After having owned several sports cars I decided to change it up a bit and tip my toes into the luxury car market. I didn’t want to break the bank so back in 2010 I bought a used 2003, Mercedes E320 that was in excellent condition, inside and out. It was a one-owner car and it had all of the original paperwork from when he bought it, with cash, along with receipts from all the maintenance work which showed it had been maintained very well.

Being a 3.2 liter V6 it wasn’t fast but it had more than enough power to enjoy driving and held its own on the freeway. Being my first luxury car I was surprised to see all the little extras Mercedes put into it. Like having two spark plugs per cylinder, the trunk hinges not only not being exposed but being wrapped in leather.

I really enjoyed the size of the car but for the size, it was quite heavy, obviously, this was due to the high-end materials, extra sound deadening, and overall excellent build quality. The one and only downside I ever had with the weight was the brakes. While they did the job I did not feel they were adequate for the vehicle of its weight, at least the front brakes should have had larger rotors, more pistons, or larger calipers.

Since I can never leave good enough alone I did make some changes to the car. I got rid of the stock 16″ wheels and put on some nice 18″ AMG wheels. The ride height was way too high with large wheel gap so I installed adjustable coilovers. As with all my cars, I added 20% window tint and custom floor mats. I also upgraded the headlights and fog lights from the stock halogen setup to an HID setup and I added some nice aluminum pedals to spruce up the interior.

While this isn’t a large modification list by any means it really did a great job making the car look and feel like a higher-end car than it actually was.

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