W208 CLK55 AMG - I'm going to look at one.

[richard300]

I must have lost my mind - But i am off to look at a (July) 2000 car tomorrow.

I have spoken to the garage on the phone and based upon my quiestions they have informed me of the following:

No Rust on arches, bottoms of wings, leading edge of front wings or rear bootlid - There is a finger tip sized 'scab' next to one of the headlamps.

If any work has been carried out in the past to address rust, the garage say that it must have been a good job as there is no signs of paintwork correction.

Car has covered 122k but has a full Mercedes Benz service history to 110k (the last time it was serviced) and they will put a fresh MOT and do a service as part of the sale price.
There is an invoice also for £800 for a gearbox refurb from 20 months ago.

Car has the fully electric front seat(s) with the massage functions and the climate works but does not have Xenons or parking sensors or command.

The car has had 6 previous owners - not sure if that means anything really?

Now i understand that i should check:

The brakes as they are expensive.

See the car stone cold and run it for 60seconds and make sure it idles smoothy at 750rpm

Make sure the engine mounts are in good condition

Make sure all the electrics work.

Is there anything else i should be looking for on this model CLK?


Car is advertised at £3750.00 and i know they have had it in stock for a long time, so hoping to get it (if its nice) for £3500.00 with the service and fresh MOT.

Any thoughts or further advice would be very welcome.

Thanks,

Richard.

 

[richard300]

Well..... it would seem (having now looked at 3 of them, and having owned a W208 previously) that a W208 clk55 cannot be had without either

A. Suffering from corrosion
B. Having had poor paintwork from correcting corrosion.

have broadened my search to W210 E55's now - Which i know can also suffer from corrosion but don't seem to 'quite' so bad.

 

[Howard]

You must be kidding ! If anything the 210's are even worse than the 208's !

Even the latest 208's are ten years old now , there'll always be corrosion , as they are from that problem era.

No doubt someone will be along soon saying mine hasn't got any , but they all have somewhere !

 

[Will]

Like for like, a W210 will probably be about 30-50% more rusty I would say.

These were £60k+ cars, they rust, that's why they're usually cheap these days. Deal with it

By that I mean - if you like the cars otherwise - set aside some cash to address the corrosion issues - I did exactly that with a very good car to start with when it was 7 and a bit years old. 3 years later it still looks great

When the earlier MBs of the 80s etc were 10-12ish years old they were worth a good bit more than ~ 6% of their new cost in average condition - puts it into perspective, IMHO

Whatever way you look at these, they are an awful lot of car for the money

 

[richard300]

I'm off on Friday to Mercedes World in Surrey to look at at W210 E55 (The owner works there as an advanced driving instructor).... He assures me that other than a scab on the drivers side wheel arch his car is free from rust (including having had the underside inspected). The car has a really good service history with invoices for relativity recent work including:

Discs and pads
Spark plugs
Full fluids, filters, drive belts changed
Tyres

All carried out at MB world (apparently by the chap that works on SLR's) and a further fully stamped up history book and invoices from the previous owner(s)

The car has both long MOT and long TAX

Fingers crossed - this will be the car for me!!!

 

[Howard]

Be sure to pull back the rubbers on all the doors , usually some there on 210's

 

[Will]

Good luck with it - but be prepared for it to be rusty in other places, and/or rust further in time - these cars always do and always have done even from new

Sounds like a well cared for example, which has to be a good start, though

 

[richard300]

Thanks Howard - I'll be sure to do that.
I agree, that if perhaps there is a little more corrosion than i have been lead to believe, or some rears its head in the future - Then this is a (hopefully) really mechanically strong car to warrant spending some cash on....

 

[Will]

They are mechanically quite tough fortunately. Expensive on fuel/tyres and servicing can be expensive (brakes/plugs etc), but like I said above you've got to put it into perspective.

How much were W124 E500s at comparible age/mileage relative to their new price back in the day? A lot more than 5-10% from what I can recall.

Modern MBs are cheaper to buy used but not quite as durable in some ways unfortunately.

Hope it turns out to be a nice one though

 

[Howard]

All the V8 210's and 208's are mechanically strong , it's the rust that gets them

 

[richard300]

Its very unfortunate.....
I had a 2001 W208 CLK a couple of years ago, that i bought for the wife.
It had the full AMG kit and wheels, Front and rear parking sensors, memory seats, climate, factory Xenons etc, etc and was in silver with Alpaca - But, i bought it knowing that it had just had A LOT of money spent, rectifying the corrosion. 6 months later it was appearing again. I sold the car to my brother in law and a year later (although he doesn't look after his cars) its got rust below the grille, both front wing leading edges and arches, bottom of rear wings where they meet the sills, above rear bumper, bottom of doors, boot lock - Just ridiculous.