Mercedes CL 600 (C215) | The Brave Pill
The least compelling CL with the 'wrong' V12 - probably why it's such a bargain
While you can’t quite set a watch to Brave Pill – it would keep breaking down and do 12mpg – there are discernible patterns within the cars we propose for your admiration and/or ridicule. Our most regular stars have proved to be large-engined Mercs, with these representing the biggest and bravest game for those hunting bargain brawn. This is the second of 2020, following the E55 AMG that kicked the year off, which might seem like overkill. But given the magnitude of bang-per-buck on offer, we simply couldn’t resist.
The C215 generation of the CL Coupe has long fallen into the sort of enticing prices than encourage rash purchases, but this one is something special. On one side of the scale sits the car that topped the Mercedes range twenty years ago, the V12-powered CL600 with what seems to be every options box ticked. It would have cost its first owner around £100,000 – in the days when a 911 Turbo was £88,000. Since then our Pill has averaged just over 5000 miles a year and comes with a full and seemingly fastidious service history. On the other side of the balance an asking price – before haggling commences – of just £7500. Feel that rumbling in your hip pocket? It’s your wallet twitching.
Granted, by the standards of inexpensive 12-cylinder Mercs this is one of the less desirable ones. The earlier C140 has more road presence and marginally less risk, the later C216 is better looking, nicer to drive and comes with much more tech. Being an early C215 means our Pill also gets the naturally aspirated three-valve M137 5.8-litre 12-cylinder engine, which actually had less power and torque than the older M120 four-valve 6.0-litre. Tune is closer to mild than wild, and although 362hp is still a respectable tally it looks modest when compared to the 500hp twin-turbo 5.5-litre M275 that the C215 got at its 2002 facelift.
Then there’s the risk factor common to all Mercs of this vintage. Our Pill comes from the time when the company decided that what had previously been its brand-defining build quality wasn’t really worth spending money on maintaining; the era when the enthusiasm for packing cars with expensive tech ran ahead of the corporate ability to make it all work properly. This was also a period when the company took an approach to rust proofing that wasn’t so much relaxed as spending the winter sleeping in a box in the corner of the garage.
So to the first big upside: that there is no suggestion of corrosion on our Pill at all. Not in the pictures, not in the advert text and not – for those of a less trusting disposition – in the published MOT history. For any Merc of this era it is a remarkable achievement; it is possible that the car has spent the last two decades parked in a tank of Waxoyl. There’s more good news – for the next owner if not the current one – in the private vendor’s admission of “some very substantial” recent expenditure on the ABC suspension system and ignition coil packs.
These are the best-known problem areas for CL and S-Classes of this era, with ABC the Three Letter Acronym most likely to strike icy fear: Active Body Control. This was pioneered on this CL600 (and also the range-topping W220 S-Class) with Merc claiming it was the most advanced system fitted to any road car in the world at the time. It featured hydropneumatic suspension struts, a high pressure pump and a battery of sensors to help counteract bump and roll. When working, ABC was seriously impressive, capable of laying a magic carpet over most road surfaces. But as owners soon discovered it was also prone to expensive and hard-to-trace faults. Coil packs are also prone to the sort of frequent towel-throwing that keeps mechanics in exotic holidays.
Yet a properly fettled CL is still be a spectacularly nice thing. The 600’s V12 is about as unstressed as any powerplant can be, fading into the background like a good valet under gentle use with even big throttle openings producing little more noise than a luxury yacht’s engines would make in the stateroom. It is possible to make it louder and fruiter with a more permissive exhaust if that’s what you’d like. Although it lacks the muscularity of the M120 V12, the M137 did get cylinder deactivation to help boost economy. The vendor claims to have seen 28mpg, much must have required extraordinary discipline, a gale force tailwind or a tow rope. But anything starting with a ‘2’ can be regarded as a good score in a car like this. When working properly ABC does allow the CL600 to be hustled at a fair old pace, milder progress is what it does best; the lack of a limited-slip differential also cuts down on the potential for hooliganism; turning the traction control off is more likely to result in painting 1s than 11s.
It’s also fair to say that the design hasn’t aged particularly well. Mercedes tried to distinguish the CL from the S-Class by giving it what turned out to be pretty much the same twin-headlight treatment as the 2001 R230 SL, or – less charitably – the smaller and cheaper CLK. While the C215’s sheer size is suitably imposing its proportions are not the most elegant; seen side-on there’s something of the girder bridge about its huge overhangs and constant-radius roof line. The CL’s scale does make it properly useful, with adult-viable rear seats and what is probably still the biggest boot of any GT.
Mercedes treated the CL 600 as a technological showcase, this being one of the first cars to feature radar cruise control and cooled seats, both of which are fitted to this car; bi-xenon headlights, keyless go and a power-operated boot lid were also serious novelties at the time. While advert claims are normally taken with a sceptical dose of salt it’s hard to fault the seller’s assertion that the interior is in flawless condition; the pictures make it look as if it has come straight from a showroom and the wired-in Nokia carphone still seems to be wearing original protective film over its screen.
MOT history is similarly reassuring; beyond a note on slight play in a wheel bearing last July our Pill hasn’t had so much as an advisory since 2013. Our Pill is wearing reassuringly proper Pirelli P-Zeros all round, the rear ones fresh, with the seller reporting recent-ish brakes, spark plugs and coil packs, battery and ABC hydraulic fluid as well. It was serviced in July last year, just 3000 miles ago. The need for substantial expenditure will undoubtedly continue; there is no such thing as a cheap to run V12 Mercedes – it needs 24 spark plugs, for starters. But the next keeper of this one will start ownership with the reassurance it doesn’t seem to have wanted for anything.
At risk of wearing a hole in a well-beaten drum, cars like this for such attractive money won’t be around for ever, indeed possibly not even for much longer. If you’ve still got ‘V12’ unticked on your bucket list, this could be the one.
Click here to see the original advert
I owned cl500 in c140, c215 and c216 formats: the c215 was by far the best in terms of driving pleasure and ride (c240 too big, c216 too “fake/digital”). It never went wrong in 211000 km and it was supremely elegant in my opinion. Quality was not on a par with the 140’s overkill, but was far better than the c216.
Overall it is one of the greatest cars of the 21st century (at 100k it was still cheap for what it offered) and its undeserved bad reputation makes it the greatest bargain on sale today.
2) the CL and the SL never suffered that much from the problems the other series had at the time reg paint, rust and quality in general, the CL was built on a separate line in Stuttgart and the SL in Bremen
3) the quality of these is still outstanding, even cars that have been to the moon and back twice hide that very good, and the detailing is nicer than in the 216, which is just bling.
ABC is not the damocles sword, just keep up on maintenance, SBC is more of a concern, but car is still good to work on, if sometimes a trifle complicated and parts are expensive
4) the colour though is the worst possible one...
5) tempting on almost all boxes except the colour
6) good pill
I've always thought the CL was excellently-proportioned and a great-looking thing. Large, capable and brawny, like a big, powerful Merc should be.
Who wants to travel in the back of one of these
If I was going to get a large Merc it would be an SL every time
Doesn't mean they should exist nor that people should like them, but just doesn't make sense to me
If anyone can enlighten me as to why you would choose one over an equivalent SL (same or similar engine) I'd be interested
Who wants to travel in the back of one of these
If I was going to get a large Merc it would be an SL every time
Doesn't mean they should exist nor that people should like them, but just doesn't make sense to me
If anyone can enlighten me as to why you would choose one over an equivalent SL (same or similar engine) I'd be interested
Nobody is going to sit in the back for longer as your trip to the pub, but you can travel much classier while keeping the same amount of luggage as you could with your limousine, and to lower all side windows without exposing you and your companion to the harsh elements has a certain style, doesn't it?
That kind of travel became out of style, shame that.
Agree with SL on the other bits, of course, as I'm a little bit addicted to them
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff