Sold the best car I ever had

[FalconWood]

After 7 years of ownership and 80,000 miles I decided it was time to sell my S65. What a wonderful wonderful car. Great family car. Great occasion car. Great performance car. Great everything. I logged every invoice over the years and it came to £1.61 per mile. That was 25p petrol, 34p costs and 103p depreciation. More latterly the car was visiting Mercedes more regularly so I decided to part exchange it for an S600. I was looking for a car with 5 seats, some punch and more refinement then the S65 and decided to try a S600. Lets hope that I wont regret the change!!

[sealtt]

One of the finest cars money can buy. Would be nice to see a couple of pics of the new one.

[TheLordJohn]

Do you need an apprentice in whatever it is you do!?
Your garage is unreal.

[sly fox]

Did i read that correctly? 1.61 a mile over 80000 miles? Wow.

[AndStilliRise]

TheLordJohn said:

Do you need an apprentice in whatever it is you do!?
Your garage is unreal.

^^This!

Nice fleet, love the cost breakdown.

[FalconWood]

sly fox said:

Did i read that correctly? 1.61 a mile over 80000 miles? Wow.

If you look in my garage section you will see the costs better split down there.

[J4CKO]

They look great, fairly unobtrusive for such a massive, powerful car.

[Lagerlout]

I still miss my old one too. Brilliant car. All the best with the 600, 221 again or 222?

[FalconWood]

Lagerlout said:

I still miss my old one too. Brilliant car. All the best with the 600, 221 again or 222?

This ones a 222. Test drove it. So so quiet. Can't wait to drive some miles in it to compare with the S65. Might write up a comparison in due course.

[POORCARDEALER]

FalconWood said:

This ones a 222. Test drove it. So so quiet. Can't wait to drive some miles in it to compare with the S65. Might write up a comparison in due course.

What was the major breakdown?

Cost a good few quid to sort, presume very major?

[markbe]

FalconWood said:

This ones a 222. Test drove it. So so quiet. Can't wait to drive some miles in it to compare with the S65. Might write up a comparison in due course.

Hi FW,

Great cars!! if you want the 600 to be a lot faster than the 65 use Kleemann for the ECU upgrade.

regards Mark.

[FalconWood]

POORCARDEALER said:

FalconWood said:

This ones a 222. Test drove it. So so quiet. Can't wait to drive some miles in it to compare with the S65. Might write up a comparison in due course.

What was the major breakdown?

Cost a good few quid to sort, presume very major?

On two separate occasions the ignition coils on the left bank and the right bank failed and had to be replaced. On another occasion the passenger side front suspension had to be replaced. About £5k of work but sorted now. When it goes wrong - it costs!!

[bmthnick1981]

S65 on the lottery list for me! Great car.

[Purso]

Yes Falconwood do you have some pictures of the new car, would be great to see!

[BIRMA]

I'm just embarking on my ownership of one of these monster V12 twin turbo engined AMG's be it the form of a CL65 AMG and have to say it's effortless performance is something I won't tire of for some time, and I think I'm beginning to get what they set out to achieve with the car. OK costs for maintenance are high but life is far too short to worry too much about it.

[Purso]

You had anything else come up maintenance wise David?

[BIRMA]

Purso said:

You had anything else come up maintenance wise David?

Not yet but I have it booked into MB Brooklands for a service this coming Thursday. I hope unlike my last visit to a MB main dealer with my SL63 they're not going to try to take liberties.
For me the car is a bit of a departure from my usual Barge buying philosophy in that rather than buying a car for circa £10-£15K and having a reserve fund of 4 times its purchase price. With this car I can't really say if it goes tits up in a big way 'oh well I'll throw it away and hope for better luck next time'
I have taken a couple of my fellow Lotus Anoraks out in it and so far everyone is very impressed. I referred a friend to the 2007 EVO review of the car and he can't wait to come for a drive.
I just have to adjust to the 'Sword of Damocles' feeling I have about running the car which may after a while get itself into proportion or pan out to be completely justified and I've f****d up big time.
Carefully reading through Falcon Wood's ownership experience highlights a few sobering events, but again I say to myself the car was less than £40K to buy and I still have a decent wedge for maintenance squirrelled away. But by God when you get on a clear twisty A road does this car come to life.

[Purso]

Good luck with Thursday David, Falconwoods details are indeed very insightful! I bet it was very interesting to see the Lotus guys impressions as I have a few friends who are Lotus guys and the 65 would probably make them spontaneously combust

Keep us posted with how thursday goes and I hope that someone somewhere soon will put up for sale a facelifted w221 s65 and I can join the club

[oldguy57]

Very interesting info supplied by Falconwood on running costs. As a matter of interest the first owner of my CL lost over £100k in depreciation - worked out at £16 per mile in depreciation alone - gulp! At least the OP got his money's worth out of his.

[BIRMA]

Given the number of CL 600's I noted with mileages in the 100,000's and some with 200,000 I wonder what the maintenance costs on those were.
I have received a quote for Tier 1 MB cover at over £2K per annum and I am very reluctant to pay that. My car came with a three year warranty and the paperwork arrived Saturday needless to say I find it limited to a maximum of £1000 which will be useless on things like coil pack failure so first thing on Monday I will be phoning them to see if that is per claim or per annum.
Been playing with the manual mode on mine, by God after 4000 rpm this car is a projectile and relentless but so smooth and never raucous. At times I think what have I done then other times I wouldn't want it any other way and say to myself did I really just do that.