rney

I've been sitting tight trying to find a 2012-2014 White CLS550 and this one caught my eye today.

2012 CLS550

Has the interior colors I like along with the sport steering wheel. The wheels are OK but I'll change them out.

What do you guys think? I'm in AZ but would fly to LA then drive it back. Anything I should look for? Carfax looks clean and has low miles for 2012.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

pare5

Links not working , but in general the m278 engine is very underrated power wise. The only things to look out for are the timing chain, tensioers and check values and make sure at the MINIMUM the tensioers and check valves are done. Listen for excessive rattling on cold start up and I advice you to get a warranty. With all that being said, snag one of these before all the V8's are ancient in the non AMG lineup.

rney

sorry about the link...should be working now. Thanks for the advice.

sparacing

Not much to go on within the ad, but the price is reasonable based on NADA values. You might shop around to see if you can get a better deal, but that one is in your backyard and if you dig it...then there you go. If you love the car, and it has a clean carfax, I see no reason not to do it. The attraction to a car is an intangible that increases or decreases the perceived value. I've owned 2 CLS' and loved them both.

Other than that....pare5 hit it on the head. The 278 is fantastic...just follow his/her recommendations about checking the timing chain, tensioners and valves.


As a side note....they also have a CLS63 for about 10k more. Yeah it has more miles (45k)...but it's a bigger starting point (depending on what you want to ultimately do). A 550 with a tune will have as much HP as a 63, but a 63 with a tune will get you over 650HP alone.

That being said... I've never bought a 63, so I have no room to talk

johnballard

Hey, I'm headed out on a 5 hour drive to look at two CLS'. I wonder what I need to check for and I read this thread. When I'm buying a used car, how do I check the timing chain, tensioners and valves? Would I need to get the car into a shop before I buy, or is this something I can get done soon after I get it home?

Clearly I'm going to listen how it starts and runs, but are there some simple tests I can do - like a compression test?

Are there other things to note? I think there will be quite a few water damaged cars showing up soon, casualties from Harvey and Irma...

pbaylog

Not sure you've considered it, but a forum member recently had his 507 Black wheels - with tires, for sale at a super price. I'm sure it's still listed - this was only a couple weeks ago. In my opinion, those are way nicer.