C55 AMG - Financial Suicide??

[Reks]

Been eyeing up C55's in the classifieds and on YouTube lately.

It's not a model which gets discussed on here too often I'm guessing due to the rarity.

Anybody got any experience running one? Fuel economy isn't a huge on for me as I don't do big mileage, what are the servicing cost like though? Should I expect big things to go bang and drain my bank account?

Any advise would be appreciated.


Cheers

[Jaroon]

I've had mine a couple of months and so far so good. Off the top of my head sevices are every 10k with an A service coming in at £250 and B servive at £450 from a dealer, much cheaper at indepenents of course.

Engine and gearbox have a great reliability record and the C55s don't suffer from the rust issues of the C32. It's fairly understressed, lacking the supercharger of it's big brother the E55 and no air suspension either.

Fast, charecterful auto suits me perfectly with a fair bit of town driving/school runs. Rarity can make finding a good one take a little time especially an estate but they are out there. Mines a 56 plate on a 100k miles with full Merc history and it feels lovely and tight. I'm getting 18 mpg with town driving and a bit of a daily blast, more or less the same as my previous rev hungry Subaru Legacy 3.0R Spec B.

[Reks]

Cheers Jaroon, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. I assume A service and B service are just alternated?

[ispcarsurvey]

I've owned mine for 7 months. Just had a B service and spark plugs done for just over £400 (Mercedes independent). Need new brake pads and discs in the next few thousand miles which will cost £300. Have averaged 20mpg exactly. Mixture of London/motorway driving. A and B services alternate. Looked in to tyres and either Pirelli P-zeros (what Mercedes fit) or Goodyear F1s come in about £500-600 for all 4 fitted with some internet shopping. So personally think costs are pretty reasonable...

[msduk]

I have a clk55 which shares most oily bits. The engine M113 and the transmission are about as solid as they come.

Electrical niggles are possible and budget for tyres every 8-10k £150-250 rear per corner for branded ones.

I would say it's close to being the cheapest way into this sort of performance in a daily usable car.

Only costs so for in two years...
2 new rear springs (pretty common) £60 ish each plus labour
New keyless door lock £260
Petrol (not THAT bad 22mpg average over 16k miles)

I'm not sure about the C55 but the discs at the front on mine are super expensive. Best check.

Edited by msduk on Sunday 18th May 22:00

[greggy50]

Its interesting seeing this thread as was doing similar myself earlier

Saw this and thought it looked lovely

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

[Four Litre]

Had mine for a couple of years and was quite cheap to run. All Fairly basic and servicing wasnt that expensive at an indy (forget going to MB).

MPG wasnt to bad either as engine can just tick over around town. Only negative is that gearbox was fine in auto but bit slow in manual, with change down being quite lumpy.

If you get one get the centre silencer cut out and straight pipe put in, sounded epic and not to loud.