Advice on Mercedes CLK

barnaclebill

Merc CLK 180K 2005/06, both petrol with auto gears, there are two models for sale, one cabriolet and one coupe both FSH and low miles and one owner, one private and one dealer. Both in the same area about 2.5 hour drive away.
I know a lot of members here have owned a lot of cars so anyone know any bad points to watch out for with these, I will be buying more for looks and comfort than performance.
There was also a 2.7 diesel coupe but I found the dealership had a lot of bad reviews on the web.
Thanks

forgotmyname

Which one got serviced more often? I avoid the ones run to within a whisker of the manufacturers limits.

Strider590

Stay WELL away from Mercs of that era. Terrible build quality, terribly unreliable, extremely expensive to fix.

CLK, my mate had one, an AMG lookalike in black, bought from main dealer. The interior started falling apart, the trim around the door lifted and started to rust. EML light started coming on intermittently, coil pack and auto box faults, Merc wanted £3000 to fix it and an £800 an year service bill.

The thing is basically they produce status cars and there are two things that sort of customer wants, a badge and a new number plate.
So if that is your customer base, then what is the point in making a car lasts much longer than the lease term?

petrolhead69

Rusty and unreliable i'm afraid. Nice to drive and look at though.

colino

As these are very much only beautiful in the eye of the beholder, I'm surprised you are having a buying quandary between the shapes. Definitely not my cup of tea and with the corrosion issues, high maintenance costs and clunking diesel, not one I'd personally travel 10 minutes to, never mind two and a half hours. (Driving or flatbed).

lexington013

Well my 2001 CLK is still going strong......14 years old now on a Y plate and handles the daily 62 mile round trip to work with ease. Very reliable, 36mpg, 6 speed manual gearbox.:)

Marktheshark

The 180 series was Mitsubishi engined I think, the same engine they used in the cheaper non volvo (s) engined versions of the Volvo v/s 40 gdi, they put a supercharger on and knocked them out as a cheaper get yourself a Merc version of a Merc.
On the Volvo the GDI engine was unreliable, carbon built up and it was not very good for decent miles, I hear its the same on the Merc.
It selling point was fuel economy.
The higher number Mercs have real Merc engines, the ones that are famous for going around the clock again and again.
The 3.2 Diesel or petrol can do many hundreds of thousands without a cough, the 270 petrol is potent and powerful, but the 180 is not really classed as a "real Merc" by Merc owners.

bigjl

Check out the recent back issues of Car Mechanics Mag.

They had a series of articles on a similar C Class with a Kompressor engine.

It was the 3dr hatch version. But some info may be of relevance.

Other than that buy purely on condition.

Though I would personally go for the tin top.

bigjl

petrolhead69 wrote: »

Rusty and unreliable i'm afraid. Nice to drive and look at though.

05/06 were galvanised I believe.