New car advice, £7k
- Thread starter Spamalot
- Start date
300+bhp and only 7.3 seconds to 60
= very big car!
300+bhp and only 7.3 seconds to 60
They are not massively fast cars, but the 0-60 figure is not an indication given that you cannot launch them at any pace from the line due to the traction control systems and gearbox.
Real life the consensus is about 6.5 to 60, and 14 to 100. Thats more than meaty enough and a good deal faster than anything else mentioned in this thread or probably 99% of other cars on the road.
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Oh yeah
As i say you dont buy one for outright speed, you buy one for effortless relaxed power. That said, pace is not an issue, they are fairly quick. Only properly fast cars are quicker.
Yours is an S430 isn't it?
Yeah, which is already sprightly enough for the car type, the 500 is noticeably quicker though
Interesting,, got a buyer lined up?
http://www.lanepearson.co.uk/vehicle-details.asp?Make=8&RSpage=2&ID=1156196
100k on the clock but thought it looked decent. Been tempted to go and look at it a few times.
100k on the clock but thought it looked decent. Been tempted to go and look at it a few times.
Right,
I'm seriously thinking of going down the CL500 or CL600 route.
For the sake of not starting another thread...
Where can I find out all the information that I need to make an informed buy? I know nothing about spanners; a Haynes manual might as well be in Chinese. A friend of mine is a mechanic; I’m sure he will come down and check things out for me if I slip if some cash, that’s a bit of weight of my mind.
I’m getting to grips with options and standard kit (that much more my knowledge base). Some help it that direction would be good. Some things already on my list are keyless go, cooled seats and AMG alloys. Anything else that I should be looking for or try to avoid?
I’m aware of the running costs; I’m going to follow Jez’s £200 a month saved up for the rainy day at first and see how that works. I earn good a wage so this shouldn't be to much of a problem. It might hurt but I can manage, you make your bed you lie in it.
I’d like a facelift but I don’t think my £7-8k budget will reach that far. I don’t want to stretch myself with a car like this. A facelift CL500 would be nice because of the power hike, but I think unless I’m lucky it’s out of reach. Is the CL600 worth buying over the CL500? How much difference will there be in the running costs? Is there much difference in speed?
Any advice you can offer would be brilliant. I’m not rushing into anything, I don’t want to get stung anymore than I’m going to anyway with a car like this.
I'm seriously thinking of going down the CL500 or CL600 route.
For the sake of not starting another thread...
Where can I find out all the information that I need to make an informed buy? I know nothing about spanners; a Haynes manual might as well be in Chinese. A friend of mine is a mechanic; I’m sure he will come down and check things out for me if I slip if some cash, that’s a bit of weight of my mind.
I’m getting to grips with options and standard kit (that much more my knowledge base). Some help it that direction would be good. Some things already on my list are keyless go, cooled seats and AMG alloys. Anything else that I should be looking for or try to avoid?
I’m aware of the running costs; I’m going to follow Jez’s £200 a month saved up for the rainy day at first and see how that works. I earn good a wage so this shouldn't be to much of a problem. It might hurt but I can manage, you make your bed you lie in it.
I’d like a facelift but I don’t think my £7-8k budget will reach that far. I don’t want to stretch myself with a car like this. A facelift CL500 would be nice because of the power hike, but I think unless I’m lucky it’s out of reach. Is the CL600 worth buying over the CL500? How much difference will there be in the running costs? Is there much difference in speed?
Any advice you can offer would be brilliant. I’m not rushing into anything, I don’t want to get stung anymore than I’m going to anyway with a car like this.
To be honest i do not know enough about the 600's to give you a reliable breakdown of costs. The general consensus is that they are massively more expensive to service due to coil pack issues and plugs being hard to get to, but as i say i really dont know enough to go into detail.
I believe that all 600's also come with ABC (active body control) as standard which from what i have read (purely from what i have read, i have no personal experience with ABC failures) can be massively troublesome and expensive to the extreme if/when it goes wrong. I can back this up by the fact that most places will not work on ABC systems (including merc specialists), and that i have never seen any ABC parts for sale anywhere other than Mercedes directly making them very expensive.
Your budget wont get an F/I car, so it would be the N/A 5.8L V12, which although fantastic, i dont think its worth the extra potential hassle over the (excellent, and bombproof 5.0 V8 with airmatic suspension rather than ABC).
I'm not sure what you mean about facelift power increase on the 5.0? The same 306PS engine was used throughout as far as i am aware. The facelift brings improvements to all of the electronic systems, the fibre bus, the nav, etc etc. You wont get a facelift in budget though.
All i can really say about buying a 500;
- Bodywork - corrosion - normal checks.
- Underbody - corrosion - normal checks inc exhaust system, cats are v expensive, check them - one each side.
- Check that it starts on the first crank, every time, that it warms and idles at ~400rpm
- No malfunctions appear on the dash computer
- The suspension raises quickly and uniformly when you press to raise it up, if possible try loading something heavy in the back, check that the ride height does not differ from when unloaded, the airmatics will compensate.
- Airmatic pump should only run for approx 20 seconds upon cold start, no longer, and shouldnt need to kick in again more than once every 30+mins - if more frequent possible leak.
- Xenons - check all modes, the ballasts are made of cheese.
- Comand - instant satellite lock, check cd changer comms, check phone comms, check dash comms (dash screen and steering wheel controls).
- Doors, boot - offer them into position and they will self close, little air pump can fail which controls this, so check it.
Other than that...nothing specific as such. Just make sure everything works really. But take more care than usual as there are a LOT of systems. Press every button, seat heating/cooling, all seat modes, memories, all keys, the lot. Dont assume anything as these cars are getting old now
I believe that all 600's also come with ABC (active body control) as standard which from what i have read (purely from what i have read, i have no personal experience with ABC failures) can be massively troublesome and expensive to the extreme if/when it goes wrong. I can back this up by the fact that most places will not work on ABC systems (including merc specialists), and that i have never seen any ABC parts for sale anywhere other than Mercedes directly making them very expensive.
Your budget wont get an F/I car, so it would be the N/A 5.8L V12, which although fantastic, i dont think its worth the extra potential hassle over the (excellent, and bombproof 5.0 V8 with airmatic suspension rather than ABC).
I'm not sure what you mean about facelift power increase on the 5.0? The same 306PS engine was used throughout as far as i am aware. The facelift brings improvements to all of the electronic systems, the fibre bus, the nav, etc etc. You wont get a facelift in budget though.
All i can really say about buying a 500;
- Bodywork - corrosion - normal checks.
- Underbody - corrosion - normal checks inc exhaust system, cats are v expensive, check them - one each side.
- Check that it starts on the first crank, every time, that it warms and idles at ~400rpm
- No malfunctions appear on the dash computer
- The suspension raises quickly and uniformly when you press to raise it up, if possible try loading something heavy in the back, check that the ride height does not differ from when unloaded, the airmatics will compensate.
- Airmatic pump should only run for approx 20 seconds upon cold start, no longer, and shouldnt need to kick in again more than once every 30+mins - if more frequent possible leak.
- Xenons - check all modes, the ballasts are made of cheese.
- Comand - instant satellite lock, check cd changer comms, check phone comms, check dash comms (dash screen and steering wheel controls).
- Doors, boot - offer them into position and they will self close, little air pump can fail which controls this, so check it.
Other than that...nothing specific as such. Just make sure everything works really. But take more care than usual as there are a LOT of systems. Press every button, seat heating/cooling, all seat modes, memories, all keys, the lot. Dont assume anything as these cars are getting old now
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![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
I'm not sure what you mean about facelift power increase on the 5.0? The same 306PS engine was used throughout as far as i am aware. The facelift brings improvements to all of the electronic systems, the fibre bus, the nav, etc etc. You wont get a facelift in budget though.
Thanks for that, I'll read it in more depth latter. This suggests that in 02 there was not a power hike buy the CL500 got faster, new 'box maybe?
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I dont think it did, perhaps just new figures and parkers being unreliable?
I found a good breakdown of available options and costs on Parkers so maybe they are good for something.
After reading your post in more detail I think I’ll stick with the CL500, I don’t want to get silly
.Is the £200 per month realistic? So I can put it on a par, can you (or Fox maybe) offer me some examples of cars with relative running costs? Are we talking, mid 90s 911, E39 M5, E46 M3, E60 545i? I know that’s hard to do without knowing the condition and other details, just a ball park. I was thinking the CL500 would come in about the same as an M5, V8 Audi A8 or a 745i for example. Am I very much mistaken? Is the £200 per month realistic for a CL500 c.2000 with 100k and FMBSH?
To be honest i do not keep track of my cars costs at all, and i also do c.25,000 miles per year so my costs are heavily exaggerated. But yes i would say that is more than realistic for a low mileage car. They are fairly reliable, and with indi servicing they are very reasonable to service too - its Mercedes who absolutely try and kill you with costs.
In terms of costs with other cars, i ran a 996 alongside it, but low mileage. Servicing and consumables are all very similar, but the Mercedes has far far more to go wrong and higher parts prices. BMW's tend to have cheaper parts prices, i would definitely compare a CL to possibly BMW M running costs, rather than standard models.
Best bet (and the view i took with mine) is buy it, suck it up, and sell it if you end up resenting it
In terms of costs with other cars, i ran a 996 alongside it, but low mileage. Servicing and consumables are all very similar, but the Mercedes has far far more to go wrong and higher parts prices. BMW's tend to have cheaper parts prices, i would definitely compare a CL to possibly BMW M running costs, rather than standard models.
Best bet (and the view i took with mine) is buy it, suck it up, and sell it if you end up resenting it