I recently purchased a 2010 C63 (last week of June), right before the $5k "trunk money" was offered. Before buying it I had never driven or even considered a 63 engined car...mainly because I had never seen (or heard) one except for a elderly couple in a S63. After a month and a half I am completely in love with AMG's drivetrain. I was a die-hard BMW loyalist that had become jaded with BMW M of today (X5 M?, X6 M?, boring/too-plush M3??!?). I still own a '02 M3 and '88 M3, a blast to drive. AMG seems to be moving into the niche BMW appears to be vacating.

The C63 floored me with its power, feel, sound, etc. So much so that I did what I never thought I would do, which was buy a non-CPO niche car. The 2008 M3 I traded had 5k equity after a year thanks to the $12k discount they had trying to get rid of it to make way for the '09s.

Now for the dilemma. I have found a CPO Black Series with ipod, hard-wired iphone charger, "normal" performace street tires instead of R-compound for a mid-80's price. And I am ~$15k upside down on the C63. I had a chance to test drive the Black Series and its even more what I was looking for in terms of the hardcore "feel" of the older M cars, even more so.

The "twisted" logic I'm trying to convince myself of is that if I swallow $10k in depreciation now, I will be upside down on the Black Series for about 5-6 months, whereas (based on trade-in values of '09 C63s) it will take 22-24 months to be right-side-up on the C63. And in two years, a CLK63 Black will have held its value a lot more than the C63. The worst part is that the $5k dealer incentive on 2010 C63's means the trade-in took a $5k hit as well. And with the coming C63 coupe (if M3 Sedan:Coupe sales ratios are any indication) the value of the Sedan will tank even more.

Any thoughts on this? My insurance only goes up a couple hundred, so that's not really an issue.

 

I love my BS, but it is never going to be an investment. I think you would need to see the cash difference to be of no consequence for this decision to work for you.AS

 

Yeah, leaning towards just overpaying on the C63 over a year and picking up a CPO'd Black next year.

 

Very well said...and remember, for your situation to work you have to keep the BS a long time. Pretty much what all the owners on here plan to do. It's that good and I'll never sell mine. Every person that gets into mine is like, "what the hell did you do to this Meredes?!?!?!?".
/lol

 

Its the first car I've driven since my '02 M3 (which I've had for close to 9 years) that I haven't thought "if I got this I would trade it for something else in a year or two." As opposed to the 2008 M3 which I knew almost from the get-go that I would be trading it in a year or two, especially with the money I saved on it with the discount. I had equity in that car after a month's payment. I can see myself keeping the C63 until the eventual C63 Black that's rumored, but I doubt will be better than the CLK Black...since there's no way they could charge more than $100k for a C-class Black, so they'd have to cut corners they didn't with the CLK.

 

Foolish to do what you are considering...unless you have money to burn...
You're financially committed to your C63 until you have some equity through your note pay down.
That's the time to look for a change of cars...

 

IMHO take the plunge and plan to keep the BS for a long time. As more and more owners begin to hold their cars it will keep the resale price up a little because of supply and demand. I'm still upside down after trading my 05 E55 but thats ok because like most others on this board I'm going to keep my BS for a very long time. If you buy a BS now that is relatively new you know what you're getting. Several years from now that may be different because of 2-3 previous owners etc.