RE: Mercedes CL600: Spotted

RE: Mercedes CL600: Spotted

Author
Discussion

thatguy11

640 posts

122 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
"Buying the car is the cheapest part of the ownership" definitely applies here! You'd need DEEP pockets to keep this on the road properly

Still, what a car. Would be such an utterly cool car to run for a while, until something goes bang of course...

mwstewart

7,554 posts

187 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
duffy78 said:
I'll just leave this here

http://carbuying.jalopnik.com/how-to-make-a-used-m...

How to make a used mercedes sound like a zonda.
biggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrin

It sounds like an old F1 car!

Armen

252 posts

147 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
In the 65 AMG version, this CL (C215) is just pure heaven...






The C215 is one of the most beautiful Mercedes, ever.

burwoodman

18,709 posts

245 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
02joe said:
burwoodman said:
This car was 9 years old at the time. The PH car is 11 and several K more expensive than the £7k Top Gear car. A coil pack failed the week after the show was made at a cost of £1,200
The TG CL600 was a pre facelift 600 so it had the 5.7 NA V12. The 5.5 Bi Turbo is regarded to be a stronger unit and it doesn't suffer with reliability like the NA unit did. Obviously both cars have similar electrics and suspension systems, but piece of mind can be had for £1000 a year for a an extended Merc warranty. Certainly worth having.

Both units are good. The NA sounds colossal with some of the mufflers removed and the BiTurbo has aweomse torque (as mentioned)
Are you sure Merc offer a warranty at 10 yrs old and 100k miles?

Prawnboy

1,326 posts

146 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
i've got the baby brother, (clk) of the same vintage, and it's been great so far. 4 less cylinders though.
i would absolutely love one of these!

burwoodman

18,709 posts

245 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
02joe said:
burwoodman said:
This car was 9 years old at the time. The PH car is 11 and several K more expensive than the £7k Top Gear car. A coil pack failed the week after the show was made at a cost of £1,200
The TG CL600 was a pre facelift 600 so it had the 5.7 NA V12. The 5.5 Bi Turbo is regarded to be a stronger unit and it doesn't suffer with reliability like the NA unit did. Obviously both cars have similar electrics and suspension systems, but piece of mind can be had for £1000 a year for a an extended Merc warranty. Certainly worth having.

Both units are good. The NA sounds colossal with some of the mufflers removed and the BiTurbo has aweomse torque (as mentioned)
Are you sure Merc offer a warranty at 10 yrs old and 100k miles?

Ollywood

173 posts

140 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
I had one of these V12 barges and you do need deep pockets to run them.

Dagnut

3,515 posts

192 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
duffy78 said:
I'll just leave this here

http://carbuying.jalopnik.com/how-to-make-a-used-m...

How to make a used mercedes sound like a zonda.
haha that made me laugh out loud ...that is crazy

Armen

252 posts

147 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
It depends on which CL C215 you get. The first ones of 2000-2002 suffered from electronic problems.
But as soon as the facelift came in 2003, the car got much more reliable... and of course new engines.
Plus, I know several owners of C215 who didn't get any problems with the ABC suspension, while their cars reached more than 75 000 miles.

Fezzaman

552 posts

192 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
mwstewart said:
Great article and great car. I don't think they have aged very well but I still want one.

Minor point: "albeit driven by an in-dash cassette deck" - I see a DVD based COMAND, which must be a rare last of the line thing in these.
It wasn't that rare, IIRC all facelift cars had the widescreen nav - they had clear headlights and different rear lights. Interior buttons were all changed from the big chunky shiny plastic ones to smaller/newer/more durable looking ones. Good example of not fixing what ain't broke come facelift time which shows how bang on they got the styling. The facelifted cars with supercharged/turbo'd AMG engines looked the dog's danglies

aww999

2,068 posts

260 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
I love these mega-barges. However, I fear that they fall into the category of "if you can afford to maintain an old one, you can afford to finance a new one" . . . so that's why nobody buys the old ones and the prices collapse. If only Lexus (the safe bet for all barge lovers) had made a V12 that never went wrong; I would be all over one of those like a rash!

Luca Brasi

885 posts

173 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
Armen said:
In the 65 AMG version, this CL (C215) is just pure heaven...






The C215 is one of the most beautiful Mercedes, ever.
That engine bay.

Merkypast

25 posts

137 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
Numeric said:
... But are the electronics now the killers of cars or is that more an assumption we make?
I'd say he was right. Electronics and water / heat / cold / vibration will never be a good combination. But the biggest worry for me is the EU directive that prohibits lead in solder for alleged "environmental" reasons.
Basically, without lead, metallic crystals grow in the solder and short across adjacent connections. It's in everything these days.
Interestingly, I read that the powers that be have not banned leaded solder in safety critical systems such as aerospace applications. Wonder why?

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/apr/03/...

Pommygranite

14,229 posts

215 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
Ollywood said:
I had one of these V12 barges and you do need deep pockets to run them.
Do tell - sounds interesting.


Prawnboy

1,326 posts

146 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
Luca Brasi said:
That engine bay.
is covered in plastic.

Mr JP

96 posts

217 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
I’ve had once of these for the past 18 months as my daily driver and have racked up over 20k miles in it including trips to the south of France and the Alps.

It’s an epic car that is staggeringly conformable and handily accelerates like it’s been dropped off a cliff. The V12 sounds utterly delicious and it pulls like a train at any speed.

Last month I drove 1000kms from Mont Ventoux to Calais in one go with two bikes in the boot and at the far end I stepped feeling I could have driven all of the way back again.

There is a lot of talk about costs... I can tell you that it has averaged about 22mpg (although of course you can wax that is you sit in traffic), for £1000 you can buy a 2x Fixed Price Service Plan from Mercedes so you know what your next two services will cost no matter what they need to include, a set of rear Continentals come in at £340 and the front quite a bit less.

It’s not cheap to run but then I suspect that neither is a Bentley Conti GT and the Merc is faster, prettier and far less common so I’m happy with the old girl.

ChocolateFrog

24,862 posts

172 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
Mr JP said:
I’ve had once of these for the past 18 months as my daily driver and have racked up over 20k miles in it including trips to the south of France and the Alps.

It’s an epic car that is staggeringly conformable and handily accelerates like it’s been dropped off a cliff. The V12 sounds utterly delicious and it pulls like a train at any speed.

Last month I drove 1000kms from Mont Ventoux to Calais in one go with two bikes in the boot and at the far end I stepped feeling I could have driven all of the way back again.

There is a lot of talk about costs... I can tell you that it has averaged about 22mpg (although of course you can wax that is you sit in traffic), for £1000 you can buy a 2x Fixed Price Service Plan from Mercedes so you know what your next two services will cost no matter what they need to include, a set of rear Continentals come in at £340 and the front quite a bit less.

It’s not cheap to run but then I suspect that neither is a Bentley Conti GT and the Merc is faster, prettier and far less common so I’m happy with the old girl.
You mean you didn't need to spend 10% of the original purchase price in maintenance per year. Shocker!

Good to hear some actual ownership experiences.

bmthnick1981

5,310 posts

215 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
duffy78 said:
I'll just leave this here

http://carbuying.jalopnik.com/how-to-make-a-used-m...

How to make a used mercedes sound like a zonda.
That's the earlier 6.0 M120 engine from the W140 which was used as the base engine in the Pagani Zondas..... I think.....

The car in the article has the later 5.5 bi-turbo M275 engine.

Ollywood

173 posts

140 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
Pommygranite said:
Do tell - sounds interesting.
it's a pretty long list of about on average 2-3K a year on various things going wrong. All the parts on the car are very very expensive.

Pommygranite

14,229 posts

215 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
quotequote all
Ollywood said:
Pommygranite said:
Do tell - sounds interesting.
it's a pretty long list of about on average 2-3K a year on various things going wrong. All the parts on the car are very very expensive.
Was there anything that caused you to go 'howwwww much?'?