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Mercedes S550 Coupe (now) CL55 (until last March 3), Ferrari 612, Porsche Macan GTS
RIP CL 55
So I have posted numerous pieces about my 05 CL 55. It is time to bid adieu. Simply put it was the greatest car I have ever owned. RIP good friend.
I bought it two years young with 20K miles and drove it for 10 years and put on an additional 80k miles. An awesome car, incredible looks and never a problem beyond normal maintenance.
I have read various pieces about ABS, cost of maintenance, etc. All crap. Please remember those are pieces by people who have bought it cheap, have not maintained it or have tricked it out to be some cafe racer.
It’s DNA is plain and simple an awesome grand touring kick *** coupe and in that category it has no equal. I religiously maintained it an i was rewarded with a bullet proof dream car. For 10 years every stop light was a Christmas tree and the supercharger wailed to 60 in nanoseconds only to do it all over again at the next light. On the highway 120 was a very comfortable cruising speed. Effortless. In the twistiies, once I put lowering links and wider and lower wheels and tires on it, it could keep up with my Ferrari. For anyone thinking about it, it is THE car.
Alas 2 week’s ago I got T boned in an intersection and the other driver was doing at least 40. My CL gave its life for its owner. Every air bag that should have gone off did and every air bag that shouldn’t have gone off didn’t. The car in its dying breaths called 911 and I walked away without a bruise, scratch or cut. You cannot ask more of a car from beginning to end.
RIP good friend.
PS Today I bought a 2=year old S550 with 15K. May the story begin again.
Glad you were ok. I was in a very hard head on collision in my first CL600, and nobody was hurt aside from my sprained ankle, most people who saw the car couldn't believe that there weren't serious injuries. The 215 is an amazing car, and there isn't really anything else quite like it out there that I've found yet. Enjoy your 222 though, it's a nice car.
Mercedes S550 Coupe (now) CL55 (until last March 3), Ferrari 612, Porsche Macan GTS
Originally Posted by tusabes
How did your car call 911?
The TeleAid SOS system in these cars hadn't worked for years as it was on the old analog network
Sorry, I don’t know. All I know is I was in LA and immediately after the crash there was a lady on the SOS button asking me what was my emergency. So unless my car made like a Delorean and I was back in the future, it still works. Mine was a a 2005 and had all the options for its day if that makes a difference.
Mercedes S550 Coupe (now) CL55 (until last March 3), Ferrari 612, Porsche Macan GTS
Thanks all for the kind words. I absolutely agree that the 215 is an awesome car. The best car I have ever owned and that is saying a lot!
Interesting comparing it to the new 222. Initial impressions are the 215 is faster. The twin turbos in the 222 make it quick but I used to love how the 215’s supercharger would launch the car and wail as you pulled away. Also the 215 was more nimble and “connected” to the road (especially after I lowered it and put wider and lower profile wheels and tires on it—which I would recommend to everyone). The 222 feels much “bigger” to drive and everything is more muted. Wish I could still have the 215, I had intended to drive it forever.
Anyways, here is a picture of the new ride. Forgive the “gangster” look. The prior owner had it wrapped. I will drive it like this for a while and then take the wrap off. Underneath is an absolutely gorgeous “magnetite” metallic black with a red interior.
Mercedes S550 Coupe (now) CL55 (until last March 3), Ferrari 612, Porsche Macan GTS
Originally Posted by ItalianJoe1
Oh, a 217, much better. Magnetite/red is gorgeous, it has the carbon trim interior? Magic sky roof or regular pano?
Thanks. Your right. I still don’t have my numbers right. No magic sky roof. Wish it did! It has kind of a unique black wood interior with lines in it. You can see it on the passenger door. Looks really cool.
Flowing lines, yes. I've seen the red with that or the Carbon, I LOVE the flowing lines trim, it's exclusive to the coupe and it's just so nice. Odd with the red interior, that must have been a custom ordered car. Gorgeous nonetheless, surprised it's such a heavily optioned 550, I usually only see those things on 63/65 cars.
Both of your cars , old and new , are absolutely gorgeous
for your SOS TeleAid to have worked , perhaps the prior owner had the car upgraded to digital cellular , there was an upgrade available iirc back in the day
Mercedes S550 Coupe (now) CL55 (until last March 3), Ferrari 612, Porsche Macan GTS
Originally Posted by tusabes
Both of your cars , old and new , are absolutely gorgeous
for your SOS TeleAid to have worked , perhaps the prior owner had the car upgraded to digital cellular , there was an upgrade available iirc back in the day
Thats probably it. The first owner was very in to the car. He after market replaced the steering wheel with an OEM wood wheel (I don’t believe it was available in 05 when he ordered it) and hooked up Lo Jack. It may be in hooking up Lo Jack that he did the SOS. Thankfully I never had a prior occasion to use the SOS or Lo Jack.
Mercedes S550 Coupe (now) CL55 (until last March 3), Ferrari 612, Porsche Macan GTS
Originally Posted by ItalianJoe1
Flowing lines, yes. I've seen the red with that or the Carbon, I LOVE the flowing lines trim, it's exclusive to the coupe and it's just so nice. Odd with the red interior, that must have been a custom ordered car. Gorgeous nonetheless, surprised it's such a heavily optioned 550, I usually only see those things on 63/65 cars.
One of the advantages of buying used (which I always do) is the options don’t add much to the price of the car. So I search for one with all the goodies. Here I paid about $50K below original MSRP and the car only has 15k on it.
I got a copy of the build sheet the other day and the guy really loaded it up on the self driving stuff. Basically I can go on a road trip and not touch the steering wheel, brake or gas. I may use it for long trips but I do like to “drive” my cars. So not likely to be used much and I certainly would not pay anything extra for it.
Mercedes S550 Coupe (now) CL55 (until last March 3), Ferrari 612, Porsche Macan GTS
Shiv, I went with some Brabus Monoblock VI wheels because I was trying to look “old school” and there was a Brabus edition of the CL available when my 05 came out. So that left me with limited wheel options since the Monoblock VI are no longer made. I did find some used ones and ultimately matched them up with Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires. So my ultimate tire and wheel combination was:
Front: 255/35ZR19 ET40 (offset) 8.5” rim width
Rear: 285/35ZR19 ET40 (offset) 10” rim width
I then lowered the car about 1.5 inches using lowering links that I got off of e bay.
The above is a fairly safe combination and there was no rubbing anywhere (but the rears are about the maximum you can go outboard without rubbing on the fenders—there was more room on the inboard side and so you could play with the wheel and tire width and the offset to fill in there if desired). I started with 275/30’s on the rears and found that, for as heavy of a car as the CL was, there was not enough tire shoulder and the bumps would actually chip the bead on the rims. So be careful with the really low profile tires.
If desired I think that 20 inch wheels would work well (subject to what I said about shoulder width and perhaps not lowering the car as much). Someone could start with my 19” combination that fits within the wheel wells and then make the necessary adjustments. The below site allows you to compare to existing tire and wheel combinations and go up or down in size and still keep the same overall dimensions (so you can go from 18” to 22” for example and still have the tire and wheel combination be the same overall size). Everyone should be careful however, the CL55 has a different rear offset than the CL65 (I suspect the rear axles are different) so adaptations will need to be made to my specs since mine are for a CL55.
I would also say that as long as you keep the ABC system you should not be worried about the ride if you go to a 20” or even a 22”. My CL handled the tire and wheel combination very well and it was amazing how good the ride was. Even after the upgrade I always kept it on “sport” mode and it rode great and really, really handled in the corners. It had that “go kart” connected feeling to the steering which I liked and was very different from the feeling that you get from the factory version. I think the tighter feeling was in part because of the wider wheels and tires on the front and also, because of the change in offset, I had a significantly different scrub radius. Also, when making this significant of a change you have to get a full alignment. At the end of the day, believe it or not, the handling was almost as good as my 612 and certainly was a lot smoother of a ride.
As a last note for those thinking of 20’s, I did find the following specs on a Brabus CL from back in the day:
BRABUS Monoblock VI light alloy wheels, - multi-piece -- 9.J x 20 H2 ET 45 front,Pirelli P Zero Rosso 255/35 ZR 20 front, - 10J x 20 H2 ET 37 rear,Pirelli P Zero Rosso 285/30 ZR 20 rear
I was never able to find 20” Monoblock VI’s so I was not able to try it. Also, in 05 Pirelli P Zeros were good tires but today the Pilot Super Sports are far superior in every way.
I just bought a 2003 CL55 AMG. Never owner an M-B before, but I'm really enjoying this car so far, and understand completely what you describe. Once the newness wears off, I'll look into the suspension mods you mentioned (rims, tires, lowering links). I want to keep the car mostly original, and just had the dealer overhaul the ABC system along with brakes, transmission, and a number of other minor things. The car was really well cared for and in excellent condition, despite being somewhat high mileage (100k). IMHO cars are meant to be driven, and I tend to be more suspicious of cars with very low mileage. They don't do well sitting.
Glad to hear you were unhurt, sorry about the car.
Mercedes S550 Coupe (now) CL55 (until last March 3), Ferrari 612, Porsche Macan GTS
QP3, congratulations on the purchase. Don't worry about 100k. That is not much. My car had just turned 100K and it was like new in all respects. It was for me a very low cost car to maintain for the 10 years I had it and it sounds like you are off on the right foot with having the dealer overhaul it. Maintenance is the key.
I also had the same view re keeping the car mostly original (of course I recognize others want to go in the opposite direction). I found the Brabus wheels were a nice option because they looked very similar to the original CL65 wheels and at the time Brabus and some Benz dealers were working together to produce Brabus CLs. You can still find some of the wheels on the internet if you are patient and the lowering links are only $100. You might want to do the lowering links first since they cost nothing. There is a lot of room even with stock wheels and tires and lowering the center of gravity on the car makes a significant handling difference by itself (I could immediately tell the difference). A way to check this out is to go through your favorite twistees in normal mode and then with the suspension raised to its highest level. You will feel it.
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