[VSD]

Thanks man. I do use the car on daily basis, it has also seen 3-4 highway long drives as well and no problems till date.(touch wood). I'm already closing 10k mark on the odo and all this time I still keep finding small things about the car that you don't even get to know from the handbook.
AMG has done a great job with this car, it's very usable daily, goes very fast when you want it to and the suspension is tuned mainly for road driving than for track, so it's kind of comfortable as well (compared to other sports cars).

[behaln]

Congratulations. That's an awesome car . AMG just takes it miles apart from being ordinary. Alas, that we do not have any auto bahs in India. It's a perfect highway car.
Do keep us posted on maintenance issues.
Enjoy your ride.

[kkkkkaran]

Originally Posted by VSD

Thanks man. I do use the car on daily basis, it has also seen 3-4 highway long drives as well and no problems till date.(touch wood).

Looks like your car is one of the most regularly used AMGs in India doing above 1200kms a month on average! I remember the purchase thread, was somewhere around march right?
On another note, how does it feel driving the other cars at home after this as a daily drive?
I cannot really relate, but after driving my Dads Audi S4 in spain , my vento in India feels utilitarian! 😂

[VSD]

Originally Posted by kkkkkaran

Looks like your car is one of the most regularly used AMGs in India doing above 1200kms a month on average! I remember the purchase thread, was somewhere around march right?
On another note, how does it feel driving the other cars at home after this as a daily drive?
I cannot really relate, but after driving my Dads Audi S4 in spain , my vento in India feels utilitarian! ��

Yes the purchase was made in first week of April and that comes to about the 1k+ kms per month.
I hate driving other cars at home now, which is also why I love taking my own car everywhere and in my head even if I do have any doubts about the route, I say to myself "We'll see whatever happens (jo hoga dekha jayega)" and just drive on, except on the rainy days


Attaching two new pictures of the car from the shoot done a while back.
Archit & utsav, send other hi-res pictures of the car.

[kisharchit]

Originally Posted by VSD

Yes the purchase was made in first week of April and that comes to about the 1k+ kms per month.
I hate driving other cars at home now, which is also why I love taking my own car everywhere and in my head even if I do have any doubts about the route, I say to myself "We'll see whatever happens (jo hoga dekha jayega)" and just drive on, except on the rainy days


Attaching two new pictures of the car from the shoot done a while back.
Archit & utsav, send other hi-res pictures of the car.

Attachment 1437668
Attachment 1437669

Yes, I will send some more real soon.

[kisharchit]

Here are some more pics of this truly wonderful beast!

[kkkkkaran]

Is the backseat usable in terms of space?
If things go well, i might pick up a cla200 petrol as a daily drive. Since i dont see any other ownership reviews, thought i might ask, since it will be similar.
Will be solo driven most of the times, backseat usage should be close to 5 percent.
I might also rent a zoomcar cla diesel for a day to understand the ergonomics.

[VSD]

The car has now clocked 11600kms and completed one year now. I've been driving the car everyday and it's been crazy fun with pops and crackles and enjoying late night drives in the empty city streets. The ride is sometimes annoying on patchy/uneven roads, but I guess this comes with having a sports car and one has to be well prepared for these.

FIRST SERVICE UPDATE:
It's time for the first service and the front & Rear brakes pads had also worn out, which needed replacement as well. I was actually shocked to see all the brake pads go out at once and that too at only 11k kms. Though on checking with some other AMG & Mercedes owners, turns out the Mercedes cars get more wear on the pads compared to other German rivals. Not just the AMG's but the regular SUV/Sedans too. My friend's ML250 vs My Audi Q5 2.0TDI, his pads were worn out on 20k kms and mine went upto 33k kms. Same with my 525d which had front pads replaced at 34k & Rears at 29k. Yes, it may depend on driving style too but overall I feel 10k kms for pads to wear out seems too much.

However, looking at this kind of wear & tear on this vehicle I opted for the Star Car Package(SCP) 3 years & 60,000kms which includes all Servicing and Consumables (brake pads, discs, wiper blades etc). I was happy to opt for this package after hearing the prices of the services individually (more details below).
Cost for the Package: INR 2,52,380
Road-side Assistance: INR 8,000 (4th & 5th year)


I was interested to know how much they would cost if I did not have the service inclusive and was shocked to hear the pricing for the parts.
Here's an estimate from the workshop-
First Service - 50,000 approx
Front Brake Pads - 29,000 per set
Rear Brake Pads - 31,000 per set
Brake Pad Sensors - 1,000 each
So total cost would come to somewhere around = INR 1,12,000

First, the cost of first service itself is half the price of the SCP, which will include minimum of two more services and 2 more sets for front & rear brake pads in the remaining two years. Maybe even more as I'm assuming the brake discs will require a change in the next 10k-12k kms as well. I can only imagine the kind of markups these people keep on the spare parts when compared to the price of the SCP.
Second, I've never seen rear brake pads to be more expensive than the front ones, specially when they are totally different size as the front brake pad is huge compared to the rear one.

Overall, keeping the pricing etc apart, the Mercedes after sales was good and the road-side assistance was prompt as well in sending the flat-bed to my house for pick up. The pads weren't in stock for a long time but finally they arrived and were fitted to my car in matter of hours and job was done well with cleaning the car inside out.

[v_safari]

Hi, Nicely written review. Loved the way you described everything in detail.
On a side note, planning to upgrade to another car soon ?

[VSD]

Update

Just an update on the car, which is going to clock 15000kms soon. It hasn't been driven as much as I had expected (I'm working too much), but still I've been clocking almost 800kms/month. The car is still running as good as new and still keeps a smile on my face every time I take it out for a drive.

One things that needs mention here is that the front tires were showing excessive wear on the inside. After searching online on international forums, I found the car had negative camber which was affecting the tire life and 90% of CLA45 users have been facing this issue. If I didn't have a puncture, I wouldn't have realized how bad was the condition of my front tires.


This is what the Inside of the tires looks after covering about 14k kms


the tire was down to it's threads.

The rear tires were still holding up well and had some tread left on them. I'm moving them to the front for now and let them take some wear and got two new tires for the rear.


New Dunlop tires going in

According to my estimate, the old continental tires should last for about 3k kms and then I can another two dunlops for front as well. I had tested the demo car of T&T motors on the same dunlops and it drove pretty well on road as well as the track. Not many other options were available in this size other than Pirelli and Yokohama, both had load rating of 91 instead of 95 as per OE standards.

Hopefully, I can cover more and more miles on the car in the coming months.


Few pictures from our drive in Gurgaon. Image courtesy: The Modern Shutter aka kisharchit

[AirWind]

Originally Posted by VSD

[u][b]Update

Congrats on a hot ride VSD, I am keen to know updates after Nov 2016 :-)

[akshay4587]

Originally Posted by AirWind

Congrats on a hot ride VSD, I am keen to know updates after Nov 2016 :-)

I think, he has already sold the car.

[VSD]

Originally Posted by AirWind

Congrats on a hot ride VSD, I am keen to know updates after Nov 2016 :-)

Hi AirWind, as mentioned by Akshay the car was sold back in 2019. However, the car is running as good as new and has been maintained just like it should be by the new owner who is also a bhpian.

[Archisman]

A very Drool worthy car you have Sir. Wishing many happy miles

[nkapoor777]

Originally Posted by VSD

Hi AirWind, as mentioned by Akshay the car was sold back in 2019. However, the car is running as good as new and has been maintained just like it should be by the new owner who is also a bhpian.

Well I was the lucky beneficiary of VSD's immaculate upkeep of this beautiful specimen nearly two years ago. Actually today is the official 6th birthday of this pocket rocket (as per the RC). Couple pics to remind you what you let go.

When all this settles down, you know where to find me for a drive bro!