irisheric

What's up guys? I'm new here (although I do lurk a little) and I thought I would ask some people that have some knowledge about MB what their opinions are on the C32 and C55.

I've always loved both cars but never had a good enough excuse to buy another vehicle. "Luckily" for me my fiances car is dead and it cost more to repair than it's worth, so I'm looking at a 2002 C32 and 2005 C55.

I know there are some threads somewhat similar to this but all of them seemed to be old and because of that I think (hope) this thread is valid. Which car should I get based on the mileage/price below?

2002 C32 / 58,000 miles / $13,500 - Talked owner into going down to $12,500

2005 C55 / 86,000 miles / $11,995 - Seemingly low price kind of worries me.

Assuming that both cars are free of any significant issues which one would be a safer bet to purchase with the amount of miles they have? I do like the C55's interior. It looks a little nicer from the outside too, although both are in great physical condition. But the 28,000 extra miles on the C55 worries me a little.

Are there typical issues that I should expect from each car based on their mileage? I've read a lot about both vehicles and from what i find the C32 seems to be more prone to electrical issues. Common sense says that having a supercharger gives it another possible issue to deal with as well. I'm guessing that the naturally aspirated V8 would hold a slight advantage in reliability, although I realize that engine troubles are rarely a problem with AMG.

Any educated advice is much appreciated. Sorry in advance if I missed a thread that answers this exact questions.

fleishman

After owning a c32 I would buy a c55 for the updated interior and v8 exhaust note.

Viper98912

c55

DrewZ9266

ditto.

jturkel

depends what ur looking for. i'm all about speed while somehow on a budget lol. if you wanna make the car fast for less money, i'd go with the c32....making the c55 fast is possible, but a fully modded c32 will be faster than that of a fully modded N/A C55....(notice i put the NA in there in case you were to drop some serious $$$$ and s/c it)

i love my interior. yes the c55 is a little bit nicer, but to me...meh. and my v6 exhaust w/headers and res delete sounds sexy (i get compliments all the time on it), so i wont make the selling point exhaust.

from a financial/economic standpoint outside of making it faster/modding, the c55 in question appears to be the better deal

aussie e55

V8 rules love the torque

rlddlr53

Get the C55, less problems, updated interior. That mileage is not high for the year. I just purchased a one owner nice example c55 with 134k miles!

irisheric

Thanks for the replies everyone. In all honesty I don't plan on modding the car at all. Not saying it won't happen but it's not in my plans right now. I'm sure once I have the vehicle there's a good chance my mind will change.

After researching the C55 more I found out that it had a recall of some kind, although I don't know what it was for. Even though the car looks amazing, its most definitely more attractive inside and out, I'm leaning towards the C32 at this point. It's in great condition and obviously from the exterior there is very little difference. I just hate the fact that the car is on the other side of the country and I can't see it in person.

Anyone ever have any trouble that I should know about before going on with the purchase? The owner said there is a clicking noise coming from the dash that I'm assuming is the steppor motor linkage, I've heard that the C32 has had issues with that. At the mileage of nearly 60,000 any known issues?

irisheric

How much did you pay for it?

Since I just posted my response a second ago I know you didn't see that I found out there was some type of recall on the C55 I'm looking at, and I don't know what the recall was. If there wasn't I would almost definitely be leaning towards it.

How many miles have you put on yours up to this point? No issues of any kind?

Saaboteur

C55s (and probably C32s too? but I don't have one so I can't say) have a habit of their seat heaters dying. Not so much the lumbar element, but the seat bottom element. Costly repair. Or just leave it - cheaper option!

16 spark plugs and wires on a C55, so that adds up at maintenance time. Still, there are 12 on a C32 as the motors are closely related, so not a huge difference there. They also use the same brake hardware, so no real plus or minus to either car there.

The 'dogbone' can fail on the power steering wheel adjust. Cheap part but can be a pain to access.

Jturkel is spot on re: mods - you can always make power more easily with a factory supercharged or turbocharged motor vs. naturally aspirated.

My opinion is that North American spec C32s need aftermarket suspension otherwise they look funny with the large wheel gap, especially up front. The C55 much less so - stance looks a lot better. Also, I cannot stand the instrument cluster on the C32, but I'm rather picky about that. But think of it this way - you can't drive the car from the outside, right?

Oh, and if you do care, you can readily modify the 63 paddle shifters to fit a C55, it's just a mechanical change, plug and play. Doing that on a C32 is much more difficult. And also I think the C55 trans electronics holds on to gears in manual mode, won't automatically change up.

On the whole though, I think that both engines are pretty bulletproof, though of course there are more potential things to go wrong with the supercharged engine. For example, you don't hear of headbolt issues, like on the 63 cars (but even then it is likely a very small sample of cars with problems that the Internet forums probably blow out of proportion - kinda like water cooled Porsche intermediate shaft failures).

But otherwise, the cars are rather simple, no air suspension or active roll bars or anything crazy electronically. That leads to a perceived impression of better reliability - but with less things to go wrong than on, say, a W211 E55 or an R230 SL55, that should generally be true.

For me, the updated interior, the rarity of the C55 (less than 100 official Canadian market cars), the CLK front end and the V8 bellow had me sold. I did pay more than I would have for a C32, but knock on wood, no real problems.

rlddlr53

pm'd

DrewZ9266

as far as speed goes. you should be content with what each vehicle comes with. pulley/tune/intake on the c32 and its maxed out for the most part. in which case you'll get use to it and there isn't much more you can do. same with c55 unless you go sc. Just figure i'd throw that out there.

macbryanie

+2

c55dubai

c55 with my plesure

betrezra

seat heater is no big deal to replace. I've changed out my clk55 seat cover/cushion/heater, and if you are careful it's a short day project.
Plus you find money and french fries under the seat as a bonus.

GL with the choice. At today's prices try both....... bargains.