Thoughts on potential purchase, CLK 63 AMG

[Marty Y]

I've been looking for a second Mercedes for a while and I would like AMG, I want another convertible so I've narrowed down my options to a R230 SL 55 or a W209 CLK 55 / 63.

This had been on sale then wasn't for a while then reappeared for £15,990 and has now been reduced to £14,990

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I just would like to know if anyone has any thoughts on why this hasn't sold, it looks really good. It's quite a long way away from me so I don't want to travel unless it's worth buying, are there any recommended independents in the area that could have a look for me and how much do you think they'd charge to do a inspection?

Before the price reduction I emailed the dealer and asked a few questions,

My email,
Hi, I'm interested in this Mercedes-Benz CLK 63 AMG, please could you let me know about, The registration number. Any known faults. Any paint or bodywork flaws or rust. The date and scope of the last service and who carried it out. Thanks.

Dealers reply,
Hi, the registration plate is P30 URK
There are no known faults with the car it starts and drives very well.
The bodywork is lovely as can be seen from the 100 images uploaded being fussy a little lacquer peel on drivers front bumper near the headlight washer this is minor but we like being honest.
We did a full service with our local German specialist so it’s ready to go.
Kind Regards
Ibby
M I Carz Limited

 

[s5tuart]

That's looks to be a sweet car to my untrained eyes. I'd buy it!
Good luck.

 

[00slk]

It is expensive would be my only concern but a fine looking car and not many 63 CLK's about.
Worth the trip to visit and we'll worth a sensible offer on it
Possibly more easy on the pocket to run and maintain than the SL55, but I shouldn't really say that as I will be selling my SL55 one day.

 

[DSK]

The 6.3 is a characterful engine but, I found it to be annoying on the road in the sense that all the go was in the upper part of the rev range where you would never be. Also the non AMG models I looked at a few years ago for a cheap spare car all came up with serious rust problems for the sub frames. Not sure if this defect applies to this car. Other members will know more in depth but the 63’ was known for head bolt issues. In that model the full fat AMG models are less well known hence not fast to sell.

Another thing is very few people have such money in this day and age to just buy something like this so this sort of car will be slow to sell as the buyer market becomes narrow and buyers very fussy and clued up.

Personally I think you need to drive an SL55 and the CLK63 to see which you like most as we are all different.

I feel the SL55 is the better rounded option for desirability, residuals, appeal to the classic car punters and real world performance.


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[sausage]

Lovely looking car, that looks to be in good condition. Pretty stock response from Ibby at the dealers. I like to keep a copy of the auto trader advert and the sellers on website advert (screen shots, or right click and save the page as a pdf or similar). Get all things in writing

Why do I think it has not sold? Not sure, but in the post called " If you are thinking of selling, now's the time!" - on page six I asked a similar question about the SL R230s I had seen for sale on autotrader, some of them for many months without shifting. The response back suggested that high petrol prices could be a factor in selling large engine cars at the moment. After all, it seems clear most of the country like to drive small cars that do huge MPG rather than glorious sounding massive engine luxury cars that do low MPG

Another factor could be age and mileage, again, we know most people have been programmed to feel nervous about that combination. However, "we know" this is a Mercedes. If you can afford the worst case scenario repairs this car could throw at you then there is little to worry about

Since getting into fast cars I have always supported the idea that one should keep a few thousand spare in the back pocket for any unforeseen issues. Hypothetically if you buy this at £15k and then have to spend £5k on it over the first year, you should have a lovely, special thing that you will enjoy for years to come. Just remember 90k miles and the age of the car is quite likely to lead to more than average number of repairs as consumable parts wear out. I did similar with a ridiculously specced Range Rover, it was Mayfair London's main dealers ex-demo and had every option. I was third owner, and then spent a year getting everything working again as it should, remote heating, remote control for DVD, air con seats, venture cam - the mechanicals were largely sound, EGRs needed doing, gear box, transfer box, axle oils, a control arm - largely the car was great, but non-essential parts that failed had started to be ignored by the previous owner. I do not imagine an AMG Merc will have been treated quite the same by previous owners, and I would expect more of the Merc to be operational than an old Range Rover, but the process to get it up to standard might be similar in terms of cost. You might need brakes, discs, tyres, gearbox service, some bushes and suspension parts etc etc. It could all add up to several thousand, but if you do that over a year or two - then the costs are spread out.

As always - check everything works. I am still annoyed with myself for not realising that one of the passenger seat heating elements had failed on my car when I bought it. I did even worse with the Range Rover and post purchase my issue list rapidly grew. Part of the challenge is how complex these cars can be (AMG and Range Rover) and until you have owned one it is hard to know exactly what to test and what to check. For example, when I viewed the RR, I had no idea how to check the remote or timed heating, or that the rear DVD remote control did not work and lots of other things.

On this CLK, it looks like there is a bit of wear and tear of the anti-glare finish on the media screen, luckily this should clean off in seconds with Brasso polish - I had to do the screen on my car. The selling dealer was not sure he could make it any better, so I accepted the car with the screen the way it was. It took all of one minute with Brasso to make it look fine.

Sounds like you have an exciting time ahead, do keep us posted.


Edit: Just had a look to see where the car is in relation to Somerset. It is a long way. Having bought long distance before, I was very annoyed when the dealer would only offer to "See what he could do" with the issues, and I had to return the car to him. If you have this issue with Micarz you are a long long way from them. On the risk register, this one would be a high scorer, with little remediation options other than a solid warranty that you can use close to home.

Make sure you pay at least the minimum requirment by credit card so that you have protection under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Then, if you do have issues with the dealer, and you have copies of the adverts and communications (never phone without recording, and try to email instead) you will be able to get help from the finance company, and if they are not good you can refer to the financial ombudsman service. I got about £3000 back via the Ombudsman for my Range Rover. The West Midlands dealer (and the very last time I buy in the W.Mids) was just the same kind of slimy charater I had to deal with last time I bought in the W.Mids, and they basically did nothing, committed to nothing and left me with a long list of issues and the option to spend a day returning my car to them and then being without a car for weeks. Ombudsman was excellent in the outcome they achieved and it was all because of a £100 deposit on VISA.

First red flag: The company name "Micarz" - that alone would make me extremely hesitant to buy from these people. Ok so that is my own prejudice, but I do not believe "serious minded" people ever deliberately mis represent a word or two in such a way thinking that it sounds cool.

Second reg flag: The only trust pilot review is not a good one.

Third reg flag: Shipley, the area and who you might be dealing with. Previous experience for me, has led me to avoid cars in Coventry, Birmingham and Leicester. People that grow up in rough areas around rough people can succeed, but often have a culture and a way about them that IMO is not right for selling complex and expensive to fix cars.

For me, the Achilles heel in this car as a consideration is mostly "micarz" - and what kind of person thinks misspelling something with a Z is a good thing.
Although it does look like "Micarz" have been around for a few years - doesnt really mean much though, maybe they are good at conning people and not refunding

 

[sausage]

Just remember 90k miles and the age of the car is quite likely to lead to more than average number of repairs as consumable parts wear out.

P.S. And these will be AMG sized repair bills Most things will be much more expensive than on a standard CLK.

 

[mioba]

Nice car. Such a motor doesnt come up very often.

If its a car you have been after for a while and given the invest I would not be fussed making a trip to have a good luck - even if it doesn't work out - it facilitates an informed decision either way.

Perhaps get on the phone to the seller, if they have a video phone ask for a walk around - any decent seller would be happy to oblige. speaking to then gives you a felling of thier sincerity which cannot be gagued by email (as seen from the email), where was the service done, what was done, what parts were used so and so forth.

 

[peterws1957]

Nice car. Such a motor doesnt come up very often.

If its a car you have been after for a while and given the invest I would not be fussed making a trip to have a good luck - even if it doesn't work out - it facilitates an informed decision either way.

Perhaps get on the phone to the seller, if they have a video phone ask for a walk around - any decent seller would be happy to oblige. speaking to then gives you a felling of thier sincerity which cannot be gagued by email (as seen from the email), where was the service done, what was done, what parts were used so and so forth.

I agree and I certainly wouldn't be put off by what is only a trading name nor where a the dealer is situated. As for reviews the company has 41 reviews on AutoTrader with a 4.9 rating - Ok not a deal maker, but still. You can overthink these things. If it takes your fancy I'd be speaking the dealer re history and going to look. When I lived in West Yorks I bought several cars in Shipley!

 

[grayb]

If you do go to see it, listen out for clicking sounds from deep in the dash. There are cogs on the ventilation flaps that break - dash out to fix, £1100 for us at MBS ten years ago. We had niggly electrical issues too. But no rust on our 2003 somehow.
We found the suspension on the CLK55AMG was quite firm - potholes jarred a bit. Was a nice car otherwise. Not driven the 63 though...

 

[Marty Y]

Thanks very much to everyone that took time to reply with some very helpful comments.

As mentioned above I'm aware that the main weak points with this particular model can be-

The air conditioning system, a clicking sound behind the dashboard.

Rust in the rear subframe.

The headbolts in the engine, when I got the email from the dealer with the registration number I checked on www.opieoils.co.uk (but at the moment it doesn't appear to be working) and it seems the engine is in the affected range. But if it hasn't gone wrong yet maybe it won't? Does anyone know how to look for signs that there is a problem, eg. does the coolant warning light come on or anything?

The things that make me nervous about this car is the distance from the dealer if anything major isn't right and I have to return it.

That it was on sale then wasn't, so maybe someone bought it then returned it because there was a problem.

It is the cheapest CLK 63 that isn't a insurance cat N but it hasn't sold and has the price reduced twice.

Again thanks for the knowledgeable replies because it's a lot of money that has taken me years to save, and I don't want to buy a lemon so I'm going to try to do as much due diligence as I can. Ideally I want to get a independent who knows what they're looking at to check it for me before I hand over my hard earned savings.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

The nearside has seen paintwork around the door handle and into the rear panel - see pic 6

 

[Wighty]

Maybe the car sold , got returned because of a problem and then got re advertised at a lower price ?

 

[DSK]

Distance can be an issue if you had to go back/forth but you should still go an see it in the flesh as one persons version of mint is not another’s. Also decent dealer won’t reject a long test drive.


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[Bahnsturmer]

Lovely car. Cheap to buy, but you'll have to have deep pockets to run it. Especially with the current high petrol prices.

 

[Mr Badger]

Companies House shows M I Carzs Limited incorporated since July 2012, with only one director ever, he's called Ibrar (Ibby?) Mohammed and not shown linked to any other companies.
Doesn't appear to be a fly-by-night outfit.

 

[grahamcol]

Too many warning signs identified here for me I'm afraid.
Good luck to the op though.

 

[peterws1957]

Thanks very much to everyone that took time to reply with some very helpful comments.

As mentioned above I'm aware that the main weak points with this particular model can be-

The air conditioning system, a clicking sound behind the dashboard.

Rust in the rear subframe.

The headbolts in the engine, when I got the email from the dealer with the registration number I checked on www.opieoils.co.uk (but at the moment it doesn't appear to be working) and it seems the engine is in the affected range. But if it hasn't gone wrong yet maybe it won't? Does anyone know how to look for signs that there is a problem, eg. does the coolant warning light come on or anything?

The things that make me nervous about this car is the distance from the dealer if anything major isn't right and I have to return it.

That it was on sale then wasn't, so maybe someone bought it then returned it because there was a problem.

It is the cheapest CLK 63 that isn't a insurance cat N but it hasn't sold and has the price reduced twice.

Again thanks for the knowledgeable replies because it's a lot of money that has taken me years to save, and I don't want to buy a lemon so I'm going to try to do as much due diligence as I can. Ideally I want to get a independent who knows what they're looking at to check it for me before I hand over my hard earned savings.

It looks as though you have sufficient doubts whether to proceed. I've found when in doubt about buying anything, I don't do it. Also no matter how rare a car (or anything else you're buying) is, another will come along, often better at that. Patience is the key. I'd given up looking for a nice CL65, only for one to park right next to me on the sea front and a few months later it was mine.

 

[mioba]

Too many doubts, come on people the car has not been viewed in the flesh in any detail nor taken for a drive.

Remember its a used car and 15 years old. Any used car will need a pamper/money spent by an enthusiastic owner to get perfect. Bear in mind its an AMG with AMG costs but that should already be accounted for.

What are you expecting a showroom hot of the factory line car.

As to the doubts, phone the dealer and ask - you are creating a self fulfilling prophecy.

Horses for courses and your choice OP.

 

[Hotspur]

I know someone that has an 06 CLK55 for sale at £11995 with 113K miles if interested.

 

[sausage]

Like Mioba, I think this is worth checking out if it is what you are looking for, and that requires a trip to see it. I think the red flags mentioned are largely "spooklative" - like speculative, but only ghosts of red flags at this stage. Until the car is seen, driven, and paper work checked out thoroughly and laboriously it is difficult to know.

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However, one thing to factor in, is the cost of seeing the car and if it is the right one then there are the costs of getting the car home. That is a 500 ish mile round trip to see the car - that would cost me about £120 in fuel and a day, or even two days with accommodation in the general area for one night to break up the driving.
- a second trip to collect the car. Either public transport, or by car and with a second person to drive your car back, unless you are trading in.

Hypothetically, if you have to travel to see the car, pay deposit, go home. Return a week later to collect. That could be 5x 250 miles.

Trip 1 to view the car:
Hypothetically a two day trip:
You go to see the car and pay deposit.
Cost:
£120 fuel.
£30 lunch.
£100 accomodation
£15 breakfast
£30 lunch on way home
Total £295

Or, just do it all in one day with a burger king. £130.

Second trip with your S.O or car purchase mate.
Fuel and 2x burger king £140 - you need to buy your mate lunch too.
Then the fuel to get the CLK back home. £60

Or same costs as Trip 1, plus additional accommodation, food and fuel

So either way, I figure the cost of getting this car to you is going to be between £200 and whatever you want to add on top of that.
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Emotional commitment: One thing I am very strict with myself about is not getting committed to a car when I travel to see one. You have to be as prepared to walk away as you would from a car that is local to you. I suspect dealers often hedge their bets on selling the car to someone travelling the length of the country - don't allow this situation to weaken your resolve. This point leads to a valid justification for having a lot of time on the phone with the seller before hand and asking a lot of questions before you travel.

Do the costs and time of viewing the car put it closer to the price of other CLK? Considering the market for big engine cars, could you find one closer and negotiate the price to be a smaller difference between the Micarz one and a closer one?

Probably requires a decent length test drive too.

The RAC warranty for six months is a reasonable improvement over the most basic offering of 3 months from some selling dealers. Do his other cars sell with the same warranty, or is this to cover something the seller knows about that is going to need fixing with the car? Not that many dealers pay to fix things pre-sale, but tend to rely on after market warranties to fix things after the sale. It is then no longer their problem. Worth thinking about, and checking to see if this car has a better warranty than the others he is selling.

Or, have a look at an SL55 I love the CLKs and looked at a 500 many years ago and was very tempted, but it was in Birmingham and was a seemingly dodgy dealer so I walked. Today, I love what the SL provides and would rather an SL for my purposes than a CLK.