tee_tz

Hello All,

So this weekend a friend of a friend of mine says "hey, I hear you have a Mercedes", and I reply, "why yes... yes, I do" but before going on to reveal how great it, he says, "Oh that's cool, I just got one myself, I got the CL55 AMG" ..... .....
...




"Which one do you have?" ......... ..........



"Hey? Which one do you have?" ..... (me) "Oh sorry, did you say C55?" ..."No, I said --", "Oh you said CLK55", "No, I said CL55".


Hmmm... but, before revealing my model he asked whether I wanted to check it out (it was parked right in front of the club), so I figured, what the heck - not everyday I get to drive a CL55, let's go for it!

I get in and the first thing he says is, "push her - she loves it".... My kind of guy . Now I was respectful as it's not my car and while I know this guy a bit, not very, very well -- and let me just say "Oh My Goodness"..... Talk about love. My heart was pumping, my palms were sweating, my skin got goosebumps, I was nervous -- all the attributes of love at first sight.

So I figured I'd come to this side of the forum and just say to you guys -- jeeeeeeezzzz, this car is freaking unbelievable!! The power is immense. It's right there as soon as you think about it. It literally went from 30 to 50 in 1 sec, either the speedometer, my eyes, or brain was lying - or it actually did. I can sit here and talk on and on about this car all day, but W.O.W.!!!!

I didn't drive it too fast, but when he took over he really showed me the power. And the braking -- my goodness, it went from like 80MPH -> 10MPH within several really fast heart beats! I am amazed, and this engine, this car, it's really quite extraordinary! Congrats to all you owners!


Tee_Tz.

j_belll

hahahah congrats on ur experience.

DFW01E55

Glad you liked it tee, it's the best bargain in the auto world today ... for buyers.

tee_tz

Thanks, it was lovely. I'm thinking I need that power now.


Tee_Tz.

tee_tz

They are still quite pricey; luckily the retain their value... But maybe a year from now it'll be a even better buy with the new shape already circulating.


Tee_Tz.

jgsx

They retain their value?! I don't know about that, CLs tank hard

bltserv

Beware.
They fall fast and hard.
Especially with the new 2007 out and about. And the 2008 a few months away.

Should be some great deals out there on 2006`s CL55
I would guess like $ 80K for low miles used/Off Lease.
Same car new in late 2005 $ 128K. Ouch.

SLK55R

THis is a joke right? Your being sarcastic?

tee_tz

True, the value does tank initially, however, it does retain some value over the long term -- well, at least compared to Lexus, Jaguar, and the likes. But yeah, right now you can get one for a 'decent' price, decent compared to what it cost brand new. But I'd never buy this car out of warranty because I can imagine the disaster of maintaining it, should it experience problems.



Tee_Tz.

m_berman

What word other than W O W would describe a ride in a CL65. If you thought the world ends with the 55 your wrong. Nothing better than a 65 bi turbo with 600+ HP!

BTW...The tanking issue. there are excellent CL65s in the low 90s with 24k mi out there. I drove a 05 -- that knocked my socks off.

BTW#2..Jaguars really tank and tank and tank. I know, I own two, but are great cars as well.

BlownV8

Possibly a Rennteched CL600 with 650+ hp. If/when I trade my Cl600 for a CL65, I will have to send it to Renntech so I don't get beat down by a chipped CL00.

DFW01E55

Tee, with all due respect, are you crazy?

My CL55 was $120k new, now 4 years later with lower than average mileage, it might be worth $42k on a trade.

That's what, 35% of original value?

When does it "retain some value over the long term?"

tee_tz

Basically, compared to cars such as Jaguar, Lexus, Infiniti, etc, yes it holds value pretty well. Jeez, everyone is attacking me on this, but it's a simple fact: all cars will only depreciate (except in very rare instances when they become classics and demand supply inverse raising the price); but even though your car is at $42K, a Jaguar of the same measure would be at $30K. But yes, the car does depreciate but it hold it's value better than most luxury brands/cars.

I can only imagine a 65 (S/CL/SL), but coming from day-in driving with a C320, I first had to step in the 55 first, and I was extremely impressed. I'm sure the 65 will just blow me away, because the thing is - when you look at it on paper, you wonder well how much faster could it really be, but I'm sure once you drive it you realize it's another car.


Tee_Tz.

Improviz

True about Jaguar (and probably 2003 Infiniti, although this is definitely not the case with the newer models, which actually are holding their value pretty well), but not about Lexus. Lexus holds their value much better than Mercedes, thanks to their higher reliability.

I'm going to look at Private Party (no options) value for each of these 2003 models and compare it to list price. Format is original list price (base)/private party retail (base w/no options)/% of original list price.
2003 BMW M5
$73,195 / $42,478 / 58%

2003 Lexus LS430:
$54,925 / $30,571 / 55.6%

2003 CL55:
$115320 /$54,511 / 47%

2003 S500
$81,720 / $37,608 / 46%

2003 Jaguar XJR:
$72,475 / $24,999 / 34.4%

Oh, and I can't leave out the CLK55:
$69,470 / $35,120 / 50.5% (which, honestly, is better than I expected, and doesn't look so bad, until you look at):
2003 BMW M3
$48,195 / $29,416 / 61%

I don't know if it's bad marketing, overpricing, or too much production, but the AMGs don't hold their value particularly well for cars of this type.

kovachian

Woo hoooo go Jaguar!

m_berman

Improviz-

For some reason my eyes don't focus on your car numbers. I wonder why?


Since the subject of Jaguar came up............
Have a 03 S Type R with factory warranty of 100K/2010 bumper to bumper with 37k mi for $31,500. 390 HP S/C. Anyone interested. It's cherry.