirdness, but the bonnet sticks up a bit. The colour needs so much polish but it'll look amazing Apparently this is supposed to be here Because of this bumper design and mesh sections, the wheels, and once upon a time sport suspension and a nicer exhaust. Bonnet where it should be - there was a bolt missing on that latch. privatewire, EyesWeldedShut, Wibble and 13 others 14 2
bangernomics Posted February 25 Posted February 25 Bought from a nice bit of the world too. Hope this one treats you well.
Bear Posted February 25 Author Posted February 25 2 hours ago, bangernomics said: Bought from a nice bit of the world too. Hope this one treats you well. It should - I'd have said Hi but gf was doing the logistics and I dawdled enough looking at the car apparently 😂 bangernomics 1
Markeh Posted February 25 Posted February 25 Looks like that's been through High Peak Autos according to the plates. Hoping this is one that he massively overspent on and won't want much! Dan29 and mercedade 2
Bear Posted February 25 Author Posted February 25 21 minutes ago, Markeh said: Looks like that's been through High Peak Autos according to the plates. Hoping this is one that he massively overspent on and won't want much! Is that a thing? It does have receipts from there.
EspenO Posted February 25 Posted February 25 The owner has a youtube channel of the same name, he buys a few pet projects which he as @Markeh says usually overspends on. (Well, the thumbnails say so, anyway). He likes a Mercedes.Â
Bear Posted February 26 Author Posted February 26 I'll have a look - whoever put that plate on is on my shitlist though, as they made four holes no-one needed to attach the plate badly with self-tappers to the bodywork, instead of fixing the seized but undamaged plate carrier screws and rivnuts... Schaefft 1
Weird Car Posted February 26 Posted February 26 I’ve just caught up with this thread! HOLE E SHIT that RX7 and Audi are things of beauty! yes oui si 1
Bear Posted February 26 Author Posted February 26 3 hours ago, Weird Car said: I’ve just caught up with this thread! HOLE E SHIT that RX7 and Audi are things of beauty! The RX-7 I really want to get mobile, and hopefully the car shenanigans underway at the moment will result in some progress on that finally - the Audi I think will be even nicer when the headlining is done. Once I reach the end point on that one, I might sell it if I can find a 'more than four cylinders'  petrol Mercedes estate (C or E) I like. Quite tempted to have a C-Class estate analogue of the C320 SportCoupe and a CLK Cabrio of the same generation for 'same car different purpose' vibe.
Bear Posted February 27 Author Posted February 27 Details matter... You can buy cheap replacement shells, copies, but I found what looked like an unused second key from a breaker on eBay for less. Swapped internals, now have a really nice key. Â Both are getting done as I found two that looked good enough. I wonder if the electronics I don't need can be paired to a car... And another detail... This was a pain... The usual rivnut issues meant I fitted the holder by cutting it so I could slot it over the seized screws. It's very secure and it suggests how confident I am that this is staying! I hadn't thought it wouldn't be, but another useful element... Jim Bell, vtec-e, bangernomics and 3 others 6
Bear Posted February 28 Author Posted February 28 I wanted CarPlay, so an Android car audio upgrade seems good. I found one on eBay with a fitting kit. Looks alright! I like the rear view mirror camera thing And fitting was a breeze - though we've got three cameras and a Canbus kit, and rain, it's all done and I only had a C320 for a couple of days! yes oui si, dome, privatewire and 3 others 6
Bear Posted February 28 Author Posted February 28 How many left suggests 530 or so C320 sportcoupes were sold in the UK, 26 2005 and around 256 in 2003 and 2004 - a handful of manual ones. Of those 199 appear to remain. Of those 120 are on the road. This is a rare car, no wonder I had trouble finding one. privatewire, yes oui si and Jim Bell 3
Bear Posted February 28 Author Posted February 28 Finding one? I'm good at installing gadgets, but... maybe not that good. That's 1% of all apparently surviving UK registered C320 SportCoupes there. What happened? I went after the original lead, sounded good, but saw one on eBay literally in the next town - reserve met at £800. I messaged before it ended but didn't have time to view it - and when I saw the first car it sounded like the other one had sold and to my mind - who wouldn't follow through with that win? It's the same mileage, not AMG Evo but does have a pano top, and the owner has had it for nearly 7 years and had good reasons for selling it, all disclosed. So I bought the AMG Evo and I like it enough, for what I paid it wasn't unfair and the wheels and bumpers and colour and history folder are all good things. But then it turns out the "winner" of the other car... didn't show up. Dilemma! Compared with the "It's an AMG Evo the bumper is worth £500 mate" and radio on during test drive and "I've got an appointment" speed up the "I'll sleep on it" practised used car sales technique - not that I think the seller was specifically a trader, more a collector, but selling it for the money and steering away from the issues with the car. Notably the broken sunroof mechanism when we'd talked about the sunroof before I went to see it... ...the seller of the second car had three cats at his house all of which had decided they lived there and chosen his place, nattered for ages about the car, told me everything wrong with it and joked about not touching the sunroof just in case because he hadn't opened it for two years, and after a jokey "sold as seen" throwing away the receipt he'd done in advance said if it did blow up on the way home I could have my money back. Originally I was thinking of it as being likely to be spares for the AMG Evo - eBay parcel shelf £71, for example - ten of those and it's a whole car, let alone pano roof, gearbox, engine, etc things - and the nice CarPlay radio and /three/ cameras - dashcam, reverse cam, rear view cam, display mirror with speed display, etc. would easily be £300 (the Android radio is sufficiently posh that when it connected to WiFi it had an official over the air update - and it's running Android 14). He sounded so sad when I mentioned the possibility of it being a backup/spares car given the price, but when I saw the car and said it was more likely to be the one I use, much happier. I suspect we were both thinking "how has this ended up so cheap". Maybe the fears of scary tax are keeping people away? Really is a pleasure to buy a car from someone who likes cats, gen X culture stuff, can fix cars, and wants to natter /after/ you've paid for the car. Very reassuring! Even the drive home I'm thinking "well, the AMG Evo suspension stuff maybe isn't bullshit - this is way more comfortable!" Did it blow up? Of course not. The car has just done a run to Bromsgrove, Rowley-Regis and back and not missed a beat. Both of then could use a gearbox service I think, and the second one does smoke a little when booted despite having had new valve stem seals recently, but it did clear up a little after a few miles on a fresh tank of V-Power. And I have a suspicion it will clean up very nicely indeed before... ...I take it to Mercedes for the sunroof recall to be carried out which I assume involves them taking it apart and it being functional when they've finished! Six-cylinder, Schaefft, RoadworkUK and 6 others 9
Bear Posted March 1 Author Posted March 1 I asked AI to generate a CL203... Almost. Shuffling Dumb & Dumber (decisions?) The cheap one is doing the work And play with a nice drive around Ladybower... Via Halfords for cleaning things Someone isn't happy for being in the path of the dirty spray Took far too long with breaks for pain - need my pressure washers to work again. But I wanted to clean the green mossy bits off. 300 miles done since picking it up including Bromsgrove run, computer reckons 30mpg and average 41mph, and it definitely has a double personality sort of purring about and then a subtle howl and decent shove when you ask it to move. Needs front bushes and tyres that don't have words like "Royal" on them. Dabooka, yes oui si, Fat_Pirate and 4 others 7
Bear Posted March 1 Author Posted March 1 No idea why these cars are so under the radar, they're really quite good. Very happy about the non-paying eBayer! Dabooka, yes oui si, Christine and 1 other 4
Bear Posted March 1 Author Posted March 1 Couldn't resist trying a clay bar to see what this car might end up like... After... Yes I missed many bits. Cookiesouwest, yes oui si, Christine and 2 others 5
yes oui si Posted March 2 Posted March 2 Merc, I wanna clean you with a clay bar... privatewire, Bear and bangernomics 2 1
Bear Posted March 2 Author Posted March 2 I was really annoyed about the sunroof on the AMG kitted car. But I got brave and tried the black car one. Promising stuff... Try the blinds... front moves, no crunch noises! Hold the button to learn one-touch... and then try again and Shitshit what if it doesn't close... Better try the slide... Clean up a few bits (the spoiler sticking would definitely harm the guides). Open air... But... closed air? Phew! What a delight! I think the back blind just needs guides replacing as the cable detaches, but the blind is secure. Fat_Pirate, yes oui si, Wibble and 4 others 7
Bear Posted March 3 Author Posted March 3 Several people have said the AMG Evo shouldn't have a performance badge. But I am fairly sure it should just like many other dull Mercs wearing it for an AMG-look package. It's meaningless these days, only the letter and two digit designation counts. But the other car is also apparently Sport Evolution, just not AMG. The guy I bought the black car from - definitely a Hoopy Frood. So to highlight its performance credentials... The colour is hard to photograph on the AMGisb. But it is nice when the sun hits it. Bonus for the day's many things, a successful MOT for the SLK - just advisories for tired tyres and surface corrosion on suspension arms. AnnoyingPentium, yes oui si, Cookiesouwest and 3 others 6
Bear Posted March 3 Author Posted March 3 i'll stop with the C320s soon - but I fixed* the Karcher... Now where's my logbook! Need to put the right plate on 😂 This is just washed and a couple of marks done with the clay bar. No energy to do it all. But... once it's had some clearcoat restorer and nice ceramic wax, and the headlight polished... *tipped it over a few times looking at the screws, swore at it, kicked it, looked at the fuse in the plug again and checked it again, cursed Karcher, dragged it outside to throw away and decided to try it again. Upon which it worked. Which it hasn't done since two uses after it was repaired under warranty last year and I'd given up on the damn thing because the warranty process was so tedious it would have been better to buy a new one. AnnoyingPentium, yes oui si and privatewire 3
DaveDorson Posted March 3 Posted March 3 Hang on.. you've ended up with a pair!  Nicely done. Don't fancy a W211 E280 CDI do you?
Bear Posted March 3 Author Posted March 3 1 hour ago, DaveDorson said: Hang on.. you've ended up with a pair!  Nicely done. Don't fancy a W211 E280 CDI do you? Yes, but only one has real performance credentials... I did consider parting with one, but I'll run them alternately for maintenance and so forth so I can repair the broken sunroof on the first one. No more though! The only other car change I'd consider is the Audi - to a six or eight cylinder petrol auto C-Class or E-Class estate, maybe an ML 500, or a LWB A210 Evo with lamella roof (of which one sold at auction in the past few months but the MOT history was not compelling). DaveDorson 1
Fabergé Greggs Posted March 4 Posted March 4 12 hours ago, Bear said: Yes, but only one has real performance credentials... I did consider parting with one, but I'll run them alternately for maintenance and so forth so I can repair the broken sunroof on the first one. No more though! The only other car change I'd consider is the Audi - to a six or eight cylinder petrol auto C-Class or E-Class estate, maybe an ML 500, or a LWB A210 Evo with lamella roof (of which one sold at auction in the past few months but the MOT history was not compelling). Wow I somehow missed the arrival of the Audi, it’s incredible. Give me a heads up if you’re considering selling Â
Bear Posted March 4 Author Posted March 4 8 minutes ago, Fabergé Greggs said: Wow I somehow missed the arrival of the Audi, it’s incredible. Give me a heads up if you’re considering selling  When it arrived I got similar messages 😂 I don't want to sell it - but it might be pragmatic to. However, it won't be for a while as I need to retrim the headlining and sunroof trim (I did the seal, but the vent trim fell off with me using it) and want to finish repairing the dashboard etc. Really want to feel like I saw this one through as the limit isn't talent, it's money to spend on things - and since the car is SORN, under cover, and not needed for transport - there's no pressure to spend. If anything the pair of C320s makes that even less stressful!
Bear Posted March 4 Author Posted March 4 Not that I'm petty, but... I had a spare Mercedes badge. Both C320s have lost their blue and look a bit flat. So who will get the shiny? The expensive, fancy AMG kitted one? No. Not when I'm gathering part numbers to rebuild a sunroof. Trying to make some progress on polishing. And fitting the plate carrier (still waiting for logbooks though, WTF post?). Not exactly matching plates but it still amuses me. TBF the badges aren't expensive and the greenish car will get one too. Tried to find more numbers on these - it seems the CL203 found 283,000 willing owners around the world (it is suggested that the C-Class estate was 330,000 and saloons, 1.4 million. Of those 283,000 apparently there were... 4000 C320s. Worldwide. I can't believe it would be so few. Wibble, IronStar, privatewire and 1 other 4
Schaefft Posted March 4 Posted March 4 The 3.2 V6 is an unusually large engine for what was intended to be an E46 Compact fighter (which topped out at 2.5l). It's still surprising only 4000 got that engine though. I wonder how many C350s they sold in this body style?
Bear Posted March 4 Author Posted March 4 20 minutes ago, Schaefft said: The 3.2 V6 is an unusually large engine for what was intended to be an E46 Compact fighter (which topped out at 2.5l). It's still surprising only 4000 got that engine though. I wonder how many C350s they sold in this body style? Probably 3
Bear Posted March 4 Author Posted March 4 C350s are very rare but there are two for sale - and one... https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202503250552714 This one. Is in the narrow window before horrible tax! 272PS in a 4.3m RWD tiny Mercedes... for £2K. And it has AMG kit, nice stereo, parktronic, electric seat... https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202512188684075 Â
Bear Posted March 5 Author Posted March 5 Taxi services deployed, meeting @Macscrooge - thankyou! - and then ferrying the SLK's new owner to the SLK.. Sunroof open... yep. This beast is an excellent choice of car for me. Having a backup copy is nice too. Going to get new arms on the front and new tyres, then enjoy. privatewire, yes oui si, Schaefft and 2 others 5
GeorgeB Posted March 5 Posted March 5 20 hours ago, Bear said: C350s are very rare but there are two for sale - and one... https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202503250552714 This one. Is in the narrow window before horrible tax! 272PS in a 4.3m RWD tiny Mercedes... for £2K. And it has AMG kit, nice stereo, parktronic, electric seat... https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202512188684075  Discover this 2005 Mercedes Benz C Class C350 SE, a refined saloon offering a blend of performance and practicality. Fuck off! Bear, mercedade and IronStar 2 1
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