Mercedes CL63 AMG
The 2006-on CL63 AMG isn’t just gorgeous; it has supercar heave too. Delimited, it can knock on the door of 190mph and nail the 60 sprint in just 4.5 seconds. Yet you can buy an ’07 example for less than £25k and it needn’t have racked up an intergalactic mileage either. Bournemouth High Performance has a 2007 CL63 in black with 46,000 miles and FMBSH for just £22,950.
But to understand what a ground-trembling bargain the AMG CL really is you need to take a moment to soak in the menacing muscularity of those lines and savour the wobwobwob of that glorious V8. The previous-generation CL55 was fierce enough but the later 2006-on versions have even more grunt yet a much more refined and complete character.
Find a high-spec example (new list was near £120k with options) and you’ll get heated, cooled and massaging seats with electric cornering bolsters, soft-close doors, keyless entry and start, night vision cameras and even an IWC clock in the dashboard.
Select the Comfort gearbox setting and despite 19-inch rims and wafer-thin low-profile rubber the ride quality could shame a Bentley. This is a sensationally well-rounded performance missile.
And while it might not have the petite accuracy of a Golf R you can still hustle it around with surprising confidence thanks to ABC body control, adaptive dampers, poised and communicative steering plus a zillion different suspension and gearbox settings.
The 7G gearbox works better in the CL63 than in many other AMG offerings, with lightning-fast shifts and a demonic exhaust cackle on the overrun.
Punt the CL63 hard and it feels like it could worry a Ferrari 458 with its relentless surge and epic stopping power from composite discs the size of dinner plates. You’ll find your brain backs off the power long before anything beneath you on the tarmac comes unstuck or starts to slide.
In a straight line it rips through those seven gears and bounces off the speed limiter like hitting a punchbag. Restricting this car’s velocity is like asking Pablo Picasso to paint with an aerosol.
Later Mercedes CL AMGS were downsized with the 5.5-litre bi-turbo engine, but the old-school normally aspirated 525bhp 6.3 V8 gives this generation of CL its visceral magic.