ML350 Questions

[Guest Uncle_Kraken]

Hi Guys,

I was looking for a resale ML350. Any bros or sisters here driving one and care to share the pros and cons of owning this beauty?

I am not sure about FC but if the FC is around 8 to 9km/L, i am fine with it. Could it be lower like 5 or 6?

I heard that all 350, ie C350, E350, S350 and ML350 use air suspension called airmatic and recent visit to a mechanic, i saw one owner changing all four suspension for his S350. It cost $1500 per suspension and it was into its 4th year. Is this an acceptable damage? Normally how long will the air suspension last? A quick chat with my mechanic reveals that the common problem is the air leak and he showed me the airmatic suspension that was broken, indeed all four had punctured holes that causes the air leakage.

Any other comments that can help me are welcome. Thanks in advance folks! :-)

[Guest blackmercs]

ML350 nice & solid SUV, too bad I couldn't afford it. Hv u try Republic auto? I m sure they shld hv couple of units for sale.

[Guest Akula]

Used to own a XC90, getting abt 7~8km/litre.

Once chatted with a guy at a queue at a petrol station,

he mention around 6.5~7km/litre when we briefly exchange our FC.....

[Guest Uncle_Kraken]

Akula wrote:

Used to own a XC90, getting abt 7~8km/litre.

Once chatted with a guy at a queue at a petrol station,

he mention around 6.5~7km/litre when we briefly exchange our FC.....

Ummm... this is pretty bad FC but i guess this is the price to pay for a majestic presence on the road! ;-)

XC90 is nice but i kind of stayed away from Volvo in general when a fellow friend of mine who owned a S60 was like visiting SM every other month due to some mechanical and electronics issue... In his 2nd year, he had his gear box replaced though it is FOC. In another occasion, I saw a S80 just along Alexandra road (yep where SM is) with his rear wheels lock up and can't move!! It was screeching on the road with burnt tire marks... Too bad... if not XC90 would be a good choice for me too...

Thanks for your inputs! :-)

[Guest Uncle_Kraken]

blackmercs wrote:

ML350 nice & solid SUV, too bad I couldn't afford it. Hv u try Republic auto? I m sure they shld hv couple of units for sale.

Yeah, it is expensive. I am with you too. ;-) It is not easy even to get a resale one. I am still looking around. I don't think Republic has any too.

[Guest blackmercs]

Uncle_Kraken wrote:

Yeah, it is expensive. I am with you too. ;-) It is not easy even to get a resale one. I am still looking around. I don't think Republic has any too.

Wanna consider a Freelander

[Guest Throttle]

Uncle_Kraken wrote:

Hi Guys,

I was looking for a resale ML350. Any bros or sisters here driving one and care to share the pros and cons of owning this beauty?

I am not sure about FC but if the FC is around 8 to 9km/L, i am fine with it. Could it be lower like 5 or 6?

I heard that all 350, ie C350, E350, S350 and ML350 use air suspension called airmatic and recent visit to a mechanic, i saw one owner changing all four suspension for his S350. It cost $1500 per suspension and it was into its 4th year. Is this an acceptable damage? Normally how long will the air suspension last? A quick chat with my mechanic reveals that the common problem is the air leak and he showed me the airmatic suspension that was broken, indeed all four had punctured holes that causes the air leakage.

Any other comments that can help me are welcome. Thanks in advance folks! :-)

sorry to burst your bubble. if you city drive, FC is confirm no better than 7km per liter. if you are hoping for 8 - 9km per liter you must travel highway 99.999% of the time.

yes airmatic is costly to replace.

[Guest kepiting1sg]

Throttle wrote:

sorry to burst your bubble. if you city drive, FC is confirm no better than 7km per liter. if you are hoping for 8 - 9km per liter you must travel highway 99.999% of the time.

yes airmatic is costly to replace.

Can't expect good FC from a ride that is 2.8 tonne!

Now they have a new ML300 - base vehicle selling slightly below the price of E250 avantgarde.

So tempted to drop in CnC for a 2nd look! :becky:

[Guest Uncle_Kraken]

blackmercs wrote:

Wanna consider a Freelander

Haha, right on! I was actually looking at that now. Any bros here has any experience with UK cars? Went googling it and it looks like there are reliability issues with Freelander?

It is a nice car though and preferring the 3.2L one and the terrain control knob is kind of attracting me too. :-)

[Guest Uncle_Kraken]

Throttle wrote:

sorry to burst your bubble. if you city drive, FC is confirm no better than 7km per liter. if you are hoping for 8 - 9km per liter you must travel highway 99.999% of the time.

yes airmatic is costly to replace.

Hei Bro,

thanks for your input. Indeed, this kind of FC is pretty daunting... haha...

Staying away ML for now. ;-)

[Guest blackmercs]

Uncle_Kraken wrote:

Haha, right on! I was actually looking at that now. Any bros here has any experience with UK cars? Went googling it and it looks like there are reliability issues with Freelander?

It is a nice car though and preferring the 3.2L one and the terrain control knob is kind of attracting me too. :-)

U are in luck, i m driving the FR2. So far so good, as this baby is only 2 months old .

[Guest blackknight]

Uncle_Kraken wrote:

Hei Bro,

thanks for your input. Indeed, this kind of FC is pretty daunting... haha...

Staying away ML for now. ;-)

Any SUV of that size will not return good fuel consumption except maybe the prosche hybrid??:becky:

[Guest Sanjay]

blackknight wrote:

Any SUV of that size will not return good fuel consumption except maybe the prosche hybrid??:becky:

the freelander had many problems.. the free lander 2, as i understand is generally trouble free.. plus wearnes gives excellent all inclusive service packages... Also with TATA owning both Jaguar and Land Rover and TATA being a manufacturer of small cars and heavy duty trucks and TATA having plenty of money.. u shd be ok in the freelander 2

[Guest Uncle_Kraken]

blackmercs wrote:

U are in luck, i m driving the FR2. So far so good, as this baby is only 2 months old .

Bro,

mind PM me how much you paid? I think it is registered now as 168K for brand new. Am also looking at one from wearnes pre-owned. 2008 model at 118K from sgcar. Are there any major diff between 2008 and the current model? Do you know? Thanks in advance! :-)

So are you getting at least like 8 to 9 for the FC? Or is it lower like the ML350? ;-)

[Guest blackmercs]

Uncle_Kraken wrote:

Bro,

mind PM me how much you paid? I think it is registered now as 168K for brand new. Am also looking at one from wearnes pre-owned. 2008 model at 118K from sgcar. Are there any major diff between 2008 and the current model? Do you know? Thanks in advance! :-)

So are you getting at least like 8 to 9 for the FC? Or is it lower like the ML350? ;-)

I paid $168k too. 2008 model not much diff from end 2010, mainly on the exterior such as the front & rear bumper, bigger side mirror etc.

The F/C now, running around at 6.5km/litre probably due to running in.

For this price is value for money as the OMV is $42k. If you compare with the other conti model U will realise that this FR2 is value for money. This model comes with alot features such as xenon, Bluetooth, memory seat etc. As for power wise, this fellow can fly if u push it hard which comes with manual & sport modes too. For esthetics modding, there are tons of stuffs for u to mods too.

The above are the good stuffs, the negtive one are :-

1) no resale value

2) bad F/C

3) road tax $2600 plus for 3.2 capacity.

If F/C is yr main concern then go for Honda CRV. The F/C around 10km/liters.

[Guest Uncle_Kraken]

blackmercs wrote:

I paid $168k too. 2008 model not much diff from end 2010, mainly on the exterior such as the front & rear bumper, bigger side mirror etc.

The F/C now, running around at 6.5km/litre probably due to running in.

For this price is value for money as the OMV is $42k. If you compare with the other conti model U will realise that this FR2 is value for money. This model comes with alot features such as xenon, Bluetooth, memory seat etc. As for power wise, this fellow can fly if u push it hard which comes with manual & sport modes too. For esthetics modding, there are tons of stuffs for u to mods too.

The above are the good stuffs, the negtive one are :-

1) no resale value

2) bad F/C

3) road tax $2600 plus for 3.2 capacity.

If F/C is yr main concern then go for Honda CRV. The F/C around 10km/liters.

Went down to wearnes today for a test drive. My thoughts as follow for the FR2:

Pros

(i) Ride height is damn bloody superb! Nice view eh!

(ii) Build quality looks pretty solid. Dials and knobs have a solid feel.

(iii) Power of the 3.2 in line 6.

Cons

(i) Interior looks a bit dated but this is the mother of all SUV and so I guess this is why it was made so raw? It uses a green backlight LCD!!! Man! I think i last saw this in my polytechnic project. ;-)

(ii) A lot of plastic in the interior, probably i am comparing with my E class which is not a fair comparison but those plastic is at least good quality plastic compared to what I saw in a Forester for example which causes a lot of rattling.

(iii) Interior space is cramp to me. I think this is due to the damn bloody solid doors which is so thick i feel it is build like a tank! Haha..:-) These doors kind of cramp things down. A major disadvantage for me.

(iv) Suspension is stiff.

(v) Drives like a boat

By the way, i spotted some differences between the older models and the current one. Basically not much diff as you mentioned. However, i saw something significant and it is at the center console. For the old models, It has 2 sets of individual kind of audio jack thing with buttons for the rear passenger to press i think. The current model does not have this. Do you know what that is for? The SE that attended to me don't know and so....

Though this fellow drives like a boat, i have to give credit for his majestic feel. It really is coming from the mother of all SUV. I realize that it is the seating position of the FR2 that really makes the difference. The commanding feel. I also some how feel that the mirrors make things look brighter. Is it that they use better quality mirrors? I compared with my E class and mine looks really dull.

Anyway, still considering if I should get one. If i really buy it, it must be due to my heart and not my brain.:becky:

[Guest blackmercs]

Hahaha i like the way u comments on the con!! Ya green LED interior for the dash board.

The older models with the audio jack are meant for headset. Mainly for rear passenger to watch video or listen to audio.

Hmm drives like a boat? As in alot of body roll & bumpy feel?

[Guest Uncle_Kraken]

blackmercs wrote:

Hahaha i like the way u comments on the con!! Ya green LED interior for the dash board.

The older models with the audio jack are meant for headset. Mainly for rear passenger to watch video or listen to audio.

Hmm drives like a boat? As in alot of body roll & bumpy feel?

Ya, it has quite a bit of body roll but i think it is acceptable since it has a much higher ride height. Indeed it feels quite bumpy but i think it is because of the stiff suspension. SE told me this is a true off-roader and so it has to be stiff and I agreed too. So, I am not sure how this fellow will appeal to the family man... My soul mate was kind of shaking her head when she saw the brochure that i brought back. Haha. I was so full of inspiration to buy this with my heart but she pushed it right back to my brain. Hehe... Not sure why but after test driving it, there is feel of wanting to own it. I think i need some re-visiting... :-)

BTW, SE also recommended me to wait for the Range Rover Vogue. Just saw a few video clips. Very modern and aspiring but look more like a crossover than a true SUV. Heard that it will be married to a 2L turbo charged power plant. I think it is targeting the likes of Tiguan, Forester. Smaller engine that packs a punch but comparable to the power of higher cc cars. Oh ya, the price tag is roughly 250K apparently from what the SE told me. Ex eh?

Just curious, how will the rear passenger enjoy the movie with the personal rear jack input? It can connect to a video player? I saw that it can even do skip track. Strange thing to me and i guess why they remove it for the new models.

[Guest kepiting1sg]

Will be good to find out by gettting someone to drive and you sit behind!

This is to test whether "how car like" or "more of an suv" by being having a choppy ride behind!

The driver usually dun feel it, but the rear passengers does!

This is even I am told "normal" even for the Lexus RX.

When I sit behind in my Prado when my wife drive, long journey can get sea sick....hahaha!

Recently I test drove the new X3!

Wife sitting behind beside body roll also choppy behind!

My previous Q5 also has this "choppy ride" but not too bad!

[Guest Uncle_Kraken]

kepiting1sg wrote:

Will be good to find out by gettting someone to drive and you sit behind!

This is to test whether "how car like" or "more of an suv" by being having a choppy ride behind!

The driver usually dun feel it, but the rear passengers does!

This is even I am told "normal" even for the Lexus RX.

When I sit behind in my Prado when my wife drive, long journey can get sea sick....hahaha!

Recently I test drove the new X3!

Wife sitting behind beside body roll also choppy behind!

My previous Q5 also has this "choppy ride" but not too bad!

I see. My previous ride was a Tiguan. Ride was good even from behind. Yep, i actually sit behind and got the VW SE to drive the car. hehe. The thing about the FR2 is that at the driver seat, i already can feel the body roll. Especially when braking and stopping when i test drove along Alexandra road where there are quite a handful of traffic lights. The stop and then go again feeling is kind of a swaying effect. Not very bad though. I think i need to go test "sit". ;-)

Thanks for the pointer.

[Guest blackmercs]

After I've added a rim spacer for front & rear the body roll has reduced drastically. Wanna test drive my ride to feel the difference? Drag yr soul mate along too .

Orh the Evoque, initally I wanted to wait for this ride but was told the price around the region of $250k. Hmm it's didn't takes me too long to decide whether shld I wait for it.

For this price I can get a ML or the new X3.

As for the audio / video system there are many options. Obvious reason they took it out bcos of costing. How I wish they comes with the front touch screen just like the Mercs command system. Here what you do for the ICE system.

1) You can purchase a set of headrest set with a screen. This system will comes with a pair of headrest, headset & wiring to hook to the stock Audio system.

Damage - got to check with yr SE.

2) Or add on a apple interface cable & a pair of headrest with screen. Use yr iPod/iPhone/ipad to play video & audio.

damage - $500 to $600 plus

3) add a touch screen for the front & a pair of headrest with screen. This front screen can interface with DVD, reverse camera, Garmin GPS, TV etc

damage - $2000 to $3000 plus.

As for modding the Freelander, u will be spoilt for choice . Here is a pic of my ride with a aftermarket side step, damage - half the price from Landrover $2000.