100k Mile Club: 2003 AMG CL55, 2003 Audi RS6, 1997 Bentley Brooklands, 2004 VW Touareg V10 TDI
If you are ever in the community of Chantilly located in the western portion of Fairfax County, VA with a few hours to spend there is a small dealer you might want to visit. The name Triple Z Motors does not sound impressive, but these guys have the market cornered on high powered, righteously depreciated, luxury sleds. In their inventory they have a 2003 Mercedes-Benz AMG CL55, 2003 Audi RS6, 1997 Bentley Brooklands & 2004 Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI all between $12-$20k. Let’s take a closer look.
What you are looking at is about $300k of MSRP when new, now offered from a two-bit dealer outside of Washington D.C., for about a total of $65k. The current asking price of even the most expensive car wouldn’t have covered the original gas guzzler tax of the combined vehicles. You needed to be a hedge fund manager to buy these cars new; now you can buy one from your summer hedge clipping fund.
First up, we need to address the elephant in the room…figuratively and literally this 1997 Bentley Brooklands is an elephant, tipping the scales at 5440 lbs. Find it offered for $19,995 here on craigslist. The Brooklands is powered by a 6.75 liter V8 that puts out 300 horsepower and 446 ft-lbs of torque. Original MSRP was north of $150k and it brings an exclusivity unmatched by anything in this price range.
Next is this 2003 Audi RS6 offered for $15,900 and is probably the quickest car in this group in a straight line. Power comes from a 450 horsepower (428 ft-lbs of torque) twin-turbo 40-valve V8 that is mated via a 5-speed slushbox to Audi’s Quattro all-wheel-drive system. If you want to go fast, this is the depreciated luxury sedan you are looking for…just be prepared to pay your local Audi workshop premium dollars if anything significant goes wrong.
Speaking of expensive repairs…this 2005 AMG CL55 is offered for $14,995 and offers personal luxury coupe style in a big sedan sized package. The CL55 is based on the S-Class, but uses the same supercharged 5.4 liter V8 from the E55 AMG that puts out 493 horsepower. Given the choice, personally I’d rather have the non-AMG CL600 twin-turbo V12 powered car that tips the scales toward luxury but uses turbos and twelve cylinders to achieve the same cruise missile speed.
The final car in our Appreciation for Depreciation roundup from Triple Z Motors is something a little different; this time torque is king. This 2004 Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI is offered for $12,450 and will return 23 mpg on the highway if you keep your foot out of it. This Touareg uses a 4.9 liter V10 diesel engine that is turbocharged to make 310 horsepower and a staggering 553 ft-lbs of torque. Surprisingly the Touareg outweighs the Brooklands at 5800 lbs for the title of heavyweight champ, but its SUV form offers practicality and a large towing/hauling capacity.
You can find all of these cars on craigslist at the above links or directly on TripleZmotors.com
Originally seen on oppositelock posted by offroadkarter.
That Brooklands should average around $1,200 a month to keep running if you are considering it as a daily driver. Little things will break and you will think "how much could this possibly cost?" then the dealer will explain the junk yards are not exactly overflowing with these things and the three little parts you need have to come from England. So you can wait a month or pay 15 times the normal amount to have parts come on a plane. Then the one guy who knows how the thing works only comes in on Wednesdays (mainly because he now makes enough per hour to only work one day a week) so in your car goes one week and out it comes in another week. Hopefully they give you a loaner, because it will save you renting a car or using one of your others and more importantly since you are not driving the car it shouldn't break. Then imagine this happening 6 months out of the year. My old boss bought one of these to avoid having a car payment, after two years and a consistent fix payment each month he now drives a Lexus.
Great write-up….love stories like this. Actually though, it's closer to $400k in original MSRP ($150k Bentley, $115k Merc, $85k Audi, and about $60k for the Touareg.
Remember Mercedes' 1990s ad campaign that touted its high resale values? Granted, the market for high-end AMG models behaves differently than that of a C-class.
I only have eyes for the Audi. This is the third RS6 I've seen for sale this year and this one is the cheapest by about $10k. High miles hamper the resale here, and folks are afraid of Audi repair bills. Even so, if I were looking for a new DD and had some extra cash to sock away in the repair kitty each month, I would jump on that.
IIRC, there were select Audi dealers with mechanics trained to work on the RS6… denoted by a designation on their dealer directory. I'd still buy it if I were looking.
"just be prepared to pay your local Audi workshop premium dollars if anything significant goes wrong."
Correction: Just be prepared to pay your local Audi workshop premium dollars if anything goes wrong. One of your four oxygen sensors or two EGT sensors fail? Step one: remove engine. What is a $200 job on any other A6 is now suddenly $2000. I love Audis but the only way I can afford to own them is because as a former VW/Audi/Porsche mechanic I can work on them myself. But this? I don't have access to a fully equipped shop with a lift anymore, unfortunately. And if I did, I would be able to afford to have someone else work on it.
I fantasize about opening a dealership that would allow me access to all of these cars while committing to none of them. They would all be delightful to drive one day a week while someone else thinks of purchasing. I'm shocked you can find a buyer for that Bentley at $20k.
From talking to car enthusiast owners who own these types of Bentleys and Rolls they are affordable to DD if you're active on the forums. Many bits are shared with other affordable marques you just need to change the electrical plug. You do need to be prepared for the occasional bespoke part that only comes from Crewe but there is a large support community where you can probably buy a used piece from another enthusiast for much less. Also a fair amount of the bespoke stuff is designed to actually be repaired rather than outright replaced. My only concern with OBDII cars is the amount of electrical gadgetry increases quite quickly. Digital read outs on the dashes. digital climate control, etc etc. Pred OBDII stuff is still decidedly old world and much less complicated and cheaper to fix in that area.
All the above comes from my researches on buying a Turbo R. Still just out of my price range but it's very high on my bucket list.