Buying Advice: W209 CLK240 Cabrio

[666bxg]

Hi....

I would appreciate advice from forum members. Currently looking at a 2003 CLK240 Cabrio elegance auto, 41k miles, silver with grey leather. It is sold by Lancaster Aston Martin with warranty for a recently reduced price of £23,995.

1. Is the price right? looking around this is one of the cheapest around

2. Are there any things in particular I need to look out? Will be viewing the car at the weekend

3. How hard will depreciation be on this particular model?

BTW the website is http://www.lancasterastonmartin.co.uk/
go to used cars in the cambridge branch

Thanks in advance

 

[jeremytaylor]

That is a good price for a W209, but then the miles are fairly high.

The value depends on spec. This one doesn't have many extras. Parktronic, integrated phone, Comand, multi-CD would all help hold its value in the future. The earliest W208 convertibles are mostly still above £10,000 if that's any guide to future depreciation, but it will lose value like all cars ...

 

[666bxg]

Thanks for the reply....

I didn't realise that parktronic was optional in these cars, thought they were standard! Thanks for bringing that up.

With regards to Command I was thinking of getting that retrofitted in the near future....

 

[jeremytaylor]

With a K..... plate, it's quite possibly an ex-Merc management car.

Check the service history is complete. Based on a C-class, so may suffer the same known faults (e.g. suspension bushes, some electrical glitches - check they all work 100%). Check the fault code readings to see if anything is listed - being a non-Merc garage they may not know how to reset it ... (You do this by scrolling through the settings from the multi-function steering wheel).

Is the warranty the balance of the original Merc (if any left) or Lancaster's own?

 

[666bxg]

It still has 3 months Merc warranty on it, and Lancaster will be giving a years' warranty with the car.

My dilemma if I went ahead is, should I be thinking of renewing the mercedes warranty in July, when I have another 9 months of Lancaster's warranty?

Is that a good or bad thing if it was ex-merc management car?

 

[jeremytaylor]

I wouldn't bother with extending the Merc warranty in 3 month's time if there's still 9 months of Lancaster's (subject to small print).