SLK55R

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Merce...03123903QQrdZ1

If anyone is interested I saw this today ... no reserve auction ... nice.

AMG2GO

2005 CL55 at well over 100K...

No parktronic, No distronic, No Keyless Go, No trunk closer, no TPS.

Why does anyone in their right mind spending that kind of money order a car like that? Why does AMG not include these in the CL55? it doesn't cost enough as it is?

mclarenm8d

Most of those options I don't want ... and I am glad that the buyer has the option to opt out of them.

I have parktronic, which I think is a great feature. Others I am thankful that the original owner of my car, like me, has no use for.

In fact, when I'm done with my CL55 and will start searching for a CL65, I will be specifically looking for a CL65 that doesn't have them.

Qualifying more "perception than reality" -

I believe the dirty secret is that distronic is what gives some MB cars the bad brake pedal feel. Percentage wise, there are a ton of CL65's without this feature as well.

Trunk opener and closer option causes trunk gap alignment issues over time, and TPS forces one to have to worry about a constricted set of rim selection. Keyless go seems like a toy to me that will fail at a time when it is most inconvenient, so why spend the money on something you don't want. I truly hate the whole notion of keyless go features.

Now, I do think that this was probably a customer order car that someone chose not to take. I do agree with where you are going with your argument if it were a dealer ordered car, it makes sense for a dealer to load the car up.

Stiggs

This car has the electronic trunk closer.

mclarenm8d: You may be one of the few people on this board that feels like I do. I feel no need for parktronic and keyless go. I could take or leave Navi.
When I ordered my CLK55 back in 2003 I only opted for the Xenons, rear window sunshade and 6 disc changer. Everything else was a waste to me.
Just personal prefrence.

AMG2GO

I don't know man, some of those things you are mentioning do not make sense to me. I don't see how the trunk closer causes a gap problem, I have never heard of or seen this in any CL, even high milage ones. Not sure about the brake pedal feel thing either, that doesn't make sense to me either, but maybe I don't know something. The pedal feels terrific in my CL.

If keyless go fails, you use your key... how is that any worse than a car without keyless go? I find it to be THE most convenient feature of my car.

As for TPS, you can still select any rim that you want, but if your sensors don't fit (which they do on a lot of rims), then you simply disable the TPS feature... Certainly no loss there.

I guess I would agree with you if we were talking about a Honda and the options cost so much and there is not enough benefit to justify the cost... but on a car that is over 100K, I just don't get why it wouldn't come with it standard. I believe Keyless Go is standard on 05's.

Honestly its frustrating for me, because I looked at several CL55's and CL65s for possible purchase, and I was amazed of how many of these had NOTHING. Or you find one that has one cool feature but is missing the rest. I wish the guys at the dealer ordering these cars would stop acting like they are ordering a base C class.

mclarenm8d

Thinking about this a little more, one of the reasons I qualified more perception than reality is that due to the low production numbers of the CL, it's impossible for me to prove some of these points.

However, I know that people that are more old school like I am ('old school GenXer') can think along these lines ... stuff like "why would I want to pay for another electronic gizmo that can fail" or "why pay for something you don't want". In Chicagoland, the weird thing is that I find that the people that really know what an AMG CL is are the hard-core musclecar guys.

Maybe that's why MB made these items options, there is a varied market of enthusiasts that like the CL and the ones that actually purchase them have very hardened personal preferences?

I would agree that it doesn't necessarily make sense for a car at it's price point. I find myself driving along sometimes and thinking that it doesn't make sense why they would choose option X for my car but they didn't get Y.

Stiggs

What I don't get is why can't this dealership sell this car? Its only up to $75K so far on the bids.

AMG2GO

Wait til end of auction... no one bids til the last 5 minutes on e-bay.

j.edwards

I agree with mclarenm8d. My CL55, that I purchased new, does not have distronic, parktronic, trunk closer, tps or keyless go and I'm glad of it. I bought the car for it's performance, not for it's luxury. I'm especially glad that it has no tps, which as mclarenm8d mentioned, limits the selection of replacement rims.
I'm not a ludite, but I think simpler is better in some cases. I've grown to appreciate some features that initially I would have preferred to opt out of. Maybe, if I actaully had those other features, I would come to appreciate it. As it is, I love my car with the features it has.

lexlyf

I'm actually going to visit this Dealership in a couple of days. I'm searching for a local (plan "B") CL500/CL55/CL600, if my primary choice is sold to someone else.

Stiggs

"The seller ended this listing early because of an error in the minimum bid or Reserve amount."

Hmmmmmmm
Must have been a mistake.

BiTurboBenz

That's what these d(st)ealers do...BRAND NEW, NO RESERVE

naadp

I love how they call it no reserve right on the tag line then cancel it early because the bidding wasn't high enough. I thought there were rules against that...

AMG2GO

I think anyone that buys a CL buys it for its combination of performance and luxury. If you buy only for performance there certainly are better choices than a CL, no?

TPS does not limit your choice of wheels. You can still get whatever you want whether your car has TPS or not. I have Renntech monolites on mine and the TPS sensors wouldn't fit. So I disabled the feature for the time being.

I could see what you are saying if somehow having keyless go, a trunk closer or TPS took something away in terms of performance, but none of those features take away anything in performance... and I think on a car of this caliber these should be standard. Especially on a $180,000 CL65.

Anyway, not trying to argue, I just would like to see more options on the used cars I look for... certainly without them the car is still great.

j.edwards

amg2go:

I completely agree with you on the performance issue. If all I was looking for was performance, there are a lot of other and probably better choices. I

Thanks for the correction on the TPS issue. While shopping for aftermarket wheels, it appeared some choices were limited. When I went back and read some the earlier posts, yours included, I realized that I wasn't paying attention :-)

Your opinion that all those features should be standard on an $180k CL65 makes a lot of sense to me, and I agree that they don't degrade the performance. I think the point I was trying to make is that I appreciate the fact that they are options. I get to make the choice. If I had it to do over, I still think I'd make the same choice.

davepl

Doesn't make a lot of sense to me: if you want a stripped down, no-optioned car, are you sure the 5000lb CL is a good starting point?