My '05 MB CLK500 vs E39 thoughts

Yesterday I had the chance to drive an '05 CLK-500 that was for sale in my area. I've owned my '00 528iA for about a year and enjoyed it quite well. The 528 was a babied one owner when I got it, and now has about 100K miles. The CLK has about 80k miles.

The CLK visually is a stunner. I really love the body styling. Starting up the engine I was dissapointed to find a cylinder missing... it cleared up after several minutes, but ick- who needs that sort of problem to start off with?

The drive went well. It had great power and torque. Handling and ride were similar to my 528 in many ways, tho I think the MB seemed a bit softer and heavier in character. The rear seats are not really suited to full size humans. I found the dash overly complex and it would take quite a while to figure out, and need some practice, I think.

The windows move forward and back, up and down to allow a seal when the doors are opened, very strange to watch. I really liked the hard top configuration, took me back to the olden days There is a plastic arm that moves the seatbelt forward to grab easily when the key is switched on. It looked a little flimsy to me...

When I settled back into the 528, I didn't miss the CLK one bit. I like the relative simplicity of construction, straightforward controls, comfortable ride and decent handling. It really rather surprised me that (other than the obvious power difference), the ride and handling were fairly similar. It confirmed to me having made a good choice in purchasing the 528 as it is indeed quite a well thought out ride.

Just my $.02

Cheers,

RW

Two different schools of automotive design.

i think hard about MB last days as well
love the style of E350

Originally Posted by edjack

Two different schools of automotive design.

True dat, 'tho I thought I would be bowled over by the CLK and was surprised to not be.

Should compare 5.0 to 4.4 not 2.8 vs clk 320

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