How much more life left on my car?
 

I have a 2005 clk320 cabriolet with 132k.
I’ve enjoyed it for the 5 years I’ve owned it. I have kept up on the maintenance but it does need a few things done. The rear main seal has a slight leak, there seems to be a slight fluctuation in the rpm, and a settle vibration. Also at high speeds on the freeway it makes a whirling noise from the engine. A friend of mine said the engine sounds “tired”. I keep up on oil changes. I’ve enjoyed not having any car payments which is great. It still looks amazing for the age. How much life can I still get out of this car? It’s got some sentimental value which is why it would be hard to sell it. I know it isn’t worth a whole lot of money but let’s say I keep putting money into it. Will it last for a long time?? Will it eventually crap out at a certain mileage?

Of course I can't say how much life you have in your car, but; I have 172K miles on a 2008 clk550. Yeah, stuff breaks and there are costs to repair it, but not as much as buying another. I too kinda have affe3ction for the car. I also use it as the test mule for an exhaust product and it thus speeds most of it's time in the 2000 RPM range. It burns oil when driven hard but it doesn't leak. If well maintained and driven reasonably, I don' see why the engine and majors couldn't make 250K miles.

Your rear main seal leak would be my only concern with your car. I don't have any idea what the cost to repair that would be.

If you love the car and it is otherwise a good shape, I would keep it and fix it as needed. I would much rather pay a mechanic $500 occasionally than pay that to a bank every month.

First engines do not sound tired as they do not nap.
They either run well or run poorly or do not run at all.

All depends on how much you are willing to spend to keep it on the road versus book value.
In theory you keep it on the road forever as long as parts available.

So if worth $1000 I would not spend $20,000 to keep it on the road unless you think in 10 years time the value will increase.

You have to decide...

But I would say you should easily be able to get 200K out of her with normal maintenance.

You can ignore rear main seal if you keep up with checking oil level and can live with stain in driveway.
If MB does normal service they tend to find things wrong and let you know as that is how they make the big bucks..

It all depends on how much money you want to spend on it. With a large enough budget, it could last "forever".

If you have had it for that amount of time then just be done with it. If God forbid something went on my W209 CLK Cabriolet like the top or something major I would be trading it in for something new. Find a E Cabriolet and move on.

As a more serious reply, our MY2002 C240 lasted for about 190K miles and was still going strong when the kid's boyfriend ran it off the road and into a tree. It had it's share of issue with broken plastics and such, but the engine and transmission were solid. She now has a 2010 ML350 with about 150K miles (we bought it with 120K). Other than damage she as inflicted upon it, it's a sold car. The only bad plastics so far have been that the little adjustment sliders on the HVAC vents have broken. I prefer driving it to my wife's 2017 Cadillac XT5.

They are great cars. I just sold my W203 2005 C240 with close to 300k miles for $2,500. Guy loved the color combo and rare options so he paid cash and that was that. The only issue with these CLK's is now that they are so cheap to buy people forget about the cost of ownership and upkeep so they tend to deteriorate. That is what happened to my 2004 before I brought it back to life. And when you buy that used you just never know what the heck the previous owner did.

Depends on what kind of person you are - if you like the new car smell, don't like working on cars and your bank account needs regular draining, keep buying new/newer cars. If you like working on cars and don't mind occasional repairs and the car is not rusty it will last almost forever. I have 185,000 miles on the same engine/transmission in another car (no engine or transmission work of any sort except regular mtc) and it still feels excellent.

Because it was a well kept car and it sounds like you take care of it. My 04 CLK Cab was a mess when I got it. Previous owner did not take care of it and I put more into it then what is was worth. Not everyone is like that however. I did lots of the work myself too. Lots of time, money and effort to make it 99% right. the M112 with the 5 speed is bulletproof but it needs to be taken care of. For what I bought my 04 CLK for and what I put into it I could of bought 2 used CLK55's or one nice E Cab. Like I said all it takes is one owner to ruin a perfectly good working car.