[Evoking]

Hi peeps, I am shopping a daily toy. The other cars in the stable are a 15' Huracan, 17' Land Cruiser - family and wife car and a 68' Charger.

I was originally looking at classic Mercedes such as 560 SEL and even 450 SEL. Just wanted something that would be fun and keep me entertained yet daily drivable.

Then for giggles I began looking at CL's and see what is incredibly great by they can be. Yes I understand these are worlds apart. But this is just a hobby and it is easy for me to get into different cars for various reasons. I am sure some of you in this form have the same sort of disease

Anyhow. I'm just looking to get some perspective on the V12. Besides slurping a bit more gas than the 63 are there some over arching reasons that I should avoid one as a daily? Btw I work from home and go to airport occasionally. Otherwise it will be around town driving for errands and with wife and 2 year old.

Those that have 600 what say ye? Do you reccommend? What's ownership like? What should I look out for? The car I'm looking at is a one owner car with 40k miles.

 

[Marsden]

It's a lot of car for around-town driving. Personally I feel faintly ridiculous saddling up 500 or 600 horses to get a loaf of bread at the grocery store. These cars also have active suspensions -- Airmatic (or 'Air Body Control') on most models and ABC (Electro-hydraulic) on the upper-crust models. All of these suspensions become troublesome after a few years' time--typically when the factory warranty expires--and cost a fortune to repair unless you're very handy in the garage and/or have a good personal mech who can retrofit a standard suspension for you. Look up in the W220, W221, R230, and C215 forums for much more on these and other relevant issues. The really expensive Mercedes models don't get cheaper to own as they age: quite the contrary.

Question: Have you considered the new E400 Coupe? It might fit the bill for you, and equipped properly may even be a sound long-term proposition. An E550 variant may be on the way soon if you really need the extra power. Both also offer far more advanced driving-safety aids than previous models--no small factor with our roadways becoming filled with distracted drivers.

 

[Hasagi]

It is a great car, perfect for driving around town like mentioned. I was to buy it for my wife, but we ended up buying something a bit bigger. Maybe if my leases expires on it, I'll look into it again, but from the research I've done it's totally worth it.