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Mercedes SL AMG55 (should I)


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I went round my mates last night who is a car trader he sells mainly top cars like Porsche,BMW,Mercedes and the like, I pulled up in my Zed and he took quite a shine to it as he has never sold one so not took much notice of them while he was looking over my car I had a look at his stock and he had 2 Mercedes SL's there.

We had a good chat and I'm tempted to buy one of them it's a 2004 Mercedes SL AMG 55 in Black with cream interior fully loaded as you would expect with command and satnav etc. with merc history showing 84,000 miles the price of this beast new was £108,000 he's asking £20,000 for it it's so tempting I could not sleep last night I'm not bothered about running the thing as I only do about 3000 miles a year in my car I'm just thinking my Zed looks like it's loosing money buy what gets advertised on here and maybe the Mercedes has done it's money and should level out for a few years and it's an awsome car :shrug:

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see my post on my SL500..

 

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=26282&hilit=lancie&start=0

 

it cost 1000 euros in France to repair

 

I have moved it on now as it ended up cxosting a fortune in repair bills..it had only done less than 35k miles when I got rid..

 

ps the Merc Garage told me also that the roof mech is prone to faults and costs an eyewatering £12k to replace :surrender:

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see my post on my SL500..

 

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=26282&hilit=lancie&start=0

 

it cost 1000 euros in France to repair

 

I have moved it on now as it ended up cxosting a fortune in repair bills..it had only done less than 35k miles when I got rid..

 

ps the Merc Garage told me also that the roof mech is prone to faults and costs an eyewatering £12k to replace :surrender:

 

Wow, hello stranger :p

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see my post on my SL500..

 

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=26282&hilit=lancie&start=0

 

it cost 1000 euros in France to repair

 

I have moved it on now as it ended up cxosting a fortune in repair bills..it had only done less than 35k miles when I got rid..

 

ps the Merc Garage told me also that the roof mech is prone to faults and costs an eyewatering £12k to replace :surrender:

 

Wow, hello stranger :p

Hiya Chum, how's it hanging ??

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After all it's a V8 and very powerful so I cannot see how you could thrash a thing like this the people that bought these have the money to spend on them when things go wrong it's got a very comprehensive history, my mates lending me it for the day tomorrow :teeth: I'll report back!

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After all it's a V8 and very powerful so I cannot see how you could thrash a thing like this the people that bought these have the money to spend on them when things go wrong

More likely they've got the money to pay for the manufacturer's warranty which covers them if things go wrong ;)

 

£2K up front to save a potential £20K bill? No contest.

 

 

EDIT: Let me put it another way. Find out what the most expensive part of the car is (usually engine or gearbox). Now find out how much one of those costs second-hand and how much it would cost to get it replaced if things go wrong. If it's a cost you can bear then there is no monetary reason to stop you buying it. That's a calculation I've used for every car purchase I've ever made and it's not sold me wrong yet. :)

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After all it's a V8 and very powerful so I cannot see how you could thrash a thing like this the people that bought these have the money to spend on them when things go wrong

More likely they've got the money to pay for the manufacturer's warranty which covers them if things go wrong ;)

 

£2K up front to save a potential £20K bill? No contest.

 

 

EDIT: Let me put it another way. Find out what the most expensive part of the car is (usually engine or gearbox). Now find out how much one of those costs second-hand and how much it would cost to get it replaced if things go wrong. If it's a cost you can bear then there is no monetary reason to stop you buying it. That's a calculation I've used for every car purchase I've ever made and it's not sold me wrong yet. :)

 

Most likely they never bought it in the first place, and leased it. Lease is up, it goes back, Mercedes (or someone else), sells it again...mileage starts creeping up, 2nd owner gets cold feet before things get expensive, and sells it on. And thats the story of your 20,000/150,000 car :)

 

On Top Gear this weekend, they were commenting about the 'cheap fancy cars' they each bought a few episodes back. What was the cost of a single ignition coil on Jeremy's Merc? Something like 800 sterling? Just for the part. With fitting....1200. That's just to replace 1.

 

I have the ability to work on my own car, etc. The only way I'd buy something akin to this type of car used is if it 1. had a good portion of the factory warranty available or 2. an aftermarket warranty that at least doubled the mileage it currently had, was available at a reasonable cost. If not, I'd sooner keep my Z, which I'm presuming you own outright, and run it till it either fails altogether (if you dont take care of it), or till you've got the money to acquire what you truly want new.

 

For the same money, couldn't you buy a lower mileage, lesser model? Friend locally here in the states picked up the previous gen E55 (Supercharged), 34k miles, warrantied till I think 100k, for right around $25k (US). Food for thought

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if yuo think the merc has done its depection and you won't loose much i'd bet against you.

 

my Jag was an £80K car new back in 2000 and its worth less than £10k now, it has the same torque figues as the merc, but its a supercharged V8 not an NA V8.

 

if i was to go to jag for parts some small things aren't bad but any kind of work from them is hugely expensive.

 

but because of the cars age and popularity back in the day, there is an abundance of 2nd hand parts, and suppliers who do new parts alot less than jag do them.

 

i'm also pretty hand with the spanners so i do my own servicing and repairs.

 

so far i've done:

 

Oil - £50 (jag price £80)

spark plugs - £60 (jag price £120)

coolant - £40 (jag price £40)

air filter (performance) - £45 (jag price £15)

coil pack - 2nd hand £40 (jag price £180)

1 wheel speed sensor - 2nd hand £40 (Jag price£86)

4 wheel alignment - £75 (jag price £120)

4 new tyres - £700 (jag price £1200)

 

total spent since june = £1005 (jag cost without fitting costs £1800) (with fitting costs £2450)

 

things still to do:

 

another wheel speed sensor - 2nd hand £40 (Jag price£86)

4 wheel speed cogs - £40 - (jag price £80)

skim front discs - £80 (new discs form jag £1000)

rocker cover gaskets - £30 (jag cost £70)

 

Total to spend as and when = £190 (if i went to jag £1300) with fitting costs £1700

 

just trying to show that big cars can be cheap to maintain if you know what you're doing and you shop around. or how expensive they can be if you don't and just get the main dealer to do it. if you got an independent to do it you could possibly half the fitting costs.

 

i've got other jobs to do but they're optional and not to worried at the moment about doing them or in a rush. and i'm enjoying getting my hands dirty and doing the fixing.

 

to be honest i'm finding the jag about the same to run as the Zed if not cheaper on parts.

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SL55 AMG is a good choice! :thumbs: Service costs aren't too bad if you use and independant specialist with Mercedes Autologic :thumbs:

My bro bought one off the actor Michael Gambon when it was 6months old and he loved it :thumbs:

 

 

Couldn`t have been that good as he has a 3 1/2 year old R8 on his drive now :surrender:

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