Originally Posted by c63insd

I would think the car would sell between $42,000 and $45,000.

What is the interior and exterior color?

I ask because (at least while I was searching a few months ago) it seemed that white C63's especially with white interiors had a $2,000+ premium on them....

I purchased my 09 C63 P30 about 6 months ago with 39k miles and paid $46,500. I might have overpaid by a bit but it had every available option and the exact color combo I wanted so it was worth it to me.

In my case I was set on White with white "Sahara beige" interior with black burlwood. The car I finally ended up with was in perfect condition and it had all records with only 1 owner who's history I knew. Original MSRP sticker on it was $77k

You are going to love the car but a couple suggestions and things to watch out for:

Vehicle history: Some of the P30's out there with low miles have unknown pasts and a good chunck of them have even had past lives as AMG racing school track cars. P30's were the primary car used at the school for the last few years and they have retired a lot of them to the streets. Although the mileage is low they these ones literally have thousands of miles of track time on them.

Warranty: Keep in mind that at this point most of the 09's that you are looking at are going to run out of warranty in the next few months (even if they have low miles) due to the fact that we are coming up on the 4 year mark. Check the production date on the drivers side door jam. For example, mine is 09/08 meaning that my warranty is up in September of this year even though I am still going to be under 50k. For this reason I was not overly concerned about my mileage because I knew that time would be the factor with my warranty not mileage... I have looked into and am still considering an aftermarket warranty from Mercedes but they are expensive so I might pass... Expect to pay between $2,000 and $4,000 for 1-3 years of extended coverage. A car with extended coverage already in place is definitely worth a bit more IMO.

Service: Have your local dealer run the VIN number on any car you are considering so they can give you any maintenance history on record. Also find out if the last service was completed? I believe at 30k miles you should have an A service and at 40K you need a B service. I think "A" service will cost you around $350 and a "B" service is about $750-$1,000 mostly because you also need to change the LSD fluid at 40k. ACG in San Diego did my service and they did a great job. I would highly recommend them if you are anywhere close to San Diego.

Brakes: Check the rotor thickness because you may only need new pads. When I bought my car the rotors were 34mm. The wear limit for maintenance service on P30 rotors is 33.5mm so I simply replaced the pads. After lots of research I settled on Porterfeild RS4's from foryourmercedes.com for about $425 and I replaced them myself. It took just over 2 hours in my driveway to replace all 4 pads with the help of a friend which was a huge savings and an easy job.

Tires: Tires do not last long on these cars just FYI. I had 1,000 miles on my tires when I got the car and within 5 months and 5,000 miles I am about to replace them. 6,000 miles / 6 months seems to be pretty standard on these cars believe it or not.

Suspension: I would have to disagree about the P30 suspension being TOO stiff. You definitely feel uneven pavement and bumps in the road but IMO its how this car should feel. That being said, I have heard that the P30 "track tuned" suspension does not do anything for the track in terms of better handling so if that's your reason for getting the P30 its probably not worth it. However, P30 also gets you the LSD which is an option a lot of people end up adding to non P30's for $1,000+

Steering Wheel: I would have to say that my only complaint about the P30 is the alcantara steering wheel. It does have the ability to look great but it quickly gets matted and easily starts to feel and look funky. Its a pain to try and take care of and I am thinking about getting a non P30 steering wheel.

Once you have the car here's a quick note on what I consider to be the best upgrades:

Resonator Delete: Replacing the resonator with a straight pipe makes the car sound even better. Louder at Startup and WOT, but still sounds stock under 2,500rpm and cruising on the freeway. This can be done for about $100 at most muffler shops.

ECU Tune: This is by far the best upgrade you can do. For between $750 and $2,000 (depending on what tune you go with) you can pick up another 60-80hp.

Intake: You can get new high flow filters and remove the stock carbon filters. I got AFE filters and popped them in within 10 minutes. I believe filters are replaced at the time of service so if you plan on upgrading to aftermarket filters save some money and don't have the dealer or mechanic replace your stock filters.

Anything after that and it starts getting very expensive and very loud.

I guess I will stop rambling now... Hope this helps and feel free to let me know if you have any other questions!

Originally Posted by Mort

Nice write up.

Just one thing I noticed that is not correct. The warranty starts at the in-service date and mileage and not the build date on the door pillar. You need to contact a dealer for the in-service date and mileage or might find it on a dealer RO for the vehicle.

Originally Posted by c63insd

Steering Wheel: I would have to say that my only complaint about the P30 is the alcantara steering wheel. It does have the ability to look great but it quickly gets matted and easily starts to feel and look funky. Its a pain to try and take care of and I am thinking about getting a non P30 steering wheel.