HI,

I am new to the site. It is sure a great one!!! My question on car colors is because I have a White CLK 320 cab with a black top and ash intrior on order. It is due to arrive in Sept or Oct as a 2001 model.

Today however I went to the dealers and saw a new one that came in for a custome and it was a Silver with an ash top and ash interior and wow did it ever look gorgeous. I gusee my question is about the maintenance of a silver car I have never had one. Do they show scratches & flaws easier than white??? Also will they oxidize here in FLorida with all of our sun. I know the older siver metalic vehicles seemed to have that problem.

Looking forward in hearing your comments

Jim
Orlando, FL


Currently: 95 S320w White with ash interior 66,500 miles

First, silver paint and paint technology in general have come a long way since causing people the problems you describe (fading, spotting, etc.) you should not experience this phenomonon for a good many years. Silver is as durable and stable as any other color out there.

Second, silver is, hands down, the easiest color to maintain and also does the best job of hiding dirt. My Benz would have been silver except that for some strange reason, my wife hates it.

There is also a reason, I am told, silver is the most "classic" color for Mercs. The story goes...Many years ago, there was a factory race effort from Merecedes. They built a brand new car and brought it proudly to the track. Unfortunately, upon tech inspection, they were told they were a couple pounds overweight and therefore could not race. They took the car back to their pit and stripped off all the decals and paint for weight savings. Went back to the tech inspection (with their now "silver" car) passed the inspection, and won the race, and that's why most Mercs are marketed in silver. Whew!!

If I mistold this ledgend in any way, somebody please inform me. Paul

P.S. My choice would be silver...smile

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'99 SLK230 (Bahama Blue)
17" O.Z. Racing "Vela" Modular wheels
Real carbon fiber interior
AMG sideskirts
Custom rear wing

'96 Impala SS (Black)
17" Boyd's "Phoenix" wheels
Custom exhaust
Full custom interior(black and purple) with real carbon fiber
Custom intake

'94 Firebird Formula (Turquoise)
17" Antera "Opus One" (three spoke) wheels
Full custom interior
Vortech Supercharger
Other Misc Craziness

white shows so much durnt and if it rusts it shows every bit

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1985 euro 500sel 220k
1981 300sd 278k sold
1989 chrysler
leabaron 130k
1990 320sl (hopefully)

I have been told by the paint shop years ago that silver was very hard to match properly - that even if the color were perfect match if it wasn't sprayed on at the same angle as the original it would reflect differently. I don't know if this is still a problem, but our white '84 Celica GTS is sure easy to wax and touch up, and doesn't show swirls very much.

Way back when, the various manufacturers used "country" colors - British racing green, French Blue, Italian red, German silver, etc. I don't know how the MB/Auto Unions chose silver.

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JCE
87 300E, 65k miles
Smoke Silver

Just to reinforce what Paul said, silver cars are the easiest to maintain. They hide the dirt, and always look "clean". Silver is more of an executive color. White is nice, but if your parked and someone bumps into the rear bumper, you will see the black scratches easily. In my opinion, stay with silver. Looks hot, especially on a CLK.


Agron
1989 300E (108k miles)
Smoke Silver

I'm for silver also; even though I bought it thinking of how little it shows dirt, I really enjoy seeing it sparkly-clean. I think the difficulty in paint touch ups is a real issue though, but no more for silver than any other metallic car. (Typically body shops paint entire sections now, possibly because of this. Pearlescent finished are by far the worst in this regard.)

Silver/ash would be quite beautiful; I have silver/light grey and am very happy with it.

Actually, from the vehicles I've seen, white hides dirt (and scratches, I presume) exceptionally well. Certainly far better than black, which is probably hands down the worst color in this regard.

The only disadvantage to white that I can think of is that neglected white finishes look pretty dull compared to neglected silver ones, which are exceptionally low maintenance. Our 300E is diamond grey (not silver, but still...), and even though the paintwork has NOT been well-cared for, the car still looks surprisingly good from a distance. It's actually covered in scratches and blemishes, but you have to be closer than a few feet (and in the right light) to see most of them. Thus, I'm also rather partial to the silver finish.

Incidentally (and not to suggest that one experience is indicative of the general trend), we had the right side of our 300E repainted after someone keyed the front passenger door. Though the right front fender shows spotting from where the clear coat was too thin, the color match is otherwise near perfect. The repaint is only a couple years newer than the factory finish (i.e. getting on in years), but on close inspection appears to be cleaner than the factory finish.

anthony

I have a diamond grey finish on my 88 230E (W124) and its 12years old. It was well kept when I got it from a guy in Europe. After 12yrs the paint is in immaculate condition at 70k miles. The grey silver color hides dirt, pits and even small door dings well. I would go for a darker silver if possible if I was getting a new benz. I would also get it in this color if I lived in a winter city and did a lot of driving. White cars tend to show winter dirt (salt, mud, snow gunk, road muck) so quickly. If you are good at maintaining your vehicles finish it really doesn't matter what you get, not anymore anyway!
One more thing, I see few new white benzes (or white cars) around but a hell of a lot of silver ones...you might want to take that into consideration

My last car was silver, and my current one is white. I have to say silver is much easier to take care of and it always looks clean and shiny. The best about silver car is that after washing and if you miss a few spots while drying, the water spots are undetectable. My experience is that white car shows dirt and every specks of road tar more.

95 R129
98 ML320

I think the traditional German racing colour is white, but Mercedes raced using silver cars (Silver Arrow). I'm not sure why they used silver, but PJozefiak's story may be the explanation. Anyhow, I always liked black/black or silver/black for a Mercedes...

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-= 1995 Mercedes-Benz E420 (W124 - Black Pearl/Black) =-

Brilliant silver is my favorite color on a benz due to its looks/maintenance ratio. 6 days of the week it will look better than the black (or other striking color).

Just my vote...Lee

Hooray for silver!! I have a silver E430 and it always looks clean and classy.I asume that the technology advances in recent years is to thank for this.Go for the silver.

I have to also put in my vote for silver (just because my car is silver ) But I feel that a silver car is easier to maintain and does look "cleaner" even when its dirty.
So if youre looking for that low maintance colour i would go with silver.

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My name is Joey and I
drive a car.

Only one problem that I can think of with silver. On my 1979 350SLC, at just the right time of day, while travelling in th eright direction, sunlight reflects off of the hood and all but blinds me. Other than that, it hides blemishes well, and I am prepping to repaint it silver, as th eyears have not been kind; if I do not stop the rust soon, it may stop me.

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10702312013187

I'd go with Silver. I had a bad experience with white. I found that it was really hard to maintain a clean look with a white car. Like Joey said, "a silver car is easier to maintain and does look "cleaner" even when its dirty." Also, Silver is a nice color on a CLK.

Chuck