Any C55 owners?
Discussion
I've currently got a 2004 C55 with 54k on the clock.
I had absolutely no intention of buying one, especially not a silver one, but one kept popping up on all the searches when I was looking for a car and in the end I had a bit of a google, went to take a look, and ended up buying it.
It's an absolute Q car which I love but with a great sound and good turn of speed when you want it. I'm quite a fan of a good soundtrack having previously had a CSL amongst others.
I'm not really a Merc man, more of a BMW guy, but I love it.
In terms of ability, for 90% of my driving it's one of the best cars I've ever owned. Loads of torque from nowhere and a great soundtrack. No grip at all in this weather either so a little spin up or tail flick is easy to have at any opportunity
On a challenging road or a track an M3 would be far more fun but I haven't got the time or money to do track days at the moment so it doesn't really matter
Fuel averages around 22-23MPG with probably 80% of that being motorway, annoyingly small tank though so you only see 270 to 280 before you need to fill up.
It's X% (insert your own percentage) of a C63 for about 1/3 the cost of the cheapest ones so represents staggering value IMO except to say I'm constantly doing man maths in my head to make a C63 seem like a logical upgrade!
Service is via the dashboard but I'll be doing mine annually at <10k miles anyway. It's 8.5 litres of oil (Mobil 1 0w40) so £100 of bits even if you do it yourself. It has a reputation of being fairly reliable for an AMG as it's relatively simple. No SBC, air suspension or supercharger like the E55k.
If you're near East Kent I'll happily take you for a blast and show you round so you can have a proper look if you like.
Cheers,
Phil
I had absolutely no intention of buying one, especially not a silver one, but one kept popping up on all the searches when I was looking for a car and in the end I had a bit of a google, went to take a look, and ended up buying it.
It's an absolute Q car which I love but with a great sound and good turn of speed when you want it. I'm quite a fan of a good soundtrack having previously had a CSL amongst others.
I'm not really a Merc man, more of a BMW guy, but I love it.
In terms of ability, for 90% of my driving it's one of the best cars I've ever owned. Loads of torque from nowhere and a great soundtrack. No grip at all in this weather either so a little spin up or tail flick is easy to have at any opportunity
On a challenging road or a track an M3 would be far more fun but I haven't got the time or money to do track days at the moment so it doesn't really matter
Fuel averages around 22-23MPG with probably 80% of that being motorway, annoyingly small tank though so you only see 270 to 280 before you need to fill up.
It's X% (insert your own percentage
) of a C63 for about 1/3 the cost of the cheapest ones so represents staggering value IMO except to say I'm constantly doing man maths in my head to make a C63 seem like a logical upgrade!Service is via the dashboard but I'll be doing mine annually at <10k miles anyway. It's 8.5 litres of oil (Mobil 1 0w40) so £100 of bits even if you do it yourself. It has a reputation of being fairly reliable for an AMG as it's relatively simple. No SBC, air suspension or supercharger like the E55k.
If you're near East Kent I'll happily take you for a blast and show you round so you can have a proper look if you like.
Cheers,
Phil
Hey Phil,
I've been reading a few reviews on them and they all seem to tally up with what you're saying.. Theres the benefit of them being a fair bit cheaper than the comparative m3 and the rs4 it was pitted against is a good 8-10k more.. I just really fancied a v8 and have done for some time. Thanks very much for the input, unfortunately i live in Wiltshire so a blast is out of the question, thanks for the kind offer & info though.
I've been reading a few reviews on them and they all seem to tally up with what you're saying.. Theres the benefit of them being a fair bit cheaper than the comparative m3 and the rs4 it was pitted against is a good 8-10k more.. I just really fancied a v8 and have done for some time. Thanks very much for the input, unfortunately i live in Wiltshire so a blast is out of the question, thanks for the kind offer & info though.
If not too late, my take on the c55....
Own an estate, '04 plate - purchased last Summer for £10K from a dealer in Poole. They had taken it as a p/x and were moving it on with warranty but otherwise unprepped - mileage was 77K with full service history - I have subsequently spent another £3k on bringing everything up to scratch e.g. lower suspension arms, gearbox oil leak, 4 tyres, refurbed alloys, front discs and pads, CD auto-changer repaired and a bunch of other minor running repairs - if this sounds like it was a bit of a hound it wasn't, I just wanted everything to be sorted at once rather than spreading it over a period of months and enjoyed doing some of the repairs myself anyway.
To drive...in short, fantastic!! Everything you could want in one car - awesome torque/power spread, great soundtrack, super smooth gearbox, stonewall brakes etc - all wrapped up in a practical 5 door estate which is perfect for us as new parents with all that implies for paraphernalia to be carried.
Downsides...fuel consumption not great (big surprise!) made worse by small tank, very hard ride although this is in keeping with its performance, a needlessly complex control panel (trip computer, service intervals, direction of travel, tyre pressures and so on..) and a now antiquated and not very user friendly sat-nav.
One other entirely subjective point, but which my friends make much mileage out of it its image - 'gangsta' crops up a fair bit, all in jest but it's difficult for any black AMG Merc to shed that one to be honest - you decide!
Minor quibbles for an otherwise great car and tremendous value if bought well with a contingency fund for repairs - with respect to the last point usual rules apply, if it cost £48K to buy new 9 years ago, don't expect to run it on a shoestring - one final point if such things matter to you.....M3s and S4s/RS4s are relatively commonplace compared to c55s - in my 8 months of ownership I am yet to see another and have only seen one example of its forebear the c32, so if ploughing your own furrow matters this could be the car for you! Pic below -
Own an estate, '04 plate - purchased last Summer for £10K from a dealer in Poole. They had taken it as a p/x and were moving it on with warranty but otherwise unprepped - mileage was 77K with full service history - I have subsequently spent another £3k on bringing everything up to scratch e.g. lower suspension arms, gearbox oil leak, 4 tyres, refurbed alloys, front discs and pads, CD auto-changer repaired and a bunch of other minor running repairs - if this sounds like it was a bit of a hound it wasn't, I just wanted everything to be sorted at once rather than spreading it over a period of months and enjoyed doing some of the repairs myself anyway.
To drive...in short, fantastic!! Everything you could want in one car - awesome torque/power spread, great soundtrack, super smooth gearbox, stonewall brakes etc - all wrapped up in a practical 5 door estate which is perfect for us as new parents with all that implies for paraphernalia to be carried.
Downsides...fuel consumption not great (big surprise!) made worse by small tank, very hard ride although this is in keeping with its performance, a needlessly complex control panel (trip computer, service intervals, direction of travel, tyre pressures and so on..) and a now antiquated and not very user friendly sat-nav.
One other entirely subjective point, but which my friends make much mileage out of it its image - 'gangsta' crops up a fair bit, all in jest but it's difficult for any black AMG Merc to shed that one to be honest - you decide!
Minor quibbles for an otherwise great car and tremendous value if bought well with a contingency fund for repairs - with respect to the last point usual rules apply, if it cost £48K to buy new 9 years ago, don't expect to run it on a shoestring - one final point if such things matter to you.....M3s and S4s/RS4s are relatively commonplace compared to c55s - in my 8 months of ownership I am yet to see another and have only seen one example of its forebear the c32, so if ploughing your own furrow matters this could be the car for you! Pic below -
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