i totally agree. I owned a CL55 for 10 years. The best car I ever owned. Personally I like the 55 over the 65 because I like the instant gratification of the supercharger. But both are awesome cars. However, maintenance is the key. If the car is not maintained it can eat you alive.

Here you have an extremely low mileage car. So the first question, is that real. If it is then you could have a car that was maybe stored for a long time and that is bad. My 55 was an 05 and had 100k on it and that was considered low mileage.

So you should get a PPI done and check out the service history. If there is anything wrong then run because that means the owner didn’t maintain it and, as I said, at this age the key is maintenance, not mileage.

If it all checks out then buy it, as it is a very unique car. Also I am into handling and this car with the ABC system is awesome. Really no big coupe on the road today for under $200K that handles as well. If you buy it I can give you some pointers that are very inexpensive and make it handle like a Ferrari while still maintaining the great ride.

Good luck

That’s great and I do hope it works out for you.

The only thing I would say is I am never crazy about Mercedes-Benz dealers doing PPI’s. They will tell you there’s a zillion things wrong with it because they want to fix it at outrageous rates. So I have always steered to Independents to do my PPI’s.

I noticed that you are in Los Angeles. It’s a little ways from you but I could highly recommend the mechanic that took care of my CL 55 for 10 years. He’s independent but his guys are factory trained Benz technicians and they only do Benz’s ( so not a one size fits all mechanic). He did a wonderful job maintaining my car and did what was needed but never more and was very rational about the whole car. He also knew the CL55 very well and all the potential issues and watched for them.

Even if he’s too far away for you, you might want to give him a call because he’s very honest and reputable and he could probably give you a good referral. His contacts are:

Five Star AutoCare
(Jerry and Tony)
(949) 548-6152
925 W 16th St, Newport Beach, CA 92663

It will take me some time to write up all the nuances of it (including all of the technical specs) and I am not sure this is the right place for that since the topic is the OP’s purchase decision. I have also discussed pieces of this in prior threads, so perhaps what I should do is to create a new thread dedicated to the topic and put all the pieces together. Maybe if I have time this weekend.

Overall the only real “cost” is lowering links ($100) and new wheels (with significantly different offsets) and tires. It is then just making suspension adjustments including changing the front scrub radius. It is actually fairly easy to do and the time involved was mostly the trial and error that I went through to get the finished product.

The key is to understanding the potential of this car and then building on it. For a point of reference, here is a link to an old Car and Driver article that compares a CL Mercedes, a Ferrari, an Aston Martin and a Bentley back in 2005.
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...mparison-tests

So Car and Driver recognized the CL as a world class GT car and in commenting on the ABC system they said: "Then there's the semiactive hydraulic suspension. It's a system of sensors and computer-controlled hydraulic rams and shocks at all four corners. It can instantly adjust from cushy soft for soaking up bumps to sports-car stiff to reduce body lean in corners. It's not perfect--some abrupt freeway impacts send jitters through the body--but in general, it works fantastically. The CL digs into corners with a surprising amount of bite and enthusiasm. One tester wrote, "Wow, very impressive in the turns, feels almost as agile and frisky as the Ferrari."

I owned my CL when I first read that article and found it inspiring and actually went out and bought the Ferrari used in the article (I thought it was neat to own at the same time the top 2 GT cars in the world based on that article—don’t worry I bought them both used and each for about 1/3rd of the original sticker, so not rolling in the dough here). I then did my own little comparison test as it were. I found that while the CL did handle well from a technical standpoint, it was “soft” and did not have the “tight” handling feel of the Ferrari. So like Steve Austin, I thought I could “make her better”. I worked with my mechanic and over the years I experimented with wheels and tires and minor suspension adjustments and ended up with a CL that handled every bit as well as my Ferrari in the corners and had that “tight, on the rails” feeling of the Ferrari but still had the overall ride and comfort of the factory CL. When I was finished I actually thought the overall ride and handling of the CL was better than the Ferrari.

The key is there were no physical changes to the car, just relatively low cost bolt on things and adjustments. So anybody can do it if they want to.

In my humble opinion my CL55 was the best car I have ever owned when you factor all together acceleration, ride, handling, comfort, looks and reliability. Unfortunately I no longer own it and I do miss it.

So back to the OP’s original question, if the car checks out, you should buy it!

Sorry for the delay. I finally got around to pulling all the information together. I posted it as a new thread in the general CL W215 site since it has general application to all CLs. Hopefully you will find it useful. It is under the thread “CL Handling Project”.

Good luck!