Category: Mercedes Benz

Was tracking this 2012 Mercedes CL63 AMG for no good reason, since its price tag far exceeded my $35,000 cap for unicorns (I set that figure after rigorous calculations when I bought Etta, my 911 – the calculation being “what’s the most I can pay for a used car without my wife leaving me?”).  The car was listed at $56,998 and languished for maybe a week.  Wish I had access to data on when cars were first listed.  Any readers able to do that?  Yesterday I got an alert that the price on this car was reduced $12,000.  I was sure it was an error but it was not.  The price is now $44,998.  I do not know if someone had bought the car at $56k they would have been a sucker, or if it is now a bargain at $44k.  Still outta my range.  I also got another alert that one of my unicorns had dropped $2,000.  Cars usually only get reduced $1,000 at a time.  I have a theory more reductions are coming and if I get time this weekend will share.

For now, have some fun looking at this big, beautiful coupe, really a two-door S-class.  Just like the CL550 I wrote about recently, all the car I need – luxurious and large from the driver’s seat forward without an S550 butt behind.  There’s controversy on how much more performance vs stiff ride and noise do you get from a CL63 (with a 5.5 liter V-8 536hp and 590 ft-lbs of torque) vs a CL550 (4.6 liter V-8 with 429hp and 516 ft-lbs of torque).   For me, I’ll take horsepower any day of the week.  The AMG is not that harsh.  All you need to know from this Car and Driver review back in 2012, “Let’s just cut straight to the chase. This deceptively demure execu-coupe weighs more than 4800 pounds and can sprint to 60 mph in four seconds. That would be four seconds flat. The CL63 AMG enters triple-digit speeds in 8.8 seconds, trips the quarter-mile lights in 12.3 seconds at 121 mph, attains 150 mph in less than 20, and maxes out at 190 mph, whereupon its governor says, “Das ist genug.”  And it has my mandatory night vision assist.  Love it.  By the way, this two-owner car sold for at least $150,000 new and probably closer to $175,000 in New Jersey back in the day.  If this car is for you, please, please buy the MaxCare warranty – this one ain’t going to be cheap to repair when things go wrong.  Find it discounted here in Fairfield, California.  If the link is dead it’s sold, on hold, or being transferred.

Last week I wrote about a couple of BMW 650i’s and the Car and Driver review suggesting big coupes were not long for this planet.  Well, here’s another big coupe unicorn, a 2012 Mercedes CL550 (C216) – the third and last generation of the CL class, as Mercedes transitioned to the S-coupe in 2014.  But the CL has always been the coupe version of the S-class Mercedes, a big, luxurious, powerful GT.  Mercedes never sold more than 4,000 of these in the US, and in 2012 only 723 units.  So this CarMax offering is a bit rare.  Last year I covered a few of the older ones, far less expensive 2007 models with fewer horsepower, and it’s been a long time since CarMax offered one.  Of course, I would not recommend one without the bumper-to-bumper MaxCare warranty – repairs ain’t cheap.

The CL550 knocks out a 0-60mph run in 4.6 seconds, courtesy of a 429hp twin-turbo V-8.  The car is all wheel drive, has my beloved night vision (Car and Driver review of Mercedes night vision here), and pretty much every luxury option available in 2012.  The car listed for about $130,000 new and six years later is about $95,000 less.  Here’s the review from Autoweek back in the day.  I’ve driven CL550’s and have only one beef.  The car is for secure drivers only, since it’s one of the most anonymous high performance luxury cars out there.  If you likes sleepers, you’ll love the CL550.  They don’t even look large on the road.  That said, the CL550 should be my perfect car.  When I had my S55 I was always aware of the size of the gigantic car.  I loved it, but since I largely drove solo I didn’t need all that heft.  The CL550 is an S-class from the driver seat forward – how nice it would be to have all that luxury and performance up front without the tail?  Find this one owner car here in Colorado.  If the link is dead it’s sold, on hold or being transferred.