Mine, personally, looks terrible after 2 and a half years. At least, much worse that it should. I have pits in the paint, scratches and swirl marks on every inch of the paint, the tailpipes look horrible, the carpet is salt-stained... the list goes on and on. Not to mention I drive it hard.

Who else is "testing the longevity" of the XF?

 

sound like you need to do a good cleaning to make it feel new again

 

These are, underneath the cool skin, Benzes.

Keep 'em filthy, keep 'em clean. But expect to keep 'em a long time.

Bank on it.


roadster with a stick

 

It will go faster too.

 

Gave her a wash this afternoon. That's when the ugliness comes out. What should look pretty is marred by some paint defect.

One day, I'll get her repainted. Black of course. She looks good black now, she'll stay black.

Sigh... I just wish I had a garage to put her in.

 

Black looks great when it's new & clean......but man, black is hard to maintain. The Machine Grey / clear coat is sorta ...almost black & yet never shows the swirl marks. I think the Silvers give the fewest headaches to maintain.


Bright Silver ----Machine Grey (Crystal Pearl)

 

Sounds like you need to take her to a good detail shop. She will love you for it, and when she is happy, you will be too.

 

mine is nice and clean but Im trying to break mine.
its not working.
I want to see the limits of the stock engineering and improve

shouldnt take me long to make a motor go boom though

 

Agreed. SSB is easy. Looks good clean or dirty. Which is cool 'cause mine is a daily driver.

And for an added bonus SSB is faster than the other colors too

roadster with a stick

 

The best bet for your salt covered carpet. Get a plastic spray bottle and fill half vinegar and half water. Spray it on the carpet. Use a towel to blot up excess. Let this set as the acid in the vinegar neutralizes the salt. Then just sweep out and all should be clean. My carpet is white after winter driving but this gets rid of all of it. Your carpet will look new. A bit of a smell, but will go away quickly.



Melspank
SRT-6

 

I take my mats to the hand held car wash and spray them clean, let them dry, then run my Orick over them and they look almost new (except for my heel print ).

 

I have a black one too It is hell keeping it clean. I just built a larger garage onto the new house thinking it would make it amazingly easy to keep clean - wrong. I washed it yesterday afternoon and this morning there was a layer of dust on it inside the garage, and I just cleaned and blew out the garage, black is just a PITA no matter what (but damn does it look good for those 5 minutes right after you washed it LOL)

 

The last three vehicles I owned (for which the current three are the replacements) I owned average @ 9 years. This new XF I plan to keep much longer than that average. I also expect to spend more on its upkeep (just because of some of the problems noted here, and the fact its a Benz) than I have on my other vehicles. This is the second NEW car I ever owned. The first was a 1981 Subaru GL10. I had a helluva good time with that car until I totalled it out in a wreck. That car was 9 years old, and it did three years in Germany (with a few jaunts around europe) on the autobahn. The 1.8L kept up pretty good but you had to be sure you kept to the right (never seen a VW bug going that fast b4, almost sucked me into the fast lane when it flew by). Downhill it buried the speedo, uphill it was a little bit too much for the 1.8L. I digress, this XF will be pampered and cared for way beyond the 9 yr average, unless I get unlucky and wreck her.

 

Sounds like you abused the heck out of your car. No car will look good if you don't take care of it.

Had my car almost 5 years. Has 56K miles and I drove it daily for 4 years. I washed it once or twice a week depending on the weather. Inside and out it still looks and smells like a brand new car. Not a single ding, scratch or defect on the interior or exterior. I recently went as far as cleaning the engine compartment. I always parked in places where nobody would ding or touch the car. I just took real good care of it.

Treat any car with respect and it will take good care of you!

 

You might like to look up some of the posts that Mike in Orange has posted on how to keep the paint looking good such as these-
https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...-my-paint.html

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...-n-orange.html

It is not that much work and it makes a world of diffference.

 

Shapeshifter, This Post Danny

 

Oh, what I meant by that was paint blemishes, small scratches, swirl marks, little blemishes from all those birds that LOVE to crap on my car.

I try to wash it as often as possible, but sometimes you just can't do anything to keep something from oxidizing a little bit. I don't have a garage to keep it in, so that probably doesn't help.

 

Fred is an '07 stick with a Lifetime Powertrain Warranty......will pass 40,000 mile mark today......hoping to hit 1/2 million mile mark before I die......(gave up on the 1 million mile goal)...will continue to drive no matter what he looks like cosmetically.

 

I keep mine looking good all the time !!! wash & wax !!! & Dont drive it much!!!! 2004 with 22,600 miles on her !!! Have a 03 GTR mustang bought new with 9,500 mile on it !! More waxing then washing !!!!!!!!!

 

Get a California duster.