MER-CHING
Stylish Mercedes that Jeremy Clarkson dubbed ‘king of the road’ can be yours for less than £8k… it once cost over £100k
It once debuted with an eye-watering price tag, but today this cool car can be found for a bargain
A STYLISH Mercedes that Jeremy Clarkson once dubbed the 'king of the road' can be picked up for as little as £8,000.
The incredible CL600 model that was released in 2007 was once priced at over £100,000 - but can now be bought for a much more reasonable price.
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The former Top Gear host was certainly an admirer when he test drove one for The Sunday Times, teasing the feature with "silence, please, for a new king of the road!"
Praising the luxury set of wheels, he said: "I absolutely adored driving this car.
"It was a new experience - power without sound - but the thing I loved most of all was the way it looked."
"Oh my God, it's gorgeous," he wrote.
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"The balance, the flared wheelarches and the nose. Holy cow. This has the best nose on any car ever made."
However, the Merc's looks didn't quite match it's ride, which he said "felt, sometimes, like I was on a water bed" thanks to its computer-adjusted suspension.
On the car's price at the time, he wrote: "The 600 CL costs £107,097, which is known in banking circles as a very great deal of money.
"It puts the CL in the same 2+2 marketplace as the Bentley Continental, as well as offerings from Porsche, Aston Martin and Maserati.
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"As a badge, the three-pointed star sits among this lot like a branch of Marks & Spencer on Bond Street.
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"But the simple fact of the matter is this. As a car, it beats all of them. By a country mile."
Much of that price-tag is backed up by the bi-turbo V12 engine under the bonnet, boasting 509 bhp with a 0 to 60 mph time of just 4.5 seconds.
At the time, it also offered trailblazing tech that no other car brand had, such as Active Body Control (ABC) suspension to deliver a sophisticated dynamic meant to improve ride comfort.
It was also considered one of the world's safest cars thanks to its PreSafe system, which essentially tightens the seatbelts ready for a crash, and PreSafe Brake that actually applys the brakes for you.
Today, these can be picked up for under £8,000 - with 85,000 miles on the clock.
This comes as a car expert revealed five cheap motors that can be found for under £10,000 with low insurance costs – and that includes a "pretty lairy" BMW.
And James Russell, our friend from The Motor Grid, has urged petrolheads to keep an open mind on the so-called 'poor man's Porsches' as many of these cars handle and drive better than most 911s.
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