Tell Me Why I Don't Want This V12 Mercedes

CL CL600

I have never owned anything with a V12.  Is this vehicle a good reason to get the hazmat suit on and venture out into the wasteland?  Why or why not?

Those non-turbo early w210 v12 are not reliable. That's a none recommend from me. And I endorse almost all Mercedes v12 purchases

I don't know anything about these cars except that it looks nice and those seats are amazing.

The ad says that it is very reliable. The seller wouldn't lie, would they?

So this was about a $118,000 car when it was new, ref: https://www.motortrend.com/cars/mercedes-benz/cl-class/2002/2002-mercedes-cl600/

So it's lost about $115,000 since it was new 18 years later.  And it's for sale on Craigslist and the seller has stated that it's very reliable. 

I say do it.  What could go wrong?

yupididit said:

Those non-turbo early w210 v12 are not reliable. That's a none recommend from me. And I endorse almost all Mercedes v12 purchases

Maybe... but it's only $3500.  Even if the experience ends in a blazing fireball, the car is cheap enough to not worry about it too much. 

I wonder if this is one of those situation where, if you take the engine and maybe the trans and the related management bits, and *throw everything else away*, you end up with something that's actually reliable.  And then put those things in something basic like a G-body or a Cobra replica.  Is that possible or does the trans need to be replaced as well?

Looks like the air suspension is problematic.  I could make my own coilovers... and at that point why not give it a decent amount of travel, and with the heavy weight, smooth drivetrain, and all the sound deadening, it could be pretty comfy for long distance mild offroading like, for example, being an incredibly badass recce car for a rally.  A modern version of this?

I see no flaw in this plan. A V12 Mercedes for the price of a scruffy NA Miata? Obviously an excellent idea.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Looks like the air suspension is problematic.  I could make my own coilovers... and at that point why not give it a decent amount of travel, and with the heavy weight, smooth drivetrain, and all the sound deadening, it could be pretty comfy for long distance mild offroading like, for example, being an incredibly badass recce car for a rally.  A modern version of this?

If you make it into this, oh yes.

so whens the build thread? 

I would love to watch you endure massive headaches and buy this, build thread please

In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :

Come on it's only depreciated by a little over 97%

Plate says 215 not 210. I don't speak Benz, so no idea the difference.

Keith Tanner said:

I see no flaw in this plan. A V12 Mercedes for the price of a scruffy NA Miata? Obviously an excellent idea.

Wow that really puts it into perspective. A  nearly $100k difference when new and it's worth the same or less now. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Looks like the air suspension is problematic. 

I've owned (and fixed) a couple of vehicles with air suspension over the past couple of years. Arnott makes high quality (and affordable) replacements for anything I've owned. I'd imagine this would be the same.

Have you bought this car yet?

You can pretend to be a F1 car 

Mercedes V12 F1 exhaust

I'm sad because he'll practically drive past my house on his way to buy this, but thanks to self-isolation, I'll miss the chance to see it. 

I know the E class from that era had some suspension rust issues. Not sure if they also appear in the other classes. The trans would be a 722.6 which is mechanically strong but has some electrical bugs that may pop up. Speaking of electrical bugs, this generation of Mercedes has weird electrical stuff. Ours wouldn't run unless the rear window motors were attached. There are many similar problems.

In reply to Ian F :

If I buy it I'll do a burnout in your driveway if you really want...

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

As both driveways are filled, the street in front my house will do.  My neighbor has muscle cars, so this wouldn't be the first time some tire tracks were put down. 

As long as you're willing to walk away from it when a major system inevitably takes a dump (which at $3k purchase price shouldn't be too bad of a prospect), it'll be an amazing experience right up until the moment it isn't. A friend of mine lived this dream a few years ago with an early 90s S600. He managed to sell it before it had any major issues and even made a few bucks on it...though it tried its best to not let that happen by developing a check engine light as we were delivering it to the new owner.

Ian F said:

yupididit said:

Those non-turbo early w210 v12 are not reliable. That's a none recommend from me. And I endorse almost all Mercedes v12 purchases

Maybe... but it's only $3500.  Even if the experience ends in a blazing fireball, the car is cheap enough to not worry about it too much. 

Yeah a partout would be profitable. Those Designo seats are nice nice. But, I've seen early w220 s600's go for even less than this running. Ive even been offered a few for stupid cheap. I passed lol

In reply to bluej :

Yup C215 is the CL chassis for that era. 

Really, how can you not buy it?  You came here to get talked into it, tell the truth.

I'd wait a week until something breaks, and then pick it up for $700.