It's Friday and I'm bored

[Senor_Taylor]

Imagine that little thing passing you on the highway like you were standing still and not even emitting an exhaust note that explains why it's so fast. :lol:

A stock minivan could pass me at 120MPH like I was standing still too. And the "reason" it's so fast would be the same, driver is a fool. I mean, the guy said they haven't even high speed tested the FM Miata. Have fun with that!

Sure but I'm still allowed to enjoy theoretical situations about things I'll never do in cars I'll never own.

You're getting too old and grumpy. An isty bitsy teeny weeny roadster with a bigass V8 should at least bring a little smile to your face just for existing. It doesn't have to make sense.

A ratty NA with a 302 shoved in there for <$10,000 tingles my dingle, not a $70,000 Miata. Excluding the price, I love everything about it.

[SlimKlim]

A ratty NA with a 302 shoved in there for <$10,000 tingles my dingle

You're already halfway there.

[Senor_Taylor]

That was 100% the plan with my white one, which fit the "ratty" description well.

[WRXtranceformed]

Imagine that little thing passing you on the highway like you were standing still and not even emitting an exhaust note that explains why it's so fast. :lol:

A stock minivan could pass me at 120MPH like I was standing still too. And the "reason" it's so fast would be the same, driver is a fool. I mean, the guy said they haven't even high speed tested the FM Miata. Have fun with that!

I bet that thing would float like a hovercraft after a buck fiddy. Really put the Flyin in Miata.

Oh, and on your stock minivan note, I've been having too many bad dreams about the R63 that ends today. Much want.
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Nah brah you don't want

Buddy bought one for his wife, non-AMG and brake jobs were like $6k

[ScottyB]

Oh, and on your stock minivan note, I've been having too many bad dreams about the R63 that ends today. Much want.
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might wanna have a gander at this first. fun starts on page 7.

cliffs: prepare your angus

[G.Irish]

might wanna have a gander at this first. fun starts on page 7.

cliffs: prepare your angus

Wow. $57000 engine replacement quote. German humor perhaps?

On one hand it was nice to see that MB customer service humored him on his issue for so long. On the other hand kinda disappointing that they didn't throw him a bone in any way shape or form.

Then again, I've never had a particularly high opinion of MB or AMG quality given the people I know who've had major issues.

[WRXtranceformed]

Oh, and on your stock minivan note, I've been having too many bad dreams about the R63 that ends today. Much want.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://bringatrailer.com/listing/2007-mercedes-benz-r63/">http://bringatrailer.com/listing/2007-m ... -benz-r63/</a><!-- m -->

might wanna have a gander at this first. fun starts on page 7.

cliffs: prepare your angus

Wow, the advice in that thread started out horrible (pick up a new headgasket, grab some wrenches and try it yourself!) and became much better (I'm a German car parts supplier, MBs aren't built to last, parts are expensive and hard to come by, don't bother negotiating with the dealer just dump it). You don't own an old, expensive car out of warranty and don't expect this to happen, which is weird because it's like he did and didn't care?

[ScottyB]

Then again, I've never had a particularly high opinion of MB or AMG quality given the people I know who've had major issues.

i've suspected the same for a long time and this just cements my opinion more. the days of the Mercedes that built cars to a standard are long gone. they are "lease cars" now, for a clientele that wants the new shiny thing every 3 years...they need to get through that initial warranty period, and beyond that, its disposable.

sadly, i kinda get it. its a numbers game. their customers have money and want new toys on a constant revolving basis. as long as the performance figures stay competitive, and the brand image is satisfactory during the short ownership period, then that's all the need to do to move new units.

You don't own an old, expensive car out of warranty and don't expect this to happen, which is weird because it's like he did and didn't care?

total emotion over logic situation. i think the allure of "this car is the answer to all my wants" overpowered the reasoning part of his brain that says "you've just bought an extremely rare, out-of-warranty AMG and want to daily it". from an enthusiast perspective, i completely understand the cool factor of a rare performance-division car that's super unique. that's a pretty short sighted way to buy a family car though.

[SlimKlim]

Someone want to hit me with the cliff notes cause i dont feel like reading 20 pages about a minivan? It just needed a headgasket? Why is that such a big deal, couldn't an indy shop knock it out for a few grand? Ought to be pocket change for someone that can afford an R63 and several other cars and a house and children. :dunno:

[davej]

total emotion over logic situation. i think the allure of "this car is the answer to all my wants" overpowered the reasoning part of his brain that says "you've just bought an extremely rare, out-of-warranty AMG and want to daily it". from an enthusiast perspective, i completely understand the cool factor of a rare performance-division car that's super unique. that's a pretty short sighted way to buy a family car though.

aaaaand that's how people end up with Priuses (or is it Prii?)

[ScottyB]

Someone want to hit me with the cliff notes cause i dont feel like reading 20 pages about a minivan? It just needed a headgasket? Why is that such a big deal, couldn't an indy shop knock it out for a few grand? Ought to be pocket change for someone that can afford an R63 and several other cars and a house and children. :dunno:

guy realizes AMG built a super rare minivan, wants for his family/daily
finds one cheap off lease because Mercedes resale is borked
drives it for like a week, starts chugging coolant, heads lifted because the head studs pulled out of the block, a known problem apparently
quoted 57,000 American Dollarrrsssoooomgggggg from the dealer to replace super rare things
heads asplode, guy wants to fix it himself because cheap, more bad ideas, he buys a lift,


can't just throw a gasket at it. new studs/helicoil and who knows how much coolant got into the oil and made the bearings cry. i guess a lift is cheaper than a couple grand at the indy shop. whatever, rare AMG does predictable stuff, maybe don't buy one?

[SlimKlim]

Lol sounds like the real fuck up was spending $x,xxx on a garage toy before knowing what was actually wrong with the motor.

I've seen those 55-era AMG engines torn down to the block a few times in the shops my friends have worked in, a total rebuild certainly doesn't seem like a cheap prospect but I'm also surprised it was enough to ruffle the feathers of someone rich enough to buy the car in the first place (as like his seventh vehicle, i did read that far).

[JPolen01]

but I'm also surprised it was enough to ruffle the feathers of someone rich enough to buy the car in the first place (as like his seventh vehicle, i did read that far).

You're suprised a $57,000 bill ruffled his feathers? Even for a wealthy person that is fucking outrageous for an engine rebuild for a street car.

[WRXtranceformed]

but I'm also surprised it was enough to ruffle the feathers of someone rich enough to buy the car in the first place (as like his seventh vehicle, i did read that far).

You're suprised a $57,000 bill ruffled his feathers? Even for a wealthy person that is fucking outrageous for an engine rebuild for a street car.

I'll go a step further and say it's flat out irresponsible to buy a car like that when you have a family (and obviously already a problem with buying cars) unless you research worst case scenario repairs costs and can write those checks without thinking twice. The fact that he and his wife had to sit down and talk about their options means that you had no business taking a flier on a car like that in the first place.

Don't go and buy a lift and throw your truck-wrenching knowledge and more money at it over the next six months. You do what dudebro just did on this forum: stop by the nearest Carmax, take whatever butt rape check they're willing to give you for it and drive one of the other cars you already have until you financially recover. Or go buy a Prius or something, nobody needs a 500hp minivan

[SlimKlim]

but I'm also surprised it was enough to ruffle the feathers of someone rich enough to buy the car in the first place (as like his seventh vehicle, i did read that far).

You're suprised a $57,000 bill ruffled his feathers? Even for a wealthy person that is fucking outrageous for an engine rebuild for a street car.

Well if I drove my $8000 M3 to the dealership with engine issues and asked for a quote it would be $40,000+. (Seriously the short block price on an US S50 motor new from BMW is like $17,000.) Just because a dealership quotes it doesn't mean that's what it costs. Assuming the block itself wasn't trashed then I'm making the uneducated assumption a decent indy shop could do a complete rebuild on one for significantly less than $57,000.

Or he could've just bought a freaking long block on eBay for $6500. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-2L-AMG-Engine-Assembly-M156-156-985-Mercedes-C63-E63-CLS63-CLK63-6-3L-2007-11-/281782345240">http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-2L-AMG-Engine ... 1782345240</a><!-- m -->

Found a thread from owners discussing the issue that seems to back up my logic:

After frequent calls to the dealer and head office, the recognized verbally that it was the fauly headbolts and because I am off warranty they would pay for half. I was excited thinking that was reasonable. Estimate was 42K to rebuild the motor, i would be half. That seemed crazy considereing that it was a known problem. So I researched around town and found a high performance import shop specializing in german hi-po cars and they would rebuild for 10K. So last week i had it towed from dealer into town and we will see next steps...

If you can afford that dude's car collection you can definitely afford $10k for an engine rebuild.

I'm not saying AMG cars are affordable or reliable. They clearly aren't, I'm just saying this dude has no one but himself to blame if he took a $57k rebuild quote at face value and decided to undertake it himself without having the skills to actually do it. He probably spent at least half of what he'd spend at an indy shop just fucking around with it like that, and everyone knows the price goes WAY up if you bring a car to a shop with the motor in pieces.

[WRXtranceformed]

So Dave, with all of that said, do you still want one?

[G.Irish]

I'll go a step further and say it's flat out irresponsible to buy a car like that when you have a family (and obviously already a problem with buying cars) unless you research worst case scenario repairs costs and can write those checks without thinking twice. The fact that he and his wife had to sit down and talk about their options means that you had no business taking a flier on a car like that in the first place.

Well, I'm sure ol' girl knew on some level she was marrying an automotive masochist. But yeah, I mean if you're buying a German car that stickered for stupid money while new, you cannot possibly buy it with 70k miles and no warranty and not be prepared for something to go wrong that costs more than a new car.

Reminds me of a coworker I had who bought a high mileage 760 for something like $16k. Was really happy for a few months, until the fuel pumps went bad. The 2 fuel pumps on that car are $2000 each. And they're at the back of that big ass V12, so the labor was several thousand dollars as well.

[rherold9]

Note to self: don't buy incredibly expensive cars without an extended warranty or get rid of it before the warranty is up :thumbup:

[ScottyB]

Note to self: don't buy incredibly expensive cars without an extended warranty or get rid of it before the warranty is up :thumbup:

this. dont' forget that $18K Porsche/Jag/Merc on the corner has the problems of an $82K car, which it was when it was new.

[davej]

So Dave, with all of that said, do you still want one?

^ I do.

and to answer the "why?"

nobody needs a 500hp minivan