Is this a money pit or what?

[tpwuk]

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/577386.htm

Am I missing something here? Or does this seem like the best deal ever?

I'm tempted to buy this right now and use it as my daily car - I only do 20 miles a day!

Has anyone got one and can offer some opinions / advice?

Cheers

 

[mattc]

they are blinding value but cannot be cheap to maintain properly surely? I keep looking at this sort of thing too - so much car for the money!

the CL owners will be along shortly to mention ups and downs of ownership

 

[Mudster]

It's a 12 cylinder Mercedes, it will depreciate faster than anything on the planet, it will be eyewateringly expensive to fix if any major engine electrickery bits pack up, but it will be a wonderful joyous lovely car to drive when it's working.

Walk in with eyes wide open and pay for a comprehensive warranty.

I will add.....These cars are meant to be huge mile munchers, Grand Tourers, waft'o'matics if you like. The CL600 is the difinitive CL and spiritual successor to the 560 SEC (very personal and subjective obviously).

I feel the the supercharged and turbocharged engines that appeared in this model were wrong, they were trying to make the car something it isn't, it's just too big to be any form of sports car. It's designed to be driven from your central London Penthouse to your weekend pad in Cannes. It does that effortlessly if everything is working fine

 

[glojo]

A nice link and what about his other car?
Decisions, decisions.

regards
John

 

[tpwuk]

A "B" Service from an indepedant is £300....not too bad then.

But yeah...I dread to think how expensive parts might be....especially considering it has the ZAF engine.

Still......my wallet is twitching!

 

[A210AMG]

Hello


I looked at these a while back they were cheap then I think a member was selling his and was doing for a long time. That car has been for sale for a long time.

As mentioned, its a huge engine, and the problems that 'could' go wrong.


If you can get a desent warranty then maybe.. As I said there a quite a few around though and even though it sounds cheap it still has a way to go.

 

[mattc]

A "B" Service from an indepedant is £300....not too bad then.

But yeah...I dread to think how expensive parts might be....especially considering it has the ZAF engine.

Still......my wallet is twitching!

Go on; you know you want to

£300 for a B service...presumably this includes spark plugs (does this thing need 12 or 24 ?). that seems reasonable if it is. ask Olly (black c55) what he would charge.

 

[Brian WH]

A very thirsty and expensive car to run for 20 miles a day mate.

If you were using it for long haul motorway work then it might be suitable. But as your not there are more suitable motors out there. Also the insurance will be high as well.

 

[tpwuk]

No...that's doesn't include plugs....and I think it takes 24 of them!!

I think they only need changing at 80,000 - but I maybe wrong. A friend of mine had a C32 AMG and that needed 12 new plugs - Mercedes in Blackpool supplied and fitted them for £500 - ouch!

 

[Mudster]

Same Dealer, I'd probably go for this:-

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/475633.htm

 

[alanuk400]

Thats the same Dealer I purchased my S500LWB from, easy to deal with, collected us from Gatwick Airport, left us alone with 2 cars & keys to test & decide what we wanted, plus you can talk to him on prices (I talked him into £1,100 off asking price). The E500 was there & looked good.

Alan

 

[st4]

Just because it was £90k new doesn't mean it will be immune from rust. It will drink petrol like a £90k car and be quite heavy on maintenance costs, but I'd have a V12 over a V8 any day of the weak, and so long as the body work was in good nick and had a garage for it, I'd give it a home.

 

[e55]

Alot of car for not much money, but it will be expensive to run............
Electrics will be expensive to fix on it.

Spark plugs you can buy yourself and an independent can fit these for you rather than a dealer. I think they wanted about £450 pounds for 16 spark plugs on mine

 

[fuzzer]

avoid the v12 like the plague.

Go for a nice CL500 like this one http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/600307.htm

 

[tpwuk]

avoid the v12 like the plague.

Go for a nice CL500 like this one http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/600307.htm

Yeah I spotted that one and got in touch via email and guess where the car is located...yup Spain! and the owner? Yup...a captain in the Navy!!

 

[st4]

avoid the v12 like the plague.

Why?

 

[fuzzer]

Why?

not as reliable as the V8 and ultimately more expensive to fix when they do go wrong.

 

[st4]

I thought they were solid engines and cost wise there wasn't too much in it, apart from spark plugs etc.

 

[jaymanek]

I thought they were solid engines and cost wise there wasn't too much in it, apart from spark plugs etc.

theoretically true but practically no one like working on them... doing anything more than a service requires stripping half the engine bay out as many parts have zero access.

There are only a handful of tecnicians in the UK confident to work on these V12 engines... most mechanics just look and run.

Add to that the complicated electronics that tend to fail on the 600 its just not worth it..

 

[st4]

Is this the same with the later Turbo'd 5.5litre V12 in the SL600 and S/CL600 and the 65AMG engined cars. I always had a notion of a 12clylidner merc if money improved but getting put off by the concensus on here that the V8s are better.