Yeah, now I am looking for a cheap C55... ;-)

 

Fellow 211 E55 Wagon owners:

I came to the conclusion that with MB not offering my anything for a trade, and given that this vehicle handles beautifully and still goes like hell, I would just upgrade some of the tech and not give it up after only 90k.

So last week the work was done; front & rear parking sensors, rear camera (COMAND display), bluetooth upgrading, Sirius installation, iPod/iPhone audio integration, a FULLY INTEGRATED Escort 9500ci (completely hidden radar/laser detector-jammer which has notifications that pop up on the speedo digital display) AND a FLIR (forward-looking infrared) camera for night vision (COMAND display).

Cost is about $13k CDN, might be a bit less in the USA without the cross border stuff.

Installation was seamless, and I'm delighted as hell. 200,000km here we come!

 

I bought my 2005 CLK55 Cabriolet for 15k. The original MSRP was over 90K with the options. I am a huge fan of "a lot of car for the money".

 

NADA clean retail on mine is only $5k less than I bought it for 4 years ago... And that does not take into consideration and of the upgrades I have.

And the 4 years I've owned it I've gotten about $20k worth of car out of it.

My 2nd AMG I've bought with this strategy: 3 years old, off lease from MB, bought at auction. Add an extended warranty. Win.

 

There is nothing financially intelligent about owning these vehicles. Consider it a luxury toy that will have a very large total capital and operating cost.

 

That's a little swayed though. In 08-09 and even a somewhat 2010 the Used Car Market was at record lows. Cars that were a year old in '09 were selling with (let's say) 10K miles at the exact same prices those same cars with 50K miles and now 4 years old were selling for in 2012 (I actually bought a car in '09 and did just that and sold it for the same price in 2011). The Used Market has been at record highs for a little over 2 years now.

 

Totally agree with you...but also believe that if you understand the typical AMG depreciation and you know what you want, you can play it to your advantage... Well...maybe not "advantage" but more so "less burnt".

 

All I know is that I haven't been able to sell my car even under book value and have been offered anything from 19K to as low as 16K for it. And the car is freaking BRAND NEW condition wise. I even know of some dealers here that won't even take the E55 as trade in regardless of price, they just don't want it.

 

I spent $4500 getting a MB 2 year/up to 100k mile warranty extension a year and a half ago. My car had 42k miles when I bought it and a bit more than 50k when I extended the warranty. I have 79k now.

Since purchasing the warranty, the dealer has billed out what I calculated to be $21k in parts and labor. That's the cost of the car. Rear main seal, fuel senders x2, charcoal filter, gas tank, airmatic strut and pump, MAF, some sensor [boost?] that required 12 hours in labor/supercharger removal, IC Pump... the list goes on. I have only paid for wheels and tires [oem wheels cracked repeatedly] and then regular maintenance - $700 for a transmission flush and D service? Certainly on-par with previous automobiles.

I still own the car and the warranty expires July 26th. I haven't decided whether an EasyCare warranty and a buddy's shop are good enough peace of mind to keep the car or not.

What remains to be said that is integral to the topic of this thread: this car, at its prices now, are very attractive to the "champagne tastes on a beer budget" buyer. The 30 year old in middle management with 2 young kids and 2 college funds to start was too risk averse to buy this car at $30-40k out of warranty, but now that the car costs about as much as a weistec...a different subset will be snatching them up.

 

I kinda like it just cause I just bout my 03 (really wanted 04 and up but the deal was too good) for 15k with 62k on the clock. Clean title.

 

The overwhelming majority of luxury car buyers in America can not, in fact, really afford them. They are strictly buying them to look richer than they are. And the truly rich, at least in the US, tend to buy more practical vehicles, dominantly Ford and Toyota. Wealthy people who do buy Mercedes tend to get a non-AMG E-series and keep it for a long time. The E-series are legendary in northern Europe where they are extremely popular as taxis, mostly diesels, reinforcing their practical nature.

 

I can actually agree with this for the most part. For example my uncle is the director of Microsoft stores, I have no idea how much he makes but he has been with them for 13 years and I am sure it is probably closer to $200k than 100k a year salary and he drives a Chevy Suburban that is like 5 years old and my aunt (his wife) drives a minivan that is around 10 years old.

A friend of mine and his wife who own a business make a few hundred thousand a year and while they do own a Porsche Carrera S they bought new in 2007 for $107,000, they still have it but barely drive it and drive a Dodge dually daily instead that is also many years old now, or an old beat up work truck and pretty much drive the Porsche if they are going to dinner or something like that for the most part.

Another friend who makes good money (avg about $25k/month between his business and his wife's job) drives an old work truck for the most part and his wife drives an old Suburban. He owns a several year old Viper he bought used for like $40k but never drives it.

I myself don't make even close to that kind of money, but was certainly not buying the E55 for a status symbol, I am strictly looking for the performance it brought with more reliability than my other car (Audi A4 that has to much power for some of its parts). I owned 2 Japanese cars that don't have nice interiors and once I got the Audi it was tough to go to something with a "cheap" interior so I had to stick with something German which tend to have nicer interiors and the E55 offered the performance I was looking for with far more reliability making 500whp daily.

I can say that I believe in big cities that a lot of people are stretching way over what they can truely afford for "status" though. Such as in the Miami, Florida area where it seems everyone has a brand new $50k+ Audi, Mercedes, BMW leased along with their flashy clothes and $400 sunglasses with their $40k a year job and $20k in credit card debt, but they look like they have a million bucks.

 

I'm right there with you in terms of buying this car NOT for the status symbol. With a $30k car budget... how many other cars can you get with this kind of performance? You could get a brand new 370z, G37, etc. or you could get a used E55 that blows all of them away.

It never makes sense (to me, at least) when I see people shelling out $30k for cars that are just mainly "point A to point B" cars for people. If you need a car just to go from "point A to point B", why not just pick up a 5-6 year old civic for around $5k!

 

used diff for around $400

Sorry but if you guys quit going to the dealer for every stupid thing than it would make them compete some. Find a good local garage that works for half. The reason the dealer wants 1400 for spark plugs is because of the jackass's out there who are paying it. save a bunch by buying used parts outside of your warranties.

 

I agree 700000%

 

This question has been brought up many times and i have discussed this on the off topic section. Very important you pay attention to the following:

Back in the day which is not obvious now.

• Mercedes held their value
• They were bulletproof vehicles
• People were proud to own them
• Salesman knew every option on the car and knew their customers personally
• Techs knew what they were doing
• Was a status symbol

Then BMW starting selling more in their biggest market, the USA. BMWs advantage was that they had a finance dept already in place. Mercedes wasn't able to compete with the finance terms BMW had in place at the time. BMW has always traditionally sold more cars than MB in USA by about 33%. To get with the times Mercedes needed a partner with a solid finance department. That partner was Chrysler.

To merge with Chrysler meant that they had to get capital, that involved shopping out traditional suppliers for parts, using cheaper parts etc....

So flash forward to today where MB is selling close to 300K vehicles a year as of this year and now on common ground with BMW. Thirteen years ago.......MB sold 70K vehicles a year. So if you put three times the amount of a product than what you once had, don't you think it would depreciate faster? I mena how many 6 figure cars can you sell in one year? The masses of german cars being produced not just in germany, but usa, mexico, and even brazil are hurting our resale value. If Rolex tripled production of the submariner or the date-just, do you think they would still hold their value? All german cars with the exception of Porsche seem to depreciate rapidly fast. And even Porsches after 964 depreciate rather quickly. the Cayenne accounts for almost half its sales in the US. I hope it stays niche market as i have my eye on a Cayenne GTS. Porsches sales are about 30K a year in the USA. About a 10th of the MB Sales

So it comes as no surprise that even AMGs depreciate rather quickly
My 2004 C32 was only one of 218 made that year. They must make over 4000 C63s a year for the us now. Even there's a AMG model for the R Class

And don't get my started on the sales personnel at a typical MB Dealership. They are effin' douche bags and are prob better selling Chevrolets. And the reason for that is MB lost its identity with its core crowd and is concentrating on the masses which is the typical condo loving Miamian as David pointed out.

 

Well said moosejaw, it is the dealerships hurting MB, the sales people and the brutal repair service/costs. MB has their reliability together now so it may take a while to increase value.

I bought this car for the performance, not the status and it is tough to beat! A great car with low maint costs when you DIY and use an Indy shop. Plus one of the fastest 4 doors on the market at an unbelievable great price.

 

I still believe these carsvare one of the best deals going for someone that can do most repairs at home and wants a very fast luxurious car for a good price. A few parts are still expensive but its a benz, that's gonna happen. Also used stuff is floating around these boards all the time.

If you have to pay someone to fix your cars or rely on warranty these things are not for you, or won't be after your warranty is up.

A whole lot of 55's are gonna go into disrepair and the prices will drop even further shortly as many buyers that don't understand what they're getting into get in jams. I say another 3-4 years and these things will be had for 5-8 grand needing work all day long.

 

Yeah it seems these cars are about where the E36 M3 was in the mid 2000's. I bought my M3 in 2005 for 16k (average going price)... now they can be had all day long in the 6-9k range but they are beat and in need of tons of basic maintenance...

 

There's a 2012 bi-turbo with only 6k miles on it going for $72 on autotrader right now. I bet it can be taken home for 68/69. I'm a fan of the insane depreciation as I want one of these bi-turbos but not for anywhere near 70 grand. Lol

Also there seems to be a crap ton of wagons listed which is kinda weird. Are they pushing wagons a lot more then back in the 55K days?

 

I Dont mind them getting cheaper, want my next car to be 09, 2010 or 11 CLS63, hope they can drop to price mark around 40 large in two-three years

Girls dont know car prices but they do know it a Mercedes

 

it would be depressing if i bought it brand new, but since i bought it at the depreciated price, not soo much. luckily the person i bought it from really took care of it and kept great records.

 

Anybody else's cars go up the last KBB update? Mine actually appreciated 2%?? Not sure what that means, but I thought it was odd??

 

LMAO I assure you it's not appreciating in value.

 

I know but that's what KBB sent me. I signed up for the notification of change in value. The last 3 all were a 3% decrease and they sent me one 2 days ago that said 2% increase. In the end it's just KBB and doesn't really mean anything but still I'd like to contact them and see why??