Are AMG E55 W211's unreliable POS's?

[Ven]

Are AMG E55 W211's unreliable POS's? I can get one for a song but I don't want it to bankrupt me on service and repairs. Might be a fun summer whip for a while. Experiences?

[VW337]

Can't comment on the reliability or maintenance but there's a nice E55 wagon for sale in Richmond right now: http://richmond.craigslist.org/cto/2809043788.html

[ddduke]

Get one for a song? plz explain

[AE92_TreunoSC]

Great cars, one of the best Benz's. Not unreliable but expensive to repair if something does go.

It's an AMG so brakes, tires, gas, and suspension all cost more.

[adidas]

Get one in Canada and purchase extra warranty through MB directly, otherwise prepare the lube for ur angus.

[Disoblige]

Originally posted by ddduke
Get one for a song? plz explain
gjYb9jQeAU8

:rofl:

[sumguy777]

Originally posted by Disoblige

gjYb9jQeAU8

:rofl:


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

all i can think about is how the op will be married without an e55 amg?

[Neil4Speed]

I have heard the earlier (Non supercharged) models are fairly reliable. If your looking at the supercharged one you may have to deal with Intercooler/SC/SC Clutch issues, plus Airmatic.

Apparently one of the biggest costs of all are Tires.

[Ven]

Forum research shows either they're colossal money vortexes, or about average for reliability. Taking the fanboi factor into account it seems they're fairly high maintenance, and parts will cost you.

The car in particular is the supercharged version, really the only I'd consider. Would love a wagon but this deal is so good I'll settle with a sedan. On the fence about warranty still.

[T-Dubbs]

costly to fix
but awesome cars!

im going to look at a w211 e500 wagon today.

[rage2]

The E55 S/C engines are fairly bulletproof, problem is when issues do arise, it's a lot of replacing parts till you find out what's wrong. Those parts are expensive. Troubleshooting those engines are a PITA. You have to rely on the error messages the ECU is telling you for diagnosis, and half the time they point to the wrong problem. You really have to pray that someone else have experienced the same problems for cheap fixes.

There's a reason MB moved away from the S/C setup. It was a stop gap solution till the new 6.2L V8 was introduced, and was an overly complex setup. It was literally an aftermarket supercharger strapped onto standard MB V6's and V8's. Back when I had the SLK 32 with the supercharged V6, my car suffered from a rough idle and auto acceleration a few times a week. Could not replicate it until I lent the car to the service manager. The car spent months at the dealer because even AMG couldn't figure out what was wrong. Turns out it was a dirty secondary MAP sensor reporting random values here and there, and the ECU never threw a code for it. The dealer had changed 1 part at a time, took 3 months to figure it out, while on the phone with AMG on a daily basis.

So if AMG had problems with diagnosis, imagine what you'd go through if something went wrong. :)

[Ven]

Originally posted by rage2


So if AMG had problems with diagnosis, imagine what you'd go through if something went wrong. :)

Exactly, however I know I can sell this car running rough and still make a profit. Right now it runs great, only 88,000kms. So I can afford to put some money into it if I have to, grudgingly. And I can spin my own wrenches on it, plus I'm pretty sure my software covers AMG cars too.

People seem pretty passionate about this car, incredible amount of aftermarket solutions that have been developed for most of the problem areas. Still need to sleep on it more, I usually come to my senses after a good rest haha.

It's clearly an emotional/ego purchase idea, and I tend to drink the Kool-Aid and start dumping money into the car for mods and advanced "feel good" maintenance, and then keep it way too long and lose my shirt. It's my pattern. But it's soooo cheap and it's sooo cool.......FAWK! :cry:

[Neil4Speed]

It seems like your pretty into cars, I would probably bite and enjoy this world class sport luxury car for a while.

[spiceboy]

Originally posted by rage2

So if AMG had problems with diagnosis, imagine what you'd go through if something went wrong. :)

Crap ... I hope Alpine Autowerks and Marc know their stuff enough when I bring my car to them