TRAKCAR

Guys, some opinions and advice please.

Wife decided she needs 4 doors, it will be a MB, probably ML63 or S class, but unsure. I like the new CLS also.


I plan on going to Palm Beach Mercedes next week to see what they have and ask for trade in price.

Seems like a waste of certified warranty as that goes away when I trade it in, but benefit is easy walk in-walk out with new car with sales tax benefit and you do get a credit for that last year warranty I think.


Another option is to keep it as my daily driver until it runs out of warranty and dump it cheaper, but what would be the depreciation in the coming year you figure?

7 year 100K certified MB warranty, expires Aug 2012.
Bought from Palm Beach Mercedes with 22K miles on it about 2 or 3 years ago. Flint grey, no options, 53K miles now.


Car is perfect, needs tires in the next few months as it always does ;-)

No scratches, dings, anything inside or out like new. At home and at the office the car is parked inside. I also have wheel and tire insurance so all is like new. No damage, but wifey ripped the bottom of front spoiler once, so the front bumper has been repainted at MB Palm Beach. All service has been done there.


I looked on autotrader.com, but I only see one with warranty at an MB dealer asking $48K ++. That car has 46K miles and they don't mention the certified warranty, so not sure if itis included.

What should I ask realistically as trade-in or retail?

Sorry for 100 questions, but all is appreciated.

mxzxracer16

Not to hurt anyfeelings but the 65s aren't worth what people are even asking on Autotrader or on ebay and there number of days forsale on average is huge. I work at a dealership so I watch cars at auction and days on market with are buying programs. I love my 65 and wish it was worth more but theres not enough buyers. Anyways I have a white Cl65 just about Identical mileage with CPO till 100k or next july. And realistically I know my car is only worth about 36-39k. With 39k being high really high! Anyways I would say honestly expect a trade in offer of around 33k.

JHouse

I'm told there is a rapid drop off on the AMG cars after 5 or 6 years. A sudden cliff. Great for used buyers, bad for owners. I'm also told it's caused by fear of old hydraulics/electronics and rubber parts. The fear is that they will just be too expensive and unreliable to keep. And perhaps the folks attuned to the desirability of these cars don't aren't in the market for cheap/old ones. They also say that the V12 is even more susceptible to this phenomenon. I'm on my second older Merc and have a good friend with lots of experience with them, and they actually stay pretty darned reliable for a very long time. So this perception, which affects the resale, is probably very exaggerated.

alx

Your car is 30 to the dealer and 33 on the street.

Yes, that is with the warranty.

Good luck

BlkLightning

keep the CL65, unless you have a faster and more comfortable vehicle at your disposal. Buy your wife a certified pre-owned E class; and 2008 E-350 with warranty will run around 28k.

02cl55amg

i think your right on the trade in, but off on private party sale. it is a rare color, in good shape, clean title and ext warr. there is alot of garbage on ebay and autorader for $30-35k, just look. $39k is a fair asking price for your ride

saintz

Tough call. I would agree with BlackLightning. The 65 is a much better daily than your GT3, and the wife probably doesn't care about driving an AMG.

If you sell retail, the market is soft. Not a lot of people with $40k cash buying used cars. If you could get close to even money on a S600/S65 trade, I would take that.

JHouse

It has always amazed me how little benefit you get on resale from very low mileage.

AZBENZ-CTSV

If you need 4 doors and value in a used vehicle, find a nice 06 S65 you
will more than likely come out of pocket $7-10k. You can find nice S65'S
with warranty for 42-47k

bzliteyear

i'd be REALLY tempted...i have 2006 S600 w/ CPO until Oct 2012/100k miles, and I currently have 57k miles. PM me if you'd like to talk.
PL

alx

Car has no keyless go. Those are practically unsellable. Go figure. I can't.

The biggest issue is that target audience is weak. Those are not cash buyers, but no bank will touch a 6 year old vehicle. Financing is a hurdle.

JHouse

If I only knew then, what I know now. I made a list once of what I had spent/lost on vehicles and almost cried. Just getting over the "virgin" complex would have saved me a bazillion dollars and always provided me with a better car than anyone I knew. At least I have shown my son the light. No new/depreciating compromise vehicles every couple of years eating all his income.

02cl55amg

i thought i was the only one who made a list......

JHouse

It's not something we usually admit.

TRAKCAR

Thank you for all comments!

Good stuff, I fell off my mountain bike Sunday and I don't feel like limping around on crutches this weekend at the dealerships to let my wife drive some cars and ask about trade in. Plus can;t drive RS probably till next week. Too bad, I had just had all the red changed for gold accents all cleaned up and re wrapped: Adding the 4.0 Canards next week as well as replace all red seat belts (Dirty from all the track driving) for black ones. Sorry could not help my self posting pics on the wrong forum ;-)

Plus my dad is flying in Sunday for 10 days and he loves the car (Has had S class since '79) and will confiscate it, so it will be September before I throw it on Auto trader / cars.com for low 40's and let is sit there till Christmas whn all the snow bird come down for the winter and there will be more interest, while I try to get wifey to come for some test drives and test trade in prices, so I will know what to take an private pain in the *** sale. I'm thinking E350/550 ML550/63 S550 or GL550 for wifey. Maybe even CLS, but too new.

BlkLightning

The reason I recommend the E class due to interior and exterior, both are great looking. The S-Class is the fugly child of Mercedes. Only a Benz owner will look at it and say Oooo it's an S class, the rest of peasants will tell you it's freaking ugly. If I wasn't power and speed hungry I would of purchased an E-55 instead of the CL65

TRAKCAR

I still have not had time to take the wifey to the dealership to see if we will sell or trade the CL and for what but we were invited to PBIR today to give rides.

A bit hot, the track is not great but fun and a free lunch, sure beats being in the office ;-)

The CL handled impressively.
Everyone appreciated the ventilated seats. A must have in her next car :-)

TRAKCAR

Kelly Blue book says $48500.00??
I've always gotten the KKB price when I traded my cars, but we will see.

I just placed an ad in autotrader just to get it done today.
We've been too busy and still did not get to test drive any cars or get a trade in numbers.
As soon as I get trade in mumbers I will adjust asking price. Maybe I will drag wifey out to a couple of stealers next weekend.

Any suggestions for my ad?

"Comfortable and powerful. Rare Flint Grey, black leather inside. 7 year 100K mile warranty!! Car bought from West Palm Beach Mercedes, all service and work done before due date by West Palm Beach Mercedes and all records are available. I will put you in contact with my service advisor. The car is located in Delray Beach FL 33444. The car now has 54K miles, and the transferrable warranty exprires August 2012. If you are tall you will love the no B pillar windows. The car is like new, it's my wife's car and she is careful with it. Always garaged inside A/C garage at home or in A/C warehouse at work. Original everything including wheels, no scratches. The car is perfect inside and out. All service done, next service due in 7000 miles. Everything works, no messages. 604HP 734lb torque V12 Biturbo, don't contact me if you want to know the MPG. These cars come loaded, ABC, nav, A/C massage seats, leather everything, auto closing doors, trunk, etc. etc. no options that I know of. New MSRP was $181,000.00 Trade in Value says $48K, asking $46K. If I trade it the warranty goes away, but they will credit me for the remaining value, I figure it is worth much more to a buyer!
No accidents, clean title in hand.
It could use 2 new floor mats and it needs tires. I will order Michelin SuperSports for the car soon. Replaced brake pads last year, still good.
A small bleach stain in the trunk, about 1 1/2"(See picture), one 1/4" scratch underneath the AMG decal on the trunk lid. (See picture) It was there when I bought it too small for me to fix it. The front bumper was scraped and cracked against rebar sticking out of curb stop. Replaced and repainted by West Palm Mercedes last year. I have the invoice.
Super clean car. Serious buyers only, no joy rides, no trades, I don't need my kitchen remodeled and no financing. Nicest CL for sale and no other CL has this much warranty left.
More pictures coming as soon as we have a day without rain!"

m_berman

Sound like a great car and once its gone its gone no more 65s.

If I were you, I would not look at the dealer's trade in $$, but the entire net cost of the deal (the new minus the trade-in) I'm sure you are aware that the higher the dealer trade-in, less negotiation room there is on the new.

It is the best course to sell it to a PP and they will get a great deal and a great car with the balance of the warranty and you get top dollar.

Good Luck.

JMKSAIL

I have been watching the CL65 market for the last 2 months looking for my next car. Its amazing, but there were only ~140 or so 2005 CL65 built by AMG, but 28 of them are for sale, fully 20% of the production. The C55 has about 20 models for sale and 1400 of those were made back then. Seems like the market is saturated with 2005 CL's. Prices range from high mileage, >75K at $29.9K to 17K mile garage queens for $55 - 57K.
Lots of product in the 40 - 60K mileage, prices go from $36K to 49K. Just drove one in Pompano with 35K miles and they are begging to give it away, but it does not have the options I wanted.
So market is buyers market and $40K will get you nice car.
Strange, that seems what the price was 2 years ago, maybe we are seeing a leveling off of depreciation for awhile.
Meanwhile, I am still looking for the right one with Keyless go and Parktronic and disctronic if I get lucky.

ramzank

I would really recommend the GL550. Fast, practical, comfortable and incredibly safe. Also looks very different to all the other GLs.

Some good comments on this thread. Yes, adding up money lost buying/selling cars is depressing. Buying new and keeping low miles seems, as others noted, to have very little affect on holding up values. Pay to play is the saying, and it's right but it'd be nice if it wasn't the case. I used to change cars every 1-2 years, but I'm trying to keep them for around 4 years now as the worst hit as already been taken. Live and learn.

KBB sounds very optimistic at that price but good luck either way (selling yields more than trading-in, in my experience) and hopefully you recover from your injuries soon. And your Gt3 looks stunning.

TRAKCAR

I was surprised by KBB as well and will adjust asking price as I find the real price.

I really like the GL550 but wifey thinks she does not. We don't need that much space, no kids just dog and once in a while 70 year old mother in law. I have to get her behind the wheel of a couple of the above mentioned cars and I will try to get a GL550 ready for her to try.
As soon as I get some real trade in values (Real as in negotiate on a couple of cars that wifey drove and I would buy without trade in, leave dealership then offer trade in.) I will take that price + sales tax.

I keep cars perfect, I like to make someone happy with it apposed to giving it to the dealer, cars are hobby. Did the same thing with my '07GT3.

I am in no hurry, but I can tell wifey I am working on it. I like the CL just fine, but my GT3RS is my daily driver and she drives the CL 95% of the time so she has to like it. Maybe a Diesel? She drives on torque, never floors it, but she declared the courtesy C300 "broken" because it went nowhere unless she floored it ;-)

I do think there is real value in the Mercedes Certified warranty, If I trade it in I will get some credit for it, but don't know how much yet. I have yet to brake something on any of my last 4 MB's that was not covered..

Autotrader add with carfax report: http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...id=AT-124d966e

JMKSAIL

FYI, I think you mentioned car is in Delray, but the Autotrader ad says Los Angeles, CA. Maybe the wrong zipcode was loaded.
That color looks great, just saw a gray mercedes tonight, looks great at night too. Never liked the silver on the CL, surprising how much better gray looks than silver.

france2112

Hi. Just read through this thread. I just can't believe how low these cars have gone!! To date, my CL65 is the best car I have ever driven and I have driven a lot of cars in my life. I have owned a CL55, SL600, S65, and now my CL65. I added the Kleemann LSD and the Full Speedriven ECU, TCU, and top mounted intercooler upgrades. My car has been bullet proof as far as reliability and has just under 41K miles on it. A few times I have had the itch to get rid of the CL65 and buy something else. When I go test drive other cars then get back into the CL I realize that nothing is even close to better of course in my opinion. I say keep the car if you can afford it and get Wifey a Hundai Genesis sedan. She would most likely be happy and you would save yourself a ton of money. They lease very cheap also. I still can't believe your CL65 has no options. How could AMG make a 190K car and not add keyless go, parktronic, and distronic standard. So friggin asinine!! I have all three options and I would definitely not like the car as much without them and would not buy an AMG without them. Anyway, good luck with your decision but I say keep the car!!!

TRAKCAR

Thanks! I had not noticed it. All my data seems correct, I don't know where they have LA from? Could not figure out how to change it, but I sent Autotrader an e-mail.