turbo97se

E55 if you intend you make mods for power. With the cost delta between an E55 and E63, I agree with whomever said you can upgrade the cosmetics.

Major ones (If DIY) would be
1. Bumper and headlights <$2000 (Gary's bumper, used lights)
2. Door mirrors - ~$500 for folding (used and re-painted)
3. Pulley, tune, headers, cooling ~$2.5K?

I like the cluster and stop/go shifter from 07-08 also. I have a custom shifter. No idea what cluster costs.

E63 if you do not want to mess with any of this.

p30amg08

This man put it PERFECTLY

Bigtickets

Just food for thought. About 8 months ago my e55k was starting to get close to 100k miles and I thought about upgrading to a newer e63. After talking with Kevin Ingold at MB of Buckhead, Karl Troy of European Road and Racing (my local go to guy here) etc. etc., everybody seemed to be of the opinion to keep the e55k. Call them and ask them what they think. Im sure they would all give thier honest opinions.

Either way, they are both awesome cars.

The AMG engines are all handbuilt one at a time by one particular engineer at the factory. Thought being that you get a better quality build. Search this forum and you will see.

adl320

E55. My opinion is find any 04+ MY that is well sorted. Mileage is a secondary priority depending on how well sorted the car is. I've heard the argument that it may be better to find a well-maintained higher mileage car than one with lower mileage that hasn't had things like fuel sending units, airmatic, valve covers, SC, and other bits fail/fixed or replaced. I have a very solid '05 C55 but would run to an E55 when I can find the "right" one for me.

vsix

Handsdown...E55.
I dont want to reveal to much...focus on the E55 MY 08.
Way to go.

asaavedra78

So E55, and the '08 model in your opinion is the best? Has most of the 'kinks' worked out...?

06cls55amg

my 06 cls 55 ( suppose to be the same chassis and drive train IIRC as e55) does a smokey burnout all the time with esp disengaged ( not dyno) spins 1st 2nd all the time. are we refereeing to doing a standing burn out?

fila0220

everyone pretty much nailed it. E55 for modding. E63 for bone stock.
I pretty much chose the e63 for its exhaust, facelift, its linear power band, and did i say exhaust? But the TT M157 engines are monsters.

Bigtickets

Asaavedra78 Have you made up your mind yet???

asaavedra78

'06 E55.

I won't buy it modified, because most likely (I assume...because I would) they beat the **** out of it once they modify the car. Slowly I can do the upgrades I want, when I want... and I'll approximately save $7-10K instead of getting an '08 or newer.

Patiently looking for a silver one here in Los Angeles with one old-man owner hopefully, low miles. I'll post pics when in it's in the garage! Very excited to join the AMG club.

Bigtickets

Ah yes...welcome to the club. With the silver you can make it a super sleeper. Hollywood Hills are fun as hell. When you find what you want, ask questions here and you won't go wrong.

211.070

You may have to expand your search radius to find what you want, but when you find it. Jump on it fast. Have you driven either of the models yet?

c32_amg

I was in the same situation a year ago, I went with the E63 as I've got no time to mess about doing lots of mods. Plus the E63 sounded amazing looked better felt better to drive and it ticked all the boxes.

Next is the 2013 E63tt love it, I need one in my life.

f8l ws6

Can't beat the E55. I thought I was going to get carried way modding but i've been pretty happy with the basically stock performance.

Critter

Kind of partial to the 07 E63, no heat soak, runs hard straight out of the box. Owners of the 63 with the weistec supercharger would never trade down to the 55. Apples to apples.

G_Money

Yeah the Weistec rig is great... If you want to drop over half the price of the car into it that you will NEVER see back. For those that can, it's ****ing sick, I'd love to have a blown 6.2L, but for the rest of us it's a bit out of reach.

f8l ws6

Owners of a 63 with a Weistec probably have way more coin invested too. Lets figure on the Weistec alone, their best kit, runs 15780. Then you have the premium of the 63 over the 55 to add to that, so to be fair figure 20k(I'm sure would be higher) over a stock 55. And the power figures are 769/667 with more on the table. The most recent attempt at a twin turbo 55 was running 9k - 10k for the turbo kit + tune and laid down 700/750 with more on the table.

No disrespect on the 63. Incredible motor and would always make more power than a 55 could but it depends on your budget and goals as always.

Critter

Just trying to compare equal motor specs, it is not fair to judge a supercharged engine to a N/A. But both in stock form is there really that much difference, it is only when the 55 is equipped with performance additions that there becomes a separation. So to be equal you would have to compare both if they were supercharged, a N/A 55 in stock form would be lucky to pass a 6cyl mustang or Charger on the highway. So cut the belt off your 55 and lets go to the track. But at the end of the day be proud to own either Benz in the AMG form as they did not produce 100,000 of them.

Critter

And yes the Weistec unit is out of my reach also.

f8l ws6

Hey wait a minute! I'll cut the belt.....and you remove a valve.

All that nonsense aside, I want a CLK63 Black Series so bad.

Critter

You will have to wait on the dropped valve, it's not time yet apparently
Good Luck on the Black Series.