retardedmunk

I just sold my car on ebay for $47,200.... this is a shame...I dont need the money I just have to many cars and this car has to go....I SOLD it too cheap.....and I regret it..... because it took 3 months to find it ..in the first place...

I put about an hour a day on ebay and an hour a day into manheim.....
as a hobby .....so I know the car market as well as I know my way around some nice wet TRIM.....

They only built 1468 CLS55'S ....(they built more GT-R's and lambo Murcs then our cars)...Now ONLY half of those 1468 cars were loaded the way "MOST" intelligent buyers would want their car... keyless go and comfort package a must.......now the realistic number is about 700 and change left...now take away the "UGLY" ones.... whites with tan interior, granite grey with tan interior... and all the grey interior cars....and all the ones with the Burl walnut inlay (not that I don't like the wood....JUST NOT IN THE CLS) .....and you have probably ONLY about a few hundered cars left... not many at all...making these cars rare as hell to find "the way most people would desire them" ....

INTERESTING FACT... manheim states that in November 2009 our cars will be worth GUESS WHAT??? $9000!!!!!!!!!!!!! this will never happen.... but it does state that on the bottom of the MMR on the CLS55....

Yes you see this right... Manheim's computer bases on current depreciation.... ours car should be going through auction for $9k by NOV. 2009
Now a camparison... well a Lexus GS350 2007 will be worth about $16K by November 2009....wow.....they need a new computer program...WOW

Remember folks we our seeing some of these cars sell for low to mid $40's? yes you might find a few with those options in the mix that we would like... personally i would spend $10k more just to have keyless and the comfort package... why? because a used 2006 Lexus GS300 we can pick up for $21k HAS THESE OPTIONS STANDARD!!!!.....it is an insult not to have those options on my car... so the extra coin for the right car in crucial.....


Great example of why people do not buy certain cars and why they SHOULD be .....
I just met a guy the other day while I was getting a sub at the local sub shop... I drove my CLS there.... the guy just bought brand new 2009 M45s....nice car...they will build about 50k of these cars...he paid cash....yes cash...his walk out price was $53k for this car.....I said as he was admiring my car ....hey why didnt you buy a used Mercedes? His answer "well I wanted something new and a car like yours is much more then I could spend"
I said I have my car up for sale for $50k and the warranty is actually better then your new car... he said " no way $50k?" I would of paid some more to get a car like yours ..it is no comparison to my car....... he was in shock.... he had no idea that a CLS55 was that cheap....now keep in mind he just paid $50k for a nissan that will blend in the crowd with any kind of wheels and any kind of paint job....in other words a yuppie mobile all the way......He said "I thought your car was new as well and like a hundred grand" I said "no it has 42k miles it is a 2006 and is perfect in and out....like a new car....Mercedes builds their cars differently and they dont get worn out like most cars do" he said "if I had known any of this I would much rather have your car ....atleast I would know when I am driving it people would notice and think I am driving a expensive car when I spent a lot less... and the CLS is the best looking sedan anybody can own anyway more so with those kickass wheels..

Point to this story.... Well our cars should not be given away for less then what a new G37 coupe sells for a for what a new G35 or M45 costs....or say the new Hyundai Genesis ( great new car bargain) but not compared to a used Benz....this is insane... even with 40k or 50k miles on your Benz... this is irrelevent....if the car is clean the car is simply a better looking and better built car then any yuppie mobile out there.... the envy of a guy who looks at our cars who is driving a Inifiniti or Lexus is enough to say " yeah I spent a little more on my used Benz but damn I am driving a hand built super sedan not a run of the mill common car"

WE ARE SELLING OUR CARS TOO CHEAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Screw the economy..... new INFINITIS AND LOADED HONDA ACCORDS AS WELL AS SRT-8'S AND ACURA TL'S are being sold by the hundreds daily....and our cars should be compared to the price of one of these cars???? People are now waiting in line to get the new Genesis and the new CTS is in the low 50's loaded as well... they are still selling well... **** THAT

This is like comparing a Vette to a Ferrari F430.... not EVEN in the same ball park !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but would you sell your ferrari for the price of a vette????????? I may of ****ed up and did....

apdesign

I completely agreed with you. A used Honda or Acura sells more than a used Mercedes. That is absolutely crazy. I kind of reget buying another Mercedes..pay so much and lose so fast.

Improviz

Reliability and high maintenance costs. We had a Lexus RX300 which I picked up used back in '03. Two years old, mileage a bit on the high side at 42K, got a good deal for 23K, and it was loaded with every option.

Put 41K miles on it. Got an extended warranty good for 3Y beyond expiration of factory/100K vehicle miles through Lexus, for $1800 which was a total money loser...not a single claim. Sold it with 83K (by this thime given I didn't drive it very often, it actually low mileage). Nary a rattle, sqeak, or draft to be found, no oil burned, tight as a friggin' drum.

Contrast this with my CLK55; $2900 spent on an extended warranty, and it payed out over triple this amount.

There is no excuse for this.

Mercedes' quality control is just crap. And frankly, when it came time to sell it, I had pretty much sworn off Mercedes...but I made an emotional decision and got the CLS55. I love the car, but we'll see how it holds up. My CLK may have been a fluke (while occasionally I did have some fun in it, for the most part I drove it pretty gently: normal acceleration, few fast corners (the roads here are laid out in a grid pattern, not many places *TO* have fun in the corners!), maybe 5-10 mph over speed limit on the highway...

By contrast, I know guys who got S2000s, beat the crap out of them, track them occasionally, and yet they keep on going.

I love Mercedes, but for Pete's sake, they need to get this nailed down. They can certainly do better than they have....supposedly they're striving to make quality improvements, and I certainly hope that they are.

The other thing is the insane gouging that goes on at Benz dealerships for maintenance. $125+ for a frickin' oil change?? Give me a break. Again, here is where Lexus kills them, *and* it is not a crapshoot as to whether or not you're going to get a Lexus loan car or a junky Jeep Cherokee or some other POS; you *always* get a Lexus loan car at any of the dealers in my area, whether or not you purchased the car from the dealership.

Mercedes: mixed bag. One local dealership, Park Place, recently ditched Enterprise and went with C Class loaners; afaik Ewing still uses them, so again you *may* get a Benz loaner if you're lucky, but it's not assured.

Anyway, stuff like that, as well as the gouging for repairs and sub-par reliability, is why their resale suffers. I took a chance on them with this (it's under warranty for a few more years, and I'll extend it if I decide to keep it, which I probably will), and I absolutely love the car, hands down...the best vehicle I've ever driven or owned, no question about it.

If they could even get within a stone's throw of the reliability of Lexus et al, I would be a Mercedes owner for life. They claim they're improving, so we shall see....we've got two newer ones now, let the games begin!

DucatiNut

Well, reliability is a concern for me with my newly purchased CLS but I also intend to keep the use of this vehicle low as it will be my special car. We have a Volvo XC90 (fantastic vehicle) for hauling the kids and a third car for running around in. Vehicle history on my car shows no major events and it drives like a new car. With only 14,000 miles I hope that I will get 4 or 5 years of special driving maybe up to 50K miles. By then the new CLS will be around and I would probably change. If I am fortunate and keep my risk exposure under control (ie don't do 25,000 miles a year) I may be lucky..... need a smiley emoticon for "fingers crossed"

retardedmunk

Mercedes has been making the 500hp v12's and 500hp supercharged cars for almost 6 years....also ofcourse the mighty 612 hp v12 amg as well..... Lexus just in the 2008 model year made the ISF....great car....drove a few but it has a little over 400hp and can hardly keep up with a 2003 S class with the v12 that can cost about $20k if you look hard.....lexus and the japs make reliable cars .....though they are not hand built and they do not have the uniqueness as our cars do at all.....our cars are more reliable then a Lambo or Ferrari and the AMG 65 has more power then most of those exotics....point is that you can't compare a high performance exotic car to another car based on solely being reliable.....our cars rarely leave us on the road dead and the power and prestige we get from them is well worth it .......average cars and our cars should not be compared period...and priced accordingly....just fact...

And I would say talking to many mechanics ...that the 500-612 hp drivetrains in our cars are more reliable and will outlast or last as long without piston failure or oil issues as well as the Lexus 4.3 motors and the 4.6 motors as well as the 4.5 motors Infitini sells.........200 more hp and on average from our cars and I have seen a dozen over 100k E55'S and v12 TT's that perform and drive as they did new......simply put ..I truly believe our cars can out mile an import......problem is not that many get driven that high to see ....

I drive a Nissan Pickup as DD....it has had a few problems...only 2 years old...
My Benz has had 2 problems in the last 2 years...My Nissan left me hanging and having to be towed 4 times....Benz 0 times Murc that I own..9 times getting towed
MY Nissan and Benz have the same miles...Nissan has 240 hp and the Benz has 500......I state my case

Improviz

well, mine had over $10,000 in repairs in the same time span as our Lexus had $0. And Consumer Reports' reliability surveys show that Benzes do not age well reliability-wise. It is a sad fact, but it is a fact, on all models irrespective of horsepower.

150shot

Is it just me that doesnt understand why some of us compare lexus to MB.

Yes lexus are cheaper for what you get, less depriciation, maybe more options, less headache...

I agree they are solid cars overall......BUT BUT BUT
cmon guys its a lexus. Most of us drive MB's/AMG's and modded MB's for a reason.

Like one told me before when they saw a new LS460, and a friend made a comment- "if i wanted to drive a boring car with no soul, I would of bought that"

And still to the general public Lexus will never compare- and for those in the car industry most know that.

IS-F, nice try...they dont have anything to match the 55's, 63's and so on...

I do agree on the falling prices on the AMG's which is what I have my eyes on lately, but waiting to even see if it goes lower..

Also-I'm sure I'm not the only one that sees more young punks driving these cars , tilted hat, leaned position, thinking they are "somebody"......

1985mb

How so? Even if your car was a CPO, it would have less than the 4yr/60K comprehensive and 6yr/70K powertrain warranty of a new Infiniti.

And I really doubt they make and sell 50K M45s a year... that's like saying MB sells 50K E550s or BMW sells that many 550i's... the V8 versions of these cars don't sell in nearly the number that the I6/V6 versions do. It's probably less than 10K a year...

I agree w/ some of your points. But that doesn't mean the facts can be ignored. Should someone looking at a new M45 (or new E class or new 5 series) also consider a used 55 AMG? Perhaps they should. But there are many reasons, subjective as well as objective, that people buy new cars. There is no single "right" answer, and choosing a new Infiniti over a used AMG doesn't necessarily mean they were less-informed buyers.

Improviz

And whether or not you like Lexus is immaterial; the question is, why shouldn't I expect the same level of reliability and trouble-free operation from a $100K Mercedes that I can get from a Lexus?

Surely the argument here isn't that Germans simply are genetically incapable of producing reliable cars....all it takes is better QC. And Benz's price points are certainly high enough to where they could cut down on the gremlins that have plagued these cars.

And ultra-high performance isn't an excuse. A friend of mine has a 1996 Toyota Supra, which at that time was putting out a pretty impressive amount of horsepower, 330+, with twin turbos, etc...and it still runs like a top, with original turbos, tranny, driveline, etc, with over 110,000 miles on the clock. NO major repairs, period. And he drives it a helluvalot more agressively than I ever drove the CLK...yet my car had extensive repairs totalling over $10K, with 35,000 fewer miles on the clock and being five years newer.

As anyone who's seen my posting history here can attest, I love Mercedes, have bought three total and presently own two, but I don't love spending money on repairs. We'll see how these new ones hold up, but I certainly don't think it's asking for a miracle to expect the same level of quality and reliability that Lexus gives for $thousands less.

And like it or not, this and ridiculous repair costs are probably the main reasons for the lower resale value. What other reason could there possibly be? Lack of name recognition, or desired prestige of ownership?

I want these guys to succeed, I really do, and love their cars so much that I was willing to gamble with another AMG, despite the dismal repair record of the last one. But patience has its limits, and if present trends continue with extended warranty companies refusing to write policies for it, I'll probably sell it within two years before the factory warranty is up. No way will I own one out of warranty after my experience in that CLK...no way. I may have simply been unlucky, but again: I don't drive them that hard, and nothing I threw at that car should have caused anything approaching the crud that went wrong with it.

But hey, I'm an optimist, which is why I'm still here after all. We'll see.

jobsori

Not really sure of the point of this thread..


I don't get it...if you didn't need the money why sell it? So you have too many cars...dunno how much more it costs to just keep it.


IMO, this comment sounds like a elitist that's pissed off cause people that couldn't afford to buy a 100k car can now buy them. Is it that annoying that people won't ENVY you anymore??

Umm...you just contributed to the price degradation on the AMG market. It's not WE....it's YOU.

retardedmunk

The warranty on the car is a DC and it will carry it through 2013 ...or 100k miles...not as good on the powertrain for amount of years...but surely a better warranty on the bumper to bumper...


Now as for the point of the thread.... as stated before ...I feel the cars are not appreciated as much and deserve more respect.... the thread.... no elitist here ....why did I sell? I have a 3 car garage... I like to rotate cars .... and money I don't need ... the market today put in my account more then I sold the car for....... Did I bring the CLS market down? Lol I actually sold my car for a decent price ...still a great deal for the buyer....now he can go show off to his Lexus and Inifiniti friends.....lol

do they build 50k plus M45's? they do build a combined m35 m45 of over 50k cars.....they built a whopping 900k F150'S 2 years ago....as an example of mass production...

newguycls55

I will be the first one to admit.. I am probably the worse seller out there.. I never maintance or care for pricing for anything I own.. If I want it gone, The next most resonable offer I will usually take... but I have already accepted through the years thats the price you pay for having expensive taste or Hobby...

I am sure the value of our cars have drop alot, but I think there's alot of owner here who pay 100k plus for the CLS55... I think there's a line of them who gets to complain first.... And I think I probably have the highest miles CLS55 out there with approx 65k. Is my daily driver, and is just a car. I've only experience very minor problems with my cars and it was all cover by my warranty. the only additional expenses I've spend is oil change, service check up, Brakes, and ALOT of sets 20" tires due to horrible camber after we lower our CLS. that's pretty much it...

People in SoCal don't get attention for Mercedes AMG's. Bentley, Lambo, Phantom are everywhere near my area... So when I want attention and be flashy... I pull out the Gallardo...

But if anyone wants to sell their CLS55 for low to mid 30's ... I might be interested.... thinking of buying my younger brother a christmas gift...

Is funny that everyone on the FORUMS appear to all be MULTI-BILLIONAIRE... with no care for money or have a 10 cars plus collection... thats amazing... with our collection of "fake online internet wealth" maybe we can chip in together and bail out the auto industry !!!! just kidding.....

I ENJOY EVERY MOMENT HERE WITH US MBWORLD GUYS..

isellpower

I have been shopping hard for a CLS and the one thing that I have noticed is that once they hit 50K miles they drop like keys from a Lear Jet. 47K was a good price Munk got for his car. If the car has 50K plus miles it is a high 30K car. That's friggen crazy. Any of you guys see the thread on 6 speed with the guy that sold his heavily modded 04 996tt with low miles for 48K? Makes the CLS look look a good investment.

newguycls55

When I was at the dealership several weeks ago, my service advisor told me that someone was trading in their 07 S550 MB low miles.. and got approx 30k ish for it... thats pretty bad also...

Improviz

Supply and demand....the collapse of Lehman Bros. and the resultant commercial paper crisis caused by large MM funds tied to LB breaking the buck basically threw sand in the credit market machine and seized it up. The massive liquidity injections by the Fed and other gov'ts around the world un-stuck it a good deal, but banks are still not lending nearly as freely as before, and now that Paulson's reversal last week seems to have sent Citicorp's stock over a cliff, we might see the whole scenario repeat (make that "will" if Citi comes crashing down).

Result: fewer people can get loans, which lowers demand, which increases supply, which lowers prices, which creates rapid asset depreciation.

Danger is that if this continues, and companies cut more jobs, which leads to less spending by ever more frightened consumers, which leads to more job cuts/price cuts, a classic deflation scenario.

This could get much, much worse. Cross your fingers.

newguycls55

I am fully aware about the current market meltdown... I was just shock that S550 at 30k ish trade in.. If I knew who it was, I would of offer a bit higher for the S550 for a great deal... Is funny that everyone around us are panic selling at this time, and I am doing the complete oppisite, I am trying to accumlated as much weak and cheap market shares as I can...

jPoD

I can't lie, but I'm loving it. Just gives me an even better chance of getting my dream CLS when I graduate from college in a few years. Seriously, 06 CLS w/ under 25,000 miles for $38,000 sounds good to me...

Improviz

Good luck. What forward-looking economic indicators are you seeing which lead you to believe the market is at or near a bottom?

newguycls55

I don't think we are at the bottom yet, but we are getting amazing trading ranges right now, if you want to be aggressive, S&P and commodity is a great market to trade daily with huge profits. We have never seen trading ranges like what we have now, the market is trading very technical verse fundamental as before, but if you want to be a buy and hold type, start buying cheap and weak position here, and cost average as it goes down... we might see a bit more downside, but it will bounce.... cost average down and you will eventually buy at the bottom.. or short the market all the way down till the bottom...

But since most of my investment are commodity related, especially precious metal, more economic downside means upside for metals. and as our government continue to print more money, inflation is good for gold and silver.. is always good to own some metals from your profilo.

Improviz

Well, if Bernanke's musings on printing our way out of this mess eventually come to pass, you'll be in great shape!

newguycls55

I read an article disscussing reason why they choose Bernanke as chairman. supposely he once wrote a excellent thesis about fighting recession. he mention something along the lines of if he have to throw money out of a helicopter to keep us off recession he will do so... but on a realistic level, he is using the us postal services instead of helicopter.... all the checks that are being mail out.

clos

We have to remember one thing when we look at the pricing. Something is only worth what the other person is willing to pay.

If you consider these factors, you can understand why manheim's model thinks the car will sell at 9k.

When I had my car the cost to drive it was close to 2500 per month. Before you freak out let's look at what the true cost is to drive the car.

New tires every 6 months, I drive my car it was my primary vehicle
1200 set of a cheap 4
Brakes every year
700 at a service shop that wasn't the dealer
Gas at the time
110 per week 440 per month. Again I drove my cars 60 miles each day and gas at the time was close to 4.00
Insurance was 160/mth
10,300 plus
Car payment was 1560.00/mth = 18720

total cost for the year 29,020
monthly cost 2418.33

Obviously things have changed, but we can not forget that these are important factors when considering the purchase of a vehicle. TOTAL COST of ownership.

The cost of ownership in my opinion is the determining factor on why our cars have suffered such a huge hit. It's a shame that they have lost such a value. I have had to downsize becuase of my business and I can't believe how cheap they have gotten. I expect to be able to pick one up next year around 30-35k and that is jaw dropping.

my 2 cents!
Clos

finiteyoda

Huh, that's strange, I've had my CLS55 for about 10 months, and I had a Lexus ES300 for several years before that, I didn't find any real difference in total ownership cost. Gas would be the biggest difference, but since I only drive about 4k miles a year, not a big deal to me really. Both the Lexus and CLS had similar service costs (my Service G on the CLS was about $1k, the scheduled timing belt/chain replacement on the lexus also about $1k). Other than that my CLS has been perfect, although the Lexus had various tire leaking, water leaking from roof, and sporadic CEL, I give it the benefit of doubt tho since it was a 80k mile car.

I often think the public's perceived difference of TCO between different makes is exaggerated, due to the media or what-not (and perhaps reinforced by threads like this one). I often get questions about the reliability of my 06 Lotus Elise (historically, Lotus has terrible reputation for reliability)... truth is tho, of all my cars the Lotus has only cost me about $250/yr in servicing! 2 years and still going strong baby!! It's probably because the Lotus has such simple mechanicals, both the Lexus and Mercedes are like supercomputers in comparison (esp. the Mercedes). I don't really agree with others that the Mercedes is poor quality (at least mine has been anything but that), I think Mercedes just has so much technology compared to other cars you're bound to notice more issues (I think I once counted something like over 200 different backlit buttons in my CLS55, I mean that's just crazy!!)

OJwerks

reliability wise... i dont think any mercedes has ever aged to well... i remember as a kid, my dad owned a handful of mercedes... he had an R129.. 3 or 4 W126s (sedans and coupe bodies) and at some point we had a W124....and the reason they all had to leave is because it got to a point that if you divided into months all you spent in a year to keep the cars running how they should, you could shelf out a little extra cash and pay for a new car's monthly payment... and im talking about cars that back then were only a couple years old with "relatively" low use.. not to mention the horrible way they all began to squeak and rattle at some point... But, one cant say they werent built like tanks...

Improviz

Please....my CLK55 AMG was very reliable for the first few years of ownership, but for the last few it was a total PITA. As I said, it tallied up, with only 73K or so miles on the clock when I sold it, repair costs which would have cost me out of pocket *well* over $10,000 had I not purchased an extended warranty.

During the same time, we had a Lexus RX300. I bought an extended warranty for it as well. It was money down the toilet, despite that car having nearly 15K more miles on it when I sold it than the CLK did.

This is not "media exaggeration", it is personal experience. And with all due respect, 10 months is not really enough to compare against several years; hold onto your car for seven years as I did and then see how it stacks up reliability-wise.

And Consumer Reports, to which I am a subscriber and for which I dutifully fill out the owners' survey every year, has consistenly tallied up reliability for Lexus at or near the top, and at or near the bottom for Mercedes.

This is not "media exaggeration" either; it is statistical analysis using surveys filled in by actual owners.

Mercedes clearly has a quality problem. I love their cars, but they need to fix the quality issues. It hurts our resale value.