Will be buying a CLK230 for the wife

[Roger Woods]

Hoping to get a 2001 to 2003 clk cab for the boss in the next couple of months, should there be anything that I should be looking for in particular, looking like some good value cars around, not silver!

[collos]

Rust

[fel71]

If it's used for commuting 22 mpg is all you get, generally good electrics,but need a good battery or they like to put up error codes, have a really good look at bodywork rust can be a problem especially on rear arches.

[TomM]

We had a 2001 CLK 320 - hateful car and cost us a fortune. 2001 was not a great year for the CLK, widely reported issues.

I loved the way it looked, and hated everything else about it.

Issues we had:

Boot issues (wouldn't open, regularly - caused by a vacuum!)
General central locking issues (again, wouldn't open regularly)
Issues with ABS / ESP sensors caused ESP to kick in randomly
Terrible AC / Heaters, packed up regularly - very, very annoying
Electric windows had a mind of their own, passenger side especially - would just open randomly
Crank shaft sensor went, broke down on a roundabout at rush hour......
Replaced MAF after continual running issues
Engine management light on all the time - Mercedes specialist couldn't find any faults

This was all in 8 months of ownership, car had a full MBDSH and 1 owner from new with about 65k. Final straw was getting back to airport at 1am after a long flight, and we couldn't get into the car for 30 mins, then it just opened and then we couldn't de-mist the windows as the blowers packed up - traded it in that weekend. We had a specialist look at all of the above, pretty much replaced all mentioned parts and it still played up.

Check everything, and then check it again. We replaced it with a BMW and now have an R129 SL320 - which is such a superior car and can be bought for peanuts these days (probably a very similar price to a CLK!)