Mercedes CL, are they really a money pit?
Discussion
Browsing autotrader & ebay I always find myself drawn to cars like this:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
Are they really that bad considering all the horror stories I hear about the suspension costing 1000s to fix if it goes wrong.
Surely with full MB service history and a keen eye before you buy should be on to a winner... right?
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
Are they really that bad considering all the horror stories I hear about the suspension costing 1000s to fix if it goes wrong.
Surely with full MB service history and a keen eye before you buy should be on to a winner... right?
From what I've heard, these and the W220 aren't as bad to run than their reputation suggests, though I wouldn't expect Fiesta running costs! I'm sure I've seen that shock absorbers/control units can be refurbished rather than replaced (I seem to remember ~£1k for a strut at MB) - though I may have misheard that and some may not be accurate!
I really fancy a '55 AMG myself and one may be my next barge.
I really fancy a '55 AMG myself and one may be my next barge.
Cars like this only make sense if you don't mind spannering the simpler jobs yourself, and have a good specialist (stay away from dealers!) for the occasional trickier job. It's wise to invest in your own diagnostic software and learn to use it. That coupled with tons of info on the Internet will save you a fortune. As long as you research the common problems to look for, the car is fundamentally in good nick and has clearly been looked after then you should be fine. For what it's worth, warranties for this type of vehicle are the money pit and don't expect any manufacturer cover.
I'd say they aren't too bad - you either need to make friends with a really good independent, or you need to be handy with STAR diagnostics and your hands for spannering.
Everything is modular and can be diagnosed or changed. Additionally they tend to be thoughtfully put together, so you generally don't have to hail three marys, stand one one leg and remove the wheels to change out an electric window switch.
At that age, it's not the sort of thing you want to be carting back and forth the mercedes dealership at £120 an hour labour.
Everything is modular and can be diagnosed or changed. Additionally they tend to be thoughtfully put together, so you generally don't have to hail three marys, stand one one leg and remove the wheels to change out an electric window switch.
At that age, it's not the sort of thing you want to be carting back and forth the mercedes dealership at £120 an hour labour.
Brother had a CL500 & CL55. Eye watering costs. Off the top of my head he went through 2 speedo clusters which totalled over 1k alone. Air suspension was always having issues - again thousands of pounds. Even routine servicing would break the bank for many!
Apart from that they are excellent and in 55 form pretty quick too!
Apart from that they are excellent and in 55 form pretty quick too!
I don't doubt they're expensive to run but I do wonder if some people go purely by Main Dealer 'pull my pants down' prices. Take the below as an example in that regarding an e65 7 series-
Both front wishbones: £550 (£400 in parts, £150 in labour)
Both front shock absorbers: £900 (£700 in parts, £200 labour)
New electric window mechanism: £500 (£250 parts, £250 labour).
Am just doing the alignment and wishbones, so the bill is now ~£950.
The shocks are weak but not dead, and I the window regulator they were taking the piss (I can buy a part online for £130, and watch YouTube videos that'll show me how to do it myself).
£950 is still pretty much the whole Bork allowance for the year gone in one go though...I know it's been covered that this stuff can easily be sourced for much, much less but how on earth are those shock absorbers £350 each on a non-M car?
I got my fronts from the dealer (with a small discount) for around £500. Likewise an alignment, I've had it done at BMW before for £160 (fairly big discount) but even as a worst case scenario without discount it'd be £250 tops.
Patrick Bateman said:
brickwall said:
hornetrider said:
Oh come on, you can't leave it at that. Give us the details! 
What BMW is it?
Alignment: £350 (mostly labour)What BMW is it?
Both front wishbones: £550 (£400 in parts, £150 in labour)
Both front shock absorbers: £900 (£700 in parts, £200 labour)
New electric window mechanism: £500 (£250 parts, £250 labour).
Am just doing the alignment and wishbones, so the bill is now ~£950.
The shocks are weak but not dead, and I the window regulator they were taking the piss (I can buy a part online for £130, and watch YouTube videos that'll show me how to do it myself).
£950 is still pretty much the whole Bork allowance for the year gone in one go though...
I got my fronts from the dealer (with a small discount) for around £500. Likewise an alignment, I've had it done at BMW before for £160 (fairly big discount) but even as a worst case scenario without discount it'd be £250 tops.
Idly thumbing through Exchange & Mart, looking to 'do a deal' on a Cayenne/L322/E65 760i....or god forbid a W215 of some sort, and not being able to manfully wear the myriad of outcomes - be that enjoying exquisite continental crushing of Autostrada and Autobahn, or frightfully tedious and regular visits to the local dealer - well, that's some form of roulette.
I'd say it's akin to muscling in on the local hood's craps game and not having the moolah to cover the vigorish. Id Est,quite frankly, daft.
Anyway, my view on these things is tied to a few principles:
- if you can wear the running costs when it was 100k new, then factor in a fair percentage above that as it hits, 8,10 years plus
- don't treat these techno beasts as fortnightly garage queens: like an ageing athlete, lethargy probably exacerbates issues
- buy cheap, pay twice: if you fiddle around on the 1st page or two of autotrader.co.uk, then ask yourself why as if you can't afford the nicer examples then appreciate the lottery game you're playing
As pertains the W215 CL I know on this site there have been a number of write-ups, and I've certainly contributed. They'll mainly be the M-B forum.
I owned a '55 AMG for three years. It was a sterling car, and I would certainly have another one again. I had the odd issue, but nothing unexpected. Cars like that, big luxury GTs and extravagant coupes, Continental GTs, GranTurismos, M6s, the E31....they are all about time-space distantiation. Ability to cover large spaces in little time with maximum comfort. And those abilities weren't engineered cheaply as new, so be expected to invest in the upkeep as they age....
Queuing up to get into Mahiki once with a pal a few years back, I couldn't fail to notice a chap a couple of places ahead. The look, the image was all there: the heavily stylised 'do, tight jeans (looked like Blackadder) and some Sergio Georgini's. Or something. He had a gorgeous blonde and brunette in tow. I think one of them was some Nuts/Zoo dollybird, and when he gave one of their bums a cheeky squeeze, I thought, "...well good luck for him'. Prince of the City ready to party, having a good time.
Until he got to the bar, and to save one of the glamour girls rooting around in her purse, all he had to hand to pay for drinks was his Vanquis credit card.
I'd say it's akin to muscling in on the local hood's craps game and not having the moolah to cover the vigorish. Id Est,quite frankly, daft.
Anyway, my view on these things is tied to a few principles:
- if you can wear the running costs when it was 100k new, then factor in a fair percentage above that as it hits, 8,10 years plus
- don't treat these techno beasts as fortnightly garage queens: like an ageing athlete, lethargy probably exacerbates issues
- buy cheap, pay twice: if you fiddle around on the 1st page or two of autotrader.co.uk, then ask yourself why as if you can't afford the nicer examples then appreciate the lottery game you're playing
As pertains the W215 CL I know on this site there have been a number of write-ups, and I've certainly contributed. They'll mainly be the M-B forum.
I owned a '55 AMG for three years. It was a sterling car, and I would certainly have another one again. I had the odd issue, but nothing unexpected. Cars like that, big luxury GTs and extravagant coupes, Continental GTs, GranTurismos, M6s, the E31....they are all about time-space distantiation. Ability to cover large spaces in little time with maximum comfort. And those abilities weren't engineered cheaply as new, so be expected to invest in the upkeep as they age....
Queuing up to get into Mahiki once with a pal a few years back, I couldn't fail to notice a chap a couple of places ahead. The look, the image was all there: the heavily stylised 'do, tight jeans (looked like Blackadder) and some Sergio Georgini's. Or something. He had a gorgeous blonde and brunette in tow. I think one of them was some Nuts/Zoo dollybird, and when he gave one of their bums a cheeky squeeze, I thought, "...well good luck for him'. Prince of the City ready to party, having a good time.
Until he got to the bar, and to save one of the glamour girls rooting around in her purse, all he had to hand to pay for drinks was his Vanquis credit card.
tigerkoi said:
Idly thumbing through Exchange & Mart, looking to 'do a deal' on a Cayenne/L322/E65 760i....or god forbid a W215 of some sort, and not being able to manfully wear the myriad of outcomes - be that enjoying exquisite continental crushing of Autostrada and Autobahn, or frightfully tedious and regular visits to the local dealer - well, that's some form of roulette.
I'd say it's akin to muscling in on the local hood's craps game and not having the moolah to cover the vigorish. Id Est,quite frankly, daft.
Anyway, my view on these things is tied to a few principles:
- if you can wear the running costs when it was 100k new, then factor in a fair percentage above that as it hits, 8,10 years plus
- don't treat these techno beasts as fortnightly garage queens: like an ageing athlete, lethargy probably exacerbates issues
- buy cheap, pay twice: if you fiddle around on the 1st page or two of autotrader.co.uk, then ask yourself why as if you can't afford the nicer examples then appreciate the lottery game you're playing
As pertains the W215 CL I know on this site there have been a number of write-ups, and I've certainly contributed. They'll mainly be the M-B forum.
I owned a '55 AMG for three years. It was a sterling car, and I would certainly have another one again. I had the odd issue, but nothing unexpected. Cars like that, big luxury GTs and extravagant coupes, Continental GTs, GranTurismos, M6s, the E31....they are all about time-space distantiation. Ability to cover large spaces in little time with maximum comfort. And those abilities weren't engineered cheaply as new, so be expected to invest in the upkeep as they age....
Queuing up to get into Mahiki once with a pal a few years back, I couldn't fail to notice a chap a couple of places ahead. The look, the image was all there: the heavily stylised 'do, tight jeans (looked like Blackadder) and some Sergio Georgini's. Or something. He had a gorgeous blonde and brunette in tow. I think one of them was some Nuts/Zoo dollybird, and when he gave one of their bums a cheeky squeeze, I thought, "...well good luck for him'. Prince of the City ready to party, having a good time.
Until he got to the bar, and to save one of the glamour girls rooting around in her purse, all he had to hand to pay for drinks was his Vanquis credit card.
That brilliant. I'd say it's akin to muscling in on the local hood's craps game and not having the moolah to cover the vigorish. Id Est,quite frankly, daft.
Anyway, my view on these things is tied to a few principles:
- if you can wear the running costs when it was 100k new, then factor in a fair percentage above that as it hits, 8,10 years plus
- don't treat these techno beasts as fortnightly garage queens: like an ageing athlete, lethargy probably exacerbates issues
- buy cheap, pay twice: if you fiddle around on the 1st page or two of autotrader.co.uk, then ask yourself why as if you can't afford the nicer examples then appreciate the lottery game you're playing
As pertains the W215 CL I know on this site there have been a number of write-ups, and I've certainly contributed. They'll mainly be the M-B forum.
I owned a '55 AMG for three years. It was a sterling car, and I would certainly have another one again. I had the odd issue, but nothing unexpected. Cars like that, big luxury GTs and extravagant coupes, Continental GTs, GranTurismos, M6s, the E31....they are all about time-space distantiation. Ability to cover large spaces in little time with maximum comfort. And those abilities weren't engineered cheaply as new, so be expected to invest in the upkeep as they age....
Queuing up to get into Mahiki once with a pal a few years back, I couldn't fail to notice a chap a couple of places ahead. The look, the image was all there: the heavily stylised 'do, tight jeans (looked like Blackadder) and some Sergio Georgini's. Or something. He had a gorgeous blonde and brunette in tow. I think one of them was some Nuts/Zoo dollybird, and when he gave one of their bums a cheeky squeeze, I thought, "...well good luck for him'. Prince of the City ready to party, having a good time.
Until he got to the bar, and to save one of the glamour girls rooting around in her purse, all he had to hand to pay for drinks was his Vanquis credit card.
I was initially put off by the larger Mercedes of this era mainly down to the horror stories of ABC suspension and everything costing ££££ to repair, but after being tempted by the affordability of them I decided to do a bit of research and was pleasantly surprised.
If you are able to do your own work or have a trusted, cheap independent and steer clear of the dealers running costs do not seem that bad.
ABC isn't as much as a worry as it could be if you avoid the dealers. Pumps are as little as £300 or so or a fraction of that for a rebuild kit as opposed to the ££££ regularly bounded about, and even then it seems that the majority of pump failures are from being ran dry on fluid. Refurbished legs are around £500 a corner, hoses can be made easily by hydraulic shops so that saves £££ Dealer tax and filters/consumables are actually quite reasonable.
Not heard much in terms of build quality issues, which is a plus with a Mercedes of this era. Neither the CL and S are said to have had a major manufacturing change like we saw with the W211 E Class in 2004, so I can only assume that Mercedes did not skimp as much on their flagship models. Still, it might be an idea to go for a facelift (03 onwards?) car just to be sure. Plus the newer command looks so much more modern. There's a lot of hype regarding complex electronics, but wires are wires, there are lots of CL/S/SL cars out there meaning a decent pool of breakers to source control modules from and you can pick up copies of the STAR diagnostic equipment for around £500, so if you can do work yourself I don't think electrical issues are too much of a problem even if they did occur.
As a short term prospect, I'd be wary. You might get stuck fixing a couple of issues and end up spending money that you ultimately aren't going to really recoup back, and the low prices tell you just how much interest there is in old £80k odd Mercs so don't expect to flip it quickly. But as a medium to long term car I think they are fantastic prospects. You spend a bit keeping on to of maintenance and in return you get to smoke around in a comfortable, powerful car that still has modern technology for next to nothing.
I'm currently pondering a S600 Bi turbo
.
If you are able to do your own work or have a trusted, cheap independent and steer clear of the dealers running costs do not seem that bad.
ABC isn't as much as a worry as it could be if you avoid the dealers. Pumps are as little as £300 or so or a fraction of that for a rebuild kit as opposed to the ££££ regularly bounded about, and even then it seems that the majority of pump failures are from being ran dry on fluid. Refurbished legs are around £500 a corner, hoses can be made easily by hydraulic shops so that saves £££ Dealer tax and filters/consumables are actually quite reasonable.
Not heard much in terms of build quality issues, which is a plus with a Mercedes of this era. Neither the CL and S are said to have had a major manufacturing change like we saw with the W211 E Class in 2004, so I can only assume that Mercedes did not skimp as much on their flagship models. Still, it might be an idea to go for a facelift (03 onwards?) car just to be sure. Plus the newer command looks so much more modern. There's a lot of hype regarding complex electronics, but wires are wires, there are lots of CL/S/SL cars out there meaning a decent pool of breakers to source control modules from and you can pick up copies of the STAR diagnostic equipment for around £500, so if you can do work yourself I don't think electrical issues are too much of a problem even if they did occur.
As a short term prospect, I'd be wary. You might get stuck fixing a couple of issues and end up spending money that you ultimately aren't going to really recoup back, and the low prices tell you just how much interest there is in old £80k odd Mercs so don't expect to flip it quickly. But as a medium to long term car I think they are fantastic prospects. You spend a bit keeping on to of maintenance and in return you get to smoke around in a comfortable, powerful car that still has modern technology for next to nothing.
I'm currently pondering a S600 Bi turbo
.Atmospheric said:
tigerkoi said:
Idly thumbing through Exchange & Mart, looking to 'do a deal' on a Cayenne/L322/E65 760i....or god forbid a W215 of some sort, and not being able to manfully wear the myriad of outcomes - be that enjoying exquisite continental crushing of Autostrada and Autobahn, or frightfully tedious and regular visits to the local dealer - well, that's some form of roulette.
I'd say it's akin to muscling in on the local hood's craps game and not having the moolah to cover the vigorish. Id Est,quite frankly, daft.
Anyway, my view on these things is tied to a few principles:
- if you can wear the running costs when it was 100k new, then factor in a fair percentage above that as it hits, 8,10 years plus
- don't treat these techno beasts as fortnightly garage queens: like an ageing athlete, lethargy probably exacerbates issues
- buy cheap, pay twice: if you fiddle around on the 1st page or two of autotrader.co.uk, then ask yourself why as if you can't afford the nicer examples then appreciate the lottery game you're playing
As pertains the W215 CL I know on this site there have been a number of write-ups, and I've certainly contributed. They'll mainly be the M-B forum.
I owned a '55 AMG for three years. It was a sterling car, and I would certainly have another one again. I had the odd issue, but nothing unexpected. Cars like that, big luxury GTs and extravagant coupes, Continental GTs, GranTurismos, M6s, the E31....they are all about time-space distantiation. Ability to cover large spaces in little time with maximum comfort. And those abilities weren't engineered cheaply as new, so be expected to invest in the upkeep as they age....
Queuing up to get into Mahiki once with a pal a few years back, I couldn't fail to notice a chap a couple of places ahead. The look, the image was all there: the heavily stylised 'do, tight jeans (looked like Blackadder) and some Sergio Georgini's. Or something. He had a gorgeous blonde and brunette in tow. I think one of them was some Nuts/Zoo dollybird, and when he gave one of their bums a cheeky squeeze, I thought, "...well good luck for him'. Prince of the City ready to party, having a good time.
Until he got to the bar, and to save one of the glamour girls rooting around in her purse, all he had to hand to pay for drinks was his Vanquis credit card.
That brilliant. I'd say it's akin to muscling in on the local hood's craps game and not having the moolah to cover the vigorish. Id Est,quite frankly, daft.
Anyway, my view on these things is tied to a few principles:
- if you can wear the running costs when it was 100k new, then factor in a fair percentage above that as it hits, 8,10 years plus
- don't treat these techno beasts as fortnightly garage queens: like an ageing athlete, lethargy probably exacerbates issues
- buy cheap, pay twice: if you fiddle around on the 1st page or two of autotrader.co.uk, then ask yourself why as if you can't afford the nicer examples then appreciate the lottery game you're playing
As pertains the W215 CL I know on this site there have been a number of write-ups, and I've certainly contributed. They'll mainly be the M-B forum.
I owned a '55 AMG for three years. It was a sterling car, and I would certainly have another one again. I had the odd issue, but nothing unexpected. Cars like that, big luxury GTs and extravagant coupes, Continental GTs, GranTurismos, M6s, the E31....they are all about time-space distantiation. Ability to cover large spaces in little time with maximum comfort. And those abilities weren't engineered cheaply as new, so be expected to invest in the upkeep as they age....
Queuing up to get into Mahiki once with a pal a few years back, I couldn't fail to notice a chap a couple of places ahead. The look, the image was all there: the heavily stylised 'do, tight jeans (looked like Blackadder) and some Sergio Georgini's. Or something. He had a gorgeous blonde and brunette in tow. I think one of them was some Nuts/Zoo dollybird, and when he gave one of their bums a cheeky squeeze, I thought, "...well good luck for him'. Prince of the City ready to party, having a good time.
Until he got to the bar, and to save one of the glamour girls rooting around in her purse, all he had to hand to pay for drinks was his Vanquis credit card.
As an aside, I was lucky enough to be invited by M-B to test drive the new S63 AMG Coupe a couple of months back, and as fabulous as it is, it is not half the looker the W215 was. I quite fancy a CL63 (W216) though.
They are all glorious cars however. It has all got me thinking...hmmmmmm...
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