BARGAIN BENZ

Hi Unique Cars, enjoyed the latest issue (419 – Euro value guide) as always. All of the great suggestions had me searching for a good value European car. I searched through all the Boxter S, 944, BMW M car usual suspects.

Being a BMW fanboy and former E36 325 coupe owner I can give a surprising recommendation on a better choice than the Jaguar XK8 suggested in Guido’s editorial.

The praise heaped on the Mercedes-Benz CLK430 as a surprising performance car made me think of the CLK500, an almost E46 M3 competitor with a more effortless GT form and function.

It turns out that there is a 2003 CLK500 on offer with just 126,000 kilometres for $12,000. All it needs according to the owner is brake discs and pads. A US parts supplier, Pelican Parts, has discs and pads from OEM supplier ATE on offer for US $377. An elderly neighbour owner owns the same model and swears by its reliability, saying it’s only needed regular servicing, but she is a former Jaguar XKS and XK8 owner...

Lachy Brown

much sense, Lachy. I’ve owned a few old Benzes and my experience is they hang together pretty well so long as you keep the maintenance up. So, did you buy the car? values of the collectable cars we’ve stashed away for our retirement? Who’ll want them if they can’t be used?

Gary G Smith