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The Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM AMG not only holds the crown for the most amount of three letter-monikers in the model name, but also that of the craziest bodywork that you can’t believe is factory. I don’t want to re-cap everything, but if you want to re-read my post about this model from way back in 2016, feel free. As mentioned, these are extremely rare and qualify to be imported to the United States under a “show or display†exemption at a heavy cost, but it is doable. As the price of this one up for sale in The Netherlands proves, you can probably swing it for you are able to write a check this size.
Dumping a bunch of money into a car and having it be worth than what you spent is rarely a math problem that makes sense. Usually if the math does make sense, you have to spend tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes hundreds of thousands. With today’s car, that is not the case.
This is a 2002 Mercedes-Benz CLK320. A seemingly forgettable car in terms of Mercedes coupes as it followed up the legendary W124 coupe and a long line of stately coupes prior to that. It was based on the W202 C-Class but had every intention of making you think it was an E-Class coupe. It was not. The build quality with a step backwards from the W124 with cheap materials and soft looks, but that didn’t matter to prospective buyers as it had a “fresh” look heading into 2000 and the lease deals were good. Then the car got old and everyone moved on. Today, they are pretty worthless in the Mercedes world outside of the very best CLK55 AMGs and it will probably stay that way. The seller of this CLK320 had a different feeling about that. Let me explain.
Last week I checked out a 2011 Mercedes-Benz E550 Coupe and broke down how even though Mercedes calls it an E-Class Coupe, it was about 80% W204 C-Class and 20% W212 E-Class. This isn’t a new thing as Mercedes has been doing this for a few generations now and today we have another example of this in a 2002 CLK55 AMG up for sale in South Carolina. This W208 looks like a W210 E-Class cosmetically, but under that metal is actually the chassis of the W202 C-Class. Inside, you have a small handful of parts from the W203 C-Class and many more parts unique just to the CLK55 and not from the brother of this car, the W210 E55 AMG. Once again, buyers of this car probably had no idea of all this and probably didn’t care all that much either. C’est la vie.
The seller of this sweet CLK55 AMG Brabus 6.1 has dropped the asking price to $39,950, and is offering a special $4,000 discount for GCFSB readers simply for giving us the nod! Thanks to the seller and check this car out!
Ever check out a car and think ”How can they possibly make it better?” Well, this is what we have today in the 2003 Mercedes-Benz CLK55 AMG Brabus 6.1. What started life as a CLK55 AMG – already a really good platform – was transformed by German tuner Brabus into something much more unique and much more powerful. The beauty of these creations is that while almost every piece of this car was tweaked and the dial turned up, you’d be hard pressed to find any faults in them. The unity of the package retained the understated but aggressive nature of the stock example. The craftsmanship and quality are just as good if not better than what comes out of the Mercedes factory and the livability is retained just as you were driving a totally stock car. But all the little details are what makes this car so special. Scratch that – the big details are pretty special, too! This one up for sale in Dallas is no different.
Earlier this week I checked out a great 2000 Mercedes-Benz SL500 with some Designo touches that hit all the right buttons for me. Today, we have another Mercedes-Benz convertible with some Designo treatment, but this one is a little bit different. What we are looking at is a 2003 CLK430 finished in Designo Mocca Black paint with Designo light brown leather interior. I think the thing about the W208 is that it wasn’t really great at anything. It had the enormous task of replacing the W124 Cabriolet that was and still is an outstanding car in more ways than one, but the first-generation CLK Cabriolet was strange mash-up of W202 and W210 parts. Yes, it looked fresh at the time and had a lot of modern updates for its era, but at the end of the day you could really feel that the quality just wasn’t there like the W124. That doesn’t mean it is a bad car, but rather one that you knew from the beginning what you going to get out of it: an average experience.
