2012+ Mercedes CLS550 vs 2011 BMW 550i

Been window shopping for the next DD. Buying this summer when the fleet is finally reduced. Wanted something comfortable with grunt that I won't have to work on like a cheap project car (cpo/aftermarket/3rd party warranties welcomed).

Two cars that keep catching my eye are the w218 CLS550 and the 550i. Both cars look great and have nice interior. Both have a v8 with two turbos and the 550i can come with a manual but rare. They both are a tune away from ridiculous power which I'm not currently looking for. But, tempting. They both sound great; especially the cls with downpipes and exhaust while t he 550i sounds beastly with just simple exhaust work. The 550i seems a little more plentiful and tend to be 5k cheaper than the cls. I honestly can't decide between the two. I've never owned a BMW before and I'm pretty familiar with the reliability and gotchas of the cls and modern Mercedes in general. I don't want to move up and pay the AMG/M tax.

Though, I would pull the trigger on a clean low mile sub 40k cls63. The 2012+ e550 shares most things with the cls550 but slight less power for less money. They even come in sedan and coupes.

One wild card that is hard to find but I always keep an eye out for is the jaguar XFR. There's one for sale in California and it's near enough to test drive this week. But, out of budget. My budget is $25-$35k. But, they seem special and rare to me. I can't remember seeing any on the road recently at all.

Ill probably be looking east for a car, from the looks of it Texas and Florida have cars for 5-10k cheaper. Wth California.

Or, should I say berkeley it and get the cayman S that I've always wanted?

What say you GRM?

Cayman S

I think the newest XJR is starting to appear within your budget now. Have you considered one of those?

CLS550 because..

Ovid_and_Flem wrote: Cayman S

QFT

I'd go with cls if I needed 4 doors. If not, cayman s is hard to ignore, but for a commuter I'd still go with a big Benz coupe.

petegossett wrote:

Ovid_and_Flem wrote: Cayman S

QFT

The way I look at it, the obvious answer is a Volvo 740 with a twin turbo v8 swapped in. But failing that, Cayman S is a pretty close 2ND.

In reply to FlightService:

Looks even better in person. That ass!

The answer is not to buy a modern Mercedes I can tell you that much.

I guess no one likes the f10 5 series lol.

Anyone owned either cars in question?

I am traditionally a BMW over Mercedes man. The CLS is the exception, it is gorgeous all the way around, inside and out. It drives like it was meant to be driven too. (Never owned but had some seat time when I was selling cars)

Sonic has a big CLS Merc, ask him about it.

I'm a fan of small cars as runabouts. You can always rent something bigger or keep a bigger vehicle on standby for the likely few occasions you actually need the space.

EDIT: (read:Cayman S)

Well, I tend to have our kid most of the time. But, he's 6 and comes with no baggage haha. I actually prefer daily driving 4 doors for some reason. Especially fast luxurious 4 doors. I currently daily drive an x308 xjr. Plus, I have a conquest that'll I'll be buttoning up this summer.

Can a kid sit up front in 2 seaters?

Saw this in front of The Shard in London yesterday. Beautiful in person, so cls still gets my vote, however I am not afraid of a modern Benz. Not sure what's up with the scorpion on the trunk lid. There was a Rolls Royce Wraith and purple GT3 RS out front too.

In reply to Cotton:

Not a fan of purple at all, but damn it looks so good on a GT3. There is one that comes out to the local cars & coffee in Austin, it's glorious in person.

Same here about purple, but man that one stopped me in my tracks.

Shiny toys. Not sure I could rock a Barney flavored GT3 but I assume I'd be getting the same tickets either way.

Damn that CLS is nice.

There's a purple gt3 just like that cruising around Irvine. It's beautiful.

Carmax has and cls550, 550i, and xf r. I'm going to go test drive all of them and see how I like them.

I went to carmax to drive a cls550 which I did. I loved it to be honest. It was faster than I expected. These cars are loaded with so much tech and features compared to my wifes Ford of the same year. They look so much better in person than in pictures. Though this particular one wasn't a color combination that I appreciate it was still beautiful. I would really only buy with the amg sport package that gives it that more aggressive look.

While I was there I came across a black on black XF R. It had 11k miles on it and they wanted 54k. The car was gorgeous even more so than the cls in my opinion and the interior was way better (simple and no wood). They wouldn't let me test drive it though. I would have to apply for financing and be approved first. Apparently, this is a new process for them after they had a salesman die as a passenger in a z06 test drive. The driver walked away unarmed so they don't allow test drives on performance cars unless you're approved for financing first. I tried to talk around it by showing them I had cash to buy the car if that was a concern. It didn't work. So I gave up. I rather not have a hard pull on my credit report for a 54k car. I know I'm not going to buy right now; I'll never buy a 50k car anyway that's what depreciation is for