I made the leap in late May and am just now finding time to post pics. It was tough saying goodbye to the Crossfire. Found a extremely clean C55 AMG in Charleston, SC at a used luxury car dealership. 32,000 miles on the odo and two prior owners. The dealership made purchasing the car a cake walk and was run by an upstanding young guy (Luxury Cars of Charleston for those interested).
Stats below:
Trade-in:
2004 SSB Coupe
76,000 miles
$6800 trade-in
Notes: needed four new tires ( would have cost me $1100), had a ding in the rear-passenger side quarter panel, needed a complete re-alignment, had a few paint scratches on rear and front bumpers.
New Car:
2006 C55 AMG
32,000 miles
$24,500
Notes: extremely clean, a few small rock chips in lower front bumper, a few hairline scratches in the paint, interior is immaculate
I have spent a fair amount of time over at mbworld.org and my general impression is that the Crossfire forum is a one-of-a-kind car forum. Because of the sheer amount of Mercedes owners there are far too many forums for all C55 or other C-class owners to be drawn to just one forum. Because the Crossfire is such a unique car and this Crossfire Forum is the only substantial Crossfire forum out there, the collective knowledge of the members and the range of topics covered here is staggering.
I will be stopping in from time to time but just wanted to say goodbye and thanks to all of the forum members who have helped me through their knowledgeable responses to posts and detailed DIYs. Because of this forum, I learned how to:
-change my own brake pads
-change my own headlights
-change the crankshaft position sensor
-change the engine air filter
-change my cabin air filter
-change my own oil
-patch a tire
...and the list goes on.
Once thing I will find solace in is the familiarity of the Crossfire and the C55's engine layout. While the C55's 364hp naturally-aspirated V8 monster is much larger and more powerful than the Crossfire's 215hp V6, you will see in my pics that similarities are immediately recognizable.
Thank you everyone and check out the pics on flickr after the jump! I put a few pics of my Crossfire and a few pics of the new car up.
. on Flickr - Photo Sharing!