Buying a C36 AMG
Discussion
Exhaust shoudl be a standard AMG unit with square pipe ends.
USed to ahve one of these myself things to note .
interior - early cars had cloth in amg chequerboard.
LAter cars with leather. Cloth was nice on mine as less slidy in the seat around corners!
Early cars ahve no traction control. Cars after 96 seem to ahve it (same as leather being an option).
Check for accident damage - lots of these ahve been stuffed - and not all of them will be declared on the V5 as a write off. Look for mismatched paint / overspray etc.
It's a great car, sounds awsome and is built the the proverbial outhouse - servicing not cheap - find an independant. Mine cost me around 750 for a major service from a main dealer and nothing was wrong with it!
USed to ahve one of these myself things to note .
interior - early cars had cloth in amg chequerboard.
LAter cars with leather. Cloth was nice on mine as less slidy in the seat around corners!
Early cars ahve no traction control. Cars after 96 seem to ahve it (same as leather being an option).
Check for accident damage - lots of these ahve been stuffed - and not all of them will be declared on the V5 as a write off. Look for mismatched paint / overspray etc.
It's a great car, sounds awsome and is built the the proverbial outhouse - servicing not cheap - find an independant. Mine cost me around 750 for a major service from a main dealer and nothing was wrong with it!
Only ever spoken to one owner of one. Was pretty young, loads of dash warning lights lit up, it made a huge grinding noise on full lock, he was fixing a squeaky belt by squirting WD40 under the bonnet (??) and said he'd just had it repaired because he floored it too much off a roundabout and hit a kerb.
So, with that taken as the typical owner (
) I would personally be somewhat careful when buying one!
Nowadays the prices are around 190E-16v prices. Over a 190E you get more space, 2 more cylinders and 75 or so more bhp, but you lose the manual box, handling's probably not as good, get a horribly awful quality interior and lose the pedigree/history of the 16v.
However, it's still pretty nice if you just see it as a very fast C-class (though I've never driven one).
Personally I much prefer the much newer C32 AMG which can be had for not toooo much. Or a 500E / E500.
So, with that taken as the typical owner (
) I would personally be somewhat careful when buying one! Nowadays the prices are around 190E-16v prices. Over a 190E you get more space, 2 more cylinders and 75 or so more bhp, but you lose the manual box, handling's probably not as good, get a horribly awful quality interior and lose the pedigree/history of the 16v.
However, it's still pretty nice if you just see it as a very fast C-class (though I've never driven one).
Personally I much prefer the much newer C32 AMG which can be had for not toooo much. Or a 500E / E500.
As the man said - spend time looking fora good un - expect to pay upwards of 8k for a car in decent nick without spaceship mileage. Mine had 70k on the clock when I bought it - felt and looked like new. That cost <12k 4 years ago.
Mine got written off (don't lend car to your mate when you go on holiday!), a garage bought the wreck and got it back on the road - figure this happens to a lot of these cars so service history and HPI are paramount here otherwise you coudl end up with a rusty dog, or even worse something dangerous.
Mine got written off (don't lend car to your mate when you go on holiday!), a garage bought the wreck and got it back on the road - figure this happens to a lot of these cars so service history and HPI are paramount here otherwise you coudl end up with a rusty dog, or even worse something dangerous.
I had a C36 three years ago and enjoyed it for 6 months before Mr DynoRod in his van used it for brakes.
The front and rear were both squashed - what made it a write off was the cost of the AMG bits especially the front and rear spoilers.
I also had a slight weep on the head gasket - cost £1700 to dismantle the top half of the engine and fix at a Merc dealer. For once I was glad I said yes to 1 years warranty.
I declined to have a new AMG airbox (about £300 from memory) as it was only the retaining lugs that were chewed and the airbox was still ok.
The only other minor problem was slight body rot on the rear wheel arches where dirt built up.
The good thing is most people don't recognise them and leave them alone ...
Cheers
Chris
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