Is there a bigger bargain?

I think that Mercedes v12 Or was it V10 clarkson drove (forgot the model) was a better bargain? I think he paid £7,000. If you throw running cost out the window?
 
Is there a bigger bargain than £14,000 for a 6 figure mileage 6 year old Audi with biblical running costs?

Why yes, there probably is.
 
It's not a lot for what it is, but I always think that to own a car like this and really enjoy it you either have to have enough cash in the bank to buy it outright and spend what you would financing something else keeping it in good nick or to have such an excess of spare money that it just doesn't matter if it breaks.

...In other words you'd have to have been able to buy it when it was new or very young anyway - I'll not have one or anything capable of throwing up quite such phenomenal bills for some time :(
 
Raymond Lin said:
I think that Mercedes v12 Or was it V10 clarkson drove (forgot the model) was a better bargain? I think he paid £7,000. If you throw running cost out the window?
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Mercedes CL 500 or 600 I forget.

I was looking at these and they aren't a massive bargain as the equally spec'd but more spacious S classes go for similar money.

Although for Circa 10k very occasionally CL600 Biturbo pops up. They're running something silly like 600bhp, now that would be a laugh.
 
It was the CL600 V12 Clarkson got for 7k, and then spend a grand on a new coil pack.. yes, cheap to buy for the amount of car you get but it will be getting on for 10 years old and everything you repair will cost a small fortune. Unless you are willing to do all the work and have a cheap source of spares, I wouldn't bother.
Having said that, I saw a W215 CL65 today and it looked awesome, and I would really like to get another one at some point. But common sense will prevail this time.
 
The problem with these cars is that the only people who can afford to truely throw running costs out of the window can afford to just go and buy a new one instead, leaving CL's and cars like this floundering without a real market, the only market for these cars now are real enthusiasts of these particular cars who don't use them much or nieve people who don't think about how much it might cost when they see it parked up beside an 09 plate Focus for the same money.

The latter outweigh the former so the poor things end up dead eventually.
 
Yes, I was in both camps tbh.. I didn't underestimate the huge costs involved, and I could have accommodated them. But ownership just wasn't worth it for me at the time in view of other commitments, I didnt foresee the expense of things like a spare key for an import car with no dealer support, and I was unfortunate to have a few issues with it early on. Luckily I got the opportunity to punt it on with a small profit.
It could have easily gone the other way though and I may have been stuck with an undriveable/sellable money pit needing ABC, Tranny rebuilds..another CP etc etc..with 15k+ invested

edit: a colleague of mine got a CL55 last summer, and has had a lot of issues with ABC, pulleys and electrics..but he has been getting it fixed at back street workshops for as cheaply as possible and it has cost him about 2k in 12 months, and he is still driving it to work every day. If you can put up with the hassle, and have a bit of luck.. thats not really bad. By comparison, mine cost me 4k in 2 months.
 
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It really does pose a question as to what will happen to these cars once they fall right down into bargain barge territory in 5 - 10 years time. They are so horrendously complicated and require special tools for doing something as simple as brake pads you've got to wonder if they will just become utterly, utterly worthless because even the most able enthusiast DIYer is going to struggle to repair one of his drive on a weekend.
 
Joshy said:
It really does pose a question as to what will happen to these cars once they fall right down into bargain barge territory in 5 - 10 years time. They are so horrendously complicated and require special tools for doing something as simple as brake pads you've got to wonder if they will just become utterly, utterly worthless because even the most able enthusiast DIYer is going to struggle to repair one of his drive on a weekend.
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Indeed. Even though the older ones are arguably easier to work on, the spare part cost would cripple you alone. I was looking at prices today and see '95 CL600s for 1.5 grand.. who would entertain such a beast, other than for spares :)
 
Ezah said:
Indeed. Even though the older ones are arguably easier to work on, the spare part cost would cripple you alone. I was looking at prices today and see '95 CL600s for 1.5 grand.. who would entertain such a beast, other than for spares :)
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But at £1.5k they are effectively disposable motors. You could even drop a further grand into it on running costs/tidying it and if/when it became completely unusable still get what, £750 for it as spares and repairs. So worst case and you only got a year's worth of use (which is pragmatic) that's £1750 excluding fuel costs to smoke around in a V12 Merc, not bad considering people will drop more in deprecation on new, lesser cars and won't blink.

However in reality, you'll probably be able to keep it running until you fancied a change, in which case you'd be able to put it back up for sale at £1,500 meaning the total cost for smoking around in a V12 Merc coupe for the year was a year was a mere grand.

Sign me up for that :cool:
 
A 95 CL is probably a good buy (Well ok, as good as you'll get in the context of buying huge luxocoupes for next to nothing, its no Focus), as it comes from the days when a Mercedes Benz was hewn from granite and did not break every 20 seconds costing £50,000,000 to fix each time.

Buying a 15 year old 2001 CL will be for people with mental issues. Buying a 15 year old CL now, though, is perhaps even quite sensible in comparison!
 
A friend of mine has an S6. He's just about to trade in for something else as it's three years old.

I believe he paid 62k for it. The salesman said (quite bluntly) when he bought it that if he wanted to trade in the next day he'd offer 37k.

The current trade in he was offered was 20k. His business partner had an almost identical car in white (instead of sprint blue) which is now going onto the forecourt of an Audi dealer for 26k apparently. (can't find it on the Audi website though)

Over the weekend he was having a CL500 for a test.

This is the chap I bought my Saab 9-5 from. (36k list, I paid 8k after 2 and a bit years)

As you can see, he likes to lose money on cars. If we didn't do so many miles these days I'd be tempted by the S6. It's very nice.
 
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Ben Cole said:
As you can see, he likes to lose money on cars. If we didn't do so many miles these days I'd be tempted by the S6. It's very nice.
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Thing is, the 3.2FSI is very nice too. And so is the 4.2. Yet you can actually use these without thinking 'Wow I just spent £130 on fuel and managed 200 miles, awesome'.

I've never quite understood the point in luxo-barges with a terrible tank range that discourages use of the car for the sort of journeys it was designed to do.

You really do need to have so much cash you don't care.
 
[TW]Fox;22016047 said:
Thing is, the 3.2FSI is very nice too. And so is the 4.2. Yet you can actually use these without thinking 'Wow I just spent £130 on fuel and managed 200 miles, awesome'..
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Don't understand what point you're making here? Yes you can use them without thinking what you posted. In fact before my mileage went sky high I had an S4(4.2 v8).

[TW]Fox;22016047 said:
I've never quite understood the point in luxo-barges with a terrible tank range that discourages use of the car for the sort of journeys it was designed to do.

You really do need to have so much cash you don't care.
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He lives a little like me but between Barnstaple and Porthcawl. In his words (paraphrased) his drive home consists of 3 legs. Work-Barnstaple Sainsbury-Bridgend Sainsbury-Porthcawl.

As you said, range is a killer. That alone would put me off. He does though have enough cash not to care about the cost.
 
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