CL65 Warranty / Routine Maintenance / Problems
 

Hi,
How many of you have aftermarket warranties for your CL65 AMG? What routine problems do many of you foresee with this car? Can we get away with owning them without an aftermarket warranty? I would greatly appreciate hearing when you had certain problems with your car, what you do / don't fear with the car etc. It is in a different league than the other models, I would hate to sell it out of fear!!
Thanks

there are tons of threads on this topic but some of the issues are ABC system failures (pumps, accumulators, etc), coil packs (which can run you 900-1100 per side for the part alone). I was having little issues (like radiator failure), idler pulley, so I went with a Fidelity warranty (platinum). It is NOT cheap, but it covers pretty much everything that could go wrong with the car. You can even finance it if you want by paying 10% down and then 18 mo payments. Mine was $5700 if memory serves me correctly. Well worth it in my mind to not have to worry about anything other than wear and tear.

Good luck

OP, I don't think you can get a warranty for your car anymore. Its too old and if you did, it would cost around the $8-10k. Not worth it.

R.K.

yea, I have been trying royal admin and mercury, no luck really. red60R, when did you get your warranty? Through who? Over what time / mileage does the $5,700 cover? I assume this covers ABC, engine, (oil coolers etc), correct?
Thanks

Where can I buy a Fidelity Warranty?

mine is a 2005 and I got it in October. What is your mileage? I think if memory serves me right you had to have under 100k to get one. Fidelity sells through dealers so if you call Fidelity up they can give you the name of the closest dealer that sells it. You purchase it through their finance department. They have different ranges of coverage but I opted for the platinum because its an exclusionary warranty which means that it covers EVERYTHING, except the small paragraph of exclusions. They have lesser coverages for smaller amounts. They do require you get your car inspected first so you have to have that done and submitted with your paperwork but you can get it done anywhere (I used a local MB only shop that I know to do mine).
Another option is through Costco, they cover the CL65 also, no inspection, and varying levels of coverage. I want to say it is underwritten by a company called Century. It is more expensive but you can also do different terms (1, 2, 3 yrs...etc)......also, if you keep searching threads, there is a guy (sorry if he reads this and I forgot his name) but he runs a place called Beck Imports (I think) and he knows a lot about the Fidelity and I think you can even buy it through him. Good luck

Thanks for the info I'll give them a call tomorrow

AMAZING you can buy these 215 CL65'S for 30k
lot of car for the $
but need a WARRANTY

get a warranty. I've spent about 17k in maintenance in 1.5 years.

They told me that the Chevy dealer in my area sells the warranty. Going to see them tomorrow.

Sure. But you've also but on over 70000 miles on the car in that time. I'm pretty sure the op isn't going to be putting 60000+miles on it per year.

R.K.

lol very true! this is my daily but shouldn't be. I got it at est 65k miles in 08/11 and in 02/13 (18 months) I have 112k miles (so almost 50k miles).

Mine has 52K on the clock. Bought it with 42K 2 days after christmas. :nix:
I WANT TO KEEP IT!! But I need a warranty! Will try the options you gave, thanks.

Century through Costco said they do not cover the AMG models...

that is BRAND new, they called me on that also........they literally JUST started this March 1st...I had a quote from them from last month where they did. That sucks........Fidelity still does

Just wanted to ask if anyone knew if Fidelity still covered the CL65, found a rather nice one that I'd like to buy in the near future if I can but without a warranty...not so sure...

They covered my SL65 with 37-39k on the clock, I can't remember exactly, but it was 4 years/50k miles platinum plan for $3,900 2 years ago, and the engine mount alone got my pay back on it. In total I got over close to 4x pay back and I still have 17 month/20k miles to go. They covered everything that has happened even 2 ABC pumps and 3 Struts. But from what I seen the more mileage you have the more you end up paying.

I think someone who tried getting a CL65 who wanted to extend the existing warranty it at 55k in miles had to pay like 7k, he only paid 3k when he first got it with I think 30-40k mile coverage but never drove the car so only claimed 2k. If you do get a warranty drive the car daily weather permiting of course, and try to get the most bang for your buck otherwise if you don't drive it much your better off having a rainy day fund.

Thankfully the doom and gloom scenario with these cars hasn't been the case in my experience. My brother's 05 has needed barely $2k in work (that includes both ignition coils and ignition module) in almost 8 years of ownership. That's hardly a fortune and not even half of what a warranty would have cost him.

Even if the ABC system went totally wonky tomorrow, its repair would still be worth it. The car has maybe 40k miles on it; why think of ditching it when there's not really anything else comparable out there? You can go fast in a lot of cars but so few do it so effortlessly. That's why I've borrowed the car for a few days :D

If you can work on cars yourself you'll save quite a bit of money. If you pay dealer labor for everything it can get expensive even for the tiniest repairs or maintenance items.

Not sure how he got those parts with installation for $2k new? Just the parts themselves, from what I could find, with no installation runs over $3k You have someone install and you are easily looking at another $500+. Oh yeah, when you replace the coil packs you typically do the plugs while you are in there. There are 24 plugs that need to be replaced.

The cost of the above work can easily cost you $5k+ at a dealership. If you have a good indy, expect to pay $3.5k to $4k. Warranty on the CL will usually pay for itself in a short time with a coil pack or two and an ABC pump at the dealership. That's why most warranty providers won't cover the SL/CL/S with ABC or if AMG's.

You can get the coil packs, brand new and with the newest (improved) part number, from AutoZone for 750ish each (slightly different price for each coil for some reason) with a lifetime warranty. I never said with labor; if you own one of these cars you need either a healthy repair budget or to do most of the wrenching yourself simply because anything can cost a lot if you're paying $100+ an hour.

My brother and I aren't mechanics. We're in IT by trade but have built quite a few turbo cars in the past 20 years. Changing the coil packs was simple on this car. We skipped the plug change since it had only 38k miles at the time. It turned out the coil packs were ok and only the ignition module was bad but now we know it'll be in good shape when he gets an ECU/TCU tune :D

If the car does need an expensive repair one day, that's when he'll spend the money to fix it. There's no need to "pre-spend" the money on a warranty just to break even in the future. I suppose it made a difference that he got the car CPO with 18k miles on it. If someone is buying today there are a lot more unknowns about the car's history and upkeep over the past decade.

I always caution people about the low price of admission. You may get one of these for around $30k these days but you're still maintaining a $200k car and the parts cost will reflect that. That thought is foremost on my mind and I still look at the sub-$20k S600's on the AutoTrader from time to time!

I'm glad to hear the occasional voice of reason in these forums. I've had my own reasons to gripe, but its not all doom and gloom. Those that cling to warranties for dear life are the first to - erm - remark about how much they DIDN'T pay out on some expensive repair or another, and how the warranty repaid itself many times over.

If that's normal, then nobody would offer a warranty for these cars - why would they? There are probably many more people who DO have expensive warranties who have claimed very little (or who didn't have coverage for what failed).

I've owned five W220's, four with ABC, two biturbos, all high mileage and no warranty, and my biggest expense has been one coil pack (but then that car only cost £5700 three years ago!).

What other car offers so much capability and has LESS cost of ownership? Have you read the Porsche, BMW, Audi, Ferrari forums? They complain about expensive repairs just as much we do.

Nick

Good read and very indicative of my experience. http://www.edmunds.com/mercedes-benz...roduction.html

Yikes...what an experience!

I'm such a glutton for punishment that I keep coming in this forum hoping to even just read some not terrible experiences because I am so in love with the look of the car and all of its goodies (mainly a 600hp TT V12) that I am trying to Jedi mind trick myself into thinking I could get one that would be alright...yet horror stories seem to just abound sadly...

I can't help but wonder what it is about this specific model of MB go so wrong when other models from the same generation were so much more reliable...especially when this was the flagship...

It's a tragedy of Greek proportions...

The 600/65 engines are reliable. It's everything else that can be finicky.

never had a v12 benz but i always heard otherwise? besides the typical valve cover leaks and crankshaft sensor problems all these benzes seem to have, i recall hearing about a bunch of weird oil leaks on the v12's that can cause huge problems, not to mention coil packs etc etc