My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320 aka The Benz

[87gtVIC]

Welp, here is the escorts replacement.

Pretty much pure luxury with some class and a hell of a lot more power than the old Trusty Escort had.

Picked it up from my fathers friends parents.

Has 90k on it and ride like new and has the looks to match. Well, AFTER I cleaned the interior.

It was reasonably dirty on the inside and I did my best to clean it up. Only took a pic of the passengers side before the cleaning but all of teh others sides were the same.

Before:









And afters:









I treated the leather with Meguiars ultimate leather cleaner and conditioner just teh other day and soon a complete paint detail will come.

As of now this is the only exterior pic I have....

[Jason_GMQ91]

Wow that is very nice car! congrats!

[tjc78]

Nice machine there.... enjoy it. I've always liked that style.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[gadget73]

Looks nice. Was fairly grubby before. DOes this have the power rear seat too?

[87gtVIC]

Wow that is very nice car! congrats!

Thanks!

Nice machine there.... enjoy it. I've always liked that style.

Thank you.

Looks nice. Was fairly grubby before. DOes this have the power rear seat too?

The off white interior does need a lot of attention. No real way for dirt to be masked by it. Once it is dirty it is dirty and requires attention. Luckily a lot of it cleaned up very well.

No power rear seats on this one. A bit disappointed that there was in fact an option to have the rear seats fold down for extra hauling room. I will miss that feature as the escort provided a HUGE amount of cargo room with the rear seats folded down. I will survive without it......

[sly]

nah... I know how you talk... it's "Da Benz"

[Louis]

Very classy.

Look forward to your fine work on this one.

[79lincolnlover]

Have you owned any European cars in the past?

[slack]

Ah, so you went with the switch. Nice! Looks good man! I wish I could keep my stuff this clean. :p

[87gtVIC]

nah... I know how you talk... it's "Da Benz"

Ya got me.

Very classy.

Look forward to your fine work on this one.

Thanks. Cosmetics only. Afraid of the electrical on this vehicle.

Have you owned any European cars in the past?

Nope. First one for me.

Ah, so you went with the switch. Nice! Looks good man! I wish I could keep my stuff this clean. :p

Thanks man. You can! It takes a hell of a lot of time to first get it right, then you have to maintain it.

I am the crazy guy though that leaves for work at 1am just to wash the vehicle before the day starts. lol

[87gtVIC]

Dad did the preliminary inspection on the vehicle today, was just hooked up to the database for the actual sticker inspection yesterday. Lower ball joints are needed both sides in the front. Will do some googling soon and pick up a pair. Hopefully I wont have a hartattack when I see the price. lol

While the car was up in the air I removed the wheels and gave them a bath. For some reason these luxury cars create a shit ton of brake dust. Luckily for me my brown royal cleaner made quick work of it all inside and out.









I plan to wash the car tomorrow morning. We had HUGE downpours yesterday and the dirt for a lawn the neighbors had splashed up all over the side of the car.


One of the things I was disappointing about this car not having was an aux input jack as I have become quite attached to the one in the escort. I was playing with the "Command" menu of the car and noticed that there was a selection for an aux. Opened up the manual and that was not really any help locating the aux port if one did even exist because the manual said contact your dealer if interested in hooking up things to your "command."

I took to the interwebz and sure enough I discovered that in the glove box there is an aux jack. I was ecstatic. Ran in the house and scooped up the mini plug I had lying around and ran it from the glove box to the center console. Everything works great!

You can see the jack in the center top of the glove box:



I notched a hole for the wire to run into the center console through the glove box light hole:



And out she came in the center console armrest:

[87gtVIC]

Ball joints are ordered. Picked them up from http://www.autohausaz.com/ $94.5x and I will have two new heavy duty ball joints shipped to my door.

[sly]

and so... it begins...

[Piece-it pete]

Super nice! Are you going to be moving on up to an apartment in the sky soon?

I really like the interior. Careful or you'll get spoiled!

Pete

[87gtVIC]

Washed clayed and waxed the car this morning. Wanted to take pics this morning but forgot to bring camera to work to snap some. Mid day the car was already full of pollen. Oh well. I cannot have nice things now can I?