Hello my new family! I have been lurking these forums for a few days now and I've finally built the courage to reveal myself.

About me, well I'm a 27 year old guy from Salt Lake City, Utah. Don't worry though, I learned how to drive stick shift with a Mustang 5.0 in the middle of a blizzard and drove that car for 3 years. RWD is only scary in the snow if you don't have to deal with it 6 months of every year. Plus we have a pretty good snow plow system out here. (I laughed when Texas got an inch of snow and caused a 100+ car pileup). The first day in that 5.0 I learned my lesson. (I wonder what would happen if I floored it...) Yep, ended up in the lane of oncoming traffic with more experienced drivers going into MY lane to dodge me. It was epic!

Now that I'm older, I'm prepared for this car.

So I got the car for 16k with 13.5k miles on it. It's black (I know, some of you guys hate the black ones, it's the only one in Utah afaik!) I got the coupe, no convertible for me. I would die!

About the low miles, it sat on a showroom floor in Ohio for 4 years before anyone bought it! The previous owners bought it and it sat in their garage every winter. He was losing his house and he had to sell the car in order to save it. Win Win!!!

I got a COMPLETE warranty (It's even better than manufacturer's because I can put mods on it, they just won't replace mods or damage from mods) through my credit union (100% refundable if I don't use it) for 4 years or 80k miles, whichever happens first. Pretty sure since I've put almost 1k on it since I bought it two weeks ago, I'll hit 80k before the four years is up!!!

So I took it to a dealership and they did a pre-purchase inspection, everything was good besides the front tires. The previous owners put brand new Eagle F1 All Seasons on the back and on monday I'm getting them put on the front.

I'm ordering the SRT-6 Decals! I love the fact that this is a Mercedes. Pretty much the best deal on the planet, bang for the buck. I couldn't be happier with the car I chose. To think I almost bought an STI for 10k more...

So, I have a few questions.

1. The anti tow away feature. Is something supposed to illuminate when I turn it on? I press it and there is no way of telling whether it worked or not... Hopefully it's not broken.

2. There is a little orange lit device with three buttons up near the window behind the interior light switch. I have no idea what it does and nothing happens when I press the buttons.

3. When I press traction control, is it "on" when the lights come on the tach or off?

4. I seem to lose the ability to accellerate when flooring it while making turns. Kinda scary. It feels like it has some sort of safety device and it does it whether the traction control is turned on or off.

5. I originally noticed it was shifting around 4k rpm's but tonight it seemed to be going all the way up to 6k. I don't know what changed but that's also scary.

6. A guy at the chrysler dealership told me a guy who was in germany had someone download a flash to his ECU in germany for 100 bucks and it basically turned it into a completely different car. It unlocked things that seemed to be turned off from the factory version. Is this cheap or did he get hooked up fat? I noticed needswings does the ecu tune for $1300+ and if it's merely just downloading pre-determined information to the ecu that seems pretty steep for a simple ecu update.

7. I'm installing an alarm soon for this car, I just don't trust this area. I'm going with the 5902 Viper with digital tilt sensor, glass break sensor, viper illumation, backup battery/siren, of course the bypass module and possibly the "VIPER, STAND BACK" customizable voice module with "Arnold Schwarzenegger" or something typically as awesome like a rick roll or something as the warning message. I heard it attracts alot of attention though so I might see if I can get a turn off switch for places like malls, theatre's etc.
What do you guys think? I was gonna go with the Ravelco but then I decided for 500 dollars a few kill switches would be just as good.

8. I wanted to remove the resonator but they said it would be about $1000+ to get it done at the dealership... that seems pretty lame. I could get a Borla installed for cheaper than that!!!

Any other tips or tricks for me? I'm not much of a car guy, this is my first amazing car. Previously I had a 1992 Civic POS edition with "Break in features" like the Hazard switch to turn on the radiator fan etc.
Before that it was a Geo Metro.

I'm glad to be part of this family and I can't wait to show you guys pics!!!

(Sorry for the long post, but I plan on being here for a while. Figured you guys better get to know me now because you won't have much choice here in the future )