My mums husband got a CL 500 a year ago,and it is pretty epic. His one is the later engine and gearbox,so its a 7 speed auto. At 70mph its just above 1k RPM. The later 500,s were a NA 5.4 i believe,where as the earlier ones were a 5l. He had a CLK before that,and he thought it was rubbish. Build quality was shocking,and the feel and touch of everything was worse than my mums mk1 SLK (his words not mine) If you can afford it,go for the CL,its a total barge,but its a epic way to travel. Yes the wood trim is abit gash,but you can wrap that,or im sure buy some aluminium replacements from somewhere. Remember Top Gear,Clarkson bought one,and needed to replace the coil pack,at £1200 or something. So be warned,it maybe 10k now,but its still a £100k car when it goes wrong. Also,sourcing tyres can be an issue, as the Merc ones are specific to the CL i think.