RE: Mercedes CL (C125): PH Used Buying Guide

[tch911]

pSyCoSiS said:

once on song, not much will keep up with the 600 mid range onward.

Agreed, the mid range, 'hand of god' thump is something else. A tickle on the throttle at 70 has you comfortably in naughty-naughty territory in an instant. And it does it in the most wonderfully imperious unflustered fashion!

WorldBoss said:

I keep telling myself that I want a C216 for all the toys and gadgets, but they seemed to be only available in sliver or black.

Almandine Black is an absolutely stunning colour and suits the C215s so well. A cheap enough Bi-Turbo 600 in that colour is one of those "Shut up and take my money" prospects without a second thought.

Almandine is, in my opinon the colour to have. Any CL600 is hard enough to find in that colour, but a TT.....like hen's teeth!

Have a look at Diamond Silver on the C216. You don't see it often but it is the most lovely colour with a blue tint to it. Looks 'special'.

WorldBoss said:

ABC/Hydraulic suspension is truly a engineering marvel and technically THE best way of suspending a vehicle. It's a benefit that not enough cars get credit for.

Nearly as good ride quality as air, instant height changes without annoyingly loud pumps and next to no body roll despite usually being fitted to cars with immense weight.

I bet pressing on in a 2ton+ car with just those coil springs and no anti roll bars must be... interesting!

I would go as far as saying that ABC is akin to witchcraft. It is quite extraordinary how these cars corner when you are pressing on, the absence of roll is unbelievable. You can certainly surprise a few hot-hatchers in one of these, they hustle well for a big girl!

[Max M4X WW]

tch911 said:

pSyCoSiS said:

once on song, not much will keep up with the 600 mid range onward.

Agreed, the mid range, 'hand of god' thump is something else. A tickle on the throttle at 70 has you comfortably in naughty-naughty territory in an instant. And it does it in the most wonderfully imperious unflustered fashion!

Are you both talking about the NA or TT car?

[Test driver]

Fantastic cars representing great value. I have a clk 55 amg which is a bit smaller with less gadgets but also a great place to be with plenty of poke.

I’d love the V12 one day.

[anonymous-user]

daveinhampshire said:

I've owned a CL500(2000) for the past 8 months which I purchased for a little over £1k knowing it needed work. So far it's cost £1,700 in repairs to suspension including a new pump and a rear strut. It cost another £450 this week when it blew both centre cats, these were very cheap as you can see by the price. It still needs a damper for the pump, air con leak, rear window mechanism and the interior fan oiling/replacing.

One thing I will never get is people that want to buy top of the range cars and then complain they're complex and expensive to look after, if you want peace of mind buy a new one. In my case I have kept the costs down by going for the 5 litre, my choice if I was to buy again would be the N/A CL55, a gorgeous engine. I should have all the jobs out the way by the new year and it will be a pleasure to drive. The only thing it does make me think is how little I spend on my London Taxi, I think it's cost £200 in repairs since I owned it and it has over 400k on the clock, original everything!

I think you may have slightly missed the point. I have always gone in with eyes wide open, not purchasing older prestige cars because they were cheap, but because they were interesting. I always expected large bills, and in fact avoided such cars if they hadn't had large amounts spent on them because this indicated to me they hadn't been properly looked after. In the 5 years I owned the 928 I would estimate I spent probably close to 15k running it, and never regretted a penny because it was a wonderful car, and repaid me in spades for the privilege of owning and enjoying it. I think the point at issue here is the problems experienced were either inherent design faults that you would not expect of cars of that supposed calibre, or fully dealer 'maintained' cars that clearly we're not.

I now own a 1983 VW T25 Devon Moonraker that by the looks of things is going to cost me at a minimum what the 928 extracted, if not more, which I'm happy with because it's expected, I did my homework. As someone stated above, the joys of being a petrolhead, though I suspect a few may challenge that categorisation based on my current choice of chariot...

[Erudite geezer]

Alot of discussion herein regarding reliability, or lack thereof, of this svelte German uber-coupe.

Can persons proffer advice regarding reliability of the model which preceded the C125:



And for the model which followed:

[AC43]

tch911 said:

.

That is simply stunning. One of my top three all time favourite Merc colours alongside Tansanite Blue and that greeny/black colour I used to see on 211's and 204's. Don't know the name.

tch911 said:

With a full MB history and recent expenditure of £9k (Both coil packs, discs, pads, tyres, ABC sort-through) I thought it seemed a good one to buy. But I buy it with my eyes open, that it could easily throw me a £3k bill.

Excellent history/spend.

tch911 said:

From day one I had a battery discharge issue, which we tracked, through diagnostics to an alarm, and TV Tuner, that wouldn't go to sleep. Took out the (analogue) TV Tuner, and replaced the alarm, no harm done.

Sounds normal for Mercs of this era and complexity. I had a bit of that with one of mine. The phone module spend a bit of time staying awake when it shouldn't have. Although fully flattening the battery actually reset it eventually. But there are so many control systems in one of those it's not surprising that one or two throw a wobble from time to time.

tch911 said:

Yes, like others with little imagination, I could lease a blue/grey/white Golf R, or I could drive a V12 leather/alcantara-lined behemouth that makes me look-back every time I park it up, and makes me chuckle every time I get into it and enjoy that extended starter motor whinny, followed by the whoomph of 12 cyclinders.

Perfect. That's me too. I could be rattling around in a base spec leased 2.0 tdi something or other. Instead I get to feel the torque reaction every time I fire up the 5.5 V8.

Yours is just on another level completely, of course. Enjoy it - it's very special indeed.

Edited by AC43 on Saturday 1st December 09:21

[BigBen]

Max M4X WW said:

tch911 said:

pSyCoSiS said:

once on song, not much will keep up with the 600 mid range onward.

Agreed, the mid range, 'hand of god' thump is something else. A tickle on the throttle at 70 has you comfortably in naughty-naughty territory in an instant. And it does it in the most wonderfully imperious unflustered fashion!

Are you both talking about the NA or TT car?

Must be the TT. I still have my W220 600TT which I don't drive much, I keep meaning to sell it but then I take it for a drive and somehow forget to write and advert.....

[twizellb]

mikeyr said:

Nice looking cars but that's a long old litany of issues to contend with.

Don't fancy the poor seller that has to spend the day with an overly cautious buyer...
Article says: 'After driving the car, if possible wait a few hours to check it has not settled on the suspension, which is a clear sign the ABC pump is failing.'

I think the "article" is wrong, the suspension settling after time is a sign of the lock off valves in the valve block failing.
A rebuild kit for the 4 valves in each block are available for £60.
Ask me how i know
Stunning looking cars and greatly undervalued i would say.

[BigBen]

twizellb said:

mikeyr said:

Nice looking cars but that's a long old litany of issues to contend with.

Don't fancy the poor seller that has to spend the day with an overly cautious buyer...
Article says: 'After driving the car, if possible wait a few hours to check it has not settled on the suspension, which is a clear sign the ABC pump is failing.'

I think the "article" is wrong, the suspension settling after time is a sign of the lock off valves in the valve block failing.
A rebuild kit for the 4 valves in each block are available for £60.
Ask me how i know
Stunning looking cars and greatly undervalued i would say.

I agree, the pump will not run once the engine is off, waiting hours will prove nothing.

[twizellb]

BigBen said:

twizellb said:

mikeyr said:

Nice looking cars but that's a long old litany of issues to contend with.

Don't fancy the poor seller that has to spend the day with an overly cautious buyer...
Article says: 'After driving the car, if possible wait a few hours to check it has not settled on the suspension, which is a clear sign the ABC pump is failing.'

I think the "article" is wrong, the suspension settling after time is a sign of the lock off valves in the valve block failing.
A rebuild kit for the 4 valves in each block are available for £60.
Ask me how i know
Stunning looking cars and greatly undervalued i would say.

I agree, the pump will not run once the engine is off, waiting hours will prove nothing.

2 valves per block to control ride while running, one for each wheel.
The other 2 valves lock off the fluid and maintain height when when the car is switched off.
Each valve has a series of seals and grommets which fail over the years but are simple to rebuild.
Valve block for front axle and one for the rear.
There's a good video on YouTube showing a rebuild.

[twizellb]

Just to add I've just had the front and rear valve block's done on my Sl500.
Not half as scary or expensive as people make out.

[Schermerhorn]

The model before this, the W140 based coupe, looks 10x better in my opinion.

[11Gareth]

I’ve had a CL55k for over 2 years and over 10,000 miles later it has been an utter joy! The only bills have been tyres, servicing and a rogue oxygen sensor that needed a bit of dismantling to reach. You feel like the Chairman of the board and the man maths stacks up well. I have always believed that the cheap ones are expensive and the expensive ones cheap (in the long run). The post 2002 face lift models are the better bet as some of the earlier problems are sorted out. Can’t even begin to explain the 500bhp kick in the shorts you get from the supercharger- go and test drive one and you’ll see what I mean!

Edited by 11Gareth on Sunday 2nd December 09:18

[anonymous-user]

Schermerhorn said:

The model before this, the W140 based coupe, looks 10x better in my opinion.

Imho the 140 coupe, as standard, is one of the frumpiest looking cars Mercedes have made, it's plain to the point of blandness in a way that's difficult to describe, and rarely looks good in a photograph, they seem very colour sensitive as well, white ones make me feel a little nauseous.
However, and I realise a flaming is on the cards for this, a set of Lorinsors and a bit of lowering can transform them into something rather nice...

[anonymous-user]

swiveleyedgit said:

Imho the 140 coupe, as standard, is one of the frumpiest looking cars Mercedes have made, it's plain to the point of blandness in a way that's difficult to describe, and rarely looks good in a photograph, they seem very colour sensitive as well, white ones make me feel a little nauseous.
However, and I realise a flaming is on the cards for this, a set of Lorinsors and a bit of lowering can transform them into something rather nice...

These are really growing on me - i was on the point of buying an early R129 but realised that in truth the rear seats are nothing of the sort and with two 7 year olds it wasn't going to fly so i switched my attention the 140. And then bought a T25.

[406dogvan]

We've done a fair bit of work on a CL500 which the owner said "was the best one he could find in the UK"

I can only hope he didn't look hard, because his car is FAR from the quality car you'd expect given the original price

The interior is tatty and rattly - the drivers seat controls fall-out of the door when used - we've chased numerous drain faults to various bits of tech installed over the car's life (immobilisers, trackers, phone kits etc.) - eventually replacing the entire rear SAM solved that problem.

Until the auto-boot-close decided to jump-in and start flattening the battery again - at which point some disassembly showed the accident damage which had misaligned the boot (the car was 100% clean looking otherwise - not a bad repair but a repair nonetheless)

The engine also sounds rough to me and the car has the usual Mercedes 'groans and creaks' which suggest it's sorely in need of a suspension overhaul and probably a new steering rack...

I just hope his idea of "best in the country" is some way from correct because if it wasn't so 'tired' it would be a lovely car to look at/sit in/waft around in...

[BigBen]

js68 said:

swiveleyedgit said:

Imho the 140 coupe, as standard, is one of the frumpiest looking cars Mercedes have made, it's plain to the point of blandness in a way that's difficult to describe, and rarely looks good in a photograph, they seem very colour sensitive as well, white ones make me feel a little nauseous.
However, and I realise a flaming is on the cards for this, a set of Lorinsors and a bit of lowering can transform them into something rather nice...

These are really growing on me - i was on the point of buying an early R129 but realised that in truth the rear seats are nothing of the sort and with two 7 year olds it wasn't going to fly so i switched my attention the 140. And then bought a T25.

I had a C600 and it was a really nice car but I never really bonded with it, much preferred an earlier LWB S500 which I kept for a good few years. Agree that the C140 has aged well and looks much less ungainly than when they were new.