CL500/600 am I mad ?

[mph]

I've admired these cars for years but didn't realise what sensible money they are available for until I watched Top Gear recently.

I'm now seriously considering an older model say 2000/2002.

I appreciate that they will be expensive to run, but I don't see why the overall running cost should be much more than a new car if depreciation is factored in.

The unknowns for me are the servicing costs and reliability.

Anyone here with experience of running one ?

[RemainAllHoof]

There are a lot of electronics to go wrong and, if they do, will cost thousands. Gone are the good old days when you can fabricate a replacement part. The stereo on my CLK from the same era started having a problem speaking to the autochanger. In the end, despite testing everything, Mercedes' response was to replace the entire system with a new one, at a cost of around £3,000.

[d92qyh]

Buy one! I bought a CL600 about 18 months ago that had done 45000 miles and only had one owner and it is just superb. Done about 20k miles in it and hadnt been any problem at all.
Servicing I have done by a local specialist and is hardly any more money than a C Class estate I also have.
They are such amazing value.

[d92qyh]

Forgot to say I have a 2002 one but if I were you I would go for a 2003 with the new sat nav as the navigation on mine is poor.

[Rollcage]

They are big bks cars - you need em to run one!

You can get a good one, but you have to be prepared for some large bills down the road. I'd say you would be lucky to run for the same money as a new car - very lucky.

£7K car now, but still with £80k running costs, least of all fuel.

Cheap for a reason IMO.

[355spiderguy]

always listen to the person whom has one or had one; that's were the accurate opinions come from rather than the speculative ones...

i can only comment on years of running AMG's, and that is to buy the best you can afford; buy a cheap one, and it could bankrupt you; a good one will be a pleasure every turn of the key.

the top gear feature will be interesting to follow on how jeremys cl600 behaves.

[r129sl]

You hear a few horror stories about oil cooler seal failure on the early V12 but how common this really is I don't know. I suspect there are a lot more forum posts about what a risk it is than there are actual failures. (The oil cooler is located between the vee and requires both heads to be removed in order to fix it.) I suspect they are a total bargain because of the market's terror of expensive repairs which are almost never required.

[XB70]

r129sl said:

You hear a few horror stories about oil cooler seal failure on the early V12 but how common this really is I don't know. I suspect there are a lot more forum posts about what a risk it is than there are actual failures. (The oil cooler is located between the vee and requires both heads to be removed in order to fix it.) I suspect they are a total bargain because of the market's terror of expensive repairs which are almost never required.

Very common unfortunately.

I did a lot of research before buying my s600 and was shocked. It seems more than a few were done on the quiet so to speak in that it did the brand no good to tick off the owners of what was the most expensive flagship at the time. This applies to the first owner of course, being the poor sod who forked out over six figures for the cars.

I have said it before in other posts but you need to be prepared to throw thousands at the car....that you will not recoup at sale time....in order to keep them in tip top running order.

You will see more public mentions of the failure on the us forums since so many more were sold there as compared to the uk for example where they were only a fraction of sales. If and only if there was a pile of history would i buy a c215 or w220 in a v12. Otherwise the 500 models are an excellent option, albeit still suffering the separate ABC issue.

I compare the electronics on my current s600 to the later model one that I had and mine is like from the stone age. But it works and far far less to go wrong.

[mph]

XB70 said:

I have said it before in other posts but you need to be prepared to throw thousands at the car....that you will not recoup at sale time....in order to keep them in tip top running order.

Are they that unreliable ?

Is the routine maintenance horrendously expensive or are you saying that I should expect lots of things to go wrong ?

I would be looking to buy something with good history and sensible mileage.

[XB70]

mph said:

Are they that unreliable ?

Is the routine maintenance horrendously expensive or are you saying that I should expect lots of things to go wrong ?

I would be looking to buy something with good history and sensible mileage.

There are a range of things that will go, as soon as night follows day. As someone commented in another thread, the coilpacks are an issue and now it turns out the top gear one has had it. The abc and oil cooler are the other two specific to the v12.

It is a matter of going in with eyes open with a reserve fund for what is more proable than merely possible.

The v12's are brilliant so all depends on what you want from the c215 series coupe.

[RemainAllHoof]

I trust you all saw today's Top Gear.

[tonys]

Lovely cars but they'll never be cheap to run (properly).

You just need to be prepared to spend money on routine and non-routine items. Whilst I don't have experience of the model in question, I do have experience of another older top of the range MB a while ago, an excellent car which had been in family from new (with a full history) - 1st main service I had done at the dealer (yes, I know you can go elsewhere) cost more than enough to buy a decent (secondhand) car in itself. Just a few extra jobs were needed due to the mileage.

It might be possible to just run one into the ground over several years with little proper maintenance, and you might be lucky. But if you're not....

[mph]

Thanks for all the advice.

I don't think the risk is worth taking so I'm looking for alternatives.

[mercedesman]

I bough my father a 2000 cl 500 last year, he has a 2003 s320cdi that he used daily but always said he wanted one. about a 18 months ago i was looking through ebay and a cl jumped out at me. it was a 2000 cl 500, silver with black leather full mercedes benz service history. The car way an hour away so i jumped in my car and went to have a look at it. The car was like new, i have too many cars myself but also wanted one. So my thinking was to buy it for my dad then i could also use it. I paid £5700 for it and picked it up later that week. My father has hardley used the s-class since (s-class is now up for sale). the car has done over 12.000 miles since bought and has only had to have a set of tyres, brakes and a service last month. I think i have only driven it for 3 weeks since buying it. the car has performed as i would have expected it to.

buying one at that price it would not matter if the suspension pump or anything failed really as it was a 60k car 10 years ago and still looks the business, its got a private plate on it and you cannot tell how old it is.

My farther is not into car at all but would not be with out his cl.

If anyone is thinking of buying one go for it you only live one. I was lucky that the first one i looked at was a good one as their are alot of rough ones out their.

[jimmymidnight]

I have a 2003 CL500 with 55k on the clock and I love it. The running costs are high to be honest, but no higher than other big engined luxury cars from that era! Ive had a jag that cost twice as much to run, and it returns better mpg that our 4.4v8 Vogue Range Rover! obviously there are horror stories and things will go wrong - but it's an 8 year old car! I had a brand new BMW 118d that was riddled with faults, its just how it goes!

I would suggest looking at 2003 onwards, not a 2000-2002 as they were pre-facelift so are more likely to go wrong, and had the old nav unit, old interior parts, old rear lights and older head lights - i also believe they had older, smaller brakes.

I would recommend, but only if you don't mind filling up a lot, i average on about 19-21mpg but have got 27 on a good run!