Talk me out of this w205 C63S coupe - help re. Facelift?

[RichDS]

Hi all

I have looked at a couple of these this week having decided I need another v8 in my life!

The first car was a 2019 facelift car with the digital dash:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/2024040483...

Went for a test drive and enjoyed it but it was a leggy example so decided to try to find something in better condition.

Fast forward to today and I went to look at this 2018 car:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/2024032679...

It’s in fabulous condition but seems to have the facelift grill but not the facelift digital dash - I’m not that bothered by this and from what I can tell the only meaningful difference is that it has the older 7 speed gearbox.

Some googling and other forum posts seems to suggest that this may not be the end of the world with some preferring the older gearbox and nothing a test drive won’t help with as I have test drove the above 9 speed already so will have a good point of comparison.

Bit confused here re the grill - has someone just swapped it to a new style one or were there 2018 cars with the new clear but non updated digital dash?

How easy / difficult is it to retrofit something to provide Apple CarPlay on this older variant?

As an aside:

Baby is now 3 weeks old and I can confirm good passenger room in the back with the cubed isofix and seat (cloud T)

[Faszination76]

Reference the grill, the pre facelift cars never came with the Panamerica grill, so that will be a swap. Everyone seems to want to do it, personally I think they look crap.

In my opinion, as a previous owner of a pre-FL C63S saloon, you won’t go far wrong - in particular with the noise, they sound so much better than everything after without the GPF’s.

Sure you get the 7-speed box, but it’s plenty usable and not much slower shifting either. Is the 9-speed smoother? Yes it is, but there’s a certain character with the 7-speed (and I say that as an owner of a 9-speed E63S).

I believe you can retro fit car play, speak to these guys: https://www.commandonline.co.uk/

They’ll be able to advise.

[RichDS]

Many thanks that’s very helpful

[Panthro]

All I'm going to say is that after a very short period of time, you will get sick of getting the baby seat in and out of the back if you have to do it often.
I brought my 1st child home from the hospital in an M3 and soon relegated it in favour of a 4 door car.

[s70rmp]

if you havent already bought it from there - i would avoid that garage like the plague

i had a right nightmare with them when i bought my car from them

honestly worse garage experience ever