RE: Mercedes CL600: Spotted
Discussion
I think I'm alone on the forum in thinking that it's not the best looking CL - the successor (in my eyes) looks far better resolved - this version looks too slab-sided, wheels too small and the quad lights never sat well on any Merc of the generation.
I remember sitting in one at a dealer one time, it was brand new and the cover on the cubby hole between the seats was already broken. Didn't bode well for the rest of the car...
I remember sitting in one at a dealer one time, it was brand new and the cover on the cubby hole between the seats was already broken. Didn't bode well for the rest of the car...
aston addict said:
I think I'm alone on the forum in thinking that it's not the best looking CL - the successor (in my eyes) looks far better resolved - this version looks too slab-sided, wheels too small and the quad lights never sat well on any Merc of the generation.
I remember sitting in one at a dealer one time, it was brand new and the cover on the cubby hole between the seats was already broken. Didn't bode well for the rest of the car...
Here is a comparison between C215 and C216 :I remember sitting in one at a dealer one time, it was brand new and the cover on the cubby hole between the seats was already broken. Didn't bode well for the rest of the car...
My choice is clear and quickly done : C215 forever. Look how classy and pure it is. The C216 looks like a Korean.
Pommygranite said:
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. I have been told that MB main dealers charge £25 per plug (no idea if that is true).
That would make it £600 + labour for a spark plug change.
ChocolateFrog said:
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!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.
Good to hear some actual ownership experiences.
ralphrj said:
Pommygranite said:
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. I have been told that MB main dealers charge £25 per plug (no idea if that is true).
That would make it £600 + labour for a spark plug change.
I have to agree. I bought a 2005 65 amg 3 months ago and it's an epic car! It's smooth as silk or raucous if you want to play and will keep up with all but the latest supercars.
I've had a few small niggles that I've yet to iron out,including the intercooler not cooling the charge air properly which results in lower power, but I still saw off a f type v8 s the other day which was rather fun!
I've taken the car to wilton house and beaulieu car shows and it still looks good in the presence of some amassing cars.
Definitely agree that the newer shapes just don't look as mean, not a patch on the 215
I've had a few small niggles that I've yet to iron out,including the intercooler not cooling the charge air properly which results in lower power, but I still saw off a f type v8 s the other day which was rather fun!
I've taken the car to wilton house and beaulieu car shows and it still looks good in the presence of some amassing cars.
Definitely agree that the newer shapes just don't look as mean, not a patch on the 215
Pommygranite said:
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. Had a version of one of these on the fleet at work a few years ago. Running costs were reasonable apart from one failure of some tiny obscure electrical component which cost £1k or so to fix. When the company were due to replace it I acquired it for a friend - he had a few great years out of it before he got bored!
St John Smythe said:
ChocolateFrog said:
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!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.
Good to hear some actual ownership experiences.
That gives a rough average of £110 per 1000 miles in repair costs. If you include in a £550 main dealer service every 12,000 miles I’m looking at £145 per 1000 miles.
I think it’s up for the 24 spark plug change on the next service but that covered by the Merc service plan so no extra worries there
A 2004 CL55 was used for the current US coast to coast driving record of 28 hours 50 minutes, set last year by Ed Bolian. I believe he chose it, among other reasons, because the active suspension would compensate for the weight of the additional fuel tanks that he fitted.
Edited by Lil'RedGTO on Thursday 28th August 14:21
Got a Y reg, I think 2001 year, bought from new, still got it. At the time, as the PH article says, these where very special cars, very rare.
Slightly pissed off at merc, as I think 6 months after they released the CL600 they moved from the NA engine, 370 BHP to Bi turbo at 500+BHP for the same price. quite a big difference.
Its a very easy car to drive, eats motorways up.
Electronics are its down side, many minor faults, but faults that wount go away. Hell a lot of car for what will probably get you a KIA!
Slightly pissed off at merc, as I think 6 months after they released the CL600 they moved from the NA engine, 370 BHP to Bi turbo at 500+BHP for the same price. quite a big difference.
Its a very easy car to drive, eats motorways up.
Electronics are its down side, many minor faults, but faults that wount go away. Hell a lot of car for what will probably get you a KIA!
ralphrj said:
Pommygranite said:
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. I have been told that MB main dealers charge £25 per plug (no idea if that is true).
That would make it £600 + labour for a spark plug change.
What is changing them like? On the old V12 XJS the rear-most two was rather difficult.
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.
My very first thought when I saw this thread! http://carbuying.jalopnik.com/how-to-make-a-used-m...
How to make a used mercedes sound like a zonda.
Armen said:
aston addict said:
I think I'm alone on the forum in thinking that it's not the best looking CL - the successor (in my eyes) looks far better resolved - this version looks too slab-sided, wheels too small and the quad lights never sat well on any Merc of the generation.
I remember sitting in one at a dealer one time, it was brand new and the cover on the cubby hole between the seats was already broken. Didn't bode well for the rest of the car...
Here is a comparison between C215 and C216 :I remember sitting in one at a dealer one time, it was brand new and the cover on the cubby hole between the seats was already broken. Didn't bode well for the rest of the car...
My choice is clear and quickly done : C215 forever. Look how classy and pure it is. The C216 looks like a Korean.
That zonda esque exhaust though - crikey, what a treat that would be if I picked a lucky scratch card!
aston addict said:
I think I'm alone on the forum in thinking that it's not the best looking CL - the successor (in my eyes) looks far better resolved - this version looks too slab-sided, wheels too small and the quad lights never sat well on any Merc of the generation.
I remember sitting in one at a dealer one time, it was brand new and the cover on the cubby hole between the seats was already broken. Didn't bode well for the rest of the car...
I think the problem with this version of the CL is that it didn't age that well, so compared to current models it does look a bit outdated and not great. However in it's day it looked incredible with huge presence, still has that presence and if you view it as a car of it's time (not vs current models today) I think you can still appreciate it was one hell of a machine to look at.I remember sitting in one at a dealer one time, it was brand new and the cover on the cubby hole between the seats was already broken. Didn't bode well for the rest of the car...
Daniel1 said:
Ditto - along with the R230 SL I think the C215 CL are possibly the best of mercedes recent designs. Sure, I love the new stuff too, but see these two parked on a Mercedes forecourt today and they don't look out of place.
That zonda esque exhaust though - crikey, what a treat that would be if I picked a lucky scratch card!
I agree that the R230 was an incredible design, I think it has aged far better than the C215 though. I find the C215 really shows it's age.That zonda esque exhaust though - crikey, what a treat that would be if I picked a lucky scratch card!
Just back from a trip to France in my SL55 AMG which is 12 years old and has just turned 25k miles. Similar vintage, technology, price (mine was £96k) and that too has depreciated to around £13k. The issue of course is that it is still a £96k car from a maintenance point of view. Last year, I noticed the rubber boots around the precious ABC struts had split. Cost to fix? 30% of the value of the car, all to protect the struts from the weather. I didn't bother, I'll just wait for them
to fail at a cost of £1500 a corner.
The car is absolutely great, 22 mpg, though I only use it for trips, it's not a car to waste on anything routine.
to fail at a cost of £1500 a corner.
The car is absolutely great, 22 mpg, though I only use it for trips, it's not a car to waste on anything routine.
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.
Forgive me, but if the rears are 275/35 R19 I thought Continentsls are around £276 EACHIt’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.
245/40 R19 come in at around £187 each iirc
Guess it depends on the size of rims and tyres you have, but easy to find yourself in for £552 after smoking the rear rubber a bit....
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