Parents new Merc (not MY car :P)

[SL65]

Agreed SL... Mercs look especially good in black I think. In fact I find most light coloured Mercs to be gross. I mean white and silver are good but most of the other light ones suck. I hate the E-Class in that pewter colour... or the light blue on the SLs.

Did your parents get the phone installed? I see the signal bar but it looks empty. Well at least your COMAND gives you radio station titles, my dad's is missing so many features, and it's so hard and fiddly to use. We actually had to get the manual out for it a few times.

Agreed on that pewter colour...it looks so bland, I really hate it.

The bluetooth is all pre-wired and ready for use - only thing is dad has a fancy Palm Pilot thingy which doesn't plug in so its useless.

The COMAND system is great and yes it displays the radio stations and all that. I particularly like the digital TV which has awesome reception and channels I didn't know existed!

and SL65... are you sure that's the darkest available in NSW? How dark is that?

Yes, the tinting is the darkest legal (35%) however that 35% applies only to the rear two windows + back window. Theres less tinting on the front, probably because police want to see front occupants or something.

Its dark enough, though darker would have been better still...

[Brother Michael]

Fair enough but my parents don't view it in that way. They see black to be the nicest colour for this car so they got it. It looks especially good in real life with those chrome pipes hanging out the back and the darkest legal tinting we had installed on delivery.

Black might be one of the hardest colours to keep clean, but its the most rewarding, IMO.

Agreed, black IS a very nice color, maybe the best even with Mercedes Benz, but personally I just couldn't live with myself if I drove a black merc. Well, at least we agree that it's a fantastic car Oh and the sportpack is just kickass. For reasons I can't quite understand people here don't buy the sportpacks in any of the mercs.

Actually, the 3.2L V6 was replaced by the 3.5 found in the E350. Funnily enough, the 3.0L V6 in the E280 is actually more powerful than the old 3.2, not to mention more quieter and economical. Its a great engine - very responsive and coupled with that brilliant gearbox makes for a brilliant package.

Ahhh, yes, my bad. The 3,5 V6 would be my choise of engine then. But I do believe that the E280 is pretty amazing to drive as well.

[xtasy127]

my mum has a E350 :OO with the same sport package thing

[andyhui01]

^The pewter color you guys are talking about won't be the light blue thing right? You can't be serious, after Black and Silver, that is my next favorite color for the E-class

[bartboy9891]

Yep and that $99K doesn't get you much because its only an E280. Leather and sat nav are options for example. Luckily however, because its a Mercedes, you can get all the features the top of the range E500 gets by ticking the boxes.



Yeah those wonderful Aussie import duties...

An E63 retails at $85K in the states apparently. I just did a "Build Your Own..." using the MBUSA site and with the options our E280 has, it would still only cost $93K (before on roads...). Oh well...nothing we can do about those taxes!

So you managed to add on half of the MSRP of the car in options? If it was up to me and my heart was set on an E-class, I would've just gotten one of the bigger engined models.

[SL65]

^The pewter color you guys are talking about won't be the light blue thing right? You can't be serious, after Black and Silver, that is my next favorite color for the E-class

Nah Pewter is that beige colour...not a fan The blue you speak of is really nice! Don't see many of them though...

So you managed to add on half of the MSRP of the car in options? If it was up to me and my heart was set on an E-class, I would've just gotten one of the bigger engined models.

You don't think my parents would have wanted an E350 or 500? Again, its easy to say that given you live in America but over here, clearly we have some high taxes imposed as has been pointed out.

It isn't as easy as saying "Oh we'll just get the E500 because we want the air suspension and it has that standard..." because then we'd be paying over $175K AUD (on the road) and we'd have a gas guzzler which is not what my parents desire. 170KW of power is more than enough for my parents and practical in Sydney given the roads aren't straight and narrow.

Besides - we were always going to be factory ordering the car anyway and as is the case with Mercedes, nine times out of ten, you can have all of the features of an E500 on an E200K if you really wanted to. We made use of that ability to 'tick the boxes' and got the car WE wanted so its all good.

[bartboy9891]

Nah Pewter is that beige colour...not a fan The blue you speak of is really nice! Don't see many of them though...

You don't think my parents would have wanted an E350 or 500? Again, its easy to say that given you live in America but over here, clearly we have some high taxes imposed as has been pointed out.

It isn't as easy as saying "Oh we'll just get the E500 because we want the air suspension and it has that standard..." because then we'd be paying over $175K AUD (on the road) and we'd have a gas guzzler which is not what my parents desire. 170KW of power is more than enough for my parents and practical in Sydney given the roads aren't straight and narrow.

Besides - we were always going to be factory ordering the car anyway and as is the case with Mercedes, nine times out of ten, you can have all of the features of an E500 on an E200K if you really wanted to. We made use of that ability to 'tick the boxes' and got the car WE wanted so its all good.

I have no idea how much Benz's cost in Australia (is it just me or is the MB Australia site useless?). I figured that an E350 would cost between the base price of a E280 and the price you paid for yours. Of course, your course of action makes sense if the price differences are ridiculous.

[Vette Boss]

That is one seriously nice Merc, looks fantastic in black, as well. Hopefully, it's as well-made as the old ones were.

[Asian]

Bah...are the options there all separated, or are they lumped into packages like it is here? Lucky how you can get ALL the options in a smaller engine model. We can only wish for that here.

Anyway, congrats, and nice color...Capri Blue is nicer though.

[SL65]

Bah...are the options there all separated, or are they lumped into packages like it is here? Lucky how you can get ALL the options in a smaller engine model. We can only wish for that here.

Anyway, congrats, and nice color...Capri Blue is nicer though.

In general, you can select any option you like individually rather than get them in the annoying American system of 'packages'. I feel bad for you yanks as I know of so many features you simply don't get on US spec E-Class's. You guys get screwed on by MBUSA but at least your cars and fuel is way cheaper!!