My New Ride Is Coming! (Hopefully)
 

My new car journey is apparently nearing an end! I was going to do a thread months ago but was honestly not sure that my order was going to go through due to the automotive chip shortage, COVID delays, etc.

Here's what happened....I currently drive a 2014 Mercedes Benz CLS 550, I've always enjoyed it, nice comfortable care to drive. I was planning on trading it in for something next year, when it had about 85 - 90,000 miles on it. I've kept it looking almost new. So back in late December, I took it in for a service, one of my injector coils went out but it was an inexpensive repair, couple of hundred dollars. When I went to pick it up, the service advisor looked at me and said that in their inspection, they...."found something". Immediately I thought...oh hell. They found several oil seals leaking. So I asked him, well, how much would it be to fix it like it's supposed to? He responded with a stutter and then........$13,000! :eek2: He told me they could go in there, clean it up nice and do a temporary seal but that would still run about $3,500 and would probably last about 1 to 2 years. He told me that it's not bad right now, doing nothing I'd be OK for probably about 6 to 12 months, but then you'd start seeing oil. So like any good Audio Aficionado member, I thought, YES, new car time!

I did a ton of looking and reading and after a month or two, I decided on a 2021 E 53 AMG. I thought about going for a BMW M5 or E 63 AMG, but I'm still toting the kids around etc and those two really would be a bit of overkill. At the beginning of February, I put in an order and spec'd it out. It took 3 weeks just to find an allocation here in Atlanta but finally got one scheduled to be built at the end of May. I spoke to my dealer on Friday and he said it's locked and should be done the second week of June. :banana: I have a couple of pictures that I snapped back in January of some customer's car with the same color scheme that I ordered...I think it's really sharp, going with the Selenite Grey Metallic, black AMG wheels and Nappa greyblack interior:

https://i.imgur.com/ZhooVg2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xcJvoAV.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/4JPy1K4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NMr1Lmg.jpg

Car and Driver has the E 53 as the number one car in it's class as well as Motor Trend giving the E class the Car of the Year award in '21. Here's some pics of the interior I went with. Performance wise, it's MB's inline six cylinder with 429 HP and reached 0-60 in 3.9 sec and STILL gets almost 31 MPG on the highway!!!!! That's what I'm talking about!

I'm going with the Titanium grey/black Nappa leather interior with red stitching, it's pretty much awesome. You have an option of black or red seat belts....I'm not a flashy guy whatsoever, but I said wth and am doing the RED seat belts. I just think it looks seriously cool, I must be about the only one since most if not all the cars I saw online have the black belts.

https://smartcdn.prod.postmedia.digi...pg&w=800&h=520

https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/9M...s-amg-e-53.jpg

Euro model w/red seat belts:

https://images.cdn.circlesix.co/imag...412_084608.jpg


Car and Driver review:
https://www.caranddriver.com/mercedes-amg/e53

Buck... Super Sweet ride! Big Congrats :banana:

here's a couple of stock photos:

https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/OO...s-amg-e-53.jpg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BFwk9-CPmIg/maxresdefault.jpg

My New Ride Is Coming! (Hopefully)
 

Beautiful car Buck, that’s going to be a really cool ride. But you’re definitely going to need a new hat to go with those seatbelts.
https://img.wondercostumes.com/produ...d-pimp-hat.jpg

Very nice - congratulations!

Congrats, that is a beautiful car!

Beautiful car. Congrats buck!

Buck... congrats!
Cool ride indeed.

But it's not cool that a Mercedes with only 80K miles on it has this kind of problem...

Very nice. :thumbsup: Terrific looking ride.
Wife's C350 Sport ~same color as your pic's and over 90K miles. Also had an oil leak (cam seal gaskets), but thankfully was only an $800 fix. Keep trying to talk her in something new. But, her car is like a billfold for us guys.................. once comfortable she never wants to change.

That is a great looking car, Buck.

Congratulations!

Yeah, I know. I had already just started thinking/looking anyway. If I had been planning on keeping the car a bit longer I would’ve been much more upset.

Buck,...seeing it first hand, your existing vehicle looks and drives like it just rolled out of the dealer showroom, sorry to hear it has to go as I know how much you like it.

Now, onto the new soon to arrive seriously BAD ASS ride......CONGRATULATIONS!!!

"I did a ton of looking and reading and after a month or two, I decided on a 2021 E 53 AMG. I thought about going for a BMW M5 or E 63 AMG, but I'm still toting the kids around etc and those two really would be a bit of overkill"

Hear hear....I agree, the M5 and E63 AMG would definitely be overkill....I am so glad to see you went conservative and moderately powered at only 429 HP... [emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]

Very happy for you Buck!!!

Sweet ride Buck - congrats! The interior of the Mercs is first class, and they still drive hard and sound unreal!

See Mark, it's just a boring 4 door family sedan.........gotta carry around the two kiddos you know.

- Buck

[emoji106][emoji1787]

Congratulations! Drive it in good health!

You guys should hear some of the car stories they’ve told me over the last several months....My salesperson has been at RBM Atlanta (one of Atlanta’s oldest) MB dealers since the early 1980s....he said he has NEVER seen anything like this. He told me in early May that they wouldn’t fill anymore 2021 orders, they’re all pushed to ‘22 models. The combination of the chip shortages, COVID delays and then the demand still being sky high for luxury and performance cars has made it unprecedented. He said it’s so bad that they’re trying to figure out how to keep people from buying and flipping cars online....models like the GLS suv and the G Wagons. During my shopping, MB Atlanta NE told me they had an 18 month, over 20 person long waiting list for a new G Wagon.

RBM had a G550 in their showroom. They scotch taped an 8&1/2 x 11 white piece of copy paper to the passenger side window that said “MSRP +30,000 market adjustment” 30K!!! That’s insane! They sold it. Incredible.

- Buck

One car they may be having a tough time selling is this new 2020 E 63 AMG in a special order Mauritius Blue color, black AMG wheels and CC Brakes. If you like blue cars, this one sure is purty:

https://i.imgur.com/H7UyQOE.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tcMKxsi.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/lfFzInD.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/REZjxrZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/geEGayz.jpg

All can be yours for a low low price of $143,000. Not quite as fast as Ivan's Huracan Evo, but with this one you can haul both ass and stuff!

I like blue cars… but a blue Merc?

My main worry on this pricing bubble is that the dealers will "get a taste" for the inflated profits and then manipulate inventory after this shortage is over to keep their prices above sticker....it may not be a real worry however human nature in car sales can just as easily go the way of real estate and other markets where games are played.

Even at sticker price G550s (and predecessors) have always seemed heavily over-priced to me.
The price differential between the E53 & E63 falls into the same 'over-priced' category.

With that beige leather, oh yes!

Glenn - I've really never understood the G Wagon obsession....yeah they look kind of cool and all, but for what you get vs. the price/gas mileage, just doesn't compute with me. Maybe it's different in Europe or elsewhere, but down here in a city like Atlanta, it's purely 100% status symbol and nothing else. As for the 53 vs. 63s, that's the primary reason I went with the 53.....everything is identical except for the hand built V8 engine of course...which is a big deal. That being said, I just don't know what I would do with over 600 HP pulling up in the carpool line to pick up my 10 year old. I figured the E 53 would be plenty. :D:D

Bart - The 63s is beautiful, I spent a good 15 minutes sitting in the driver's seat. The beige interior is awesome on that blue color.

- Buck

My New Ride Is Coming! (Hopefully)
 

I think a Blue Mercedes would be a nice add to our Silver Porsche and Red Mustang! $143k would eat into the audio upgrade budget though. Hmmmm.

Tom - Ha! Yes it would! I wonder what Kind of $$$ they would be willing to do on that? I know for a fact it's been on their showroom floor since at least last January. I think my salesperson said it was a custom special order that fell through at the last minute. They also had a custom "Tiffany blue" E 63s station wagon on the floor next to it for awhile but that sold almost immediately. Unreal.

- Buck

I read this article awhile ago and found it pretty interesting.

80% of cars are white, grey, or black. Next is blue, then red.

http://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/09/22/m...heres-why.html

I think deep, rich colors can look great on smaller cars

Congrats on the new E53 AMG. Sure you will enjoy it. I just recently took delivery of a 21 AMG E Wagon. Ordered end of December for Mid March production and delivered first week of May. Great daily driver and very much an under the radar car. The new MBUX system in E series is great once you get the hang of it. Mine is graphite grey with night package. Hopefully yours will be on a boat soon

Oh and the engine is not too bad either

For reference, my fun cars are a 911R, 991 Speedster, 16M and 458SA. GT Silver, Porsche Racing Green, Rosso Scuderia , Nero Daytona. I have 812 GTS is historical Green being built

Nice!

Hi Buck, congratulations, that will be fun to take late at night on the Alpharetta Autobahn* sometime. (*Georgia 400, which can either be a parking lot during rush hour or a nice stretch of super slab running out of midtown ATL).

Thanks! I live just off I 85 north just NE of Atlanta where the average speed runs around 146 mph. :D I’ll blend right in!

- Buck

During my annual fall sojourn to GA I get onto I-575 at Canton and off at Ball Ground at about 6:30 a.m. To keep up with the traffic one definitely has to run 80+, even in the right lane. Not a place to tarry.

Fun fact..about 5-10 yrs ago, some publication (I think it was US News & World Report) did a study on highways nationwide to find the “fastest” stretch of highway in the country. Number 1 was the 10 mile stretch of I-85 in Gwinnett County NE of Atlanta. Ha!

- Buck

Buck..., makes me think of the Autobahn in northern Germany.
Once I drove back from Hamburg, at 130 mph in the right lane, while the Germans were driving much faster in the left lane...

I’ve had the same experience, driving from Würzburg to Bremen. It’s paricularly nerve wracking when you come over a rise and find an old truck going 60 and you’ve no place to go. But the roads are a lot better than Atlanta[emoji16]

Great car, Buck! A couple of years back, we picked up a BMW in Munich, just a bit south of the 'other guys' auto plant. Fantastic experience, highly recommended (for either car). When I left the factory with the family onboard, our guide recommended to keep it under 160 km/hr (100 mph) for the first 1,000 km, otherwise there >could< be a warranty issue. Being a good boy I did just that. but I did manage to get a couple of camera-based speeding tickets on some winding (and empty) Bavarian country roads.

Have fun! Watch out for cameras --

Pretty excited, just talked to my dealer yesterday and it’s being loaded onto a ship…headed over seas! :banana:

- Buck

Hope it is packed with plenty of desiccant packets. Gets rather wet at sea!