POS W209 CLK 55 AMG
Discussion
I bought this CLK nearly 2 years ago and what a time has that been,
This is the slight facelift model with the quad exhaust and big brakes before the 63 AMG,
after approx 4 months of owning it the harman kardon amplifier decided to pack in which stopped the whole command unit from switching on, the quoted price for a replacement amplifier was going to be in the region of £1000! Looking at the amp I just couldn't justify spending that much money on something that looked so crappy so I decided to keep an eye out for a 2nd hand one.
Come around Christmas time 2011 the car then had a huge short out, crippling it so it was recovered to my local dealer which ran diagnostics and visual inspections to discover that a wire running from either the alternator or starter motor was damaged and caused a shortage or power surge burning out several fuse boxes, wiring looms and other electrical components, the repairs for this cost me nearly £3k!!.
Recently a managed to source a good working 2nd hand amplifier, apparently it should just plug in and work, but no,, things aren't that simple, I took the car back to the dealer to have a look, they said it needed de coding and should take an hour to sort, hourly labour rate here is £85. Three hours and £260 later they contacted me saying its not fixed and they needed more time at that point I needed the car back.
I rang them earlier today to arrange to have the de coding finished and to get an idea of the cost, they quoted me another 8 hours (£680) to get it fully functional!.
This is the first Mercedes I have ever owned and it really hasn't made a good impression, it has definitely put me off from getting another one, this one seems to be nothing but trouble, and I think the reliability of the car and some of the repair costs are a piss take!
I'm interested to know if anyone else has had similar experiences.
Stephen.
This is the slight facelift model with the quad exhaust and big brakes before the 63 AMG,
after approx 4 months of owning it the harman kardon amplifier decided to pack in which stopped the whole command unit from switching on, the quoted price for a replacement amplifier was going to be in the region of £1000! Looking at the amp I just couldn't justify spending that much money on something that looked so crappy so I decided to keep an eye out for a 2nd hand one.
Come around Christmas time 2011 the car then had a huge short out, crippling it so it was recovered to my local dealer which ran diagnostics and visual inspections to discover that a wire running from either the alternator or starter motor was damaged and caused a shortage or power surge burning out several fuse boxes, wiring looms and other electrical components, the repairs for this cost me nearly £3k!!.
Recently a managed to source a good working 2nd hand amplifier, apparently it should just plug in and work, but no,, things aren't that simple, I took the car back to the dealer to have a look, they said it needed de coding and should take an hour to sort, hourly labour rate here is £85. Three hours and £260 later they contacted me saying its not fixed and they needed more time at that point I needed the car back.
I rang them earlier today to arrange to have the de coding finished and to get an idea of the cost, they quoted me another 8 hours (£680) to get it fully functional!.
This is the first Mercedes I have ever owned and it really hasn't made a good impression, it has definitely put me off from getting another one, this one seems to be nothing but trouble, and I think the reliability of the car and some of the repair costs are a piss take!
I'm interested to know if anyone else has had similar experiences.
Stephen.
Edited by Stegro84 on Monday 4th February 14:12
You bought a secondhand car, something broke that you didnt bother to fix. It caused a consequent major failure. Once that was repaired, you tried to be a cheapskate and fix an secondhand part. The FD finds that the part that you sourced is hard to get working in your car.
Running the sympathy meter over your situation, I'm not getting much of a reading........
Running the sympathy meter over your situation, I'm not getting much of a reading........
I'm a big Merc fan, but my experience with my old 2002 R230 500SL nearly broke me - both in spirit and financially.
Dreadful shoddy design, full overcomplex crap that would die if it leaked in water, s
t like SBS and ABC.
It nearly put me off cars for life and cost me around £500 a month in repairs on average. Wouldn't have one given to me.
Dreadful shoddy design, full overcomplex crap that would die if it leaked in water, s
t like SBS and ABC.It nearly put me off cars for life and cost me around £500 a month in repairs on average. Wouldn't have one given to me.
)Stegro84 said:
this one seems to be nothing but trouble,
You've owned it 2yrs and it's had 2 faults?How much were they new - £60K? How much did you pay for it?
The snag is that a car that cost £60K will always have repair costs related to that value, not the price you paid for it. So £3K to fix a £60K car doesn't seem too bad.
ClaphamGT3 said:
You bought a secondhand car, something broke that you didnt bother to fix. It caused a consequent major failure. Once that was repaired, you tried to be a cheapskate and fix an secondhand part. The FD finds that the part that you sourced is hard to get working in your car.
Running the sympathy meter over your situation, I'm not getting much of a reading........
You have got the wrong end of the stick, this wasn't intended as a sympathy vote!Running the sympathy meter over your situation, I'm not getting much of a reading........
I'm more interested in wether other mercedes owner have had problems like these.
FYI the amp failure was to do with the fibre optics not electrical so it has no connection to the electrical short out that happened.
Deva Link said:
You've owned it 2yrs and it's had 2 faults?How much were they new - £60K? How much did you pay for it?
There are a few other faults I didn't mention, the crank positioning sensor failed so it couldn't start up which ended up as another recovery truck job back to the dealer, also some kind of plastic gear for the air vents broke in the dash which is a dash out job, a rear spring had snapped whilst all the electrical repairs were being done and lastly a SRS sensor in the passenger seat had to be replaced twice.
Deva Link said:
The snag is that a car that cost £60K will always have repair costs related to that value, not the price you paid for it. So £3K to fix a £60K car doesn't seem too bad.
That is a given, but its the cost for de coding the amp which I can't get my head around.Stephen
Try http://www.commandonline.co.uk/. If they can't do it, then it cannot be done. The owner is very helpful and a regular contributor on the mbclub.co.uk forum.
I feel your pain, they can be very expensive cars at Dealer rates to keep on the road.
I have never heard of de coding an amplifier and feel that 10 hours is ridiculous, funny how that adds up to about the same they quoted to replace it in the first place. Have you asked them exactly what they are doing? It sounds like they are milking you and yes that does happen as they are in business for themselves and not for your benefit.
My first SLK230 was 3 months old when I got it and I had it over 3 years. In that time a bulb failed on the dash which I replaced and that was it. My SLK32 had a battery die after someone left the interior light on, and the steering damper needed replacing. The ML has had a new fuel sender after it ran out of fuel on the motorway with Lady S driving and the gauge reading over a 1/4 tank, a new control unit and boot lock, a wiring loom issue, a LHD trim piece fitted to the under bonnet blocking the air intake and an ABS sensor. The SL55 has had the ABC fluid and filter replaced, front balljoints and the charge cooler pump (last two under warranty) I must admit that potential issues with the brake system and ABC are somewhat worrying and I do long for a more simple setup such as brake servo and normal dampers and springs.
I did have issues with seat heaters on the SLK32 and the C32 but that is hardly stranding you in the middle of nowhere.
I have never heard of de coding an amplifier and feel that 10 hours is ridiculous, funny how that adds up to about the same they quoted to replace it in the first place. Have you asked them exactly what they are doing? It sounds like they are milking you and yes that does happen as they are in business for themselves and not for your benefit.
My first SLK230 was 3 months old when I got it and I had it over 3 years. In that time a bulb failed on the dash which I replaced and that was it. My SLK32 had a battery die after someone left the interior light on, and the steering damper needed replacing. The ML has had a new fuel sender after it ran out of fuel on the motorway with Lady S driving and the gauge reading over a 1/4 tank, a new control unit and boot lock, a wiring loom issue, a LHD trim piece fitted to the under bonnet blocking the air intake and an ABS sensor. The SL55 has had the ABC fluid and filter replaced, front balljoints and the charge cooler pump (last two under warranty) I must admit that potential issues with the brake system and ABC are somewhat worrying and I do long for a more simple setup such as brake servo and normal dampers and springs.
I did have issues with seat heaters on the SLK32 and the C32 but that is hardly stranding you in the middle of nowhere.
Edited by SLacKer on Tuesday 5th February 15:27
Well it does sound disappointing.
I am not convinced by the quality of the modern cars.
But the problem is not the manufacturer: it is the customer. Nobody wants to pay for quality anymore. They just want to lease something flash for £300 per month.
Mercedes' reputation is built on cars which were extraordinarily well-built, correspondingly expensive, unappreciated in the motoring press and purchased in small numbers by those very few people in whom intelligence, wealth and love of motoring combine. By way of example, a w124 320 CE coupé of 1993 vintage—ancestor of the CLK—cost about £55,000 by the time you added a few choice options. £90,000 in today's money. Nobody would pay that for an E-Class coupé today. That old era was long gone by the time your CLK rattled its way onto the showroom floor.
I am not convinced by the quality of the modern cars.
But the problem is not the manufacturer: it is the customer. Nobody wants to pay for quality anymore. They just want to lease something flash for £300 per month.
Mercedes' reputation is built on cars which were extraordinarily well-built, correspondingly expensive, unappreciated in the motoring press and purchased in small numbers by those very few people in whom intelligence, wealth and love of motoring combine. By way of example, a w124 320 CE coupé of 1993 vintage—ancestor of the CLK—cost about £55,000 by the time you added a few choice options. £90,000 in today's money. Nobody would pay that for an E-Class coupé today. That old era was long gone by the time your CLK rattled its way onto the showroom floor.
All new cars , irrespective of origin are simply too complex to be seen as a "lifetime" purchase . The pace of change of technological applications in vehicles is immense , and there is no will amongst the manufacturers to provide the associated support to keep these cars running at a reaonable cost .
Not saying I`m a luddite , but there must be a niche market for a luxury performance car with basic engineering principles applied to it`s contruction . Maybe Bristol was the last such manufacturer , or maybe there will be no more mechanical engineers in the years ahead , who knows .
Either way , I`m sorry that the 209 55 has cost so much to keep running ; such bills would irk me too .
Not saying I`m a luddite , but there must be a niche market for a luxury performance car with basic engineering principles applied to it`s contruction . Maybe Bristol was the last such manufacturer , or maybe there will be no more mechanical engineers in the years ahead , who knows .
Either way , I`m sorry that the 209 55 has cost so much to keep running ; such bills would irk me too .
Hi Stegro84,
I really can appreciate how frustrated you must be... I recently bought just last month in fact, a w209 CLK 55 AMG, a late 2003 model, so the pre facelift one. It has currently just turned over onto 123k on the clock so obviously not a garage queen or been used for driving Miss Daisy to the shops. The condition is nice and would only benefit from a good detail and if I'm being anal a wheel refurb as one or two of the alloys have a few scratches on them but then I'm being really picky.
Now having previously owned a 1999 e39 BMW M5 for the past four years, I decided I wanted a change and thought this would be good alternative, i.e similar power, but in a nicer coupe shape and with the more relaxed auto box, which I wanted.
My story starts here...
To start off with, I didn't pay mega money for the car, don't get me wrong. I bought it privately at a reasonable price from a nice bloke down south, who'd had the car for getting on a couple of years and didn't really use it much anymore. He'd just put on in the last month or so, new front discs and pads, a full set of Bridgestone Potenzas and had a full oil service carried out. It drove nice on the test drive and everything worked correctly, apart from it the common SRS air bag light lit up on the dash. He had mentioned this on the phone prior to me coming to view though, so it wasn't a surprise.
I'm not in any way afraid of high mileage cars by any means, the M5 was just rolling on to 210k just before i sold it. But I do think the BMW is in another league with regards to quality of materials and the way it's been put together. Everything seems to feel like a Friday night job in the CLK. When saying this, I'm not talking about the engine or the way it drives, in that respect I think the car is superb its quick and very smooth even with the mileage but like I say high mileage isn't really an issue with me as long as its been looked after. Like I said bought it in the knowledge that the SRS airbag light was on was going to require some attention. Again like you it turned out to be a sensor in the passenger seat. So we agreed on a price and drove away. I had quite a trip back home as it was about 150 miles or so, so I had plenty of time to get used to the car...
...Sometime later, somewhere on the M40...
I now have not only the SRS bag light lit up, but the whole centre of the dash display is glowing a demonic red with the message reading "OIL LEVEL - REDUCE ENGINE OIL LEVEL". So i pull over immediately and open the bonnet to go looking for the dipstick to check the level, only to find it hasn't got one! First thought was brilliant, what do I do now. So I left the car turned off for a bit to see if it was just a dodgy sensor and found that after starting the car again it had reset and no glowing red oil message anymore, I then carried on the journey. A slight bit worried thinking too much oil is just as bad a too little in some cases.
...a little further on still...
SRS light still lit, we then get the third light in the shape of the engine diagnostic light. Now this worried me more than anything, as I knew this was going to need to be diagnosed on the computer and could end up being any number of things! Usually an engine diagnostic light is accompanied by limp mode in my experience, but on this occasion there was nothing and the car drove on fine. I decided that I should carry on regardless, just wanting to get back now at this point just incase the wheels decide they want to start falling off or something else as stupid! A hour into the journey and I was already racking up a multitude of "to-dos" the next day, thats before I could even get round to giving the car a good clean aswell!
I eventually get back and have a severe lack of enthusiasm for Mercedes Benz, only thinking back to reading car magazines in the past where the quality of Merc's was always raved about! These were obviously vehicles of a different era maybe!?
This wasn't the end of the problems and none of these had reared their ugly heads on the test drive either, incase thats what you were thinking! The next to arise and don't forget this all still happened on the same day, not over a 2 year period like Stegro84! The steering wheel buttons on the left hand side decided to stop working, so I now have no control over the on board computer display. The right hand side at the top still work though and will still de/increase the volume of the stereo but the other 3 buttons don't seem to do anything. Have no idea what this could be!
The car isn't mint and I do expect wear and tear here and there and maybe odd thing not working, especially with a car of this age and mileage. But it is only when you think that this car with all the options when new, would've cost somewhere in the region of between £58 and £65,000. A lot of money now and certainly a lot in 2003! You only then have to admit to thinking that the build quality is absolutely shocking for a car of that price and leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. After doing a bit of research I was tending to read more and more things regarding the same sort of electrical gremlins and quite a few common problems that I hear now should've been ironed out in later iterations of this model. But even with that it still doesn't get away from the fact that these cars are meant to be built by Germans who are renowned for their precision engineering and quality!!No?... I guess not anymore and this car in a way has put me off searching for the SL55 which I really wanted, because with it being even more complex than the CLK I dread to think what the hell could go wrong with one of them. By writing this I'm not in any way after a sympathy vote and to whoever has the "sympathy meter" they can kindly put it away somewhere. All I'm doing is sharing my, albeit limited experience of the Mercedes Benz marque, which I think in this instance is a case of the old cliche "they don't build them like they used to"!
I really can appreciate how frustrated you must be... I recently bought just last month in fact, a w209 CLK 55 AMG, a late 2003 model, so the pre facelift one. It has currently just turned over onto 123k on the clock so obviously not a garage queen or been used for driving Miss Daisy to the shops. The condition is nice and would only benefit from a good detail and if I'm being anal a wheel refurb as one or two of the alloys have a few scratches on them but then I'm being really picky.
Now having previously owned a 1999 e39 BMW M5 for the past four years, I decided I wanted a change and thought this would be good alternative, i.e similar power, but in a nicer coupe shape and with the more relaxed auto box, which I wanted.
My story starts here...
To start off with, I didn't pay mega money for the car, don't get me wrong. I bought it privately at a reasonable price from a nice bloke down south, who'd had the car for getting on a couple of years and didn't really use it much anymore. He'd just put on in the last month or so, new front discs and pads, a full set of Bridgestone Potenzas and had a full oil service carried out. It drove nice on the test drive and everything worked correctly, apart from it the common SRS air bag light lit up on the dash. He had mentioned this on the phone prior to me coming to view though, so it wasn't a surprise.
I'm not in any way afraid of high mileage cars by any means, the M5 was just rolling on to 210k just before i sold it. But I do think the BMW is in another league with regards to quality of materials and the way it's been put together. Everything seems to feel like a Friday night job in the CLK. When saying this, I'm not talking about the engine or the way it drives, in that respect I think the car is superb its quick and very smooth even with the mileage but like I say high mileage isn't really an issue with me as long as its been looked after. Like I said bought it in the knowledge that the SRS airbag light was on was going to require some attention. Again like you it turned out to be a sensor in the passenger seat. So we agreed on a price and drove away. I had quite a trip back home as it was about 150 miles or so, so I had plenty of time to get used to the car...
...Sometime later, somewhere on the M40...
I now have not only the SRS bag light lit up, but the whole centre of the dash display is glowing a demonic red with the message reading "OIL LEVEL - REDUCE ENGINE OIL LEVEL". So i pull over immediately and open the bonnet to go looking for the dipstick to check the level, only to find it hasn't got one! First thought was brilliant, what do I do now. So I left the car turned off for a bit to see if it was just a dodgy sensor and found that after starting the car again it had reset and no glowing red oil message anymore, I then carried on the journey. A slight bit worried thinking too much oil is just as bad a too little in some cases.
...a little further on still...
SRS light still lit, we then get the third light in the shape of the engine diagnostic light. Now this worried me more than anything, as I knew this was going to need to be diagnosed on the computer and could end up being any number of things! Usually an engine diagnostic light is accompanied by limp mode in my experience, but on this occasion there was nothing and the car drove on fine. I decided that I should carry on regardless, just wanting to get back now at this point just incase the wheels decide they want to start falling off or something else as stupid! A hour into the journey and I was already racking up a multitude of "to-dos" the next day, thats before I could even get round to giving the car a good clean aswell!
I eventually get back and have a severe lack of enthusiasm for Mercedes Benz, only thinking back to reading car magazines in the past where the quality of Merc's was always raved about! These were obviously vehicles of a different era maybe!?
This wasn't the end of the problems and none of these had reared their ugly heads on the test drive either, incase thats what you were thinking! The next to arise and don't forget this all still happened on the same day, not over a 2 year period like Stegro84! The steering wheel buttons on the left hand side decided to stop working, so I now have no control over the on board computer display. The right hand side at the top still work though and will still de/increase the volume of the stereo but the other 3 buttons don't seem to do anything. Have no idea what this could be!
The car isn't mint and I do expect wear and tear here and there and maybe odd thing not working, especially with a car of this age and mileage. But it is only when you think that this car with all the options when new, would've cost somewhere in the region of between £58 and £65,000. A lot of money now and certainly a lot in 2003! You only then have to admit to thinking that the build quality is absolutely shocking for a car of that price and leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. After doing a bit of research I was tending to read more and more things regarding the same sort of electrical gremlins and quite a few common problems that I hear now should've been ironed out in later iterations of this model. But even with that it still doesn't get away from the fact that these cars are meant to be built by Germans who are renowned for their precision engineering and quality!!No?... I guess not anymore and this car in a way has put me off searching for the SL55 which I really wanted, because with it being even more complex than the CLK I dread to think what the hell could go wrong with one of them. By writing this I'm not in any way after a sympathy vote and to whoever has the "sympathy meter" they can kindly put it away somewhere. All I'm doing is sharing my, albeit limited experience of the Mercedes Benz marque, which I think in this instance is a case of the old cliche "they don't build them like they used to"!
It's a well documented fact that the Mercedes Benz cars from the era being discussed here did suffer from some rather sketchy build quality. Anyone buying one should either go into it with their eyes well and truly open and have a slush fund for what might go wrong, or pay top money to an MB dealership and get a cast iron warranty. For what it's worth, I bought a 22,000 mile 58 plate ML500 from a main MB dealer and within 3 months had warranty claims exceeding £3k. It seems to come with the territory but if you like the cars you have to live with it. I agree with the poster above regarding MB v BMW build quality having had many examples of both too. 
ClaphamGT3 said:
You bought a secondhand car, something broke that you didnt bother to fix. It caused a consequent major failure. Once that was repaired, you tried to be a cheapskate and fix an secondhand part. The FD finds that the part that you sourced is hard to get working in your car.
Running the sympathy meter over your situation, I'm not getting much of a reading........
you don't think that 11 hours is an insane amount of time to replace an amplifier?Running the sympathy meter over your situation, I'm not getting much of a reading........
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