mwstewart
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2008
- Messages
- 88
- Location
- London
- Car
- CLK63 Coupe, Ferrari 430 Spider, BMW E46 M3 Manual Coupe, 500+bhp Fiesta
My fiancée came up with the great idea of going halves on a new daily driver - this seemed like a good plan to me! We wanted something comfortable with a large - or relatively large - V6 or V8 petrol engine mated to a torque converter auto gearbox. My fiancée was at first bit reticent about loosing the engagement factor of a manual, but we will be doing a lot of miles over the next year to sort wedding stuff and a lot of it will be in peak time motorway traffic, so the comfort factor seemed ideal - she plans to get her her manual fix in a 500 Abarth later on!
I forget now what cars we short-listed but we settled on a facelift W209 CLK. I've owned a couple of CLK's in the past: a 270CDi which was a bit agricultural but still a nice car, and a facelift 55 Cabriolet which had a fantastic engine but suffered quite a lot from having the roof removed, so this time around it would be a petrol coupe. Aside from a rear SAM unit going (electronic module that manages the lights etc. in the rear end of the car) in my last one I never really had any problems with them. I suggested we get a 'Sport' optioned car because the exhaust sounds better, the brakes are more powerful, and the handling is a nice balance of comfort and responsiveness. I personally prefer wood trim and a cream interior but that isn't something that comes up with the Sport which is based on the Avantgarde trim level that is mostly black with silver trim. The occasional Designo (custom trim) car comes up for sale but that's needle in a hay stack stuff. Sat nav and heated seats were a must.
As an aside it has been interesting to see how the market has changed since 2013 when I last owned one; back then the CDi models held a premium over their petrol counterparts and the 500's & 55's used to hang around for quite a while - actually the 500's were relatively cheap. In 2017 I have found the exact opposite is true and it has become very hard to get a nice example of the large engine petrol variants and the good ones command a high price.
Anyway, we ruled out black and silver but in doing so cut ourselves off from 90% of cars for sale! I also really wanted a contrasting interior found in the later cars which could be 'Stone' (cream), 'Cappuccino' (tan), or 'Ash' (grey) seats and inserts with black carpets and plastics. We found a fantastic colour combination 280 for sale which was Thulite red (light maroon) metallic and contrast Stone interior, so went to have a look at it, but ultimately it wasn't the right car for us. The next day I mentioned it to my Dad and asked him to keep an eye out when he was browsing the market, for either a 350 or 500, and he suggested I look at a black on black 350 - obviously something we would have overlooked.
I ended up buying the car. It's funny how things turn out - in the beginning we thought the black exterior and interior was boring but having looked at a nice example in person we completely revised our opinion!
Exterior:
It is in near immaculate overall condition and has covered a genuine 49k miles. The paint is original and I struggled to find any chips. It has one owner and a full Mecedes main dealer service history, and has been serviced every year regardless of mileage! It has a year's MOT without advisories, both remote keys, original book pack, service book, and all of the Mercedes invoices. It still smells new inside so overall is a real credit to the previous owner.
Spec-wise it has:
- Antracite wood
- Aux in
- Bluetooth
- COMAND sat nav
- Electric seats and steering column
- Heated seats
- Parktronic
- Real leather (standard is 'Artico' faux leather)
I think things like cruise control and dual zone climate were always standard fit, and being a 350 it has the 345mm brakes from the pre-facelift CLK55 AMG. I plan to add bi-xenons and if we so change our minds about the interior colour I may well change it at a later stage. The only fault I can find is scuff marks on the drivers' bolster but that's easily sorted with some Liquid Leather. I will also remove the wheels and paint the non contact areas of the brake discs and tidy up the calipers a bit where TFR has marred the original finish.
Interior:
Interestingly it came with a Road Angel Professional Connected which was a dealer fit option at the time.
To say thank you to Dad we went out for the afternoon to the Norfolk Broads - where the car was - to collect it and then a pub lunch by the river.
It drives like an absolute dream; the sports exhaust system sounds lovely - very, very subtle and ideally balanced with the engine noise which is sublime. I can't report about economy as it wasn't really a consideration. The 7G tronic works really well although to be fair in a non-AMG variant I found the old five speed was pretty good for mooching around. In manual mode however the 7G is a lot more responsive. The ride is excellent and the shell very stiff; it generally feels like a very solid piece of kit. The steering is certainly more responsive than the pre-facelift but not so sharp that it does not fit the comfort orientated character of the car.
To say we are pleased with the car is an understatement.
I should also mention the seller - Josh, from JLF Josh Files | TCR racing driver with Target Competition - top chap to deal with and a very nice car collection!
I forget now what cars we short-listed but we settled on a facelift W209 CLK. I've owned a couple of CLK's in the past: a 270CDi which was a bit agricultural but still a nice car, and a facelift 55 Cabriolet which had a fantastic engine but suffered quite a lot from having the roof removed, so this time around it would be a petrol coupe. Aside from a rear SAM unit going (electronic module that manages the lights etc. in the rear end of the car) in my last one I never really had any problems with them. I suggested we get a 'Sport' optioned car because the exhaust sounds better, the brakes are more powerful, and the handling is a nice balance of comfort and responsiveness. I personally prefer wood trim and a cream interior but that isn't something that comes up with the Sport which is based on the Avantgarde trim level that is mostly black with silver trim. The occasional Designo (custom trim) car comes up for sale but that's needle in a hay stack stuff. Sat nav and heated seats were a must.
As an aside it has been interesting to see how the market has changed since 2013 when I last owned one; back then the CDi models held a premium over their petrol counterparts and the 500's & 55's used to hang around for quite a while - actually the 500's were relatively cheap. In 2017 I have found the exact opposite is true and it has become very hard to get a nice example of the large engine petrol variants and the good ones command a high price.
Anyway, we ruled out black and silver but in doing so cut ourselves off from 90% of cars for sale! I also really wanted a contrasting interior found in the later cars which could be 'Stone' (cream), 'Cappuccino' (tan), or 'Ash' (grey) seats and inserts with black carpets and plastics. We found a fantastic colour combination 280 for sale which was Thulite red (light maroon) metallic and contrast Stone interior, so went to have a look at it, but ultimately it wasn't the right car for us. The next day I mentioned it to my Dad and asked him to keep an eye out when he was browsing the market, for either a 350 or 500, and he suggested I look at a black on black 350 - obviously something we would have overlooked.
I ended up buying the car. It's funny how things turn out - in the beginning we thought the black exterior and interior was boring but having looked at a nice example in person we completely revised our opinion!
Exterior:
It is in near immaculate overall condition and has covered a genuine 49k miles. The paint is original and I struggled to find any chips. It has one owner and a full Mecedes main dealer service history, and has been serviced every year regardless of mileage! It has a year's MOT without advisories, both remote keys, original book pack, service book, and all of the Mercedes invoices. It still smells new inside so overall is a real credit to the previous owner.
Spec-wise it has:
- Antracite wood
- Aux in
- Bluetooth
- COMAND sat nav
- Electric seats and steering column
- Heated seats
- Parktronic
- Real leather (standard is 'Artico' faux leather)
I think things like cruise control and dual zone climate were always standard fit, and being a 350 it has the 345mm brakes from the pre-facelift CLK55 AMG. I plan to add bi-xenons and if we so change our minds about the interior colour I may well change it at a later stage. The only fault I can find is scuff marks on the drivers' bolster but that's easily sorted with some Liquid Leather. I will also remove the wheels and paint the non contact areas of the brake discs and tidy up the calipers a bit where TFR has marred the original finish.
Interior:
Interestingly it came with a Road Angel Professional Connected which was a dealer fit option at the time.
To say thank you to Dad we went out for the afternoon to the Norfolk Broads - where the car was - to collect it and then a pub lunch by the river.
It drives like an absolute dream; the sports exhaust system sounds lovely - very, very subtle and ideally balanced with the engine noise which is sublime. I can't report about economy as it wasn't really a consideration. The 7G tronic works really well although to be fair in a non-AMG variant I found the old five speed was pretty good for mooching around. In manual mode however the 7G is a lot more responsive. The ride is excellent and the shell very stiff; it generally feels like a very solid piece of kit. The steering is certainly more responsive than the pre-facelift but not so sharp that it does not fit the comfort orientated character of the car.
To say we are pleased with the car is an understatement.
I should also mention the seller - Josh, from JLF Josh Files | TCR racing driver with Target Competition - top chap to deal with and a very nice car collection!
