Yippee. (was: Grrrr. The car buying experience.)

[Byteme]

Repelling water:

(it lasts about six months)

I hadn't thought about that.  I wonder if the Rustoleum's NeverWet water-repellent spray would work?

http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/neverwet-water-repellant-spray-now-available-from-home-depot-video-25-06-2013/

[Byteme]

I just use the invisicord to the mirror, it's a pretty simple install.

I looked and there is key activated power to the sun visor brackets.  The sun visor itself, where it clips into the bracket, acts as a switch to power the visor vanity mirrors.  I can probably draw some power from that point. This looks easier to get to than the mirror on this car.

[MexicoCityM3]

Nice merc. Congrats man.

[thewizard16]

Congrats on the purchase! Looks like a nice ride.

[Raza]

So.....want to race?

[Byteme]

So.....want to race?

Waddayougot?

[Raza]

Waddayougot?

Z4 3.0i 6 speed.   

[Byteme]

Z4 3.0i 6 speed.   

Mind if I go borrow my sister's Z4 3.0i 6 speed first?      Yes she really has one.   

[Raza]

Mind if I go borrow my sister's Z4 3.0i 6 speed first?      Yes she really has one.   

If it's pre-06, don't bother. The older ones are faster.

[Byteme]

If it's pre-06, don't bother. The older ones are faster.

2003, triple black.  I'm not a BMW fan, but it's a hell of a nice car.

[Raza]

2003, triple black.  I'm not a BMW fan, but it's a hell of a nice car.

Glad to see hers is still going. I plan on keeping mine for years. Moving it off of daily driver duty next year.

[Morris Minor]

I looked and there is key activated power to the sun visor brackets.  The sun visor itself, where it clips into the bracket, acts as a switch to power the visor vanity mirrors.  I can probably draw some power from that point. This looks easier to get to than the mirror on this car.

As we all know, it isn't pretty if the vanity mirror light fuse blows when you're freshening the mascara. Be careful

[Onslaught]

Congratulations MercedesJhon. Hate to see that MX-5 go however.

[veeman]

the car looks immaculate.  congratulations!

interesting color.  i haven't seen a clk in that color before.  it suits the car well.  it also makes the older design of that merc look fresh. 

[Byteme]

Thanks all.

the car looks immaculate.  congratulations!

interesting color.  i haven't seen a clk in that color before.  it suits the car well.  it also makes the older design of that merc look fresh.

Our first choice was Magma Red, but when we saw this color we immediately liked it.  Seems like most we saw were silver, white or black; Boring.

I spent the day claying, polishing and waxing the car.  Being anal I even removed the chrome exhaust tip and polished it.  I can't believe how few paint nicks there are.  Maybe a dozen and you really have to look for them.  Wheels are unmarked as is the interior.  Who drove this car and where for the past 10 years?   

[Madman]

I love how the valve stem cap matches the paint.  That's some serious coordination you've got going there! 

[Laconian]

The wood in the interior is a really striking contrast to that paint color.

Classy car, John.

[mzziaz]

Gah, Im trying to be positive here - but a jag would have been soo much cooler.

[Onslaught]

Gah, Im trying to be positive here - but a jag would have been soo much cooler.

Cooler for his local mechanic.

[Byteme]

Gah, Im trying to be positive here - but a jag would have been soo much cooler.

think of the two E-Type drivers in Gumball Eally

"It's a handsome design."

"I wish it ran."

Every XK8 we looked at had problems, and we weren't looking at the ones on their last legs.  Plus Go to Autotrader and look at the average mileage of the XK8s on sale there and then look at the average mileage on the CLKs.  Big difference. 

I l;ove the XK8, it's a beautiful car, but they seem to have some problems.

[Raza]

think of the two E-Type drivers in Gumball Eally

"It's a handsome design."

"I wish it ran."

Every XK8 we looked at had problems, and we weren't looking at the ones on their last legs.  Plus Go to Autotrader and look at the average mileage of the XK8s on sale there and then look at the average mileage on the CLKs.  Big difference. 

I l;ove the XK8, it's a beautiful car, but they seem to have some problems.

Just out of curiosity, were 2nd gen CLKs out of your price range or did you like the first one better?

[Byteme]

Just out of curiosity, were 2nd gen CLKs out of your price range or did you like the first one better?

This one just caught our eyes so we decided to pop for it before it too was sold to someone else. 

[Raza]

This one just caught our eyes so we decided to pop for it before it too was sold to someone else.

Cool.  Glad you like it.  Wouldn't have been my color choice, but I'm fairly unadventurous with colors.  Black, gray, black, black, black.  I'm open to blue.   

Hope it works well for you.  Keep an eye on those spark plugs and be careful what gas you put in it.  My brother had a lot of issues with his, I think stemming from using Wawa gas, which may be slightly below the quality you get at an Exxon or a BP. 

[Byteme]

Cool.  Glad you like it.  Wouldn't have been my color choice, but I'm fairly unadventurous with colors.  Black, gray, black, black, black.  I'm open to blue.   

Hope it works well for you.  Keep an eye on those spark plugs and be careful what gas you put in it.  My brother had a lot of issues with his, I think stemming from using Wawa gas, which may be slightly below the quality you get at an Exxon or a BP.

Thanks, we use Kroger.  Shell has the national contract to provide gas to Kroger.

[CJ]

You simply must get rid of those tires. I had them on my Lexus, and boy were they awful. The Bridgestone Turanza EL400 is a terrible tire. Get a good set of Continental DWS on there, or the Continental PureContact. I've had a few sets of the DWS put on our cars, and the PureContact is what the Lexus has now. It would do this car a lot of good.

[Byteme]

You simply must get rid of those tires. I had them on my Lexus, and boy were they awful. The Bridgestone Turanza EL400 is a terrible tire. Get a good set of Continental DWS on there, or the Continental PureContact. I've had a few sets of the DWS put on our cars, and the PureContact is what the Lexus has now. It would do this car a lot of good.

Thanks for pointing that out.  I haven't had the time to research tires yet and you post prompted me to do so.

The Bridgestones wouldn't have been my first choice If I were buying tires, but they were on the car and have a decent amount of tread left so they are not subject to immediate replacement, maybe early next year.  they do make decent rim protecters. 

If I were replacing them today I'd likely go with General Altimax HPs or General G-Max tires.  I've got General HPs on the Mazda6 and they are quite good, and I see Tire Rack has the General G-Max tires on sale just now.  Both of the Generals are pretty highly rated on Tire Rack's website. 

What's really odd is that the Bridgestone Turanza Serenity Plus is very highly rated and costs about 20% less than the EL400s, which are poorly rated on Tire Rack's site. Plus they are low rolling resistance and have quite a high treadwear number.  Looking at a comparison test on Tire Rack's site it appears the Bridgestone Serenity is about equal to the Conti.

Bottom line:  Rest assured the replacements will be significantly better than what's on the car now.       

[CJ]

Good. The EL400 made an awful racket on the Lexus, and wet weather traction at 6/32 was almost non-existent.

[Byteme]

Just ordered the parts for upgrade #1. 

Talked to a very nice lady at Crutchfield and ordered the stuff to add an aux jack to the existing stereo.   Bought two antenna jack adaptors, the unit itself and a tool to remove the radio from thecenter stack. 

[12,000 RPM]

Ah the radio replacement. That is how I christen all my cars.

[Byteme]

Ah the radio replacement. That is how I christen all my cars.

Leaving the stock radio (it's a Bose unit, or at least the speakers are marked Bose), just adding a hard wired aux input.

As I understand it the stock radio communicates with the rest of the car via fiber optics and it's virtually impossible to fit anything else without losing functionality like steering wheel controls and the readout in the speedo display.  So, we will wind up with a cassette player in the dash (stock) the FM-AM Radio (stock), the 6 disc changer (stock) and an AUX socket (added by yours truely).   

Why not just buy one of thosecassettes with an aux input cord?  the cassette slot hides behind the radio display which flips down to allow you to insert a cassette.   It must be flipped back up and locked to play the cassette or an annoying beep occurs every 5 seconds.  Besides most of those cassette-aux adaptors sould like crap.

think I'll trot down to the garage and hard wire the radar detector this morning while the rest of you saps are busy workin' for the man.