Last updated my V-12 conundrum here with my decision to pass on the 2010 Mercedes S65. I liked the idea of an AMG and the lower miles but was just too much like the S600 I have and I couldn’t justify the expense of selling my car and buying the S65. So I collaborated with a reader who wanted it and we engineered a transfer to North Carolina. Good chance he’s reaching the same conclusion – a bit more docile than he would like, and will probably pass. If he does he has graciously offered to work with another unicorn hunter before it goes back on the market. If you’re interested shoot me a message and I’ll put you all in touch. It’s a helluva car – just didn’t match what he and I were looking for.
I’ve covered a number of these W219 “Shooting Brake” Mercedes CLS550’s in the three-plus years of blogging with the last one almost a year ago – a 2009 model that looked and was priced almost identical to this one – less than $20,000! Thought time had run out for these CarMax unicorns so I was quite surprised to see this beauty tonight. It’s an accident free 2011 model with only 43,000 miles. For a 382 hp 5.5 liter Mercedes V8 it’s just getting broken in!
Yes the CLS is built on the E-class platform but has less front seat, rear set, and trunk room than the E-class, it’s just damned more attractive. Cutting edge when new as a first generation CLS, they started to look dated after an eight year run, and now nine years out of production are starting to look a little vintage to me? The CLS550 cost over $74,000 in 2011 and this one is now $19,998.
Check out the CarMax cameraman in the mirror!
With 2011 being the sunset year before the all new for 2012 model there aren’t any real good car reviews from back then. But this 2007 Car and Driver review of a nearly identical model (when the CLS got the 32 valve, 5.5 liter engine) claimed a 0-60mph run in 4.7 seconds with a seven-speed automatic. Not bad for a two ton sedan.
I don’t think I’ve ever had three passengers in the back of my sedans and while the four seat coupe seems sexy, it’s also a roll of the dice that you’ll NEVER want to haul more folks.
This 2011 Mercedes CLS550 is a three owner car that spent most of its life in Florida, and is now here in Cincinnati, Ohio. It’s a bargain, sophisticated German car, and of course, MaxCare is highly recommended for when that air suspension or high-end engine breaks!
Wrote about this low mileage climate friendly (?) S-Class unicorn back in September when it was in Massachusetts. Two months later it’s again on the market here in Albany for the same low price. Same low mileage. Again, this was the cheapest S-Class back in 2010 at $94k. Still seems to be a bargain commuter car. But if a hybrid isn’t your style, CarMax had a whopping six S63 AMG cars on the net last night, two of which were close to my $35,000 unicorn cap. Both are two owner cars; the 2011 is listed here in Palm Desert, California, and the 2012 is here in Schaumberg, Illinois (Mick?!). The 2012 is a few thousand cheaper, but it is a one accident car. Goes without saying all of these are MaxCare mandatory! Enjoy.
The 755 hp 2019 ZR1unicorn is the fastest Corvette to date (the C8 variants out in the spring will likely equal or exceed the 2019 ZR1) with a top speed of 212 mph and a 0-60 run in 2.8 seconds. Supercar fast. The Corvette team chief called this Corvette “the most we know how to do” according to this Car and Driver review. Corvette folks know tons more than me about ZR1’s. I love watching Corvette’s whoop far more exotic and expensive cars at Le Mans and Daytona but have given up on owning one – at 6’4″ I just don’t fit behind the wheel.
I’m thinking the gas mileage is N/A because it doesn’t get any?
I’d have to be to pay this much!
The 2019 Corvette XR1 sold new for over $120,000. Not much depreciation here? This is the most expensive car I’ve seen at CarMax in the three plus years of tracking unicorns.
As an aside, the most expensive CarMax car I’ve seen before this ZR1 was an almost new 2017 Mercedes AMG GT with only 2,000 miles on it. Listed for $114,998 and over a couple of weeks dropped regularly in price and may have finally sold for $104,998. Here’s the link to that saga. We shall see how long this Corvette stays on the market.
The most likely view I’ll ever have of this car – as a passenger.
This single-owner, low mileage (5,000) hot rod is still under Chevrolet’s warranty for another 31,000 miles and 24 months or so. I would still spring for MaxCare – a car like this needs to be driven hard and fast. That’s what it was engineered for. No need to tell CarMax about your track days when you blow it up. On the other hand if you can afford a $120,000 car maybe you can afford the repairs. Find this ZR1 here in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
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.
CarMax lets us test drive without the sales rep, so of course I brought the car home for a photo op!
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.
My neighbor, a Washington Football Team linebacker, parks his Bentley Bentayga near the community mailboxes when he needs to extract his McLaren from his garage. Thought I’d show off too!
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?
Was thumbing through the reservation I have on the 2010 Mercedes S65 and stumbled on what appears to be a new capability to access MaxCare selections and pricing right from the CarMax website. Previously the MaxCare tab only described the warranty program in general, and to get the specific mileage, deductible, and pricing menu on a specific car I had to call a sales rep and ask for a screen shot of the menu only he or she could see. Looks like this direct access is only available after putting a car on hold and booking an appointment time. Still another arrow in the quiver when hunting unicorns! Here’s the results for the S65.
Hope you all got a bit of a break this Columbus Day. Sadly there just aren’t any good Italian cars available at CarMax to make this post meaty. Guess they know better than to sell the Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio – a truly hot car and unreliable car that would bankrupt MaxCare. The Fiat 124 Spider is made in Japan, and the 500 Abarth in Mexico. But the Jeep Renegade is made in Italy, so there’s that. Enjoy!
This is one handsome, mid-sized Mercedes Benz unicorn, luxuriously equipped (hence the model “E550 Luxury”), at a ridiculously low price. Adaptive cruise control? Check. All wheel drive? Yup. Adjustable suspension? Absolutely. Blind-spot, lane departure, rear view camera, Bluetooth, Harman Kardon sound, panoramic sunroof, air-conditioned and heated seats….it goes on and on. Check out this little graphic included in the CarMax ad!
The 2011 Mercedes E550 packs a 5.5 liter V-8 rated at 382 horsepower. Mated to a seven-speed automatic the sedan is good for a 0-60 mph run in a hair over five seconds. Here’s a lengthy NewCarTestDrive.com review of all the 2011 E-class lineup, including details on the E550. Looks like from their notes this car sold for over $60,000 new nine years ago, and driven only 4,000 miles annually seems to be a damned good deal. Of course there are cheaper, comparable E550’s out there but none that are eligible for MaxCare protection against out of pocket repairs. You want MaxCare. There will be repairs.
The features on this car remind me a great deal of the S-class cars I’ve owned. I’ve been corresponding privately with some readers pondering the German unicorn market and enjoying depreciated, luxury rides protected by MaxCare. I would very much recommend this car as a safe entry into the market. Find this well-appointed, single-owner 2011 Mercedes E550 here in Frederick, Maryland.
When it rains it pours. Eagle eyed blog reader Mustafa brought this rare as hell Audi W12 to my attention. He has one. I want one. It’s reserved (sort of) for me. Now I’ve got to choose between the Mercedes S600 I own, the Mercedes S65 being transferred in for me, and the Audi A8 W12 on hold. Good problem to have but even more stuck.
Not much distinguishes a W12 from a mortal A8. Even the S8 has more flair.
Mustafa has shared with me the engineering marvel that is the W12. A high tech pair of V-6’s is how I understand it. It’s a good 500 hp from a normally aspirated 6.3l motor.
Maybe I need a chauffeur?
Creature comforts in the A8 are probably better than the other cars. This one is not as fully outfitted as It could be (no Exclusive package) but it ain’t stripped. But as with the other cars it’s often just me driving solo in these. My S600 is my “company” car.
Minimal indicators this isn’t an S8.
So here’s where we are: 2010 Mercedes S600 I own is paid off, and with 71,000 miles I have another 40 months and 54,000 miles of MaxCare. It’s speedy and serene. The S65 is a 600hp speed racer version of my car. It once cost over $200,000, and that intrigued me somehow. Also only 35,000 miles, so I can reset with MaxCare for another five years and 90,000 miles. But the A8 W12 is even more rare, more quiet, and has an accident free 15,000 miles on it. I dig that luxury back seat and I’ve never owned an Audi. And I can reset MaxCare to five years and probably 110,000 miles! But the transfer fee is $2,000. Ugh. All three cars have significantly different V-12’s but are almost the same in speed – the “lightweight” all aluminum Audi makes up for lack of torque with weight savings. Will probably transfer it in. Would be a dream to have all three side by side for a drive! For what it’s worth the S65 and A8 are about the same price – $35k or so.
