2004 CLK500 Cabrio vs CLK55 Cabrio
 

Decisions, decisions....

These two are available in my area. I've been looking for a convertible with some muscle and have been actively looking for an Audi S5 Cabrio but stumbled across these two cars.

2004 CLK55 AMG with 88K, asking $11.9K

2004 CLK500 with 46K asking $11.5K

I'm leaning toward the CLK500 because of mileage and color combo. What else should I be considering between these two vehicles? Cost to maintain etc.?

Thanks

Personally, I'd go with the AMG. Performance would be more important to me than color. Also, a black interior looks nice until you park it out in the sun with the top down! The difference in mileage does not bother me on these cars. The age in years is going to be more important in terms of degraded rubber seals and hoses and the soft top - check the seam running across the top, ahead of the rear window, for any signs of separation. Check the hydraulic top fluid reservoir to make sure it's no low which could mean leaking cylinders.

+1!

AMG. Because on the used market they are about the same price anyways.

I guess I bucked the trend.

When I bought my 2005 CLK500 cabriolet in March there was a 2004 CLK55 for sale near me for around the same $ with similar mileage etc.

I did some research, and took 1 look at the ~$1000 front brake replacement on the AMG car and figured I was not looking for THAT much performance. They seem like lovely cars, and none of these older MB's are cheap to maintain, but for me it was the increased maintenance cost vs performance that drove me to the plain jane CLK.

That was a issue back in those days with MB. The N/A AMG versions were not that much faster then the 500 or 600 level cars. Unless you had a 55 Kompressor engine and I still think to this day MB missed the boat by not offering that in the C55 or CLK55.

Yeah, the NA 5.5 AMG engine is a nice V8, but nothing extraordinary. I think the only reason they did not use the supercharged version in the C, CLK and SLK is that it would have made them faster then their sibling competitors, the E and SL. Of course MBZ finally came around and realized a C-Class coupe that outperforms an E-Class or even SL is just fine.