The Mercedes-Benz E36 AMG Coupe is not a car that comes up for sale often. Most of that has to do with there are reportedly only 68 of them in total, with 24 of them being right-hand drive cars for the UK market. So when you see them, take a closer look. What we have today is a 1995 up for sale in Germany with an impressive color combination and a price to match. At least, I think that’s the case.
In my opinion, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class AMG coupe is as close as a personal jet you can on four wheels. I’ll put it up against any current offering from Bentley and Rolls-Royce and say it is better. Decade after decade, Mercedes seems to do it right with these and the prices reflect that. Funny how that works. The C217 generation that just wrapped up production raised the bar again. The example I wanted to look at today, a 2015 S63 AMG, is now a hard to believe six-years old, but still could pass as a new car. The price? Take about $100,000 off the sticker. Sounds like a deal, right? Not just yet.
Believe it or not, March is here. Funny to say that since it happens every year, but spring fever is going to get hot and heavy. Especially since, well, you know the drill. With spring, comes convertible season. At least for us who live anywhere else but California and Florida. The options are pretty wide when you are looking for top down cars, but dollar for dollar, the R230 SL55 AMG continues to be one the best values out there. As expected, most of these don’t have many miles on them. Even with that, $25,000 buys you a decent example. However, this 2003 up for sale in Florida has an impressive 98,000 miles. Even better? It’s from the original owner.
Ever since the early 1990s, Mercedes-Benz has produced an E-Class that can punch above its weight class. Cool to think about in the grand scheme of things seeing as it is capable as a seven-day a week daily driver, but also a supercar in disguise that can get you to 60 mph in the low three second range. Add in a really nice interior and industry-standard tech like some automatous driving aids, and it is tough to argue against. That is no different with the current generation W213 and it sure seems like that won’t be changing, even with sedans fading away and SUV-type vehicles being the choice of the masses.
Today, I have a 2020 E63 S up for sale in Chicago that you might of noticed is not in the typical black/silver/grey/white. This is actually China Blue and was special order as part of Mercedes’ Designo Manufaktur program that will let you put a custom color for $7,500. This was previously limited to just the G-Glass, but now is available on the E-Class, S-Class, and AMG GT. Mercedes must have been jealous of all the Paint to Sample cars running around across town and decided they would too like to make a bunch of money from owners who need to be different.
I would have loved to have been in the meeting when the bosses at Mercedes and AMG came to the conclusion that the SLK would be the car to launch their Black Series line. Just to refresh, the Black Series was launched in 2006 as a “purist” and “ready for the track” model line that took a few of their AMG offerings and turned them up to 11. They started the with R171 SLK55 of all things, then moved on the CLK63, SL65, C63 Coupe, SLS, and soon to be released AMG GT. That is it. Six models over the past 15 years. Thankfully the American market was blessed with all those models, although a bit watered down, except for today’s car, the 2007 SLK55 AMG Black Series.
Only 100 examples were made and you have to wonder if it was just some sort of test run to see if the people would actually buy them. After all, Mercedes priced this car at €107,300, which is just over $130,000. You can probably understand why the US market didn’t get them now. AMG didn’t skimp on the extras for all that money as you got a bunch of more aggressive body work, some weight savings, cool cloth seats, and a bump to 400 horsepower. As you might have imagined, people like that stuff. That surely explains why this example up for sale in The Netherlands is much more than $130,000 dollars now.
I love “special wishes” cars. Something about a private (probably very wealthy) individual asking a major car manufacturer to make a whole bunch of changes to a car that is already incredibility detailed is interesting to me given how dialed-in production can be. You have every car on the line have a pre-determined build process, but then have one come along and have a totally new set of specs you’ve never seen before. I’d love to see the faces of the workers at the Affalterbach factory when they were given the instructions for this 1995 Mercedes-Benz C36 AMG up for sale in London.
As we near end days for gasoline-powered vehicles, I think we are going to look back at the first 20 years of the new millennium and say to ourselves, “They put what in what?!” Even in the days of $4.00 a gallon for fuel, V12-powered vehicles were in no short supply. All the German marques, with the exception of Porsche, had 12 cylinder vehicles in their line-up and most of them were equipped with a pair of turbochargers. The big sedans and coupes? Sure that makes sense. A lumbering hulk of a SUV that has been in its same body since 1991? Come again?
Somehow, someway, AMG figured out a way to squeeze the M275 twin-turbo V12 into the G65 and boy did it not disappoint. Despite weighing over 6,300 pounds, a G65 AMG would get to 60mph in 5 seconds. That is scary. Even scarier? The price tag. These started at $215,000. Just to compare, the little brother G63 AMG was $150,000. Was the extra four cylinders worth another $75,000? I mean, if you play in the league of six-figure SUVs, why not?
Around this time each year it’s nice to draw up a ‘wish list’ of things that, were I obscenely rich, I’d love to get myself as a holiday present. And if you’re Jeff Bezos, bored, reading this blog, and feeling spendy for some reason, this one is top of my list. What you see here is a car that not many are very familiar with. It comes from the firm Isdera, which doesn’t sound particularly German at all. But Isdera is an acronym for Ingenieurbüro fur Styling, DEsign und RAcing, which does seem particularly German. In fact, I’m surprised it’s not just one word. Anyway, Isdera was the brain child of Eberhard Schulz, who started off by building himself a sports car called the Erator GTE that looked very similar to the GT40, but had gullwing doors. Shulz worked for Porsche and Mercedes for a bit as a result of this impressive prototype, and later moved to the tuning firm B&B which ultimately led to the CW311 show car in 1978. Based upon Mercedes-Benz mechanical components and stylistically the successor to the Mercedes-Benz C111 rotary prototypes, Isdera then launched his own topless form of the CW311 called the Spyder 036i, 17 of which were made, and finally a ‘production’ version of the B&B CW311 called the Imperator 108i.
Not stasfied with 20-odd 108is produced through 1991, Shulz then dropped a 6-liter V12 in the middle of the chassis and hooked it to a Ruf-modified gearbox, Porsche suspension, a windshield wiper yanked from a Japanese Skinkansen bullet train, and a name befitting the founder of a certain Italian supercar maker. The result was stunning in 1993, and I’d argue it’s still pretty stunning today. And if you can pony up a whole lotta cash, the one existing example can be yours early next year.
I think the Porsche GT3 RS vs. Mercedes-AMG GT R debate is a pretty cut and dry one. One is like going to the symphony, while other is going to a rock concert. Both have their places and can be highly entertaining, and neither is in any way not a totally fulfilling machine. Of course the RS is the symphony with its precision skills and nearly flawless execution of nearly everything you can throw at it. While the GT R is the rock concert with its thrashing handling, roaring sound, and wildness that will keep you up to the edge and maybe even over it if you aren’t careful. Which would I chose? Oh man.
It feels like the W211 Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG is flying under the radar a little. Well, at least for now. Maybe it’s their subtle looks or lack of screaming exhaust note, but then again, that was the entire point when this car was new. Keep in mind, this was right when the horsepower wars started between Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi, which ultimately prompted V10s in both the E60 M5 and C6 S6. Looking back now, the E60 M5 is basically considered radioactive in terms of reliability, and people seem not to want to sign up for an aging Lamborghini-esque V10 that requires carbon cleaning and new intake flaps every so often. That leaves the E55, the car with a big supercharger on it, as the most reasonable example to own out of the three. I think we set the bar pretty low here.
