Blogging my nationwide hunt for affordable CarMax enthusiast cars. Automotive Unicorns.
Of course Santa would drive a Ford F-350 King Ranch dualie, with a whopping 925 lb-ft of torque from a 6.7 liter turbo-diesel V-8. With 4WD and 18,000 lb towing capacity, this truck has all the oomph needed to deliver toys around the world. And automated cruise control (driving around the world gets long) and heated seats/steering wheel for the cold winter night. Find it here in Irving, Texas, if you really want a big ole truck. Please have a happy and safe holiday.
I hope you’re not tired of affordable V-12 Mercedes. I’m not, but I promise to move on to other cars soon. I got carried away with them in this V-12 Lollapalooza in October, and this one is an awful lot like my 2010 S600 so I have no interest in buying this one. Just something about a car that was over $160,000 new selling for this price. Driving rich.
Luxurious interior with the high end Bang & Olufsen audio system (pro’s tell me I should just call it a “B&O” but that sounds like a railroad), I have to admit I’m baffled by the torn up center console cover – I’d be having CarMax repair that before buying. On the other hand, looks like the previous owner left behind an aftermarket wedge cup holder storage bin – totally unnecessary given all the storage space in an S-class.
The creature comforts are impressive, and so is the S600’s performance. The 5.5 liter twin turbo V-12 is rated at 510 hp and a whopping 612 lb-ft of torque, and while it only has a five speed automatic it’s good for a mid-four second 0-60mph run – and a 186 mph top end. When I think you all have forgiven me for my road trip posting in the 911, I plan to write about the 6,700 mile journey I just took in my S600. Absolutely a sublime long distance cruiser these S600’s are! This accident free, three owner 2012 Mercedes S600 is available here in San Antonio, Texas for $35,998. And don’t forget the MaxCare!
Relieved and impressed when CarMax carries high end CL-class Mercedes and pleased today they have two, albeit both are one-accident cars. Let’s start with the more exotic and angry AMG version of the CL-series, the 2012 Mercedes CL63 AMG. Selling new for maybe $150k new it’s way discounted at $37k now. It’s a wonderful coupe with a 536hp 5.5 liter V-8, and 0-60mph in four seconds flat – so says Car and Driver in this review.
The interior of the CL’s are identical to the interior of my S600 – the difference is all behind the B-pillars. I never have passengers in the back of my S-class and seems like a waste to have all that tail behind my car. I still think there’s much to be said for a two door S-class coupe, which is what this CL is.
And it’s hard to argue with a hand-built AMG motor in a coupe. Alas, this one is a one accident CL63 found here in Tinley Park, Illinois. If you’re new here, you need to know I highly recommend MaxCare for when this high end Mercedes melts down, and it will.
If you’re more secure than me and don’t care for all that SMG horsepower, here’s a very nice 2013 CL550 coupe. About the same mileage, about the same number of wrecks (1), and ever so slightly better appointed, this car is selling at a $7,000 discount over its AMG cousin.
Same interior, although black, the CL550 has night vision assist and the CL63 does not. My 2010 S600 has night vision and I’ll let you in on a little secret – it’s totally unnecessary. I though I needed to have it because A) I HATE having dummy blanks in a dashboard that make it clear there was something available that I do not have, and B) I have turned on the night vision in my S600 and it’s really not all that useful. But the CL550 has it and the CL63 does not. You decide if you need it. Regardless, here’s a nice review of this once-$130k coupe. You can’t go wrong with either of these high end German cars. This 2013 CL550 is here in Laurel, Maryland, way too close to me!
Remember the fully loaded 2011 Mercedes E550 unicorn I wrote about in October 2020? (Act like you do while catching up on it here.) Well here’s its BMW twin, a 2011 550i chock full of features usually only found in the more expensive 750’s.
A handsome interior with a nice infotainment screen, the car also has all the buttons – blind spot, collision avoidance, lane departure, my beloved night vision assist, and heads up display.
The BMW 550 also has rear DVD entertainment for the kids or your Uber customers. But wait there’s more! Cold weather (heated seats and steering wheel) and convenience packages, air conditioned seats, and a 400hp twin turbo V8.
If the car had AWD it would be perfect. It’s a two owner, accident free southern car currently here in Naples, Florida. Enjoy.
Fifty years ago Dodge introduced the Challenger to compete with the Camaro and Mustang. Bigger than both in size, it was dwarfed in sales. The Challenger sold about 76,000 models in 1970, compared to about 125,000 Camaros and a whopping 190,000 Mustangs. Sales dropped off rapidly for the five year run of the first generation and the model disappeared after 1974. Skipping the second generation Challenger of 1978-1983, a rebadged Mitsubishi import (although I’d love to have one of those!), the Challenger returned in 2008 for a third run. The Challenger below looks remarkably like the original, and the model continues to sell well despite little change for the last 12 years – over a half a million so far. I don’t know how they do it, but CarMax just Hoover’s up low mileage, older muscle cars. Could write a whole piece about the scores of Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs, and Challengers on the lots that have hardly been driven, but after last weekend’s novel I’ll stick to one. And keep it short.
My favorite, and not just because it’s yellow. A 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 Yellow Jacket with what appears to be 393 miles on the odometer. That’s crazy – 50 miles yearly?! Yeah, yeah, yeah, cars are meant to be driven….all the rubber and gaskets could be rotted….but it’s damned near new!
Love those seats, although I suspect wrestling with the bolsters to get in and out might get old. The 6.4 liter V-8 is good for 470 hp running through only a five-speed automatic, but still hits a high four second 0-60 mph run and a top speed of 175 mph. Plenty good enough for me. Heated steering wheel, but not seeing Bluetooth. But with a 900 watt audio system I wouldn’t hear the phone anyway. Here’s the thorough Top Speed review from back in the day.
The SRT-8 has four piston Brembo brakes, and the Electronic Vehicle Information Center (EVIC) – tracking acceleration, g-force, and other cool stuff we had to do with a slide rule and stopwatch in the original! The car sold for a good $45,000 new just eight years ago. Not sure it’s a bargain but the price just dropped $1,000 to $36,998. Find this NOS (new old stock) one-owner, accident free Dodge here in Buford, Georgia.
Early December and not a lot of unicorns on the CarMax lots, so why not write a long piece about a long road trip in one of my mine. My time with the 2008 Porsche 911 (Etta – covered here) will soon come to an end. I plan to sell her with at least 10,000 miles left on the MaxCare warranty, and I’m down to about 15,000 miles left today. I’ll be keeping long distance travel to a minimum, but wanted to share one of the most rewarding drives I’ve taken this year, a leisurely and long distance 1,200 miler over four days in May 2020 when I needed to get away from the pandemic and cabin fever. For the record, I encountered fewer people for the whole journey than a single trip to the grocery store. The road trip only made me love this sports car more. I plan to buy another one. Let’s get started.
Day 1 – The goal was to stay off the interstates and enjoy the 911 on rural roads and byways. Sometimes I take my cues from a book I read in the early 80’s by William Least Heat Moon, a dude who dealt with divorce by quitting his job and driving around the country in a 1975 Ford Econoline. The book was called Blue Highways, the color of byways on a road map. Mr. Moon said, “When you’re travelling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” I decided that pretty much all of my stops would be places you’d only see on the way to something else truly spectacular, but there’s wasn’t any such spectacular destination. Except for one or two. From Leesburg, Virginia I headed west on Route 7 and US 50 first to Romney, WV. Did the quick stop at the Indian Mound cemetery, but my real quest was automotive and unfulfilling. Back in the mid-80’s I owned a pair of German Ford Fiestas, and in the early 90’s while driving through Romney I saw more Ford Fiestas as daily drivers than anywhere outside of Europe. Alas, by 2020 they have been replaced by PT Cruisers. Swarms of PT Cruisers in Romney now. Never knew why there were Fiestas back in the day or PT’s now.
Continued on to the Fairfax Stone, the source of the Potomac River and a historical novelty I always wanted to see. Nice back roads connecting US 50 and US 48 and before I knew it 150 miles of the journey were behind me.
Zoomed up US 219 from the Fairfax Stone about a hundred miles to another place that’s been pretty special to me. The Flight 93 Memorial off US 30 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The tragedy that was 9/11 played a pivotal part in my government career, and only months after the attack and before there was any memorial at all I brought my pre-teen sons here for a visit. It was sobering then and remains so now. It’s near nothing, but for me close to everything.
Back on US 219 I motored the 911 north another 100 miles to what would be my “base camp” for the next three days, the Fairfield Inn and Suites in DuBois, Pennsylvania. On an April road trip I stayed in a couple of hotels and during the-then height of Covid I found myself scrubbing rooms too often. This time I figured I’d limit exposure by cleaning one hotel room once, and do day trips from there. And after six hours and 318 miles cleaning a hotel room was the last thing I wanted to do. And the Fairfield Inn gets you a discount at the Station 101 Pub and Kitchen next door. Highly recommend it. Takeout every night.
Didn’t see much of DuBois, but I do recall asking a good friend who knows Pennsylvania well if it was pronounced “Du-Bwah”, and he told me if I called it that I would likely get my ass beat. “Doo-boyz” it is.
Continue reading “A Long Road Trip With Etta – My 2008 Porsche 911”The auto industry and American buyers are shunning the sedan, and my hunch is that it’s cyclical. We went nuts for front wheel drive hatchbacks for a while, then minivans, now SUV’s – I’m betting sedans will be back at some point. Here’s seven that caught my eye for various reasons and I thought I’d unload them all at once. Enjoy.
It wasn’t just the red that caught my eye. This 2014 Audi A4 Prestige S-Line has a manual 6-speed coupled to a 220 hp 2.0 liter turbo four. Not a lotta manual transmissions at CarMax – of the 60,000 cars on their website today only 1,500 have manuals.
This little Audi is also well equipped as an S-Line and Prestige model. It’s a one-owner accident free Minnesota car (love the Audi AWD) and only 30,000 miles – and it’s still here in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. (Pssst – there’s a cheaper manual 2012 A4 here in Puyallup, Washington but it’s the lower horsepower model and higher mileage. This doesn’t count towards the seven.)
Very nice sleeper sedan here – a 2016 WRX STI Limited with only 8,000 miles. It also has a manual transmission, AWD, and a crazy 2.5 liter 305 hp four cylinder motor. The Audi A4 wouldn’t have a chance. Of course, this is a good $8,000 more than the Audi.
The WRX just screams rally car to me. Pike’s Peak. Michele Mouton. So many of them come with the boy racer wing that this wingless, ultra low mileage sedan and slick silver color just got my attention. Find this single owner WRX here in Oxnard, California.
My best bud had an Infiniti M45 and I loved it. We’ll ignore that he once had a Citation X-11 and I loved that, too. This 2009 M45X is selling for only $14,998 but it does have some miles on it – all by a single owner from Illinois. This car sold for over $50,000 new back in the day, and in that day 325 hp from a 4.5 liter V-8 was good enough.
The interior is quite handsome and luxurious. Interesting for an 11 year old car, this model has automated cruise control – a highway cruising feature I can’t live without. Bluetooth, Bose, lane departure warning, air conditioned and heated seats, and AWD. And beautiful blue over tan – my favorite combo. Not seeing many third generation M45’s any more. Only 8,500 2009 models were made. You can get one here in Tampa.
I’m on a roll. This is a Korean AWD V-8 cruiser. How did it come to my attention? Two ways – reader Jerrell Maple got me interested in G90’s, and as many of you do, sometimes I search by compiling features I like and see what comes out. In this case, I plugged in AWD, Apple Car Play, automated cruise control, a heated steering wheel, and a V-8 motor. And a price tag under $40,000 (otherwise the BMW M550ix is just a better car!).
By checking those boxes, out came the 2018 Genesis G80 Ultimate. Powered by a 420 hp V-8 and having every single feature I could want in a car, it’s a really, really nice bargain at $36,998. If I wasn’t so vain I’d buy one and debadge it. Oddly it’s a three owner car – what’s that all about? But it’s still under the Genesis warranty so no need even for MaxCare. Jerrell likes G90’s or this would be his. So it’s still here in Tinley Park, Illinois.
Well, this is also an AWD luxury sedan, but not an eight cylinder. That said, this 2014 XTS Vsport Platinum has a powerful 410 hp turbocharged 3.6 liter six. That’s good for a mid-five second 0-60 mph run. No slouch at all for a two ton sedan. A nice alternative to the rough and ready CTS-V.
With handsome two-toned interior and every feature the Genesis above has – except Apple Car Play. It’s also $10,000 cheaper, and almost $50,000 less than new. Yes, these were $70,000 cars new. It’s a two owner, accident free Illinois car here in Omaha, Nebraska.
I try not to cover cars that are not currently available. This 2011 Mercedes E550 luxury came online yesterday and went offline while I was writing. I’m so hoping it comes back. It’s a great example of “driving rich”, in that it’s a nicely appointed low mileage German sedan for not a lot of money.
Two-toned like the Cadillac. Air conditioned and heated seats. Adjustable suspension. Bluetooth and Harman Kardon sound. Blind spot monitor. The 5.5 liter V-8 is good for 382 hp. Not bad. But here’s the clincher.
Only 18,286 miles on this nine year old car. Damned near new, except it was a nearly $60,000 car back then. Now only $20,998 it’s here in Duarte, California – or hopefully it will be again!
The 2011 Lincoln Town Car was the final year for the Panther platformed luxury yacht. And this one is an ultra low mileage (30,000) Signature Limited model. What’s special about a Signature Limited? Absolutely nothing – that’s what the base Town Car was called in 2011. Let’s keep that between us. I’d feel special in this, an old school car – baby blue like Frank Sinatra’s eyes over an interior as tan as Trump.
Tan as Trump? That was kinda dumb. Pale like Pence more fitting. Regardless this was a $57,000 buy when new and is less than $20,000 now. I wouldn’t even spring for MaxCare. The 4.6 liter V-8 is solid, a little underpowered at 239 hp. And while the car looks enormous it’s only 150 pounds more than the Cadillac XTS above, and still 600 pounds less than my S600!
What’s with this oddly configured Town Car trunk? I swear it looks like there are hidden compartments for running guns or other contraband. If this scratches your itch, this two owner Town Car is available here in Kenner, Louisiana.
Happy Thanksgiving to the CarMax Unicorn Blog readers. Grateful you indulge my car hobby. Just for fun, the link to my CarMax Thanksgiving essay from 2018 is below. Helluva lotta work went into it so will just provide the link. Writing a ten car piece today and still need to gorge on football and turkey. Enjoy the day – Chuck.
CarMax continues to surprise me with unicorns I thought we might not see anymore. For example, this 2010 Mercedes CL550. I’ve covered more than a few of these and if you’re familiar with them you know it’s an S-class coupe.
Love this 2010 Range Rover Sport Supercharged unicorn and impulsively put it on hold like a fool. I keep forgetting I must replace the 911 soon, the S600 later, and my old Ford Escape….someday. But it’s free again and at $21,998 for 510 hp it’s an interesting buy.
Fairly well appointed for a 10 year old SUV with heated steering wheel and seats, rear view camera, Bluetooth, and adjustable suspension. For $22k it’s damned near a British beater!
But for me it’s about depreciation, loads of luxury and horsepower, and MaxCare. Your chance to be Doug DeMuro (although he only got $16k in repairs on his CarMax Range Rover – I got $35k on my S55!). This beaut is here in Scottsdale, Arizona. Sorry for the iPhone formatting – WiFi failed in my hotel and wanted to get this out quick!
