this poll is for a friend of mine and i am trying to help him out. i have been thinking about this as well. anyhow, my friend is 22 years old and wants to buy a new car. he is very interested with the m3 but is also VERY interested on the new upcomming audi rs4. now the rs4 being around the same price as a 05/06 m3 right now $55-$60,000 offers a larger engine, more hp and torque, and awd quattro. he is also interested in the 05 clk55 amg from mercedez benz. he is very confused on which to go with so i am making this poll to help him out. he lives in ny so he gets all 4 seasons and this car will be his everday car through rain, snow, and shine. my friend is not worried about the wait line or when he will be able to get it. he just wants to know which car he should stick with. any thoughts opinions would be nice as well. thanks guys.

 

i thought the rs4 was a lot more expensive than that. anyway, the current clk 55 amg is way overpriced. tell yo friend, the upcoming clk 550 next year, has more power 380hp and cost less than the clk 55amg

 

kinda silly having a poll like that in an AMG forum don't you think? Anyway, in 06 the BMW M3 will be a V8, the CLK55 in 07 will be totally updated with a new engine, and Audi RS4 is, well, pretty hot too.

 

the only car in his price range is the m3. there is the answer to his question.
the c55 is in his price range and the s4. clk55 is no longer in production and when it was the base price was 70000$ (might get a deal on a new 1 now). the rs4 is supposed to be somewhere in the high 70's low 80's, 70000$ for an a4 . audi is .
there is no point in getting an e46 m3 cause a new 1 w/ v8 power is coming soon.
i would spend 50k on an e39 m5 and spend the rest on moddin it.

 

ur name is amg4life and u dont own 1 amg car
i've got 3, wanna borrow 1? :p
e55
ml55
clk55
take ur pick















and then u woke up. :v

 

Hi AMG_55,

I think you maybe wrong about the CLK55 Coupe not being in production, that only seems to apply to the US. The CLK55 Cabrio is still available in the US, its just that CLK55 Coupe was not achieving the volumes they required and the Cabrio is.

Rumours have it that there was quite a few 2004 & 2005 CLK55 in the US not sold and the Cabrio was out selling the coupe.

I think that in 2008 when the new CLK63 comes out you will see the Coupe back, I cannot see MB putting the new motor in the old shape.

 

the RS4 is definately not in your friends price range, MSRP should be 65-70K for nothing in it. American RS4s also dont get the Gallardo steering wheel or the seats i dont believe. For 70K you better be damn sure im not wasting my money on an AUDI thats just gonna depreciate faster than the titantic sank. For that im getting a used E55/M5 Hell a new E55 loaded isnt that much more than the starting MSRP of the RS4.

If he can get the M3 CS, the E90 M3 is not due out for the US for atleast two more years. The Debut of the M3 should be this spring.

 

i dont know about worldwide, but it's not sold in the us anymore.
the convertible is still available. it makes sense, i see way more convertibles than coupes around.
they are putting the 5.5 engine (not amg) in the clk, rnt they?
to replace the clk500.
it would make sense b/c bmw just replaced the 645, its a 650 now.
2 years is still kinda long to just give up sales like that.
i dunno about the 55 though.
i heard that for now, the c55/slk55/clk55 engine is going to be updated to 408-415 hp. OR that the new 6.3 amg will be detuned to 425-450 and dropped into the c/slk/clk.

robertus, how do u like ur car after the mods?
r u done modifying it?

 

Hi AMG_55,

No, I have still more mods to do to it yet, its got to go on the Dyno for more tuning. They have sent the ECU firmware to germany and it is to be download back in next week.

We now have 100 octane in Australia and most of the ECU upgrades are tuned to 98 ron. We took the car to a company here that programs GT3 race cars etc. They downloaded the ECU software as we are pushing for 400Hp so they are tweaking it a little more. The thermal covers for the air intakes worked out well also.

I not sure whether MB will do much in regards to changes to the current CLK, what you said about that they may increase the motor size in the CLK500 would leave them no were to go with the CLK55 AMG. I cannot believe they would waist the new 6.3 on the current CLK shape anyway, this motor will appear in the other MB cars first before in shows up in a CLK.

Rumour has it that the ML & SL will get the 6.3 first, and that they may not be any SC's on this motor as it is not required.

With the M3 V8 coupe & cabrio coming in 2007 -2008 I think MB may have some interesting plans for the new CLk so to compete, the M3 V8 motor weighs less than the current M3 6 cylinder motor. It will be interesting to see how much the 6.3 motor actually weighs, things will get very interesting when you put up a M3 V8 against a new CLK63 AMG V8. This 63 motor is rumoured to be a light weight motor as well and if that is true then these two cars would then be going head to head, the only thing missing is that the CLK63 needs a SMG type gearbox.

I think this will be the telling thing, if the new shape CLK63 comes out and the HP & power to weigh ratio's are the same as the M3 V8, the factor will be in the choices of gearboxes. If you look at the age group buying CLK's in the US its getting younger and if both cars are V8 it makes the playing field that much more even.

I will be weighing up which of these two cars to buy in 2007-2008 as I think price wise they now will be a lot closer.

Interesting?

 

yeah, i agree w/ u.
it does make sense to update the 5.4 to 408 hp though.
amg needs to offer a stick on their cars, if they dont, im getting a porsche.

good luck w/ ur car. update me on how its doing.
hope u get that 400hp, itll be a real monster.