This V12 Mercedes CL65 AMG Is an Insane $30,000 Used Car

this is a 2006 mercedes-benz cl65 AMG and it is truly insane for three reasons number one when this car was new back in 2006 the MSRP was around one hundred and ninety thousand dollars which is roughly two hundred and forty thousand dollars in 2018 money number two you can pick one of these up today for around thirty thousand dollars just twelve years later and the number three reason why this car is so insane because under the hood there is a twin-turbo v12 with 604 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque this is gonna be a fun video yes that's right I'm standing next to a twin-turbo v12 240 thousand dollar Mercedes with six hundred horsepower and seven hundred and thirty-eight pound-feet of torque that you can buy today for like 30 grand I borrowed this CL 65 from VIP auto here in Pennsylvania a car concierge service for purchasing and leasing new cars without visiting a dealership the CL 65 has just sixty-nine thousand miles and today I'm gonna take you on a tour of it but first a little history now the CL is what Mercedes used to call the s-class coupe and this was the very first AMG 65 model it debuted along with the S 65 and the SL 65 using the same twin-turbo v12 they still use today with basically the same power and torque numbers I remember when I was in high school this thing came out and I remember thinking that it was insane even back then Mercedes is putting how much power in the CL it was crazy is ruined Eyre whose the best modern automotive writer he summed it up best in automobile magazine and an article about the SL 65 he wrote mercedes-benz makes an engine with more torque it's just they put it in school buses so today I'm gonna show you around this thing I'm gonna show you all of its interesting quirks and features as if it's mere existence isn't quirky enough and then I'm gonna get it out on the road and see how it drives and then I'm gonna give it a dug score and from of my thoughts on the cl65 click the link below to visit autotrader.com slash oversteer where i've also compiled a list of the cheapest AMG cars currently listed for sale on auto trader now I'm going to start with the doors because simply getting into the cl65 is interesting now this is such a giant huge opulent luxury coupe that the doors are absolutely massive and so they open a little bit differently than a normal cars doors there is a hinge to open them but there's also this giant mechanism underneath the hinge that I've never seen in any other car and when you pull the door open they don't just swing open but they also come forward several inches in order to provide a wider opening so you can get inside I think the theory here is that if the doors didn't come open like that they would just have to swing so wide that you'd be hitting the car next to you in a parking lot but because the doors come forward a little bit it gives you a little extra room to get inside without having to open the door so wide and damage the car next to you you can see the interesting thing is when the doors are open in a CL they're actually halfway down the front fender towards the wheel you will never see this in any other car a couple of other interesting things about the doors and the doors are open take a look in the door jamb down here it's like full chrome most cars just have a continuation of the door panel or it's pane in maybe there's a little reflective there not this thing it's chrome because even though you'll never actually see that panel Mercedes wanted it to look nice and so it does the other interesting thing about the doors is this car has soft closed doors this was a very unusual feature in 2006 basically what it means is if you push the door closed and it doesn't quite make it it's sort of a little bit of skew the door will automatically close itself the last bit of distance so you don't have to go back to the car and push the doors closed I suspect this feature was especially popular with sort of the elderly customers that the CL was known for when they were weakly shutting the doors the door would help assist and close the rest of the way but I'm not done with the door panel just yet because the door pedal in this car is especially interesting if you take a look at the door panel you'll notice that it's rather complicated in fact I just counted 21 separate buttons on the driver's door panel not counting the door lock and the door handle now my personal favorite are the mirror controls I'll start below the actual mirror control itself there's a little button you push that folds the mirrors in that's not all that unusual a lot of luxury cars have that the unusual part is that there's a separate little button that folds the mirrors back out it's not just a little switch you push it one way and it folds them in and one white fold amount Mercedes made two separate buttons for this purpose and that continues above the mirror control there are two separate buttons for the left and right mirrors you want to control the right mirror you press the right mirror button the left mirror is the left mirror button every other car simply has a switch for this purpose but apparently Mercedes decided a switch simply would not do I also like the fact that the mirror control itself is shaped like the mirror it isn't just a little square like in every other car it sort of has that mirror shape to it so you know exactly what you're adjusting when you push it a couple of other interesting items in the door panel if you look below all the mirror controls you'll find the window switches that's not all that uncommon what is uncommon is that the switch to lock and unlock the windows so your passengers can't roll them down it's absolutely massive it's like two inches by one inch every other car has this tiny little switch down there but this thing has this huge button so that you can lock the windows next up we move on to the seat controls which of course are also on the door panel now the seat controls are not that unusual there's the regular see controlling move forward backward the backrest the headrest whatever there's also memory settings that's pretty standard what I find unusual is the controls for the heated and cooled seats now they're not that weird there's a button for heated and a button for cooled but take a look above them there's little lights that light up to show you if you have your cooled or heated seats on but there's only five lights so one of the controls has three lights and one of them has only two in this case the cooled seats have three and the heated have to do you think the heated seat button ever gets jealous that the cooled seat button has that one extra light something to ponder and since we're inside moving on to the steering wheel take a look at it it's so thick and contoured and substantial it's a really serious steering wheel it looks like it belongs in a sports car what doesn't belong in a sports car is the paddle shifter situation this car doesn't have paddles but rather little switches behind the steering wheel that are supposed to control the transmission but in these old Mercedes they're really just sort of suggestions on what to do rather than mandates which is bizarre the other thing is weird that it tells you which switch does what with these little tiny metal circles on the steering wheel one says plus and one says minus for the plus and minus shift paddles I'm glad Mercedes has gone away from that and gone to actual paddles in its more recent vehicles and next up we move on to my favorite control in the CL 65 one of my favorite climate controls in any car take a look at this when you have it in auto mode with Auto pushed in the little spokes around Auto well they're not lit up why would they be they don't have a purpose but take it out of auto mode and those little spokes suddenly light up they actually do have a purpose and you twist the little dial around the auto button to tell the car where you want the air to be sent back in auto mode and those little diagrams go away because it will automatically choose where to send the air but again take it out of auto mode and you have the ability to send the air where you want those little things are hidden until you actually have to use them which is pretty cool another interesting quirk about the climate control system is just how many auto features there are you have that auto control that I already showed you but in the middle you have the ability to change the amount of air coming out or if you push it in then that puts it in auto mode and then there's the auto mode in the middle air vents there are three little wheels up there the ones on the Left control how much air is coming out of the middle air vents but the little wheel in the middle is weird if you put it all the way down it sort of sends a burst of cool air I don't really understand why but then if you push it all the way up and then it goes back into auto mode even if you have the lower climate control set to auto and the other lower climate control set to auto so there are three different climate control auto modes in this car the other thing I find interesting with the climate controls is there's no off button and you don't just sit there pressing the little lever that controls the air flow until you get it to stop blowing any air at all instead there's a button that simply marked zero you push the zero button and everything stops immediately and that is how you turn off the climate controls in the CL 65 now moving on to the gauge cluster of the CL 65 there are a couple of interesting things in here one of which is the fact that the needles are sort of like floating both the tachometer needle and the speedometer needle they don't have like a middle part they just sort of float around I think they're magnetic or something like that it's a really cool look when you're driving down the road it makes you feel like you're in something sort of futuristic let's future stick is the little screen in the gauge cluster that gives various vehicle information these things are now multicolored and they show pictures of the car this thing is black and white with giant pixels and it looks incredibly outdated it does have a couple of interesting features however one is that this is the fuel economy for the last few hundred miles this is the kind of gas mileage you're gonna be getting if you get a CL 65 also interesting that little gauge cluster display screen when you stop the car and park it you're about to walk away that little screen lights up and it says key do not forget key do not forget it also has a little picture of an old-school key which is hilarious because of course this car is keyless you never have to remove the key from your pocket and the mercedes-benz key doesn't even look like that old-school key anyway now another interesting thing I find in the gauge cluster in addition to saying v12 Biturbo to remind you that you're in a CL 65 the gauge cluster also says Bosch which is a supplier probably the supplier that made the gauge cluster there in Germany they supply mercedes-benz with a lot of parts I'm just sort of surprising Mercedes allowed the Bosch name to be printed so prominently so someone can see it I bet a lot of people looked at that and said who's Bosch next up we move on to the CL 65 s craziest feature and that would be the cupholders now a quick glance the interior you'll see that it has no cup holders but in fact the cup holders are hidden in the center console you push this little thing and then the world's most complicated plastic device appears and it contains the cup holder and if you have to push this little button a second cup holder appears and it's just incredibly flimsy you can just kind of shake it you can see that this would not hold any drink and you wouldn't trust it at all why would they put so much thought into that cup holder and have it be such a crappy piece it is absolutely bizarre also bizarre is the fact that when you open the little door for the couple there you push the button to open it that's a silver little square they need to push a silver triangle to get the second cup holder and you push a silver rectangle to fold the whole thing back into place it's all dramatic overkill for a couple that frankly is probably too flimsy to use with that said also in the center console there I do like the actual center console storage bin and the opening procedure for that take a look at this you press one side and the center console opens you press the other side and only the top part opens which has your little phone connection that's kind of cool assuming that you remember which side to press next I'm moving on to another item in the center although this one is on the ceiling it's the SOS button a lot of Mercedes models have this and I find it hilarious because you have to be really sure you want to press this button and that's because it's hidden behind a little door you push the button and then the door pops open and then you can actually push the button otherwise the button is hidden behind the door so you don't accidentally press it it's like firing a missile in a submarine except it's just an SOS button in a Mercedes Benz and that button probably hasn't been connected to anything for like nine years but anyway back to storage moving on to the glovebox the glovebox isn't particularly interesting but it does contain the owner's manual which is inside this giant case it's actually really heavy it's like as heavy as a laptop I opened it up to find out why it's so heavy and I discovered that the owners manual is split into many different pieces all of which are massive the main owner's manual is 454 pages then there's an owner's manual for the command infotainment system which is another 215 pages the voice control system has another owner's manual which is 69 pages and then there's all these leaflets with warranty information and stuff there's like a thousand pages hidden inside this case now if you're like me and you're wondering how the owners manual could possibly be so long I direct your attention to page 350 and a tab called practical hints and it says what to do if and then it gives various warning lights and tells you what to do if you've gotten them this particular one that I'm talking about says what to do if door open warning light comes on and then it says possible cause you are attempting to drive with the door open and then it provides a solution close the door no wonder they have a thousand pages of owner's manual if they're trying to explain what to do when you see the door open light now despite that giant owners manual for the infotainment system the infotainment system is actually not all that complicated in this car it doesn't have a whole lot of features there are a couple of things that I found interesting about though if you go into settings you will see it's not a touchscreen you have to press the little buttons on the side but why did they arrange the settings like that you'll see that there is one of those buttons that is active and then there's a blank one and then there's two that are active and there's another blank one and it's just completely random you think they would have skipped every other water they would have done it with some sort of pattern but they didn't and that continues throughout the entire infotainment system also interesting the infotainment system in the background of the settings menu oh there's a picture of an s-class and a CL class I think that's because this infotainment system was used in both cars and mercedes-benz wanted to cover their bases both ways if you had one or the other and next up one of their interesting storage item inside the CL 65 there's a hidden storage compartment underneath the seats there's one underneath the driver seat and another one underneath the passenger seat these are actually pretty common in Mercedes Benz models I don't know anybody who stores anything in them but they're there next up it's time for well you know what every time I review a two-door car you people make me climb in the back it's very uncomfortable for me and very amusing for you but this car is so massive it isn't all that hard you just kind of pull the front seat for it automatically glides up and then it just climb in it's a little tricky but it isn't really that bad and now I'm back here the problem comes when you want to put the seat back it automatically goes back into its player position which of course that's not going to be good for me now fortunately that seat is designed not to crush me when it senses my knees it actually stops and moves back forward in order to give me a little bit more room now there are a couple of interesting things in the rear of this car the most interesting of which is the rear headrests now this mercedes-benz like a lot of mercedes-benz models has a button up front to drop the rear headrests that's so you can get more visibility if you don't have rear passengers you push it they go down and you can see better the cool thing about this car in the back seat there's also a button to bring them back up usually you couldn't drop them with the push of a button but you have to manually go pull them back up but not in this car you just push a button if you're a rear-seat passenger and they automatically pop back into place which is crazy because of course no one is ever going to ride in the back of this car and speaking of no one is ever gonna ride in the back of this car mercedes-benz surely knows and that's why even though there's a center armrest back here it doesn't really have any storage instead that's where mercedes-benz chose to put the first-aid kit it's unusually large and its home is the center armrest and the rear middle seat since they figure no one's gonna ever be riding back here and keeping important documents in there or something one other cool thing about the rear of this car and that would be you can drop the back window back here and then this is all pillarless it's completely open and there's no b-pillar stuck up here like in most cars so you drive around and you can just have the wind blowing around the cabin like you're in a convertible even though you're in a big coop back in the trunk you'll find that there isn't really anything unusual about it it's just a fairly standard trunk with one exception there's a little pouch and there's another first-aid kit in the trunk now remember there was already a first-aid kit in that rear center armrest so this car has two first aid kits mercedes-benz how much first-aid do you actually think CL owners need next up we got to cover one of my favorite pieces of mercedes-benz car design one of my favorite car design pieces from this entire era and that would be this rear pillar now this pillar doesn't just sort of come across the roof and intersect the trunk like it wouldn't basically any other car instead it sort of comes down early and then the rear window wraps around it's a really cool look you can see it better on silver and white cars but you can still see it pretty well here and it looks really cool this is a nod to mercedes-benz coups and convertibles of the 1960s back when they were making truly beautiful cars it's a nice look and I'm glad this car has it mercedes-benz has basically given up that design element on any of its modern cars next I'm moving on to the front of this car a couple of interesting things up here one of which is the v12 Biturbo badge on the front fender that badge is way cooler than v8 biturbo or v8 compressor that's when you know you have a serious AMG car I also love the fact that this car doesn't have your traditional windshield washer spray nozzles instead of two it has three different washer nozzles because when you're paying 200 grand for a car well you get the little luxuries in life as for the engine there's not much interesting under here except for the sheer size of it this is how they cram a 600 power v12 in newer Mercedes coupe it really is impressively huge I also like the little label under the hood reminding you battery in trunk in very large print just so you won't freak out when you don't find it under the hood and so those are all the quirks and features of the CL 65 and now we must move on to maybe the best quark of all and that would be simply getting behind the wheel of this gigantic ultra powerful luxury coupe alright driving the CL 65 now the first thing you notice when you get in this car even for just a second is just it feels so solid and just large and heavy it's almost hard to communicate the way that this car feels in terms of like its solidity and its and it's just luxurious miss you don't hear anything on the outside everything feels heavy even pressing the turn signal stalk is like a process and the stability is just insane I mean this is a car that you can just cruise at 120 miles an hour and just live there alright and because I'm a little child I've been in this car two minutes but I have to I can't resist Wow the thing about the acceleration in this car is it doesn't happen like in like an STI where your Florida makes all this racket I kind of Rockets off this car just builds power like a jet it's like a little little more a little more a little more of course that happens faster than that but it just and then suddenly you look down you're going 130 miles an hour it you don't hear it there's no drama there's no there's no like oh my god it's incredible it's just like floor it and then yeah I'm going 120 of course I am I put my foot down and I'm in my cl65 it better be alright I get another choice Wow it is incredible incredible how fast this car is and it does it so drama-free on the camera you're gonna say I want it's really as it fast I can't hear anything I can't hear anything either I'm sitting in here you don't hear that it's fast but you feel that it's fast I was just looking down it was amazing to me how fast the speedometer was going it almost look like an act it's just drama-free smooth speed at your disposal whenever you want it right so now I'm going 30 behind like a truck here you give me a chance to kind of experience the comfort of the CL 65 and it is indeed comfortable it's solid and it's quiet and it's so smooth the ride is so smooth it doesn't quite eliminate the outside sounds like a Bentley or the very highest end luxury cars at the end of the day you're still starting with the CL in the s-class platform and sort of general vehicle which was at the time you know like a $90,000 car I mean even though this thing was like a $200,000 car the base car was is not gonna be able to compete with the true luxury cars going around a corner the car is not athletic it's not quick to but it's just easy you turn it and it's predictable and it's an easy wheel to turn the car doesn't have any or much body roll yeah I mean the car handles fine it it's stable it doesn't roll that much and all that stuff but it's not exactly you know a sports car I mean this is a big large heavy car and you can feel that as you're driving it with that said punching out of long sweeping turns so I'm in the curve and it's you know I'm turning the wheel and it's vague and then I punch out Wow I can just I'm sitting here I can just imagine the idea of just sitting and going 100 miles an hour on a long road trip I mean this feels so nice just sitting here on this long on a straightaway road with with you're not doing anything you're not trying to do anything you're just kind of sitting there and letting the car take you and so that's the 2006 mercedes benz cl65 AMG truly one of the craziest Mercedes models ever made and in fact they still make it you can still get this engine in the s65 coupe which is what they call the CL now or in the s65 sedan or the SL 65 or the G 65 which I've already reviewed but of course if you get a new one you'll pay the full two hundred and forty thousand dollars or you can get this one at a massive discount and every time you drive it you can cross your fingers that nothing happens because I can only imagine what it costs to repair an out of warranty two hundred and forty thousand dollar twin-turbo v12 AMG Mercedes fortunately I don't have to worry about that and now it's time for the Doug score starting with the weekend categories and styling the CL 65 is fine with some nice touches but it's starting to show its age and it gets a six out of ten acceleration does zero to 60 in four point three seconds and it gets a seven out of ten handling is acceptable but obviously not tight or sharp given its size and it gets a 5 out of 10 cool factor is decent though this car is pretty subtle it's only cool if you really know what it is and it gets a 6 out of 10 finally there's importance this car is released with three others 65 models in the CL has been renamed the s-class coupe so it probably won't go down in history as a famous Mercedes Benz still it's relatively significant and it gets a 6 out of 10 add it up in the weekend score is 30 out of 50 which is decent for a car like this next up are the daily categories starting with features the CL 65 was well equipped for its time but things have moved on significantly since then and it gets a 5 out of 10 comfort is very high not quite on the level the best but not far off and it gets an 8 out of 10 quality is OK the interior is nice and high-quality but I wouldn't want to deal with the mechanical reliability issues which surely can't be cheap to fix and it gets only a 5 out of 10 practicality is ok it has a strong 12 cubic feet of cargo space which is good for a car like this fuel economy would normally drop its core but a relatively decent back seat keeps it at a 4 out of 10 as for value it's a lot of car for the money until it breaks then it gets expensive fast it gets a 6 out of 10 bringing the total daily score to 28 out of 50 add it all up and the Doug score is 58 out of 100 which is decent given its age and purpose here it is compared with some other big cruisers it hangs with some of them though it generally gets trounced by the newer ones as it doesn't have the equipment or the performance to quite match the latest crop of grand tourers [Music]

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 3,516,397

Rating: 4.7900791 out of 5

Keywords: mercedes cl65, cl65 amg, cl65, mercedes-benz cl65, 2006 cl65, mercedes cl65 amg, 2006 cl65 amg, 2006 mercedes cl65, s65, sl65, s65 amg, mercedes 65 amg, old amg, doug demuro, demuro

Id: PCP5XZs3Wxc

Length: 24min 51sec (1491 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 15 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/cars_in_mtl]

Man, if I weren't so terrified about the potential maintenance nightmare that this thing could be, it would be awfully tempting.

[u/[deleted]]

It weighs as much as a studio apartment, has enough torque to reverse the direction that the earth spins, drink fuel the same way a writer consumes alcohol and the cost to maintain it is worse than paying alimony and child support for three ex wives simultaneously. In short, it's pretty sweet...

[u/EatSleepJeep]

"Your auto climate requires service."

There's three. Which one?

"We'll need 16 hours of diagnostic to know..."

[u/ArttVandelay]

I want one of these or an old 8 series so badly. Maintenance be damned, as long as I have a sweet sweet pillar-less coupe in my life.

[u/DoctorTurbo]

Is there anything better than a 2 door land yacht with an AMG engine? This and the S65 coupe are just pure pornography.

[u/UberGoogleFuhrer]

Don't believe the hype about maintenance costs. Yes, if you go to a Mercedes dealer/specialist for everything you will get owned on running costs, but the same goes if you took a C250 of a similar year to a Mercedes dealer for everything.

Every single common fault one these cars has been well documented and has various options for fixes available. If you can DIY, have half a brain and don't mind a mid-long term project that you may need to put money into, but will reap the rewards over time (as oppose to a quick pump and dump prospect before moving on to something else) they can be ran for a reasonable amount of money in the grand scheme of 600BHP cars.

ABC is totally worth the extra effort and maintenance over air or coils. The only people that don't like it are the ones that weren't bothered to learn about the system and fix it properly. Period. Active suspension is one of the automotive industries little known cheat codes - Try getting next to no bodyroll in a 4500lbs car and maintain excellent ride quality with air ride or coils. Actually, don't bother. You won't.

Valve blocks can be rebuilt for ~$80 each, pumps rebuilt for ~$100 or ~$600-700 for new units, arnott struts were $700 last time I checked and hoses are hoses. Get replacements built by any hydraulic shop for a fraction of the cost of mercedes ones. ABC doesn't have to be complicated or expensive.

The other common expensive issue these get flack for are coil packs - Yes, they cost about a grand a side. Pay the money and get another 50,000+ miles of usage out of them without worrying. That's about it, unless you're extremely unlucky. Other than that, you'll be chasing the usual 'old car' problems like worn suspension components or the same general 220/215 problems you'd have on a 200bhp S320, which again, have numerous fixes and info available.

Mechanically the V12TT platform is extremely robust, especially in comparison to say, a V10 M5/M6 that are known for spinning bearings irrespective of mileage, or RS6s that eat transmissions irrespective of mileage, or 5.0R Jaguars that are known for timing chain issues.

The 65s are cool, but I don't think I'll ever own one. The price difference over a 600 means they don't make much sense if you don't mind modding. A tune and downpipes will more than bridge the gap in performance over a 600. Granted, a tuned 65 will always make slightly more power mod for mod, but an extra ~$15,000 for an extra 30-50BHP headroom? No thanks. Other than .5L of displacement and slightly bigger turbos, the 600s and 65s are virtually identical mechanically. The most of the other stuff like exhaust, better charge cooling, bodykit and wheels can be added aftermarket for a lot less. Sure, it'll never be a "real" AMG, but it'll still be a baller ass V12TT with 600BHP+.

[u/vouwrfract]

who's Bosch

Who doesn't know Bosch?!

[u/DdCno1]

The magnificent Renault Avantime, which is also a huge pillarless coupe (coupe in the loosest sense of the word), actually has a very similar door hinge mechanism, /u/Doug-DeMuro, except that Renault actually put considerable some effort into hiding the mechanics, unlike Mercedes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29C5XEcVGAE

In case anyone was unfamiliar with this car, it's essentially a two-door version of their large minivan, the Espace. They showed a concept of the Avantime that was very positively received and received so many pre-orders that they put it into production, with almost no changes to the design. It didn't sell though, because there wasn't really a market for it. It wasn't cheap, yet it still handled and felt like a minivan. Since French car manufacturers don't do large engines for tax reasons, it came with relatively docile four and six cylinder engines. By today's standards, with SUVs being everywhere even in Europe, it's not particularly large or heavy, but by early 2000s standards, it was considered massive.

I just love how different and unique it is. It's a timeless eye catcher and despite its flaws, it is probably the car that feels the most spacious from the inside, since it uses a huge minivan as a base for a 2+2 coupe. The interior, which is a slightly upmarket version of the Espace's, still has a futuristic vibe to it and the dashboard never seems to end from the driver's perspective, seamlessly continuing into the hood thanks to the huge windshield.

[u/[deleted]]

/u/Doug-DeMuro I thought you hated the S-Class from this generation. Does that not mean you also hate these?