I'm looking for a larger, more comfortable daily beater to replace my tons-of-fun C55. It will be my primary driver but I have multiple vehicles.

I drive 60 miles a day during my commute. 35 miles of that is on the highway between 65 and 80 mph. It's rare for me to be caught in stop and go stuff other than the initial 2 miles on my way home. To give you a better idea what it's like, the average C55 driver gets around 18 mpg. I average 20 in my daily despite the occasional bout of.... enthusiasm. It'll top out at 22 on a road trip. All this means I look a bit more at the highway mpg than I do at the city stats.

Seeing that it's going to be a beater that will see plenty of miles, I'd like to keep the price below 24k but still get all the toys. Nightview Assist, Distronic, rear seat package, and everything short of Pano and rear DVDs would be on my preferred car. That would make road trips with friends and family much nicer. Pano isn't a deal breaker but I'd prefer a car without it.

Also, owing to those far too frequent outbursts of enthusiasm behind the wheel I'm more at home with a car that has some power behind it. That means the M642 and M273 cars are straight out of consideration.

I've thought about M156 cars but they're not that impressive and a tune won't get you more than 30 hp and the torque is still lacking. Add on the AMG tax (cost of brakes, etc) and they lose a bit of their shine.

M278 cars aren't too bad, owing to the turbo torque. A tune on those will put the car up to tuned M156 hp levels but give you a mountain more torque. Highway mpg is pretty stinkin good, too. Then you've got the oil in harness issues and turbo coolant lines that die when touched. Airmatic is a bit floaty for my liking. The cars are nice but maybe a bit too sedate for the inner me.

M157 cars are really nice and can be tuned to more than 600hp. That's fun! Highway mpg isn't too painful, either. You still need to consider oil in harness, ABC, and general AMG tax. They're pretty tough to find in that price range.The exhaust note alone is nearly worth the price of admission.

M275s can easily be found in that range but you get into the V12 issues. Luckily, coil packs can frequently be repaired but turbo oil/water leaks require dropping the engine. ABC is beautiful but might bite. MPG is better than the M156 cars despite bucket loads more torque and just as much hp. The smooth nature of the beasts is truly intoxicating to a gear head like me. The 722.6 transmission is nearly bulletproof but rather lazy. These cars usually come with all the desired toys.

M279 cars are still well out of this price range.

About me: I'm a touch larger than average (6' 230 lbs), late 40s, not afraid to get my hands dirty, a car guy through and through, and I've sold Mercedes parts for 15 years. Yes, I deal with these cars for a living but I don't play with client owned cars. My job will take a significant sting out of S-class ownership.

So, as owners and drivers of these cars, which one do you folks think wold fit me best?

 

S-65. /thread. S-65 will have lived every night of it's life in a garage and only ever been to the dealer for that double edged sword.

'08 and newer for the diamond stitched hides.

12 and newer for facelift and assorted sundries that are more up to date. Like having a real cell phone talk to the car.

Most of them have already had coil packs done by now. Replacements are said to be improved. They had just been done in my car before I purchased it.

Stuff happens. More gee gaws is more babysitting. Front suspension arms fail for a squeak sooner then seemly. Worth it for me.

Sooooo much more to life then good gas mileage. That said I see over 20 mpg when I can set cruise at 100 and leave it there. I have seen 5.5mpg due to savagery. $$$ burned for fun. Worth it!

You have an 'in' for real parts. Do it. Life is short. Drive an amazing car.

 

You are an evil man.


I stumbled across three of those this past weekend. One was a total roach. Sadly, it had been badly abused to the point where the ruptured air bladders were poking through the tattered seat cover. Several features were totally dead.
The next one up had a huge stack of service receipts, including the nasty ABC high pressure line and coil packs. Sadly, it, too, had several dysfunctional including both rear door window switch groups. Rather odd, that. There were ants crawling throughout the car as well. Again, a bit unexpected. Occasionally, the screen would go black except for the lower menu bar.
The best condition car had 340,000+ miles on it but I only checked it out to see how it had aged. The car was in the best shape but the check engine light was on. Rev it up to 3,000 rpm, let off, and feel it shudder and stumble. Yep! Coil pack issues.

I did find an '07 S600 that I really like but it isn't the modernized facelift car I want. I think it may have a dead intercooler pump because it ran and drove beautifully but didn't have the pep that I've found in other V12 cars. The Distronic was dead, too. Despite all this, it keeps coming back to mind.

I'm in no hurry so there's plenty of time to look.

 

I speak truth. You know this.

5.5 liter bent-12 in S-600 makes 510hp/660lbft. Yup. Sluggish. Lol!

AMG Crack. First hit is free!