This is part of the reason some used car prices are relatively low

[Allgonquin]

Buy a 2005 CL65 with 50K and put 10K miles on in a year.

http://www.edmunds.com/mercedes-ben.../2005-mercedes-benz-cl65-amg-10000-miles.html

We can argue about doing it yourself, etc. but any way you slice it, it's a lot of green.

Rgds,

 

[Klink]

Buy a 2005 CL65 with 50K and put 10K miles on in a year.

http://www.edmunds.com/mercedes-ben.../2005-mercedes-benz-cl65-amg-10000-miles.html

We can argue about doing it yourself, etc. but any way you slice it, it's a lot of green.

Rgds,

That was very mild. These cars can easily double or triple that expenditure in a similar time frame. Shark-ish investment bankers and professional athletes routinely abandon them at service facilities and car lots.
And yet, they are absolutely, unbelievably magnificent. If the money absotively does not matter, a Benz V-12 is "what to drive". That's the way it's been since their introduction in late '91 and nothing on the horizon is going to change that anytime soon...

 

[maplevalleyhammer]

I agree with Klink, I had a 2007 SL65 in 2009. MSRP $187,000, I paid $93,000 for a Star Mark car with 17k miles, sold in 2011 for $86k @ 23k miles (bought/still have a 2005 SL55). Depreciation is staggering but the V12 is sublime, there is a reason that the Pagani Zonda uses that AMG V12, it is eerily "bullet train" fast and if unhampered by mufflers, well......it sounds like Zonda. The v12 AMG's are probably the best super car bargain in the world......but you can get some pretty amazing power from the Supercharged M113 in the '55 cars with "bolt on's".

 

[maw1124]

That was very mild. These cars can easily double or triple that expenditure in a similar time frame. Shark-ish investment bankers and professional athletes routinely abandon them at service facilities and car lots.
And yet, they are absolutely, unbelievably magnificent. If the money absotively does not matter, a Benz V-12 is "what to drive". That's the way it's been since their introduction in late '91 and nothing on the horizon is going to change that anytime soon...

Yeah... $5k on a 9 year old 65 series car goes in the category of "bought right". That is, you'd take that off the purchase price anyway. At bare minimum, you'd deduct for coil packs if they hadn't been done (because they ARE going to fail), and you'd probably throw in another $2k for ABC if the fluid hadn't been flushed and rodeo'd frequently. And if you're not knowledgeable enough about the car to make those deducts, it's not the car for you (speaking to no one in particular here, just the ubiquitous buyer who needs to beware). To put it in context, it's certainly not going to cost you what a Bentley W12 or Ferrari V12 will cost you. That $5k looks like an annual service fee in those shops. Considering that neither of those marquees are what Mercedes is (on or off the race track, from whence their heritage theoretically derives), the Benz V12s look like bargains. But I understand it's all relative, and knowledge aforethought helps.

Cheers,

maw