At $2,900, Is This 2001 Mercedes CLK 430 a Black Friday Bargain?
Today is supposedly the bargain-hunter’s biggest day of the year and since we don’t want to be left out, our Nice Price or No Dice contender is a Mercedes that’s going for practically peanuts. Let’s see if that actually is a bargain, or if it’s just plain nuts.
Let me ask you; do you use those disposable storage containers as your go-to leftover packaging resource? You know the kind I’m talking about, the ones that you’re supposed to not care about sending home with a dinner guest and never seeing again. Yeah, me too.
The 1981 Datsun 210 we looked at on Wednesday was originally intended by its maker to be like those disposable succotash sarcophagi. It was meant to last a few years, working reliably, and then be shuffled off to a junkyard once used up. The thing of it is, our 210 didn’t play by those rules. That’s obvious by it still being around, over four decades later. That’s got to mean something. Sadly for the seller, it may not mean getting the $5,500 asked for the car. At least that’s the way 67 percent of you leaned in giving the car a No Dice loss.
You might not recall it, but a pre-pandemic tradition for many here in the U.S. was to push back from the Thanksgiving feast, fighting off a Tryptophan-induced food coma, and go stand in line outside of a big-box store to be among the first to grab the insanely hot sales that started in the wee hours of the annual Black Friday shopping frenzy. Ah yes, good times.
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These days, Black Friday is more like a week’s worth of holiday deals and most of us just order online and spend the day after Thanksgiving watching football and eating leftovers out of the remaining disposable plastic containers we have lying around.
That’s not to mean that we can’t still find reasonable deals out there for Black Friday, and I’m here to bring you a car that may just be one of those.
This 2001 Mercedes-Benz CLK 430 sports some AMG accouterments, as well as 200K on the ticker. That’s a lot of mileage for an old German car, but then this is also quite a bit of German car, so it may all balance out.
First off, let’s consider the specs. Being branded as a 430 means that this Benz’s marching orders come from a 275-horsepower 4.3-liter M113 V8. That’s paired with a five-speed automatic, which was the standard kit for the car.
It also has the “Sport Package” which adds the bodykit and wheels/tires from the CLK 55 AMG. That all made for some pretty reasonable performance and handling back in the day, with looks to match. According to the seller it still “runs and drives excellent.”
Aesthetically, the important stuff seems to be all there. The top is only shown raised in the ad, but it looks intact and perfectly serviceable in that position. The AMG kit and wheels do show some war wounds, notably a cracked vane in the front valance and some curb rash. Other issues include headlamp lenses that exhibit a good bit of yellowing and clearcoat on the car’s back end that is going AWOL.
The interior could also stand some love. The steering wheel wears an aftermarket cover that doesn’t look bad but might hide some ugliness underneath. The bigger issue is the failure of the trim in the back seat area. That’s pulling away from the backing and looks pretty ratchet. There’s also some staining on the carpet and grime on the door handles. Other than those fairly minor grievances, however, it all seems livable.
The title is clean and while the car is offered as for-sale-by-owner, there are some indications that the seller might actually be a dealer. That’s not necessarily a bad thing and in fact, might just play into our demand for a Black Friday deal. Let’s take a look at the price and see if it follows suit.
The owner/seller is asking $2,900 for the car, and as we just discussed, this is a lot of car. The question for you is whether it’s a decent deal at that price.
What do you say, would you jump on this CLK at that $2,900 asking if you were in the market? Or, do the miles and condition mean a guaranteed no-sale?
You decide!
Modesto, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to RevUnlimiter for the hookup!
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