£5k AMGs.....bad idea?

[itz_baseline]

I like to change my cars often and I have a hankering for an old AMG. Always amazes me that there's a handful under £5k and sometimes £2.5k will get you a C63 with 12 months mot. Everything tells me it'll eat my wallet, chew it and spit it out at me and if I listen to the scaremongers I will lose my house, wife and children by getting one. Or a friend of a friend spent £20k to get one past it's mot.

So I'm wanted to hear from people who actually run these sub £5k AMGs. Have you still got your house? Does the pleasure outweigh the fear of a big bill?

The way I see it, the worse that can happen if a massive bill comes up is to cut my losses, strip the car, sell it for parts and recover as much as possible.

[daemon]

itz_baseline said:

I like to change my cars often and I have a hankering for an old AMG. Always amazes me that there's a handful under £5k and sometimes £2.5k will get you a C63 with 12 months mot. Everything tells me it'll eat my wallet, chew it and spit it out at me and if I listen to the scaremongers I will lose my house, wife and children by getting one. Or a friend of a friend spent £20k to get one past it's mot.

So I'm wanted to hear from people who actually run these sub £5k AMGs. Have you still got your house? Does the pleasure outweigh the fear of a big bill?

The way I see it, the worse that can happen if a massive bill comes up is to cut my losses, strip the car, sell it for parts and recover as much as possible.

Presumably you meant C36, not C63??

I'd a C36 for a while. Seemed robust enough and a lot of the parts were cheap enough as they were just heavier duty parts from models further up the range. I gave £3K for it

[daveenty]

itz_baseline said:

sometimes £2.5k will get you a C63 with 12 months mot.

Please tell me where from? I'm assuming you mean a 36, not a 63?

As for the original question, there's usually a reason they are cheap...

[Escy]

I keep looking at C32's. They all seem to be rusty and the interiors look quite dated compared to other similar aged cars, puts me off a bit.

[rb5er]

Yep C32`s and C36`s do look very tempting but its the gearbox that scares me the most. Very expensive to repair if they go wrong..

[itz_baseline]

daemon said:

Presumably you meant C36, not C63??

I'd a C36 for a while. Seemed robust enough and a lot of the parts were cheap enough as they were just heavier duty parts from models further up the range. I gave £3K for it

Yeah C36 I meant. How long did you have it, how many miles, how much did you spend and what did you sell it for if you don't mind me asking. As a daily hack I'm thinking it could be interesting for 12 months and isn't going to cost any more to run than a newish Mondeo when you take depreciation into account.

[AndyS2]

I ran a W210 E55 for a couple of years recently, got a gearbox fluid and filter change as soon as I got it and apart from front discs and pads everything else was reasonably priced. Thing I'd look out for is rust, which is the reason I got rid of mine, it was just starting to go on rear arches, boot and wings. Bought it for £4000 and sold for £2600. If it wasn't for the rust I'd still have it, it was epic! You only live once, just do it!

[TurboBlue]

Couple of previous threads with good info here:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[ArmaghMan]

daemon said:

itz_baseline said:

I like to change my cars often and I have a hankering for an old AMG. Always amazes me that there's a handful under £5k and sometimes £2.5k will get you a C63 with 12 months mot. Everything tells me it'll eat my wallet, chew it and spit it out at me and if I listen to the scaremongers I will lose my house, wife and children by getting one. Or a friend of a friend spent £20k to get one past it's mot.

So I'm wanted to hear from people who actually run these sub £5k AMGs. Have you still got your house? Does the pleasure outweigh the fear of a big bill?

The way I see it, the worse that can happen if a massive bill comes up is to cut my losses, strip the car, sell it for parts and recover as much as possible.

Presumably you meant C36, not C63??

I'd a C36 for a while. Seemed robust enough and a lot of the parts were cheap enough as they were just heavier duty parts from models further up the range. I gave £3K for it

fk me that's my car

[griffin dai]

If you can put up with the running costs (and rust) go for it

Here's my old E55 AMG only had it 11 months as the running costs were pretty big. Fast though and the exhaust note was lovely

[dafeller]

I had a C36 from 2008-10. Paid £3000 for it, put oil and gas in it for two years, and a set of tyres. At the end of two years the ecu wiring got weird, cost me 600-700 to fix the short and clean up the ecu. Add the cost of tyres and that, and I sold it for £1500, so two years of high speed AMGEN fun cost me about £2500. It was pretty damn great.

[AndyS2]

Gaz. said:

griffin dai said:

If you can put up with the running costs (and rust) go for it

Which ones rust, and which are less rust prone?

Pretty much everything from the late 90's and early 2000's.

[griffin dai]

W210's are notorious for rusting on the arches (all 4 of the evil bds!!) & boot lid. So buy on condition. Every w210 I've seen since selling mine is rotting shame as they're a lovely car.

The previous owner did all the work to mine so cost him a small fortune. Was great to drive though, for a large car it went like stink so if you get one....watch your licence

I'd love a w211 E55K but can't afford the running costs yet!