Tales From the Block: A 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG
Once a brand-new vehicle rolls out of the factory, it’s bound to live a life of twists and turns. The average vehicle sees multiple owners, states, and maybe even wrecks during its lifetime. For many, the auction block is an inevitable layover.
“Tales from Block” highlights one of the many steps pre-owned vehicles go through in our country. Once the first owner sells or trades-in their ride, it can either be sold at the lot, sent to auction, or even scrapped if its a really crappy one. Cars both expensive and cheap are typically sent to the auction block in hopes of attracting solid buyers. We keep the auction house’s, buyer’s, and seller’s names secret, as well as exact dollar amounts for privacy reasons.
This sharp-looking CLS63 AMG couldn’t go unnoticed at the auction. It arrived under its own power, and quietly growling, like most hand-assembled German engines would. Even the guys that are used to seeing and hearing such beauty all came over to check it out. It’s not that it’s an exotic, or a loud and obnoxious sports car, but its powerful persona tends to draw looks wherever it goes.
The twin-turbo — or “biturbo,” as Mercedes-Benz likes to call it — 5.5-liter V8 in the CLS63 AMG pushes a thunderous 518 horsepower, compared to the next-up CLS63 “S,” which generates 550 horses. The exterior and interior look have been taken care off rather well too, and there were no signs of the previous owner being a smoker, unlike the previous C63 507 Edition we featured.
While everything seemed to “click” with this AMG, it’s the rather off-putting aftermarket wheels that make me wonder what the heck was going through the owner’s mind? Not only that, but the blue AMG brake calipers and the blue painted “V8 biturbo” badges really deter from the otherwise handsome 4-door coupe. Putting those two details aside, this CLS63 with 51k miles is a solid pre-owned German rocket, and it showed on auction day.
The seller set a reserve at little over $45,000 dollars, but, surprisingly enough, accepted under $40k for it. I believe the initial reserve was too ambitious, and outright misguided, as third-party values on these models range from $39k to $42k. Meaning that the buyer got a fair deal, and a heck of a car to drive for a bit and eventually resell. As most private dealers do.
