Had the pleasure of driving my buddy's 2005 CL65 and that thing was FAST. The prices are really coming down. Just saw a 2005 CL65 go for $60k on ebay.

have an 02 cl 600 for sale 51k miles 43500 clean

WOW....that is really hard to believe unless it had big miles, rim curb rash and shopping cart dings!

The power will amaze you. You will think your Mustang was in reverse when you drive the AMG. Only Mustang that will compare to the 55 is the Shelby Cobra with the 500hp 5.4 supercharged. My buddy has the Shelby and it is wicked fast. The superchargers really hit hard on both cars. I drive a SL55.

If I remember correctly, it had something like 20k miles. However, it was a factory buyback due to some electrical issues that needed to be fixed. Was being sold with the balance of the MB factory warranty in place. The seller was that place in Chicago that seems to always have a lot of CL's on ebay (Chicago Motorsports). It looked to be in excellent condition. My buddy bought his CL65 from them and it was a great transaction.

It seems like quite a few MB's are on ebay that were factory buybacks. I am probably going to pick up a used SL55 or CL65 in the spring.....should I avoid the factory buybacks?

RUN FORREST RUN!

Buybacks are just outside the guidelines for lemon law cars. I sent 2 back in 4 years (03 E500/ 07 GL SUV). Both cars you would not want to own, even if 1/2 price. The E500 ran great but a/c smelled like mold and electronics sucked (radio would eat a module weekly, keyless go never worked, lots of BS trouble codes on dash panel). The GL left my family stalled out on the side of the road twice in the first 30 days of ownership even before 1st payment was made! I got 2 tow truck rides and I had enough.

Both deals were good for me, both cars were returned with little or no money out of my pocket. The GL was replaced with another which has 19K miles in 7 months of flawless service and it has 6K in options (free to me) the first one didn't.

Jupiter...........MB bought back my 05 E500..same thing
with the smell of mold. They took out the interior 2 times
on the third trip back I was done. They took it back and
I got an 06 CLS500. More electrical problems, codes etc.

I think this is going to be my last Benz...I'm going to try
BMW 7 series.

the early models had a few problems, try to find an 03 or newer.

E and CLS share platforms so they will have similar troubles. They ripped out the a/c (28 hours labor) and replaced with all new and 90 days +/- the mold was back, smelled like wet sneakers left in car.

I switched over to an Audi A8L and after 49K miles the car was flawless. My wife broke the cupholder and a thermostat stuck on the motor, thats it. All maintenance was free. The car was great but the 1K lease ballooned into 1400+++ when I went to replace the car. The resale has been dismal on the car due to the VW flop, Phaeton so the leases ballooned up to accordingly.