Last month, Autocar published a first drive of the new Mercedes-AMG CLS53 – and what a creation it is, good enough to garner four stars no less. But the price? Around £70,000.
Even the ‘basic’ 350d 4Matic AMG Line is £57,510, but worry ye not: we know of a Mercedes CLS320 CDI for sale for just £2750.
It sounds tempting, because the first-generation Mercedes CLS (2011-2018) is just so darned attractive and 100,000 miles is nothing for a car of this quality. At launch, its curvy, four-door coupeà body was unlike anything else in Mercedes’ range; so, too, its interior that manages to be both sporty and elegant. The ‘S’ in the name suggested a relationship with the S-Class, but in fact the CLS was based on a stretched E-Class platform.
It landed in UK showrooms in 2005. The big sellers were the CLS350, powered by a 268bhp 3.5-litre V6 petrol, and the 320 CDI, a 221bhp V6 diesel. Those with deeper pockets could avail themselves of the CLS500, powered by a 302bhp 5.0-litre V8, or the range- topping, supercharged 5.4-litre V8 CLS55AMG with 469bhp.
Just a year later, the 5.0 V8 was replaced by a much more powerful 5.5-litre engine, while the 55 was superseded by the CLS63 AMG, which used a naturally aspirated 6.2-litre V8 with 507bhp. At the time of writing, a 2006 CLS63 AMG with 67,000 miles and full Mercedes service history was up for £15,495.
All had rear-wheel drive and a seven-speed automatic gearbox.
Air suspension was an option and standard equipment included part-leather trim, electrically powered front seats, climate control, adaptive cruise control and parking sensors.
The next big CLS milestone came with the 2008 facelift and its twin- louvre grille in place of the previous four-louvre version, LED tail-lights, a new three-spoke steering wheel and the latest infotainment system. At the same time, the 268bhp 350 petrol morphed into the cleaner and more economical 288bhp 350 CGI.
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Of all the recent Mercedeses
Of all the recent Mercedeses this has the most exquisite dashboard. Love that slab of wood. But of course the satnav is in the 'wrong' place.
Just a thought.......
Maybe if when piecing these used car guide together a “how much to budget” for serving, insurance would be helpful?, knowing how much to set aside each year would be helpful....?
Peter Cavellini wrote:
That's a good point. If I were buying a car which had cost so much new and would have the parts prices to match, I'd want to be keeping at least the cost of the car again in reserve, and preferably up to ten thousand quid, because even normal expenditures like tyres, exhaust, brakes, shocks and so on will be a fair bit of dosh, and if something pricier goes wrong it could easily turn nasty if one were not prepared.
The bigger problem, though, is how many run-of-the-mill family saloons have nineteen and twenty-inch wheels and other unnecessary complexities which will make them an unacceptable proposition for the banger market due to running costs, and will leave us with a huge number of cars with useful life remaining which the people who would be their latter users cannot afford to run.