sm00thguy88

Helping my bro shop for his C55. He wanted one ever since he saw mine

We found a 2005 C55 AMG with 67k miles and has a Brabus performace package too. Asking is 20K. It's quite far so first hand inspection and test drive is not that easy. But assuming it is in good condition (at least free from major mechanical defects) and exterior is in good shape, what's a fair offer for this?

MIKESV8

what "brabus package"?

jturkel

brabus performance package? please do explain.

perhaps it just has brabus badges put on the car for "decoration" (as i've seen some cars have)....unless the car was actually shipped out to brabus and they had engine work or something done on it.

MIKESV8

+1 if it's just badges, paying about 1k less would be a good deal.if it's actual performance,i don't know what to tell you.

sm00thguy88

We're still waiting for a reply from the dealer to confirm that too, but just from pics, I can see that it at least has a Brabus suspension package slapped onto it. It has 19" Brabus VI rims and appears to be lowered (hopefully by Brabus struts too).

As for the engine, does Brabus swap out the AMG top cover when doing an upgrade? Because it still has an AMG top cover and looks like stock C55 AMG engine as far as I can tell.

sm00thguy88

Looks like somebody beat us to it over the weekend. Ads are gone.

By any chance, is the buyer also a member of this board? It's Brabus badged C55 with Brabus VI rims being sold at Sterling BMW Newport Beach CA.

My brother's regretting it now for not acting on it faster.

sm00thguy88

Nevermind. I saw the buyer just created his own thread.

sm00thguy88

Now we stumbled upon a black 05 C55 for only $17K in good condition with a clean Carfax history and complete service records. The only catch is that already has 90K miles.

Is this even worth considering, factoring in the somewhat low asking price (coming from a dealer)?

mikekuriger

90k miles is nothing I'd worry about. I have 131K miles and still going strong. I've had to replace a few items, such as tranny fluid, motor mounts, and serpentine belt but I do the work myself to save $.

mgiannetto

It's not bad, but I think you can do better. Why not PM some of the guys who have recently bought similar cars (like porschefan1013 who just bought a stunning '05 in silver).

I've owned mine since new (I have an '06), but low miles (22K) so I can't comment first hand on the maintenance required once the miles get highThat being said, from what I have read on this forum (there are several posts where owners have posted their maintenance experience) the C55 is an amazingly inexpensive car to maintain - even with high mileage.

Black is a PITA to keep clean - no matter what you do. Wash it and put it in the garage and 1 hour later its covered with dust (and I have a finished floor in my garage - no exposed concrete). So make sure you want black. Does look sooo nice when its clean though.

I would say if you can get the dealer down a bit (maybe closer to $15K) then you are getting one heck of a car for that money. If you look longer you might find something with low mileage (say around 30K), but I think you'll be in the low $20k's or higher, depending on the seller.

As with any performance car, do what you can to ascertain that the car was serviced properly (see if the dealer can get a service history out of MB) and that it was not beaten to hell. Also may lower your risk if its a one owner car. The more times these things change hands, the more opportunity for a careless owner to factor into the mix.

All that said, the C55 is an amazing car and you will not be disappointed if you find a well maintained car. I've had mine over 4 years and still love climbing in every chance I get (when the weather is nice that is - which is not often these days in the NE.)

sm00thguy88

Thanks for the replies.

I agree with you on the color black, it's very sensitive to swirl marks too. We're ideally looking for a silver one with low miles actually. The high mileage black one just got us thinking since it was being offered at a relatively low price. And I guess we're also just starting to get a little impatient for our ideal C55 to show up for sale near our area. It being somewhat rare doesn't help either.

mgiannetto

Your last comment is right on point - There were only 1,299 made in 2005 and 451 in 2006. And if you want one is silver and that was taken care of, it could take some time. Don't despair and don't rush. You will find what you want if you take some time. You might have to travel a good distance to find the one you want, but it will be well worth the effort it in the end. I've jumped on a plane to find a good car more than once - and its worked out well for me.

sm00thguy88

How about this one?

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...standard=false


24K miles with an asking of $23,995. Saw the Autocheck and it was really clean. The extended factory warranty until 07/2011 is a nice bonus too.

Although we really prefer stock and don't really like some of the aftermarket stuff on this one. But it's just easy to remove some of them, like those chromes lightning borders and rainguards.

Our main concern really if to find out if this has been tracked or raced. I requested for close shots of the front calipers and there's no discoloration (tracked C55 calipers usually turn slightly bronze in color).

Any other way to determine just from the pictures if a car has been frequently raced or tracked? Dealer doesn't know the history of the previous owner, and I doubt I would like to go just by their word. We don't want to fly all the way to CA just to find out upon inspection that this car has been driven hard and abused.

If all checks out, what's a reasonable offer for this?

CFiftyFive

Hmmm, I don't like his exterior styling either. But if that odometer is legit, the asking price is pretty reasonable.

MBfinatic

I have seen that one for sale for quite awhile. Just to add in I got mine last December with 49k. It was a one owner and fully loaded besides parktronic and etc... I got it for $17,500. If you are interested in that I would talk them down in price. See if they actually know anything about the car Example- One JEEP Dealer in M.D tried to tell me the mars red c55 they had was a 6sp manual transmission. It was appearantly a very rare type of Mercedes and they would not budge on price.. OOhh the days that I spent shopping for my 55 .
Good Luck with the search

sm00thguy88

Wow that's a really good price for a 49k car! Did you first see it on cars.com or autotrader?

What was his initial asking price?