2004 Mercedes-Benz CLK 320 Cabriolet 3.2 V6 gas from North America
Summary:
Just awful
Faults:
Pretty much the entire car.
General Comments:
Bought this 2004 CLK320 Cabriolet for my vacation home down in Florida. A dream turned into a nightmare. Over $9,000 in repairs!
The interior is fading away completely. Soft top and all the mechanics that operate it needed replacing.
The radiator needed replacing.
Transmission shifts hard even though I have flushed it and upkeep it.
Windows rattle and they have been fixed over and over. Speaking of the windows, they do not line up correctly with the closing of the top.
The car shakes awful over every bump. This is known as Cowl or Scuttle shake (never had this on an SL or SLK), but is common with 4 seater soft-top convertibles. Had the suspension checked and it was 100%. Tried everything to prevent the flexing but no luck. Lubricated the seals to prevent the soft top noise and no luck. This car is just a bad design all around. The coupes drive 100X better and are quiet. It is hard to even believe Mercedes made the convertible version so bad and the coupe so good.
I have a clicking sound behind the dash. The known issue will cost thousands and I am not doing it so I live with it. The entire dash will need to come apart the shop said.
This car's performance is terrible. 0-60 in 8 seconds because it is so damn heavy and underpowered. MPG is around the same as the AMG or V8 version so why even touch the 320?
The handing is awful because it's long and ill-proportioned. The ride is the worst part of this car I would say. You feel every single bump in the road and the entire car shakes as if it was not connected to the chassis. The tech... What tech? The navigation system was dated when this car came out. They ran it all the way until 2009. Why I do not know.
Sound system is lackluster.
The back seats are another joke about this car. Why even bother? There is no space because this car is built on a W203 C Class. Huge mistake! Small back seats make an even stronger case for buying an SL or SLK instead.
Fast forward to May 2nd of 2021, and even though this car is rotting away in my garage because I am so disappointed in it, I find out the soft top is having issues yet again and now the A/C compressor went out. $3,500 for the repair that I refuse to pay. So I will let it rot even more until I can find a nice SL or SLK. The repair is the value of the car. Not worth it.
My advice if you want a CLK is just get the coupe version. A much better car all around. They will say it is the same car with a soft top, but I can assure you that it is just not! If you must have an MB Convertible there is the SL or SLK. Do not be cheap and make the mistake I made thinking you are buying a great car for a low price. You get what you pay for! If you must have a 4 seater convertible from Mercedes save, invest your money or wait until the S Cabriolet is in your price range. They ride great! No shaking over bumps.
I have owned dozens of MB's in the past. The highest repair bill was $2,000 and that was on an AMG Coupe. This is a lower-end model and I have spent more than I ever have before.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 2nd May, 2021
4th Aug 2023, 19:49
Wow. Reading that was just crazy. I've owned a couple CLK coupes but never a cabriolet. In fact, I am still seriously disappointed that I sold my last one. I had a 2001 CLK 430 that I got rid of, and years later I found a 2002 CLK 320 that was dirt cheap and one-owner; met a little old Vietnamese lady at the casino and she mentioned she was selling it so I bought it from her for $1,700. The car was literally perfect! It needed two items: a power seat motor on the driver side and a brake lamp switch. $350 all in. This car was immaculate. I used it to commute from the valley to Santa Monica 5-6 days a week for over a year. When I accepted a promotion that took me to Mexico for three years, I left it in my sister's driveway for like 8-months, only driving it periodically when I was in the U.S. to visit. She and her husband already had three cars and then bought a Tesla. So they need the space and I had to get it out of there but had nowhere to put it. I decided to post it for sale online for like $2,500 and a guy called me within an hour from Beverly Hills. His daughter needed a car for college. I let him have it for $2,200 and to this day I could just scream that I did that. The car had 173k miles on it, was dry as a bone underneath -- absolutely perfect drivetrain -- and had freezing A/C so ice cold you couldn't leave it on for long or your nose hairs would frost over! The car was like brand new with new brakes and tires. The independent German shop I used to service it kept trying to buy it from me whenever I went in there. That CLK 320 is the one car I most regret selling in my life and I wish so much I could do it over. I'd still have it. I bet that young lady is either still driving it or whoever is, knows they have a car that will effortlessly go another 200k miles with relatively few problems, if any. Her dad was a pretty smart guy. They got one hell of a deal that day.
21st Apr 2023, 11:59
CLK Convertibles are an awful car! There are so many other rides out there that are better cars to live with.