Don't Panic Everyone - It's Not Just My Alfas That Go Bang!

After a wonderful last few months with the Merc CLS, it decided to throw a fit. Big style. Just outside Boston Lincs - thankfully I wasn't at the helm so no blame on this man

The turbo blew (shredded itself apparently), an oil pipe burst, sprayed hot oil onto the engine and the air intake swallowed gallons of it - all in about 10 seconds Lots of smoke, no power and worst of all, no warning signals anywhere in the car of impending doom and destruction.

The diagnosis from the garage wasn't great either.

New turbo, new pipes, new catalytic convertors and DPF and a massive clean down.

To top all this off BOTH front AMG alloys have un-repairable cracks in the alloys! (from a manufacturing defect)

Bugger.

Oh, and the cherry on the cake is that a co-worker has got my 159 and this week I'm mostly feeling like a camp hairdresser in a brand spanking new, loaned, automatic..........................





















Metallic red Merc SLK 200k......

Oh the shame.

I'm going to take some piccies of the 'beast' tomorrow to give you all a giggle.

My god it's underpowered (even if it makes an ok-ish noise), but I have so say feels so very well planted on the road.

Full report on Friday for all you budding Nicki Clarkes (sp?) to compare it to the Alfa Spider 2.2 JTS that I drove a few months back

Oh dear the Hunter 'Luck' strikes again.....


and I won't mention alloys ....

No competion the Alfa spider is way

Mercs and blown turbos go hand in hand.

Waiting for it to go is part of the Merc Owner Experience (TM)(R).

Watch out for the additional charges:

I hear Audi make you pay for anything that
would normally be in the service schedule.
Oil, filters etc. Maybe Merc does the same?

I am waiting with baited breath to hear what that lot will cost. If it has done 200,000 miles though you can't over complain. Is it financially viable to repair at that mileage? (or have I missed something)

Just outside this fair city eh (I can't stand the place personally). What on earth brings you to the end of the earth dear boy.

AlfaLincs

I Dunno' you F1 Rally Types on the Queen's Highways, thrashing and dashing about, into the pits yet again!

Originally Posted by AlfaLincs

I am waiting with baited breath to hear what that lot will cost. If it has done 200,000 miles though you can't over complain. Is it financially viable to repair at that mileage? (or have I missed something)

Just outside this fair city eh (I can't stand the place personally). What on earth brings you to the end of the earth dear boy.

AlfaLincs

Fear no, its a nearly new CLS with less than 20k miles on it. Warranty will see to the lot

Originally Posted by Nev

Mercs and blown turbos go hand in hand.

Waiting for it to go is part of the Merc Owner Experience (TM)(R).

Watch out for the additional charges:

I hear Audi make you pay for anything that
would normally be in the service schedule.
Oil, filters etc. Maybe Merc does the same?

No charges (thus far Nev ) and yes over on the Merc UK forum a blown turbo is nearly as common as snapped cambelts is on AO

Originally Posted by SPPalfa

No competion the Alfa spider is way

The Spider is much much cooler, BUT is it dyanically a better car
We'll see, after it's had a good spanking up to Newcastle and back tomorrow

Originally Posted by zulu ferret

I Dunno' you F1 Rally Types on the Queen's Highways, thrashing and dashing about, into the pits yet again!

Seems one way or another I'm always in the pits hey Zed
At least this time it wasn't me giving in a full tin of beans

Damn, I should learn to multiquote!

I would love the opportunity of trying these varied upmarket models, and I bet at my leisurely paced way of driving, little would go 'pop' other than me.:

I did read an interesting report on car care, only yesterday, which still recommended the gentle warm up of cars, to stop that metal to metal contact before the oil is thoroughly warm? That's still F1 and Rally practice,I bet few do this in their day to day machines, so they wear more quickly. Oh! No, Zed, not that old warm up debate yet again!: Sorry.

Don't worry Zed, I always warm an engine up before full throttle Driving old Beetles taught me that

German reliability

Some treats for you all....


Ok, so my quick report on it:-


The car is very solid, well built (well it should be for £28k base price! ), the roof is really very very good and adds so much rigidity. I hate to say it but far better than the Spider is drove a while back. Very little road noise and no creaks, rattles or even a hint that its a convertible. The mechanism is fast and the window/door/roof seals are perfect.

Engine is underpowered, even if it actually sounded good (ok, so it had got only 1700 miles on the odo and IT IS a hair dressers car ) but I doubt if the 0-60mph time of 8 secs could be achieved very easily and nor do I doubt the 145 mph top speed is that quick to arrive, if ever.

The worst thing was the gearbox. It is frankly AWFUL! It lurches through the gears, hunts around, holds onto them for far too long and takes an age to kickdown and then actually change the cogs. A far cry from the tiptronic/auto G-7-speed gearbox on the CLS (which I'm VERY impressed with btw)

The traction control can't be turned off - so bye bye those wanting some oversteery fun (like I did today in the sun! )

Space is at a premium, but no less than the Spider, and with roof down (not that I dared folks ), there's virtually no room in the boot.

Some glaring things missing/odd on this car:- No parking sensors front or back, no external temp gauge (wierd!), wing mirrors dont fold in and seats adjustable manually but only with the door open (you can't reach the levers with the door closed due to lack of space)

Handling is actually very good. The ride is hard but compliant and the turn-in sharp and composed. Body roll is non-existent really and only under extreme provocation does it understeer. Very solid and communicative both on fast B roads and motorway thrashing.

The most surprising part? The fuel economy. It's a young engine, I fair hammered it most of the day to and from Newcastle in mixed driving for over 300 miles in total and it returned an AVERAGE of 32mpg! Pretty impressive in my book.


A car for me? No.

Better than a Spider? On this quick showing, mechanically and dynamically, yes I'm afraid. The Spider I had flexed and bounced across the road and the 2.2JTS engine was no better than the Merc one and needed revving like hell to get anywhere.

Better looking/styled/road presence? Not a chance.


Hopefully getting the CLS back on Monday and I'm back in my 159 tomorrow! YAY!!!

Hope your camera is knackered or does it actually look that colour

I ended up with a SLK200K Series 10 (Ltd edition thingy) as a hire car a few months back. Great point & squirt car but not a patch on my Spider for comfort or long distance work.

Yes - it really is THAT colour

On a scale of 1 to 10 of campness, camping in a field, singing ging-gang-gooly, I felt around 11 today.

God that colour is filthy The AMG version is class. And I really do like Merc's for some reason the S classes and the CLS's particularly

What colour is your CLS?? I have never heard of them blowning turbos have heard the new Beemers doing it and normally kiiling an engine.

Originally Posted by Damien_C

What colour is your CLS?? I have never heard of them blowning turbos have heard the new Beemers doing it and normally kiiling an engine.

The CLS is metallic dark blue, with grey/black leather interior.

I'll post some piccies up when we have it back from repairs