2022 Defender 110 SE, with the inline 6. Special ordered back in June, and it finally showed up this week so I was able to pick up last night.

Tow package, off-road pack with locking diff, air suspension, cold climate pack, air con seats, three zone climate with pm2.5 filter for PNW smoke season, premium LED headlights, upgraded stereo, and activity key so my girlfriend and I can do an activity together. She's not the moon spirit but she's still pretty great and likes activities.

I did not add all the fancy advanced off-road tech stuff, because the base level off-road pack is already plenty for someone who knows how to drive (whether or not I'm included in that group remains to be seen). No radar cruise, because I barely use cruise anyways. Plain black leather interior, no wood trim.

Dealer experience couldn't have been better. Deposit was $2k when I ordered, non refundable unfortunately but I knew I wasn't going to back out so whatever. They didn't try to upsell me on anything, I asked for extended warranty and weathertech-style floor mats. That's it. MSRP went up since I ordered, but they honored the price I agreed to and credited me the difference. No markup. No bullshit. No hassle.

Oh and since I have pretty great credit, around 580, I got excellent financing on it. 14.89% for 144 months! Did that give you a heart attack? Lol sorry couldn't help myself. 2.1 for 60 actually. Can't complain considering how much profit I could make selling this thing back to CarMax right now. And it'll be paid off before the warranty runs out.

I am absolutely giddy and was fangirl-ing pretty much as soon as I got to the dealer until I got home.

As you may have noticed, @AestheticsInMotion and I have had a little fun with you all over the past couple weeks, leading you astray and away from guessing his new ride. The one, the only, R55 AMG mommy-missile. For anyone living under a rock (read: not living on the internet) all weekend, here's his take:

https://opposite-lock.com/topic/58353/hey-look-i-finally-bought-a-car

What you may not have realized is that his new R55 is actually my old R500. I bought it back in 2015, as only the second owner. The original owner actually bought it at my dealership and serviced it there and our sister store religiously. I wasn't even in the market for an R-class but this one was so perfect I couldn't pass it up. What I really wanted was an ML55, but the only ones I could find were in terrible condition. So I settled for this.

And by settled I mean scored. Thing was nearly showroom perfect inside, easily no less than a 9/10 outside, and the best service history I've ever seen to this day. Of course I continued the service history tradition. Name a part and it's probably been replaced. I put this thing through it's paces over my 60k miles of ownership, and made sure it would keep on going.

I've road-tripped it, camped in it, quasi-off-roaded it, dailied it, overloaded it, and then some. I've done things that were never imagined with this car and it took everything in stride. Over the last few years I even lifted the suspension an inch and installed oversized AT tires, effectively giving it another inch of ground clearance for a total of two over stock

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the M113 engine is one of the most reliable there is. I don't care if we're talking Mercedes, Honda, Caterpillar, or even Pratt and Whitney. Doesn't matter. So I never expected, but secretly hoped, that this would need a new engine at some point. At which point I always said I would throw in an engine from an ML55 AMG (163, so 2000-2002ish).

But let me clarify something here, nether the ML55, nor my creation here, are the M113k kompressor/supercharged version like you may have seen floating around the internet smoking a Nissan while towing a trailer. Those are great, but slightly less reliable, considerably more expensive used, and would've required quite a bit of custom fabrication for all the extra plumbing and cooling required by the supercharger. So I kept it boring and opted for the ML55 engine (same as my old 210 E55, or a CLK55).

That's a plan I even mentioned here on oppo a while back, but didn't actually get much input on.

https://opposite-lock.com/topic/42038/now-that-the-defender-is-here-i-m-thinking-of-a-little-r-class-project-before-i-sell-it

I nearly pulled the trigger on this back then, but got busy with other things and lazy with this. I had planned on just selling this as is, but I hate dealing with low ballers and before I knew it six months had gone by and I just needed to get rid of it. I half-ass mentioned the idea to @AestheticsInMotion when he was getting frustrated with the used Ranger market and he basically said "fuck it I'm in", so here we are! It was around that time I even removed the R from my oppo signature thing.

A few days later and I had a used 55 engine show up to my shop. Looked it over and made sure it was in decent shape, a whopping 20k fewer miles on it than the original engine. That following weekend I dove right in, transferring over R-specific and newer parts, and completely resealing the new engine (minus head gaskets because they never fail). Remember this post?

https://opposite-lock.com/topic/57460/posting-without-comment#notifications

The partially disassembled engine on the floor is the new one. The one on the stand is the original. The other two are from/for the S63 AMG directly above. I didn't really keep track of the time I spent on this, but it was no more than a grand total of four days, maybe closer to three.

As the title says, the devil is in the details. I did everything I could to make this thing look like it came from the factory like this (think pre-kompressor S55 AMG). And I think it's good enough to confuse people who know this was never actually built by Mercedes. "R55 AMG" badges on the back. AMG air cleaner from a 2005 CLK55 complete with AMG engine builder's signature plaque, subtle metal AMG logo on the right side of the dash, and a tastefully modified exhaust system to make this vehicle sound more like a G55 than a luxury minivan. I believe the plan for this thing is to troll some car shows and hopefully find an R63 to park next to, so we'll see what people think at some point. But who cares, everyone who has seen it so far seems to love it, and most importantly it's new owner seems to love it.

Well anyways, that's the history, how about the details?

Original:
5.0L V8
302hp
339lb.ft
0-60 in 6.1-6.5 seconds

R55 AMG
5.4L V8
385hp
404lb.ft
0-60 in 5.5-5.8 seconds (est.)

R63 AMG
6.2L V8
507hp
465lb.ft
0-60 4.5-5.0 seconds

No it isn't blazing fast, but you have to remember this thing weighs over 5000lbs, and the torque feels fantastic. It's just stupid fun driving something this ridiculous around. Surprisingly, the initial torque-punch accelerating from a stop actually feels stronger than an R63. Presumably because the R63 engine prefers to be spun up before really making power, and the M113 power curve really kicks in at a much lower RPM than the M156.

Did I miss any details your were hoping to hear about? Let me know!

I can't wait to see all the shenanigans that AiM gets up to with this thing!

A couple months ago a 2013 CLS came in after losing all it's coolant, and also complaining of oil leaks. M278 Bi-turbo V8. Main coolant leak was a broken turbo coolant line, but also had a badly leaking water pump. I looked it over and ended up quoting those and some oil leak repairs. Yeah it wasn't a cheap quote, but this is a complex engine very tightly packed into this engine bay. I could replace head gaskets on an old LR Disco faster than doing the repairs I quoted here. $5400.

Well, as the title says, they had it towed to their mechanic to get it done cheaper. When this happens you don't always get a chance to look back over the other guy's work. But I got lucky, they brought this back in for more diagnosis.

Towed in for oil and coolant leaks to be precise! This is where it gets fun. It did run though, so I checked oil level and went to pull it into my bay. Holy crap! That thing clattered so loud I thought it was going to explode! Any guesses?

Their mechanic didn't tighten the bolts on one of the high pressure fuel pumps, which caused it to break. The only things holding it in were the high pressure fuel lines going to the fuel rails. This thing rides on the camshaft with it's own follower/lifter so it was just hammering away! But those were the only bolts not tightened...

Two out of four bolts for the upper idler pulley bracket were only in by about two threads.

One of the water pump bolts was missing completely. Stripped out if I had to guess.

What's really interesting, is that they didn't even need repairs around the high pressure fuel pump. They also completely neglected other areas I quoted, and appear to have not replaced the oil filter housing gasket when they had it off to do all the work, so that's puking.

What did their mechanic charge you might be wondering? Surely couldn't have been more than half of what I quoted right? Considering their work quality and cheapness of the parts they put on...

$5398! Amazing deal! I am crook and feel shame for asking $5400.

They towed it back to their mechanic and paid me for my diagnosis. Their mechanic needs his wrenches taken away.

Monster was stolen. Waiting on cops and insurance and whatever else is involved in this.

I just lost a co-worker. We're having an outbreak at work, just as we started getting vaccinated. 10-15% of us have gotten the first round. Last Monday, pretty normal. Tuesday, 1/3 of the building was sick. We're currently down 2/3. It took less than a week for this person to go from the time of showing symptoms. I don't need your sympathy, I need your focus.

Not blaming anyone, just reminding

Reason:

Deposit placed. Fully refundable. Assuming I go through with it, the Monster and Africa Twin will be going away.

2020 GLS450 with M256 mild 48v hybrid I6. Vehicle has a salvage title from being in a flood. I think from a hurricane on the east coast. Current owner has a body shop and bought it to flip it. Water level was high enough to ruin the carpets, so they are currently removed.

Vehicle will intermittently not start and has all sorts of warnings on the dash. There is rust coming out of the seams of the 48v battery. Differentials, transfer case, and transmission are filled with water.

We first diagnosed it a month ago and the client said we must be wrong and just shotgunning parts so he declined all repairs. Said "a battery is just a battery, I have plenty of those back at my shop" in regards to the 48v li-ion battery with proprietary connections and internal control unit specific to MB. He continued trying to fix it himself. My boss spent a fair amount of time talking to him trying to get him to understand, but he thinks he knows everything and won't listen to anything we have to say. Boss is pretty sure the client is literally illiterate, not even joking.

Client still hasn't approved the 48v battery, but I'm in the middle of replacing the electric motor and control unit for it, and flushing out the transmission to see if it can be saved.

Good times were had. Had a blast meeting new people and seeing old friends. Glad there were no casualties.

Hopefully those work. If not, oh well. I'm tired. It's been a long day, but a fun extended weekend.

@CarsOfFortLangley @AestheticsInMotion @decay-still-has-too-many-beaters @CB @TheBarber @Dr-Zoidberg @evilellie666 @CaptDale-is-secretly-British @spacekraken @jminer @just-a-scratch

Hate it with a burning passion.

Every function in this car is forced full of tech for the sake of being tech, at the expense of luxury. Every switch and button is now slower, more difficult to use, and less intuitive. They're all touch sensitive trash with alleged haptic feedback. I say alleged because I have yet to feel it. Which means they're trying to make a button operate like the touch screen on your phone, but feel like a traditional button. JUST MAKE A TRADITIONAL FUCKING BUTTON! All these switches feel super cheap too, like the buttons on a megatouch bar games machine from 2000, not like an S should.

Hey Mercedes, if you need to have five online classes to explain to technicians how to use the sunroof and outside door handles, with sizeable lists of system shortcomings, your design might just be shit.

Even in one of the training videos they show a guy using the seat heater switch, but he had to press it three times to register a single press. Because it's shit.

They've also got motion controls. Why? Every switch is within arms' reach already, why would I want to try a motion control that takes more energy even if it works on the first try (spoiler, it doesn't).

The outside door handles are too slow to react, so if you're faster than they are (flush mount, motor used to extend when you need to grab them), you'll pull against the motor and the door won't open until the motor catches up. If you pull too hard too fast you can damage it. You can feel and hear the motor operate and that feels cheap. The door closing sound is more similar to a 2003 Jetta than any non-G-wagen Mercedes.

I hate that the center display of at a different angle from the instrument display, even though I understand why, the design to me isn't cohesive.

I hate this car.

Engine and trans are great. It's got some good features. But it isn't worth the hassle of everything else.

There is only one thing I love in this car and that's the ambient lighting. You can set it to be different colors at the same time. As in fading from neon pink to light bluish/teal giving it a very 80's Miami vibe. There are plenty of others themes, but that vaporware color scheme has me dreaming of doing lines with rolled up Benjies right off the dash (not really but you get the point).

If you want a newer S-class, get a 222 that's newer than 2018 so it has the 176 hot V and 9 speed. That car is a winner. The 223 is a waste of materials and scourge on the planet.

Here's a photo of how I really feel:

@AestheticsInMotion Mr. Irrelevant looked GOOD! Good decisions, quick release, very accurate. Arm strength might be a problem if we need him to bomb it though

@AestheticsInMotion ok but you're not bottom 5, I'd call this season a huge win for you considering expectations. Even if you end up missing the playoffs, amazing effort, plus broncos draft picks

@fhrblig I totally get where you're coming from. But Jimmy this season is not the same as the last few years of Jimmy. We fired the QB coach we've had since like 2018 and Jimmy is playing way better. But now he's hurt. Yay.

@OhCrikeyTheRozzers click the link and check the comments, there's some real gold guesses in there

@fhrblig said in NFL Open Thread:

The Dolphins are the better team as a whole

Whoa whoa whoa hold your boncos (that shirt is amazing!) I'm a big fan of what the dolphins are doing this year, and Tua is clearly playing like an MVP, but I honestly think the niners are a more complete team. They've just had a hard time getting rolling and putting it all together. They are one of the favorites to make the super bowl, despite the slow start to the season, and have basically locked up the NFCW. Even Jimmy is top 5 by almost all metrics this year, instead of his normal 15ish. Should be a great game though

@AestheticsInMotion how'd you like it in the snow?

@CarsOfFortLangley ok so the hitch I installed in there is already a class 3, but 350lb tongue is just what the R is made for. There is no way to safely or easily increase that.

I believe I mentioned it, but I did not install trailer wiring. Whatever you do, DO NOT have anyone other than myself or another dealer install trailer wiring. All the lights are computer controlled, and generic aftermarket trailer harnesses and adapters that others sell don't work for shit on Mercedes, at least not reliably or without damaging shit. Unfortunately, it is not cheap or easy to install the factory trailer harness because you have to remove a bunch of the interior, run a long harness to a module, and program some stuff. I can look into quoting this out for you if you want, but it would probably be $500 on the very low side depending on what I can do on labor $.

I feel like your best bet is the option @HFV brought up. I don't think your wear would be any worse than just riding, possibly even less than that because you're not putting power down. But I don't know, I've never used one of those. They're definitely appealing, and would be a better option down a forest road than a standard trailer.

@AestheticsInMotion

@EssExTee I'd buy the crap out of that if it's legit. Even if it has a couple problems that's a steal

@HFV I'm not voting. I can't. I love black interiors. But I hate grey interiors and you put them as the same option! For me, the lighter the color, the worse it is. Colors have to be done right, and really fit their car and exterior color. You can't have a red interior with blue or green paint, but that red can look amazing with white or black paint. I also love chocolate or medium brown colored interiors, and those look amazing with just about any paint color. I really considered ordering the cognac/black two tone interior for the defender, but I would've had to step up a couple trim levels and add at least 10k to the build, so I just went all black instead and love it. It does have white accents and trim in places though.