Residing with a 2000 Mercedes-Benz CLK 430 convertible means residing with a mixture of eccentricities and searching ahead to sunny days.
I’ve owned my 2000 Mercedes-Benz CLK 430 convertible for simply over 9 months. It’s passed by quick, as life usually does while you’re busy. However the time has been punctuated with alternatives to get pleasure from and respect the automotive, together with a superb street journey.
Even so, it hasn’t all been idyllic. Like with all outdated vehicles, just a few points cropped up. The CLK is an outdated Mercedes happening 23 years outdated. It’s a mixture of eccentricities wrapped in Sensible Silver Metallic paint. Optimistically, I believed I purchased a superb automotive for a superb value however anticipated just a few surprises. It seems I used to be proper on each counts.
Why I Purchased It
I’ve all the time wished a Mercedes-Benz convertible. My first two selections had been the R107 or R129 SL Class, however costs for a superb one had been out of my attain. I additionally wished room for 4 folks and one thing with a V8 engine. That led me to the CLK.
Final yr an area vendor listed a 2000 Mercedes-Benz CLK 430 convertible with the AMG bundle. All summer time and into fall, the value dropped on it. By late October, my job grew to become 100% distant. I bought my commuter automotive and appeared on the CLK. It had 74,000 miles and a clear, well-documented service historical past. It match 4 folks. Better of all, the 4.3-liter model of the M113 makes easy energy with a satisfying rumble. I supplied the vendor the identical cash I made promoting my different automotive, they usually accepted it.
I nonetheless assume I got here out forward.
How It Began
Throughout the first two months, I put the highest down anytime the temperature was above freezing. A fast errand or a Sunday drive, it didn’t matter. December was heat and delicate. Christmas Day was 60 levels. The CLK was out most of the time, all the time with the highest down. Even when it was chilly, a heat jacket, gloves, and heated seats made open-air motoring pleasant.
Then it snowed. I let the automotive sit for per week, and it drained the battery.
Soar beginning a CLK is a convoluted course of. The CLK’s battery is within the trunk, which I couldn’t entry with my key. As a substitute, I needed to open the hood, energy the automotive’s electrical system utilizing the optimistic terminal, after which open the trunk. Soar-starting the automotive proved equally tough. The battery was utterly lifeless. No quantity of charging would deliver it again. It was additionally two years out of guarantee, so I changed it with a brand new AGM battery from my native auto elements retailer.
Since then, I’ve realized to drive the automotive each 2-3 days or put it on a battery tender. It has a gradual drain on the battery, which hasn’t been a precedence to repair. Like every outdated automotive, my Mercedes-Benz CLK has points. Along with the battery drain, one of many valve covers leaks oil. The stereo head unit gained’t play CDs. And there’s a pesky warning mild telling me I’ve a burned-out lightbulb after I don’t. All minor issues I can dwell with.
How It’s Going
The CLK is small in comparison with fashionable vehicles. That also surprises me as a result of it drives like a much bigger automotive. In it, you lookup at folks in Honda Civics. It’s shorter and narrower than a Mini Countryman. But it surely’s nonetheless sensible. Spring sprung, resulting in extra driving.
The CLK grew to become an impromptu pickup truck, hauling an evergreen and 4 boxwood bushes dwelling throughout considered one of many runs to Costco. It’s shocking how a lot cargo you may haul. A number of issues will match within the trunk below the convertible high, and it’s simpler to haul five-foot tall timber with the highest down than in my spouse’s SUV.
I’ve additionally observed the CLK undergoes a outstanding metamorphosis with the highest down. It’s like you might be in a parade. Folks stare at you. The CLK’s styling makes it stand out in a heard of crossovers and vans. It’s stunning in individual, a subtly elegant design that grows on you. Footage don’t do it justice.
What seems to be blocky and slab-sided in 2D takes on a subtly sculpted type in actual life. The entrance finish bridges the traditional and fashionable eras. A proper grille leans barely again, yielding to aerodynamics. The oval lights have flip indicators constructed into them, recalling the stacked headlamp design of the 300SEL. The AMG bundle, with its extra aggressive entrance facia, facet skirts, and Monoblock wheels, enhances the CLKs clear traces.
Ah, however let’s speak about these Monoblocks.
Just lately I took the CLK to my mechanic earlier than a street journey. It wanted two new rear tires, and two of the Monoblock wheels had been bent. Apparently, it’s a typical sufficient prevalence that his store has a service to recondition wheels. Fixing them value me $200 every. The automotive additionally wanted a brand new steering damper. Complete harm to my pockets, together with the oil change, was $1,280.
It may have been a lot, a lot worse.
9 months in and I nonetheless love driving it. Peter Egan, the longtime editor at giant for Street and Monitor, as soon as wrote about “Automobiles of Event.” Automobiles you drive for enjoyment or deliver out for particular occasions. Or, as he writes, a automotive “whose emergence from the storage makes us really feel as if we’re rolling out the large weapons.” Sooner or later, I’ll sort out the valve covers and chase down the supply of the battery drain. However for now, I’m too busy making my very own events.
Images: Mark Webb