V-12 Lollapalooza Update.

The Short Version: No decision after driving the 2010 Mercedes S65 yesterday and a 2012 Audi A8 W12 stand in last week. The S65 remains on hold through Sunday 10/25 when I gotta make the call and probably move on. Sigh. The longer version below includes TWO more Mercedes V-12’s that have surfaced since I posted this dilemma two weeks ago bringing the CarMax V-12 inventory to four. Ugh.

After a thoroughly confusing week trying to sort out what car, if any, I wanted, it’s come down to do I want this S65 or not? I drove it on the same roads I travel in the S600 on a regular basis, and honestly it wasn’t all that different. Starting the car makes a nice rumble and roar (WordPress won’t let me upload the video of gunning it in my garage) but cruising at 70-80 mph the engine was only slightly audible. My worries to date had been that perhaps I’ve gotten spoiled by the tomb-like S600 and the S65 would be annoyingly loud. Not at all. What I could hear more than anything was tire noise. The S65 has hard summer tires, and last year I mounted ultra-quiet all season tires on the S600. I suspect I could do the same on the S65, but that would diminish the performance vibe of the S65.

Riding in the S65, everything was familiar given the identical setup as the S600. The seats have a different pattern and the speedo dials to 220mph vs 160 in my S600. What attracted me to the 2010 Mercedes S65 was three attributes; it’s a 604 hp V-12, the car cost over $200,000 new (I am that vain), and it only has 35,000 miles on it – half what I have on the S600 and an opportunity to reset the clock with MaxCare.

What’s driving me to probably pass on the 2010 Mercedes S65 is nothing more than it is just too similar to what I have. Also, after checking the few comps on Autotrader, I’m guessing it’s a $20,000 gap between what I can sell the S600 for, and the $36,998 purchase price of the S65 plus taxes and MaxCare. (Now if one of you want to offer me $36,998 for the S600 I’d be up for revisiting that.) I still have 40 months and 54,000 miles of MaxCare on the S600 and perhaps will drive it another two years before putting it up for sale. Time will tell. Should I pass on the S65 there’s one reader out there who already wants to transfer it his way. Would make me happy to keep it in the unicorn family.

But what about the 2012 Audi A8 L W12 that was offered here in Puyallup, you ask? Well first, it’s currently unavailable as I botched extending it and someone else has it on hold or bought it. I had it reserved under another name, extended it once, and could not extend it a second time. I was deeply disappointed as there’s another reader who wanted this car if I didn’t buy it and I let him down. I hope it comes back on the market. I found in Philadelphia a nearly identical W12 at a Porsche dealer and traveled there last Friday – a lot closer to Virginia than Puyallup. I drove the Audi A8 W12 in the rain around the Philly suburbs and the car was wonderful, but again strikingly similar to the S600 experience I already have.

The selling points for the 2012 Audi A8 W12 at CarMax Puyallup were the back seat, the ultra low mileage at 15,000, the $36,000 price, and the exclusivity and sophistication of the W12 motor. It really is a tremendous motor. Smooth as silk. Quiet as a deaf man in an empty church. I stole that from someone and hope it’s not offensive. I plan to drive my wife and daughter to Florida for Christmas break and had visions of them watching movies in the back seat of the Audi while I motored south in peace.

But as with the S65, I just can’t see laying out a lotta cash to migrate from the S600 to the A8, even though it would be resetting my five year Maxcare plan. If I didn’t own an S600 it would be a no brainer to buy either the S65 or the A8 W12. They are both wonderful cars – one more brawny but not overly so, and the other far more sophisticated. Both felt nearly identical in performance and ride as my S600.

And then there’s this very special 2015 Mercedes S65 Coupe that came on line in California while I’ve been sorting out my V-12 options. A reader put it on hold for me as a continency, since he knew all about the nearly identical car I had on hold last year but lost when CarMax mistakenly sold it to someone else. (The best they could do as compensation was to offer me one free transfer, which I used on the 2010 S65.) Anyway, this car is still available as of this writing so here’s the link if you’re interested. This coupe is available for $84,998. It sold new for probably more than $225,000. It’s a rare, high-performance coupe with 621 hp. It’s fully loaded and I still can’t get over the heated arm rests. I gotta have those.

Only two things keep me from buying this car. One is the price tag. Perhaps I could sell both my 911 and S600 and make this my daily driver (I’d have to add a $50,000 loan!) but with Maxcare and taxes probably looking at the high $90,000 mark. At that price I lose the unicorn bargain mantle. I’d also start being the guy that parks at the far end of the Walmart lot so no one dings my car, and I don’t want to be that guy. I’m too lazy to walk that far. Second, while car critics gush over the looks I find Mercedes coupes look way too similar – the C-coupe, E-coupe, and S-coupe (to me) share the same lines. Why can’t I get the S-class interior in the AMG GT?

But wait! Don’t buy yet! There’s one more V-12 out there in the CarMax ether you may enjoy. Only yesterday another S600 came on the market, a beautiful 2015 model with the turbine wheels I dig, the luxurious interior, 523hp, although a $68,000 price tag that certainly discourages me from upgrading. It’s currently on hold by another blog reader who loves V-12’s even more than me. The car may still be here in Duarte, California if the young man hasn’t pulled the trigger on transfer. Add it to your profile to get updates if he doesn’t.

And with that I’ll close. I’ve enjoyed the private correspondence with about a half dozen readers on these cars (if you wrote and I haven’t responded my apologies – ping me again and I’ll get on it!). Thanks for hanging in there with me as I share my totally deranged thought process on zeroing in on cars. Now I hope to get back to finding a successor to my 911!