Here’s Why I Love the 2000 Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG

this is a 2000 Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG and it's one of my favorite sedans ever the w210e55 that's what the cool kids call it was just special with big V8 power and subtle understated design I owned one of these more than 10 years ago and I still regret selling it and today I'm going to review this E55 and show you why I love it so much and also all of its quirks and features before I get started big news this E55 AMG is currently for sale and it's being auctioned live on cars and bins this E55 is finished in a rare color white with a cool interior which I'll show you and it has just over 55 000 miles and mostly California ownership its entire life and it's offered on cars and bids with no Reserve so once you finish watching this video click the link in the description below to visit the live auction for this E55 AMG where you can bid on it and buy it only on cars and bids all right time for the quirks and features of the W210 E55 AMG so let's get to it starting with an overview W210 that was the Mercedes-Benz internal model code for this version of the E-class which was sold from 1996 through 2002. now this car replaced the w124 which was a very famous tremendously successful Mercedes E-Class that had been offered since 1986 a 10-year massively popular production run and so this car had big shoes to fill when it came out in 96. now the high performance E55 AMG model this car debuted for the 1999 model year now Mercedes had done a high performance E-class on the previous generation model it was called the 500e and it was built in conjunction with Porsche but it wasn't quite the car that this was that was basically a Mercedes-Benz with a larger Mercedes-Benz engine this E55 represented an early real collaboration between Mercedes and AMG prior to this car AMG had existed primarily as a Mercedes-Benz tuner mostly modifying Mercedes-Benz models after they had already been built the two companies had started to work a lot more closely together throughout the 1990s and that resulted in some true Mercedes AMG partnership collaboration cars here in North America the first one of those was the c36 AMG which came out for the 1996 model year and then there was this the second one the E55 which debuted for 1999. of course around this time Mercedes-Benz bought the majority of AMG and kind of pulled them into the Mercedes ecosystem where they remained today and this car was one of the early results of that collaborative partnership which has grown considerably since then so let's talk performance under the hood of this relatively subtle restrained mid-sized German luxury sedan you had a V8 and a big one 5.4 leader naturally aspirated with 350 horsepower and 390 pound-feet of torque huge numbers in 1999 and the 0-60 time in the high four low five second ranges still pretty respectable today it was also a big increase over the previous high performance E-class the 500e that I mentioned before Eckhart had only 315 horsepower this thing at 350 it was a big number now the Next Generation E55 AMG which came out in 2003 it used a supercharged version of this engine to make 469 horsepower a massive number and those cars are awesome and tremendously fast but this with its relatively unstressed naturally aspirated V8 I always felt it was a great combination of power torque and reliability because this engine just goes and goes and gives you more and more power I'll get to that more in the driving portion now also worth pointing out this E55 was rear wheel drive and had a five-speed automatic transmission which was kind of a big deal at the time a lot of stuff still had a four speed but not this now slotting below this car in the E-class lineup was the E430 which also used a V8 but it was a 4.3 liter V8 with only about 275 horsepower this was a massive improvement over that regular model but this car had more benefits over a standard E-class than just a bigger Engine with more power although styling upgrades were not necessarily part of those changes because this car is pretty subtle the monoblock Wheels were the biggest change from a standard E-class that was only on the AMG model and it certainly set this car apart in terms of looks but otherwise there wasn't really all that much different on the outside of this car like I said before subtle and understated it had the power but not necessarily the look at me I'm fast I'm fast like modern AMG cars you didn't have colored brake calipers or massive wheels or intake Scoops air vents on the outside chrome trim everywhere nothing to really indicate that this was the fast one aside from those monoblocks there were a few subtle changes if you knew you knew like these flared rocker panels down the side that was E55 only same deal with the front end of these fog lights a little more aggressive than a standard E-class although by modern standards still not particularly aggressive for a performance car front end you also had a dual exhaust around back with AMG written on the exhaust tips another subtle reminder of what this car could do but that was about it the exterior changes it just didn't go that far and that's one of the coolest things about this E55 as for other exterior quirks of this car they're really weren't many this was a Bruno Sacco design car he was Mercedes head of design at the time and he was famous for his understated simple designs that yet somehow also had big presence like the w140s class one of my all-time favorite Mercedes-Benz models and also this and a few others probably the most controversial design element was the headlights these big round ovals on the front didn't really fit with the relatively boxy look of the rest of this car and they were a little bit controversial although this car became so popular and so common that most people just sort of normalized those headlights and kind of forgot about it the other interesting exterior Quirk is the mono wiper one big windshield wiper for the entire windshield just like the previous w124 E-class had it goes across the whole thing no second wiper is needed when you engineer it like this that's what they would tell you what Mercedes-Benz but anyway next we climb inside the w u210e 55 and just getting inside is something notable the feel of the door handle the solidity of the door just take a listen to the whole experience foreign Mercedes-Benz had been famous for this over engineered over built design Philosophy from this car's era and before the early 90s the 80s the 70s and earlier than that that was Mercedes-Benz and you could feel everything you touched had that solidity and in my mind this was one of the last cars to have that feel for a while beginning in the late 90s early 2000s Mercedes started chasing volume and quality and reliability really took a hit for a while there in the Mercedes-Benz world but this car still has that solidity to it that Mercedes-Benz was known for in this era and it also has some interesting quirks and features starting right on the door panel where you have all the seat controls shaped like a c that's pretty common in Mercedes-Benz models but there's also this little triangle that's the steering wheel controls and it's shaped and positioned like the steering wheel where the wheel would be you can move it up down forward backwards it's right there instead of having some lever coming off the steering column that's hard to see hard to find it's right there on the seat controls actually pretty good placement although I've never seen that in another car I think Mercedes-Benz abandoned it after this but it's a neat idea anyway moving beyond the door and into the interior this one is well it's not beautiful but it's functional and solid keeping with the Mercedes-Benz reputation at the time there is a screen in here in the center but it's a small part of this interior they instead went with buttons buttons buttons switches dials all the physical stuff as you can see in the center that was this car's design and the quality of everything in here is very nice no swoopy lines or excessive style that wasn't their thing but this car approaching 25 years old everything looks almost new like it did from the factory and that's because it was designed to last as Mercedes-Benz models did in this era you can see this interior is held up tremendously well over the years but anyway next up another interesting item you notice right away in this interior it's two-tone it's not just black or dark gray but also there's this off-white sort of silver color you can see in the seats this was a huge deal for Mercedes-Benz at the time very serious focused functional Mercedes-Benz creating a two-tone interior and they offered crazy colors there was also a red two-tone that you can get but it didn't stop there there was a peanut butter beige tan two-tone that was offered and you could get a purple two-tone interior in this car it was Mercedes-Benz trying to go against everything German they knew and be crooky and fun and have its sense of humor and it was a big surprise and they didn't just two-tone the seats it was everything the door panels you can see also have this off-white 2 tone color match to them and the steering wheel has it as well the upper part has this color matching also now you didn't have to get two-tone seats if you got one of these cars and in fact the E55 that I owned years ago had just Mooring black interior but the two-tone is cool I've always felt it looks better and of course this kind of whitish color fits with the white exterior of this particular E55 but anyway next up when you have this many buttons and switches you know some of them are going to be weird and that is certainly the case here for example the climate controls you have this button with a white arrow and then it's going through something and then there's a Black Arrow this is the air filter I guess the white Arrow symbolizes dirty air goes through the filter and becomes clean air on the other side an interesting choice of buttons another interesting control in here is in the center console next to the Gear lever there's a switch marked W and S and you can choose between W and S this adjusts the performance of the transmission and you have only two options W stands for winter or perhaps wet and S stands for sport so you're only driving in winter or in sport in the E55 World those are the only two conditions that exist here's another bizarre control the power of Windows you can lock them out so the rear passengers can't control them pretty standard and there are two options there's on as you can see with this switch a little white dot or flip the switch and then there's children as you can see with a little child instead of on or off you can choose between on or child and how about this bizarre stock coming off the steering column at the end of it there's an image of well what exactly is that it's not at all intuitive turns out it's a microphone to activate an early voice control system that this car had you'd pull that stock towards you and then the microphone was listening and you could tell it something and of course it wouldn't understand you and then you'd get frustrated and just do it with the buttons but that was how you operated the microphone in this car this bizarre steering column stock and how about this switch here in the center console there's a seat with a headrest and an arrow pointing at the headrest what exactly is that well you push it and it drops the rear headrest down which is actually a pretty good idea if you didn't have rear passengers you could drop those headrests so that you could see better out your rear window and you didn't have to go back there and manually drop them yourself that's a neat concept next to that rear seat headrest button you have this which of course is your headlight washers you would press that and then water would squirt on your headlights to clean them in case they got dirty you didn't have to get out and do it yourself do they still work let's find out [Music] now on the subject of screens in this car obviously this is an older interior where most stuff is controlled with buttons but there is a center screen like I mentioned this was actually an option my E55 that I own didn't have it and I always wanted it because it kind of fills out the center console it's a navigation system although I can only imagine trying to use it now but that was the center screen most of your functions though were still controlled with buttons it isn't a touch screen more interestingly you also had a screen in the gauge cluster standard old school analog gauges but a display in the middle you could go through various different information screens and it showed you like your radio that you were listening to your current oil change situation your navigation directions if you had it active various trip odometer stuff and your phone this was sort of a precursor to the gauge clustered full screen displays that we see today it kind of started with this little early attempt at age cluster information but let's go back to that phone for a second yes this car has a phone it's built into the center console you lift the lid and there it is a Mercedes-Benz branded cellular phone that was in the car and hooked into all of the equipment in here so you could talk on the phone while you drive it's a big deal back in 2000 there was even a phone dial pad worked into the center navigation screen so you could make calls from your car with such a novel concept now obviously this phone network Mercedes-Benz Star Tech it's no longer supported and so this phone no longer works but you do get an idea of what it would have been like to be an important business person back in 2000 I'm calling you from the car you would say now good news that center console isn't just taken up by the unusable phone there's a second center console latch as you can see a larger one you lift that and then pull up the lid and you do have extra center console storage in here like you would want for storing things by the way worth pointing out that that center console if you look a little closer it has climate vents this is a cooled center console so if you wanted to put your sandwich in there for lunch and then drive to your destination it would stay nice and cool on the way a pretty nice feature especially for two thousand but anyway next we move into the back seat of the w210e55 where the first thing you notice is is once again that door solidity take a listen foreign but let me just promise you it feels solid anyway you get in here and you notice once again the two-tone interior the full seat the headrest again the door panel it's all two-tone in the back of this car which I think adds to the charm a little bit of course back here you also have an ashtray because Germans especially at this time couldn't possibly go more than a few minutes without smoking a cigarette even if they were sitting in the back it just couldn't happen so there's ashtrays all throughout the car they're prioritized at the same level as climate control vents which you also have back here which is another nice touch and probably the quirkiest thing in back there's the center armrest you can see it looks just like a normal Center armrest when it's up but there's a little first aid symbol so you're thinking Hmm let's dig into that you lower the center armrest and there's this little latch at the front so you pull it out and then there's the cup holders but there's also the first aid symbol again with an arrow so how do you get to this Phantom first aid kit it turns out you just keep pulling and then there it is hidden inside the center armrest and back excellent packaging there's your first aid kit in case you have some sort of medical emergency by the roadside and you need to use 23 year old bandages it's in there one other interesting item worth pointing out back here the rear sun shade which unfortunately is controlled up front this little switch in the center console you press that and it opens the rear sun shade and then well you're shaded from the Sun sitting in back it's a cool feature but it's disappointing that you can't actually control it from the back since those are the people who would most like to use it of course later luxury cars with rear sun shades do offer rear controls but not this one you'll just have to ask the front seat people nicely and next step we move on to the cargo area or the trunk as we call it here in America to get back here there's a button on the key fob you can push or if the doors are unlocked you just push this button in the back and then the trunk opens right up and it reveals well nothing particularly interesting actually just a space where you can store cargo fairly standard trunk it is worth noting that this trunk is bigger than you might expect in part due to the design of this car boxy lines lend itself to a fairly large trunk in all Dimensions there's no like sloping rear end to steal your trunk space you can get a lot back here and also in the trunk and worth pointing out a CD changer it's hidden under this fuzzy Mercedes-Benz lid but you lift it up and there is a six-disc CD changer so you can listen to all your tunes as long as they fit on six CDs if they don't you gotta park the car get out get into the trunk and change out the CDs it was an annoyance of this era let me just tell you all right driving the w210e55 I owned mine for about a year and I sold it because at the time there was a law where I was living in Georgia that you could buy cars and not pay sales tax on them if you was a private sale you're just buying from their individual so I just bought cars left and right and left and right and I never really paid much thought to them I would have them for six months eight months at a time sell buy something new but this one car that I wish I hadn't sold you know I didn't really realize how special it was and now I do so let's talk E55 what is it that I like so much about this car it's three major things number one it's reliable a lot of European luxury cars from this era were simply not they were challenging to own this was true of all the Audis I mean the B5 S4 is a known disaster that Audi turbo five cylinder that I had in my rs2 was fine but Audis from that Arrow were not great of course we all know about BMW and its issues in the late 90s and early 2000s they made some amazing cars with some fatal flaws this car wasn't like that it was still in the overbuilt era for Mercedes-Benz I own my E55 for a year and not only did it never have any issues it never like seemed like it was gonna it always just seemed like it could handle anything that you maybe wanted to do this car could just like do which leads us to the number two thing I love about this car it's comfortable I was just in an argument with Kennen actually uh via text while I was filming this car about the M5 you know he owns an E39 M5 which was the darling of this era and that is a better overall car than this E55 but what it isn't is a more comfortable Cruiser like that is a car that's more engaging of course manual transmission but it's also harsher suspension it doesn't have as much just floaty relaxed capability and that's the thing that this car did so beautifully when it was mated to the number three thing I love this powertrain this powertrain and this transmission works so wonderfully together and the thing I really love about this car is being able to floor it when you're already going fast and feeling that surge of acceleration turbocharged cars need more help they need more time to get the power to where you want to go if you're already going 50 60 miles an hour and you floor it turbo cars take a second even electric cars with their instant torque initially it kind of falls off in terms of a feeling of acceleration when you're driving 60 and you floor it and it goes but this car this car has this big torquey V8 and it's always available and you put your foot down oh and it just moves and it never seems to run out of movement this is the official car of the light ahead of you just turned yellow and you still want to make it and I think what happens is people buy these cars and they're disappointed with them because they're not ethernet fives this is not the athletic driver's car that that is but what it is is a big Power Cruiser you want to drive between LA and Vegas late at night at 100 miles an hour you get in this thing you sit on that accelerator and it does it this was made for cruising the Autobahn in sheer relaxed Comfort like no other car could do at the time not even Bentley Rolls-Royce those cars are all questionable build quality they had fallen out of favor this was the car to do that in and it was just amazing at it in my mind that's this car's great strength just high speed relaxed cruising and I think this is one of the perfect Highway Cruisers again not the most tossable not the most sporty performer comments but just plain good and trustable and ah and I love how understated it is too no one really knows you're in anything other than a used Mercedes-Benz except you know when you drive the car there's This Feeling by the way I also mentioned earlier that there were upgrades beyond the powertrain and I said well it didn't include the styling I didn't mention what it did include which is sportier suspension quicker steering and bigger brakes the usual stuff that these performance cars have in addition to big Power it had all of those things to help make it you know more enjoyable and more exciting as well the engine though really was the big thing since sporty suspension wasn't this car's big play and I still think this is one of the great cars from this era if you just want something cool to drive around it not to toss around not to take on twisty roads but just to like go on big trips this car is so cool and if they made this with adaptive cruise control I would own one today and so that's the E55 AMG the w210e55 one of my all-time favorite AMG cars frankly one of my all-time favorite sedans I love this car and you can buy it on cars and bids and maybe I should anyway now it's time to give this E55 a Doug score and the Doug score is here 56 out of 100 which places the E55 AMG here against other similar performance cars from this era you might be surprised to see the E55 score so highly it beats out the E46 M3 but the E55 score is very different from the other cars on here it has the highest daily score of any of these cars but a much lower weekend score and that makes sense the E55 was fun but it was also comfortable speed a relaxed Autobahn Cruiser not the performance car that the E39 M5 was as I explained to Canon who angrily insisted the E39 M5 is better in every way the E39 M5 is the car you buy when you can only have one car that does it all the w210e 55 is the car you buy when you already have a Porsche for the weekends [Music]

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 345,749

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Id: NwJY54vONjE

Length: 26min 5sec (1565 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 22 2023