[stbm5]

yeah ABC can be expensive... car has 50K miles. all service done at MB dealer with records. ABC lines have not been replaced tho - line failure is the most common problem. brakes are pricey and about the same as an M car.

[aaaaah]

Originally Posted by The Wind Breezes

What, and fuck up one of the best features of the car? It's expensive for a reason: it's a badass system. It's not even air ride, although that would be cool too.

Who knew five figure repair bills were a desirable feature?

[StuP]

Originally Posted by stbm5

yeah ABC can be expensive... car has 50K miles. all service done at MB dealer with records. ABC lines have not been replaced tho - line failure is the most common problem. brakes are pricey and about the same as an M car.

It's the pumps, control valves and shocks that fail. The price to keep repairing stopped me from considering any early MB with the system.

There are a limited number of conventional conversions available, not for all models though.

[The Wind Breezes]

Originally Posted by aaaaah

Who knew five figure repair bills were a desirable feature?

You've got it 100% backwards. With mechanical stuff the cost is highly correlated with badassness. For example, try maintaining a helicopter. It's really expensive because it does something really badass, which is let you take off and land vertically without killing you (mostly). Helicopters are very desirable, the repair bills are just part of the territory.

Likewise when you have a car that originally cost the equivalent of over $200K in today's $, yeah, I would expect it has some features that are very expensive to repair.

[10"]

how much are those? $25k now?

you're better off sitting down on a nice mid-rise rooftop, with a tidy stack of money; and flying $25k off the rooftop in the form of individual little paper airplanes that don't fly so well.

[9krpmrx8]

It's just money, you can't take it with you when you die.

[Alfisti]

If I had spare cash, as in real spare not just " I can swing it", I'd be all over the M5 with the V10, just because V10. But 5 minutes of reading says it's a bad idea and highly likely to cost THOUSANDS per year to just keep on the road.

For the same price i can get a 2013 Jag XFS-R with the same performance without the potential for 5 figure repair bills.

[9krpmrx8]

Yeah, my buddy had an E60 M5, paid like 30k for it, put another 15k in it fixing stuff, and then sold it for 27k. I almost bought it because it was stupid clean and all the problems were fixed. But he took the loss and bought a F10 M5 without the batting an eye.

[Chihuahua]

Originally Posted by 9krpmrx8

Yeah, my buddy had an E60 M5, paid like 30k for it, put another 15k in it fixing stuff, and then sold it for 27k.

Exactly why I shelved my recent plans of picking up a clean E60 M5. The potential for cataclysmic repair bills is too great for cars like these early to mid-2000s super sedans.

[x3sm]

how about Mercedes CL55 ?

[9krpmrx8]

My boss also had a 2005 (I think) W220 S55 and it was reliable, he put about 50k on it before taking a bath on it and getting 20k on trade in. But they do have the same ABC issues and right before he sold it he had all the door lock air system repaired for $4000.

CL55 is the same engine I think.

[Speedwell-Industries]

Originally Posted by ASAP

I have 0 experience with these cars all I can say is this-

1)TT V12
2) Air Suspension
3) Originally 200k car

pray it doesn't break lol

This!

Once something breaks...

[blockdoc]

Originally Posted by 9krpmrx8

I mean if you are willing to do the work yourself most of that money can be saved. But this is why a well maintained one would be needed. My bosses for example was dealer serviced for every little thing they said it needed. I assume most original owners of cars like this would be the same way but yeah after so many years and as cheap as they are, there is bound to be a lot of differed maintenance.

But yeah definitely not a car to buy without an extended warranty.

Agreed. DIY saves tons. That being said, it seems that the more expensive a car gets, the less the engineers worries about the cost of servicing. For example, rlifting an engine to service plugs lol

[overcoil]

I’d like to get an early aughts S class for the city and snow.

[SuckaGDog]

Originally Posted by stbm5

might be picking up a 2005 AMG CL65... id be interested in hearing from anyone with experience with these.

Edit: just saw it had 50k miles.

How many miles are on it? The Most common issues are ABC suspension pump, struts, ignition coils, ignition coil computer, and the air pump that controls the seats, door locks, headrests, etc. There is a couple others, but can't think of them on top of my head. My dad has had his S65 AMG and it's been an awesome car, but you definitely need a aftermarket warranty. On the top of my head it has had about $20-30k in the almost seven years we've owned it. All covered under our extended warranty! A lot of components are shared between the CL65 and S65.

BTW, if anyone is interested we are toying with the idea of selling our 06' S65. Only has 47k miles and all services were done at local MB dealer with records to show. Probably one of the very few left out there that is clean and repairs not neglected. Also comes with Eurocharged ECU and TCU tune. Brings it to 680hp and 840 ft pounds of torque lol.

[drunkenup]

Originally Posted by ScottSinger

I’d like to get an early aughts S class for the city and snow.

I figure you would consider a facelift W220 as that is the only way to get a 220 with 4matic, but in case you are looking at the 99-02 cars, don't. They are rust buckets. 03 brought massive improvements.