I plan to keep the car for long, but have thought about either upgrading to an X3 M40i or adding an EV alongside this.
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Software Update:
After the first service, the software of the car was updated because of which the 80 and 120 km/hr speed chimes came back. Had a long trip planned for the summer holidays, so contacted CodeMyMercedes again to support me with the delete. They were kind enough to remove the speed chime free of cost. The cables were shipped to me and within 10-20 minutes, of connecting remotely, they were able to remove the speed chime.
Summer Holidays and wedding season:
Planned a summer trip to my wife’s place in the South of Tamil Nadu and back to Chennai. The plan was to drive down to Sivakasi during the first week of May and leave the car with my family to come back and use it during the wedding event.
So, drove down from Chennai to Sivakasi in a single stretch. Started early in the morning (at 5:00 am) and had a short halt on the outskirts of Chennai and after Trichy for a quick breakfast. The drive was quite good when compared to the previous drive as I got used to the car and importantly, handling speed breakers. 3 adults and 2 kids scraped it only 3 times throughout the 500+ kms of travel.
Home Run:
After 2 days of family fun and laughter, we had to bid goodbye to the wonderful time we had. 17th June was supposed to be a holiday and we started from Kodai to Chennai at 11:30 am. But we were too tired to drive back at one go and so, decided to stay at Trichy and start back early in the morning on 18th June for Chennai. The drive back was very smooth and relaxed. We stayed at SRM Hotel Trichy, started for Chennai at 5:30 am and reached home by 10:45 am with peak traffic for the last 35 kms.
We enjoyed the return journey and luckily, my son, who was 4 years old was sleeping till 10:00 am while coming back.
Stage 2 Mods Planning:
I was in discussions for Stage 2 with multiple tuners and only 2 of them responded with a quote and lead time. Decided to go with one of the reputed ones in the South.
Downpipe:
After a long chat with the tuner, I was confused with Miltek or Amytrix. Finally, took the call to go ahead with Amytrix downpipe and wired the money. The payment was made on May 1st. The actual plan was to get it fitted during my vacation at my wife’s place, but due to some issues, the actual delivery happened in the 3rd week of June.
CAI:
In the meantime, had thoughts of upgrading to CAI by MST, but came to know the ECU had to be shifted a little bit making it more prone to water seepage. So decided to think further on that and go ahead with the downpipe install alone for the moment. It’s scheduled to happen in the next 2-3 weeks based on the tuner’s availability.
Current experience:
When I purchased the car I was a bit hesitant to take it to less known roads, but nowadays I have some experience on how to tackle bad roads and big speed bumps with this car. Fellow AMG owners who have upgraded the tyres from 235/40/18 to 235/45/18 told me that it made quite a difference in the daily usability of the car. So, planning to switch tyres as early as possible.
Planning to keep it as long as possible, as sometimes I do have intentions to upgrade to an X3M40i or add an EV car. Generally, we don’t sell our cars so early. Almost all cars we have owned so far were sold only during the end of their lives with at least 1.5 lakh kms+ (mostly diesel) on the odo.
I used to be someone who was fuel economy conscious, but this car made me always think about the drive feel and the after-drive satisfaction rather than the actual money spent on fuel during the trip. Most of the trips are planned only to enjoy the drive than to actually visit new places. Sometimes, my wife jokes with me that the travel cost of the trip is more than our stay and other expenses, but she too enjoys driving it nowadays.
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