XxDesmoxX

I'm considering a E55 and wanted to know what other cars people cross shopped?

A car with same or better reliability / performance / price etc...

Thx

RevisionCuda

E39 M5.

XxDesmoxX

Not a fan of BMW's. Too fragile and built to last 130k miles; after which they begin falling apart. And the Tq is way lower at 384 vs 516 of the W211.

Cadillac CTSV?

Sulaco

cls55

M5 LOL

Nothing. Wanted an E55 since the day they where released. To me, there is nothing like the W211 E55, its one of the best AMG cars they've ever made.

black06c230

Yes this right here!!

RevisionCuda

well the w211 has a super charger , while the e39 m5 is NA.

apple to oranges

there's problems with every single car , w211 has SBC , airmatic issues.

e39 M5 engine is solid and it comes in manual only which is truely a remarkable thing.

I've had both cars , still take the M5 over e55 and at the same time

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drothgeb

After recently browsing the markets due to getting lazy about a second motor swap (the motor failures are my fault, no fault on the E55 haha), I came to the conclusion there is simply no other car that comes even close in bang for your buck for a 4dr daily drivable muscle car.... And in my opinion the E55 is more a muscle car than any other genre.

XxDesmoxX

They're getting so expensive though!

A few years ago a nice one could have been had for 15k, now I see them regularly at $20k plus (even with 100k+ miles).

As an aside, would you rather buy an all stock one or buy one with mods. At this point, finding one without mods is pretty difficult.

drothgeb

Ahhh, that's a fair point. I got mine for 10k like 5 or 6 years ago. Personally I would stick to stock or lightly modded nothing much more than a not very aggressive pulley and a tune.

MJBelcher500

I bought mine about a year and a half ago for $12k with 128k miles. Extremely clean (California car) and full service records from new. All options except pano roof and Distronic. It seemed like a lot at the time, but in hindsight it was a great deal. There is no way I could buy it for the same price now.

ArmoE55

I owned an E39 M5 - 2000 in Avus Blue. One of the most raw cars I've owned and I miss it every day. The mint condition, low mileage ones are fetching high $ nowadays and for good reason. It was a the perfect balance of power, luxury, and rawness - everything I look for in cars I own. And for being NA, it was perfect. Quite frankly, the E39 M5 and E55 are a lot alike, especially in the rawness factor but differences in power obviously.

I'm on my third E55 and regret selling the first two - as someone above mentioned, it was during the pinnacle of AMG engineering. I feel the newer cars are just after numbers and selling inventory - the driver factor is just gone, not my cup of tea. Driver factor and response/enjoyment is the #1, I'm not chasing numbers or records anymore.

Best of luck

Stock77

I was daily driving an e39 540, but it is getting long in the tooth. I like that car as a daily but I didn't consider an M5 as a replacement. It seems wrong to drive a nice one like that and they are getting harder to come by anyways. My E55 found me, 69K low option, all the receipts, etc. I had also looked at 63s (C and E) and mostly 996s. Yes, I know that's not really same thing. Just the kinds of cars I was looking at generally. I also looked at a few ISF's and other older analog type stuff... Hey M5 LOL, if you see this, I am located just across the bridge from you...

SonicDethmonkey

I just got my ‘05 earlier this week after a two year search for the “right” one (yes I’m very picky lol). My cross-shopping moments were fleeting but I did consider the CTS-V and the Chevy SS sedan for a bit. If I was to make this a dual-purpose track/street car I would have gone with the SS but I’m doing less track driving these days and I’ve been yearning for one of these cars for a long time. I wouldn’t say the E55 is the flat out best RWD sport sedan but it has a very unique feel and there really isn’t anything else that has the same character. It also has just the right amount of old-school feel but is still modern enough to daily drive without feeling like a dinosaur.

M5 LOL

Hey bro! Nice to have another south sound E55 guy around.

M5 LOL

The E55 just does things better. Ive spent a lot of time around E39 M5s, truly fantastic machine. The E55 is more comfortable, roomy and better built. The M5 out handles it zero doubt, but for what a car (at least for me) spends most of it time the E55 is far better. The CTSv is a plastic rattle trap(Im not a GM fan). Quick for sure, looks good and monster aftermarket support. Its a newer platform so that is to be expected. The CTS is also far more expensive on average as well.

im such a homer I prefer the W211 to the 212 and 213 too. Sure they can be faster but, the E55 is the original article. These cars literally all exist because of the E55.

Stock77

I would tend to agree. I can drive a non-M E39 back to back with the E55. The seller told me that he felt like the E55 might be the best daily driver in this category. The things I noticed right away was that the E39 540 has better initial brake feel and initial turn-in. (Disclaimer my e39 has a shock and spring combo so not stock) Overall grip isn't really better. Then beyond those two things, the E55 is better. I figure that some of the difference is the e39 is an early 90s design sold in the late 90s early 2000s. The e55 is a later 90s design sold in the early 2000s. Despite the overall opinion that Mercedes quality was down in this general era, I think my 05 e55 was very well built and designed. I was lucky to find a lower mile/ low option example with a fantastic maintenance history, so that helps.

Obviously, if you just want to go fast, there are other options. If you want no maintenance luxury you can go LS430. But somewhere in the sweet spot of daily use, good looks, highway puller, etc. the E55 is pretty cool...

kevm14

This is right. There are a number of vehicles that sort of theoretically compete with the E55 as far as my used car dollars are concerned and I'll quickly summarize:
- STS-V. I had an STS and liked it. I test drove a V and also liked it. Might have ended up with it if it didn't have some sketchy rust and rust repair in the rear. That was a super low mile car so something odd happened to it. Nice driving car, but not as fast nor as much torque as the E55. Also they aren't any cheaper so not sure the business case was there. Better brake feel for sure. Also better steering.

- CTS-V2. I had a first gen CTS-V. Contrary to one post, these are NOT rattle traps. The Sigma/Sigma 2 chassis is very rigid. The V2 seems like a superior car to the E55 (similar thrust, better chassis) but is also more expensive. If they were the same price, I'd pick the V2. But they aren't the same price.

- Chevy SS. Never drove it, somehow. This is theoretically a perfect daily driver, at least not in the snow. N/A, bulletproof drivetrain. Enough comfort/toys. These are also worth a lot and while these are a bit quicker than the STS-V, they are really not going to touch the E55, even a stock E55. But for daily driving these are really good cars. Performance/$ isn't optimal but there's also a reason they are worth so much.

As you can see I was a GM guy but the E55 won me over for sure. Unfortunately mine is totaled at the moment.

Sulaco

Glad to hear someone mention the gen 1 CTS V isn't a box of crap. I always loved those.

C_Note

If the CTS-V2 was the same price as my E55 I would have bought 2! I paid 10k for mine 2 years ago with 96k miles. The rear passenger shock went out within 6 months so let’s call it 12.5k with the coilovers installed.

i think the Chevy SS would need fbo to feel like a stock E55. Or boost it and turn it into a 4door rocket

Slow AMG

I was personally considering E90 335d (diesel), as they make STUPID amounts of torque with minimal mods and awesome turbo noises with "ABC deletes" done. Cheap to buy too..

remix405

When I was looking for a new weekend car about 3 years ago I didn't really have any restrictions other than all I knew was I had a budget of 20k

so I looked at all the cars I wanted when I was in high school which was in the mid to late 2000s

I looked at terminator cobras, evo 9, e39 m5, ctsv, gt500 and e46 m3.

all the American cars were fast but they just felt really cheap to me from build quality standpoint coming from previously owning several european cars. I could not find a decent evo that had not been clapped out for good price, I did find a e39 m5 in Interlargos blue low miles tons of service records but sold before I got a chance to go see it. Then I also found a e46 m3 in Interlargos blue 6spd m cloth interior slick top with 70k miles for 25k but the seller wouldn't come down on his price at all so I passed on it.

I had just about given up when I looked up what mercedes offered during this time period and discovered the e55. I couldn't believe mercedes offered a 469hp sedan in 2003 so I began to look for one at that time I couldn't believe they were only 8-12k at the time I was looking. I read up on this forum all the issues to look out for etc. so I found one with 126k miles maintenance record since new and alot of recent maintenance done listed for 11k. I immediately went to look at it and bought it. Been pretty happy but do think about selling it sometimes to try something else.

CamanoE55

I have a friend who had the diesel BMW. He, too, loved that car for all of its torque, but after so many visits to the shop for the oil coking, and the like, he bailed on it. Just throwing out what I saw him experience.

An E39 at this point in its life will be in serious need of care. Like the MB's, the plastics of these era vehicles does not age well (its 20 years old, for goodness sake), and I've seen many pieces crumble at the lightest of touch. Not a huge deal if your talking about some small bracket, but if it hits the coolant reservoir, that's a different issue.

Hard to push back against a nice running E55. They're the performance bargain that's hard to beat. Even my wife said I have to keep ours running, she likes it that much.

tw2

E63 both w211 and w212 with m156. The E55 torque got me on the test drive. The MCT of the w212 immediately ruled that one out bunny hopping around the carpark.

kiluminati616

Like a lot of folks here, i was also interested in the e39 m5 but by the time i was ready to purchase they had shot up to a price i wasn't willing to pay. i can't see how they're worth so much more than either a w210 or w211 e55 but i am biased...

briefly thought about an e36 but c'mon they have 240hp. i do enjoy the boxy old school look of the four door but like the m5, i don't value them at the price point they currently fetch

r/s4 were on the radar as well but the rs4 was a bit too pricy for what it offered and the s4 just didn't do it for me. my wife however has an sq5 which is basically the suv version of an s4 and it's a fun little ride...but it's no E55

I will admit i have never driven or ridden in any of these other cars. matter fact the first time i drove an E55 was mine out of the RDU parking garage after i flew in to pick it up after purchasing it on eBay. maybe there are intangibles i'm missing on the others but when you look at what E55s cost and what they do on paper vs the others, they can't be beat