evilsaint

I hate to have to do a "remote" sale, but the plane ticket is free (thank you, years of business travel giving me free miles!) and this car really does seem to be in excellent shape. I ran the Datacard for it last night and it is nearly fully loaded, plus the sales manager I spoke to seems ready and willing to get it off his lot, so knocking the price down shouldn't be hard. As per why I'm not buying a car for personal sale, or one locally, my financing requires that I stick to set of franchised dealers, so it's either ATL or Portland for a C55/CLK55 in my price range. Easy choice

What should I be on the lookout for, other than the usual oil leaks around the heads? Clunking in the front suspension (thrust arms or w/e they're called), the same ones that go bad in the C32? The CarMax shows that is has been registered and stayed as a Florida car its whole life, and even has most of the detailed service history on it.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think

My new baby!

Official dealer website

Becks Imports

What you HAVE to do is find the nearest authorized MB dealer to the seller and bring it there for a pre-purchase inspection at your expense. I buy 20 AMG cars a year, and I can tell you that will be the best $200 you'll ever spend.

Don't buy it without one, and good luck.

Bruce

evilsaint

There's an MBoUSA Authorized semi-indie dealer 7 miles away from the dealer selling this car - perfect for a test drive, eh? =)

loudandheard

Pretty much the same thing you would see in the C32 minus supercharger issues. Rear main seal, valve cover gaskets, suspension components, motor/tranny mounts, leaky transmission pilot bushing(transmission electrical connector), and noisey a/c vents.

Problems specific to the C55 that I have not see on the C32, whiney motor and the radio seems to act up. The radio issue has to do with the amp in the rear getting wet, for some reason I've heard of a few C55's develop a leak in the trunk and waer getting to the amp. Symptoms can be no volume control, no radio avaiable, and distortion out of the speakers.
No one has come to a consesus as to where the engine whine comes from, a/c, power steering, oil pump, and various pulleys.

evilsaint

Awesome, this is the perfect kind of info I need to knock these guys down on price, even if the PPI comes back perfectly. They're $2k or so above Edmunds/KBB for dealer retail, so I might need some leverage. The used car dealer is cool with driving the car to the Mercedes dealer seven miles away, and it's only $175 anyway, so I figure I can easily shave that off the price of the car if anything is wrong with it =)

maverik259

haha i was just looking at this car last week...in the market to upgrade from the c230 lol...good luck with the sale bro! hope it works out!

evilsaint

Any reason you passed on it? Btw, there's a C55 I saw from a private owner in Virginia Beach on one of the big sales sites (not sure if I can mention them here) just yesterday. Want me to PM you the link?

loudandheard

If you can get the price down to 19k or 20k, then you got a very good deal. We purchased ours for 15k, but it had 80k miles and about 6 months of warranty left.

Check the brake pads, brake rotors, last oil change, pretty much the same thing as the C32.

evilsaint

Already I'm getting good leverage points - Carfax shows the first owner with a spotless maintenance record, but then the second owner with no maintenance records entered. That plus the fact that there are some off-brand Federal tires on the car of a strange size should make it easy as hell to knock a bunch off the price or at least get a free extended warranty out of it =)

91RS

I assume you'll be taking it to Atlanta Classic Cars? That's where I took my car when it was in warranty and always had great service and I still buy parts from them. Looks like most of the common problems have been mentioned already. Check the seat heaters, they're bad about going wrong. The back and bottom are supposed to heat up and the only way to fix it is to replace the cover (the element is made into the cover).

Car looks nice and in good shape. The interior needs a good clean with some real products (not Armorall!). Other than that, the exhaust looks like it might be closer to the bumper on the right side and someone may have went a little crazy cleaning the engine.

evilsaint

Yep, I have the PPI set up for Thursday. Are they trustworthy? I'm buying the car from Atlanta Used Cars of Lilburn and wouldn't want the dealer to fudge any potential problems on account of having an "arrangement" with the dealer. Either way, I'm hoping to get it done and then fly down on Friday to finalize paperwork and drive it home Saturday =)

I really appreciate the in-person report. Makes me feel even better about the purchase. I'll add the exhaust thing to my list for when I hit 'em with a low-ball offer, just to see where how willing they are to get rid of it

What you said about the engine - is that the white stuff on the engine cover in this picture?

Viper98912

Looks like someone tried to clean it either with some cleaning solution or an abrasive pad. I just use water and a rag.

91RS

I never had any problems with ACC. They always took good care of me. Usually the dealers nit-pick the car to death on a PPI. We've had a few people on here get scared because of it, but in my opinion that's what should be expected when paying for an inspection.

Yes, that's what I was talking about. Either too stong of a cleaner was used or someone used something abrasive on it. Not a huge deal, just cosmetic (but I'm sure the airbox is expensive if you did want it put right).

evilsaint

After owning an early build C32, a huge list of "flaws" is just everyday life ;-)

Besides, the more there is "wrong" with the 55, the easier it should be to get them way down on price. It seems like the v second owner might have been a bit clueless or careless, so there's bound to at least be a few fixes I can get paid for (at ACC) by this used car dealer.

maverik259

didnt so much pass per say, but i have to have an arrangement to sell my car at the same time i buy the next...thats all, and its kinda hard to do when its so far away...

MBfinatic

An arrangement eh? Lol. Show me this c55 for sale in vb. i will most likely know the owner. There were a few here when i had mine.

evilsaint

Might have to do the same. Upside down by about a grand if I sell to CarMax and rolling my.negative equity into the loan might not be possible. Terrible idea too, but with as much equity I'd gain buying this C55, it should offset it.

evilsaint

Let me see if I can find it =)