Good morning! Today’s year of choice is 2001, and I’ve got two enticing German cars for your consideration. And if it wasn’t obvious from the title, today’s musical digression is the wonderfully noisy 2001 album White Blood Cells by The White Stripes.
Yesterday, we looked at two cars from 1983, set to the tunes of The Police’s album Synchronicity. Some of you took one look at the Sentra and thought “O My God,” while others thought that chasing down the Thunderbird’s fuel delivery problem would turn you into the King of Pain. In the end, however, it was the T-Bird that had you wrapped around its finger.
I have to say that, in this case, I’m Walking In Your Footsteps. The Sentra is an interesting curiosity, but there’s nothing compelling enough about it to make me want to own it. The T-Bird is at least a good blank slate for some fun, but don’t go too crazy, or every move you make, the cops will be watching you.
Let’s jump forward in time to 2001, and an album I love for a very specific reason. I am, as my friends know, a terrible guitar player. I’ve been playing since high school, but have never gotten serious enough to get any good, so I just bang out some chords when I feel like it and call it a day. I have discovered that, with my trusty MXR distortion pedal, I can kinda-sorta sound like I know what I’m doing when I play along with the right record.
So when I first heard the loud, distorted guitar intro to “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground,” I was hooked. I was already a White Stripes fan, but White Blood Cells was the album that really got me. (And then, of course, Elephant lost me again.) I love the energy of it. It sounds both way out on the ragged edge and completely in control at the same time. It’s deceptively simple, but I often catch some little nuance I didn’t hear before when listening to it. And if you agree, then I can tell that we are gonna be friends. Let’s look at some finicky, overpriced German cars together.
2001 BMW 325i Touring – $6,950
Engine/drivetrain: 2.5-liter dual overhead cam inline 6, five-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Odometer reading: 193,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
BMW enthusiasts as a group are a funny bunch. They’ll extol the virtues of their cars at any opportunity, singing the praises of the smooth engines and the finely balanced handling, claiming that nothing else is as good to drive. Ask them about reliability, and they bristle and equivocate: Yes, it’s reliable – if you do the maintenance you’re supposed to do. Ask for specifics on what this “maintenance” entails, and you’ll get a long list of items replaced at what sounds like shockingly low mileage, even to someone used to GM and Chrysler cars. Mention that this sounds like a lot, and the response is a haughty “Maybe this car isn’t for you.”
Well, in my case at least, they’re right: I have dealt with a BMW 325i of this generation before and was never so happy to see the taillights of any car disappearing after a sale. “Death by a thousand cuts” is the best way I can describe BMW upkeep. We only had it for three months, and I don’t think there was a weekend in that time I didn’t spend fixing something. Still, they are awfully nice cars to drive, and when I see a really clean one like this, in a great color, and a wagon, even, I start to think: Could it really be that bad?
This E46 wagon is claimed to be a one-owner car, and “very well maintained,” but it’s for sale at a dealer, so I’ll believe it when I see all the maintenance records. And at 193,000 miles, there should be a thick stack of them. It does look really clean, so if it checks out mechanically, it could be a safe bet.
And it’s a wagon, which is something you don’t see very often from BMW here in the US. That’s a shame, because wagons are incredibly useful vehicles, and BMW makes handsome ones.
2001 Mercedes-Benz CL 500 – $5,300
Engine/drivetrain: 5.0 liter overhead cam V8, five-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Santa Clarita, CA
Odometer reading: 88,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Now we turn our attention from a relatively simple and straightforward BMW to a nightmarishly complicated Mercedes. The CL-Class was the flagship two-door of the Mercedes-Benz lineup for a couple of decades, and during that time, the folks from Stuttgart threw every technological trick they had at this sleek coupe. This is the “entry-level” CL 500 model, and even it features Mercedes’s notorious ABC active suspension system and more tiny electric motors than a slot-car tournament.
It sure does make for a nice car, though. The CL takes the concept of “personal luxury coupe” and turns it up to 11, with enough gadgets to impress even the most jaded country club patrons in 2001. And sure, this one isn’t an AMG or a V12 version, but it’s still a slick-looking pillarless hardtop coupe with a powerful and reliable V8 and Mercedes’s excellent 5G-Tronic automatic.
This CL 500 is also a one-owner car and has a scant 88,000 miles on its odometer. The seller doesn’t offer a lot of information about its history beyond that, though they do say it has new tires. But since the seller is also the one owner, you should be able to ask the right questions, and hopefully receive that coveted stack of receipts in return.
Of course, although it’s in great shape now, future troubles and their associated repair bills could strip the bloom from the rose in short order. This is a shockingly complicated twenty-three-year-old German luxury car, after all – not a vehicle for the faint of heart.
Though it isn’t explicitly stated in either ad, I’m sure both of these cars have pretty good stereos in them. Back in 2001, I think you would have been hard-pressed to find anyone driving around in either one blasting “The Union Forever” (“What would I like to have been? Everything you hate”), but time and depreciation have leveled the playing field a bit, so either of these pricey Germans could be your personal Rosebud for a lot less than they cost new. You can choose between a private-school-ready wagon and a senior executive’s chariot. Which will it be?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
My brother had a CL600, and he had literally $25,000 of warranty work into it when he sold it. Fast car. Comfortable car. Utter hell on repair costs.
That is a very, very different vehicle. The V12s, whether in NA or twin-turbo guise, were utter trash.
All of the V8s that could come in the C215 were very reliable.
That air suspension was in both, and was 5 figures to repair.
Not air suspension, hydraulic (ABC) suspension. Big difference but yes, the ABC suspension can be ruinously expensive to maintain. This is why many people rip it out and replace it with coilovers. There are a lot of high quality options on the market now.
Beemer- looks great especially the color…I like these better than the Mercedes, especially since the Merc has more complicated features like the suspension system, etc
Hey my 330i is reliable! What maintenance did I do you ask? Well the entire cooling system, most of the oil seals, the power steering pump, the rear diff mount, the interior pillar trim pieces…why are you walking away? Psssh. It’s not my job to impress you anyway…where is my 10mm socket…?
I have an E91 and keep looking at E46 tourings as a potential third car. Had to vote for the wagon.
The Mercedes ABC suspension is notorious even outside of the Mercedes shops for it’s complicated problems. I’m not willing to invite that into my life.
OK, I’ll go with the fantasy that both have that thick stack of records showing that all appropriate maintenance and repair issues have been properly dealt with. With that in mind, I’m voting Bimmer. I like the wagons a lot and I’ve had excellent luck with the 3-series cars having driven an E30, an E36, and an E90 each well beyond 200K miles. This is a perfect opportunity to complete the series.
If the name was in the right order you’d have my attention, but 2001 BMW is just backwards.
The problem with the BMW is it’s too practical to not use it a lot but it’s beyond its daily driver best by date. The Mercedes was never gonna be a DD, and fits in my life as an occasional car. So I’m going with it.
My E46 is my Daily Driver. I don’t see how it’s past it’s “best by” date. It’s extremely reliable, gets decent fuel economy, and is rather practical for such a small car.
I’d choose the CL over the high mileage E46 any day.
Those $1500 saved will be used towards a coil spring conversion set once the ABC suspension goes out.
The E46 wagon looks lovely in that shade of blue and the mileage doesn’t show in the interior nor exterior, but it’s still overpriced for what it is and you know you’ll have to shell out some extra $$$ for a cooling system overhaul.
The BMW is undoubtedly in lovely condition, but I can’t say that I have the same affinity for German wagens (see what I did there?) as much as others. Give me the impossibly complicated and fussy Benz and let me live the life of regret that I so richly deserve.
That BMW is parked at my old hometown’s muni golf course. It was a great place to retrieve golf balls from the woods for resale at the now-defunct swap meet.
No plates vs out of sequence plates.
Both are highly sus.
Maybe not. The out of sequence plates may indicate the single owner moved there recently. Service records or a CARFAX should provide that quite easily
Or the original plates were replaced at some point, for any number of reasons. 23 years is a long time.
I’d take the E46 over the CL without a second thought. Yes, they’ll both break, but parts for the E46 are much easier and cheaper to come by than Mercedes parts. If anything in the CL’s ABC system goes wrong, the repair costs start at 4-digits, and that’s if you DIY the labor.
why would you repair the ABC on a 2 decade old car when a coil spring conversion costs ~$1500 + labor?
At this point, this is the correct response.
Fair point. Then you only need to contend with all the other electronic modules in the car being angry, haha
The E46 is a great car, but a lousy wagon. The E39 is a bloated pig with a cramped interior. The Benz has a terrible Chrysler-era interior befitting of a Neon and is missing a few doors. But that Benz transmission is indestructible. Parts are mostly a wash, but E46 wagon specific parts will make you cry. Last time I priced out the replacement plastic parts for the cargo area on mine I stopped counting dollar signs after two grand.
Gun to your head, pick the body style you want. Otherwise hold out for W203 wagon. Or a C55 sedan. When the hydraulics take a dump, put the conventional parts on it.
I’m also a BMW fanboy to the bitter end and work at a BMW dealership, so I’ll always pick the BMW. That being said, I wouldn’t pick the E46 wagon, I’d rather have an E34 wagon. I’ve owned two of those and 7 E34 sedans, and they were excellent cars. Well-built, easy to work on, handsome styling. Just don’t ever buy one with an automatic transmission, manual is 100% the way to go with any BMW before 2000.
I already have a Stahlblau Met. BMW wagon with an M54B25 (in to-me-preferable E39 guise), so I have to go for the Benz. I love their hardtop coupes, though a C124 would probably be my first choice.
My two favorite bodystyles. Unfortunately, one is engineered by BMW who expects exotic car maintenance and introduces problems one may expect from a tiny-budget small production car company into their nice, but ultimately pedestrian cars. Of course, the other is that terrible Bingo night color that infected the 90s and 00s that I was glad to see all but disappear. I guess I’ll vote MB—it’s cheaper, it’s a true hardtop coupe, it’s got much lower miles, the suspension can be replaced with something else, it’s a V8, and ultimately, MB is the only German company I’d buy a car from with the exception of Isdera and then only the Imperator 108i.
As breathtakingly beautiful as the BMW is, I’m going to vote neither of the above and write in my previous car, a 2001 VW Jetta 5M TDI. Being of German heritage, if not its assembly, it had its share of problems. But I loved it and would still be driving it if I hadn’t moved from Washington state to Texas. Roads with 75 and 80 mph speed limits/suggestions just weren’t fun in that car.
Sold it with 165 K on the clock to some guy who went all sovereign citizen, got pulled over by the cops and had nearly every window broken as he resisted arrest.
Greta the Jetta deserved a more dignified final chapter.
“BMW enthusiasts as a group are a funny bunch. They’ll extol the virtues of their cars at any opportunity, singing the praises of the smooth engines and the finely balanced handling, claiming that nothing else is as good to drive. Ask them about reliability, and they bristle and equivocate: Yes, it’s reliable – if”
I can’t understand why BMWs are like this. Is it so hard to make a car with the famous smooth engines and the finely balanced handling, nothing else is as good to drive BMW character WITHOUT the cavet “yes, it’s reliable – if”?
Think of BMWs like Huskies. They’re super cool dogs that are really fun, loyal, etc., but wow do they require a lot of work in exchange (and they get fur everywhere).
BMWs from this era are awesome for a particular subset of people like me who:
Many owners only meet #1 – they think “wow cool, a BMW!” without realizing the commitment they are making.
Mention that this sounds like a lot, and the response is a haughty “Maybe this car isn’t for you.”
This sort of thing is what made me buy a British car. Despite the occasional problems I’m pretty sure my old Jag involves less pain than just about any luxury German offering from the 90s or 00s.
I bet your old Jag involves a similar amount of pain, as I find that old Jags are not as bad as many people make them out to be, just as old German cars aren’t as bad as many people make them out to be.
I don’t really like sweeping generalizations about huge swaths of cars. Basically every manufacturer has made some cars that were duds and some cars that were very reliable, and some in between.
Oh wow, am I qualified to write on this. I currently own a pre-LCI E46 in the same Steel Blue Metallic (although mine is a sedan), and I have owned four Mercedes from around the same generation as the C215. The C215 is also my personal favorite Mercedes of all time, and I plan to own one some day.
The description about the E46 being reliable if certain maintenance is completed is very apropos. We BMW owners bristle because too many people buy these beautiful cars without understand what they are getting into. It’s like buying a child a bunny for Easter – seems great at the time, but if it’s an impulse purchase and that bunny isn’t properly cared for, it’s going to live a very lonely, miserable life.
The E46 platform is very reliable when cared for. The list of things to replace is actually rather simple, but it’s kind of required for any E46 purchase unless it’s very low mileage or has a lot of documented maintenance:
If you do all of this and tackle any other problems, the M52TU or M54 engines are extremely reliable, as are all automatic and manual transmissions that came with the E46. They also have that magical BMW steering/handling/practicality combination. The interiors are made out of very high quality materials are are nice places to be.
Best of all, the E46 is an awesome car to learn how to wrench on. The online community on forums like E46Fanatics are second to none, and the car was designed for ease of servicing. There will be a written tutorial and a video out there for anything you might possibly have to do to the E46, and an army of helpful people on forms willing to give advice. For me, the ownership experience has been awesome and I would have no qualms about getting in my 236,000 mile E46 and driving across the country tomorrow.
The C215 really only has two problem areas, but they are big ones:
Otherwise, the M113 V8 is extremely reliable and will run for hundreds of thousands of miles with just regular oil changes. It’s not just reliable for a German engine – it’s reliable full-stop. The valve cover and breather cover gaskets can leak oil; replacing them is easy. There are 16 spark plugs as there are two per cylinder, so that can make spark plug replacement a little pricey.
The 722.6 transmission is bulletproof with regular fluid and filter changes. The electrical connector needs to be replaced with an updated one or it will leak and can ruin the TCU in extreme cases. That is a super easy item to replace.
Otherwise, the author is 100% wrong that the C215 is a complicated bundle of German engineering waiting to break. This was a super expensive flagship vehicle made when Mercedes was at the top of their game. The electrical systems are all very reliable, and the drivetrain, as aforementioned, is very stout.
I would not buy this particular C215 because it doesn’t have Distronic. That’s a surprisingly common feature, and having adaptive cruise control is really nice. Mercedes got Distronic right from the start and, although not as sophisticated as modern adaptive cruise systems, it still works well and has a very low failure rate.
You are the guy I’d call before I buy a German car. Lots of wisdom.
Wisdom and stubbornness are easily confused 😉
The wagon, easily. Yes, I know it will be painful. Own a JSW TDI and already have the experience, so it won’t be anything new.
Ha! Came here to saw this! Well, that and…TWIATA…the wagon is always the answer!
Beemer Wagon.
Benz will require Starlink for real maintenance items. Booooo. Also – unsure if the transmission is also ‘permanently filled’ like on the W210s of the era. Because we had a W210 wagon, and that whole lifetime fluid / permanently filled transmission was the devil.
And the BMW will need BMW Scanner, INPA/ISTA, and NCS Expert. Mercedes DAS is easier to use than the BMW stuff, although the BMW suite has better online documentation. This is a silly and inaccurate point.
The transmission fluid is not permanently filled; this is wildly incorrect. Both the transmission pan and torque converter have drain plugs. Changing the transmission fluid and filter is very easy and cheap.
I’m usually on the wagon train, but I kinda like the look of this CL. Both will have expensive upkeep, so the lower entry price & original mileage is more enticing.
Isn’t the C215 beautiful! Imho, it’s the best looking car Mercedes ever built.
The wagon. The answer is always the wagon.
Lower miles, lower price.
It seems counterintuitive but E46 wagons are hot right now. Ultimately the C215 is the smarter choice and you get more for your money – if you have the means to replace the suspension with coilovers.
However, this is not a bad price for a clean E46 estate, and I am particular to pre-LCI estates since it is extremely hard to find an LCI E46 estate that isn’t AWD, which comes with a whole additional set of issues.
I just went with the cheapest option, because either of these would bankrupt me, so I might as well get it as cheap as possible.
I had a 330i of this gen a few years ago. It made me fall in love on the test drive, and then stranded me on the side of the road on the way home. That basically summed up the 8 month relationship.
I doubt the Merc is much more reliable, but it can’t be worse.