The dilemma of moving on!
I've just sold my pride and joy C124 E320 coupe as I live in London and next year it will cost a lot of money just to take it off the drive.
I have a W204 as a day to day driver but thought about a 6 Cylinder CLK as my weekend fun car and fancied a face lift petrol model.
This presents another dilemma as the ones that avoid the high Excise duty (Registered before 23rd March 2006) all fall into the balancer shaft problem group and all the ones beyond the problem attract tax of £565 per year.
All the private ads for nice spec. petrol CLK's are very overpriced compared to trade ones. That is quite risky as there is no liability or warranty but I have bought the last few Mercedes week-end/play cars privately.
There are a few non Sport CLK 280's for sale where the emissions come in just under the 225 grams tax change point but I think I may be disappointed with one of those after 6 years of creamy smooth M104 power.
There must be earlier M272 engined CLK's that have been fixed but it seems impossible to find out despite many having good MB service. Plus, there is the potential worry that a W203 based Coupe will not be satisfactory after driving a W204 model daily.
My local independent MB technician advised to buy the best spec./well maintained example I can find as apart from well known M272 problems and 7G conductor plates there are plenty of electrical problems lurking.
If I do want to go for a late CLK I may have to just bite the bullet and pay the high road tax.
Any thoughts/advice please
I've just sold my pride and joy C124 E320 coupe as I live in London and next year it will cost a lot of money just to take it off the drive.
I have a W204 as a day to day driver but thought about a 6 Cylinder CLK as my weekend fun car and fancied a face lift petrol model.
This presents another dilemma as the ones that avoid the high Excise duty (Registered before 23rd March 2006) all fall into the balancer shaft problem group and all the ones beyond the problem attract tax of £565 per year.
All the private ads for nice spec. petrol CLK's are very overpriced compared to trade ones. That is quite risky as there is no liability or warranty but I have bought the last few Mercedes week-end/play cars privately.
There are a few non Sport CLK 280's for sale where the emissions come in just under the 225 grams tax change point but I think I may be disappointed with one of those after 6 years of creamy smooth M104 power.
There must be earlier M272 engined CLK's that have been fixed but it seems impossible to find out despite many having good MB service. Plus, there is the potential worry that a W203 based Coupe will not be satisfactory after driving a W204 model daily.
My local independent MB technician advised to buy the best spec./well maintained example I can find as apart from well known M272 problems and 7G conductor plates there are plenty of electrical problems lurking.
If I do want to go for a late CLK I may have to just bite the bullet and pay the high road tax.
Any thoughts/advice please
