2019 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG Long-Term Road Test

2019 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG Long-Term Road Test

Read the 2005 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG's introduction to our long-term fleet. See all of the 2005 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG's long-term updates. 180,000. If there was a luxury option or accessory available on a Mercedes-Benz, it was on this car. Yet the real excitement was its 6.0-liter turbo V12. The engine generated 604 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque and was the pinnacle of AMG technology in 2005. Even its five-speed automatic transmission was heralded in the day. Flip the calendar eight years. There we stood in a Reno, Nevada, used-car dealership. In front of us was the same CL65 that turned heads in its prime. Horsepower, exclusivity, mechanical complexity: It was all there. 34,000. We made one last mental calculation of the potential cost to maintain a car that multiple sources warned was significant, and then we pulled the trigger. We purchased a CL65 with 56,000 miles. At 60,000 miles significant factory parts were scheduled for replacement. So it can be argued that most of the work performed during our test was of the routine variety. Just not to the degree we expected. 11,551 and 41 days in the shop.

Add 1 quart of oil. Replace burst hose between pump and valve block. Add 1 quart of oil. Could not duplicate. Stored misfire code but no engine light. Car started and ran at dealer. Replace 4 ABC system damping spheres. Add 1 quart of oil. Add 1 quart of oil. Add 1 quart of oil. B-Service: replace engine oil and filter, air filter, rear diff service, safety inspections. Add 1 quart of oil. Along the way, we gathered various quotes for low-priority items that we declined to repair. No recalls were issued during our test. EPA estimates for the CL65 were 13 mpg combined (11 city/18 highway). We averaged 14.3 mpg after 16,000 miles of testing. The best single tank was 19.6 mpg and the best range 408 miles. We learned the CL65 market was saturated with crickets. 15,000 offer, which we declined. 20,000 and we agreed. For those keeping score, that's 41 percent depreciation from our purchase price. Compared to other used long-termers we have purchased in the past, the Mercedes' numbers aren't great. Our 1985 Ferrari 308 and 1985 Porsche 911, both sold for more than we bought them for. The CL65 is still not the king of depreciation, however, as the value of our 2002 BMW M3 dropped 43 percent during its term of service.

What's more, the CL65 was freakishly consistent. Each pull was almost exactly the same to the horsepower as the prior one: just a smooth arc of torque accompanied by a muted whoosh. The CL65 AMG's brutally hard fuel cut was the most violent thing I've ever experienced in any car on the dyno. No soft rev limit here: the power slams off so hard at 5,200 rpm the entire car jerks the straps holding it down. 2005 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG The engine revs low, like an old-school big-block pushrod engine. But, no, this is an SOHC mill, albeit still with only two valves per cylinder. I'd wager that the stock turbos are backpressuring the heck out of the engine at high revs, anyway, making more revs moot. Still, what a torque monster. It's too bad it's backed by such a mushy, syrupy automatic gearbox that saps out any snappiness this engine might have. Automatic gearbox-equipped cars are always more tricky on the dyno than manual ones.

Slushboxes think they're smarter than you, downshifting at inopportune moments (which results in an aborted dyno run). But the CL65 AMG turned out to be no problem at all. Just click it into manual mode and it will hold exactly the gear you choose. 2005 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG By the way, the results you see above were achieved in third gear. I tried using fourth but there was a speed governor that shut the party before the revs ran out. So I went back to using third so that I could get a full pull all the way to the rev limiter. I'd expect even larger dyno numbers in fourth gear. For kicks, here's how the CL65 AMG stacks up against the modern twin-turbo 5.5-liter M157 V8 in the 2012 CLS63 AMG. I dyno-tested this car on this same dyno a while back. 2005 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG As equipped with the AMG Performance Pack, this car is rated at 550 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque at the flywheel. Er, flexplate. Or whatever. 65 cars with a 7-speed gearbox instead of the 5-speeder in our CL65 AMG. Two more gears makes for bigger numbers in more ways than one.