Fun Fact: It has a heating spiral in the washer fluid resevoir. So when you want to wash some bugs off your windscreen it does with hot fluid (and works way better)

When I was a teenager I worked extra at a car dealership where the owner had a silver one of these. He wanted it washed almost every day. In the flesh they are massive. Built like a tank. At the time I never understood how expensive and rare it was.

The W140 chassis had some of the coolest features. 1. Rear mirror (photochromic anti glaze) - adjusted from the console, no need to even raise your hand 2. Double glazed windows - also include obstruction sensors 3. Remotely closed windows from the keyfob (not a luxury feature now, but it was back then) 4. Soft close doors and power-assisted boot (trunk) 5. Pop-out boot (trunk) handle 6. 12-way adjustable seats including memory function 7. Electric retractable side mirrors 8. Electric fold-down rear headrests for better vision when reversing 9. 4 zone climate control with active charcoal filter 10. Electric rear screen blind

What I really like with JayEmm, is that you don't just get an honest and straightforward car review, you always get a bit of automotive history lesson at the same time.

I had a '93 600SEC (the ONLY year it was called the 600SEC - it was renamed CL600 in 1994). Bought it with less than 40k miles on it. Absolute mint condition. Paid $13,500. New it was $135k. It depreciated 90% by the time I bought it. That's about $3 per MILE of depreciation from the time it was new until I bought it from the original owner. I like to think of it this way... Gas was about $3/gallon back then, so every 300 or so miles when the original owner filled the fuel tank, he'd spend about $60 for gas and $900 in depreciation!!!! Cost him nearly a grand every time he opened the fuel cap.

The "small fan thats broken" will be the aspirator motor in the overhead console. It draws air in to sample the temperature for the climate control to make sure it's getting an accurate reading of cabin temp. About £40 from the dealer and 5 min to replace.

If I had the spare cash and somewhere to park it, I'd snap this up in an instant. I've always fancied luxury cars more than fast cars, and in particular, I've always wanted an S-class - a long wheelbase saloon, preferably. But I'm also very tempted by the coupe. This is exactly the kind of car I love most.

The C140 600's grandfather is the Jagdpanther tankdestroyer of WW2; stramlined looks, large gasoline V12 and high maintainance 🙂

Thanks James. I remember a very old video in which J Clarkson said you can buy a cottage for the price of one of these which was around 90k. Just imagine how much the cottage is today.

+400hp was not "modest" for the period. This was the most powerful car you could actually drive every day! This outpowered the supercharged XJR and XKR, Ferrari 360 Modena, the whole BMW range... if you wanted more power, you'd have to buy a Ferrari 550 which is NOT an everyday car.

These are the videos I love best - older, niche, affordable future calssics. There is definitely something about the old luxury barges.

This car was huge. When these came out I had a 560 SEC, a gorgeous car, and a friend had got one of these monsters. He'd traded up from a 560 SEC. He regretted it constantly. As these cars were so tech filled anything that could go wrong would. He soon sold it. After owning the 560 for over 10 years, I traded up to the CL55 coupe. A beautiful car inside and lovely to drive and look at, not like this car, until one day...I didn't drive it for a few days and came out to get in and couldn't open the power close doors. The new battery was flat. Put a new one in, under warranty, and the same thing happened again. The MB dealer had it on and off for weeks. Could never find the fault. Told me the drivers door memory switch was the fault, $2k later the problem was still there. Then the suspension started to fail. Replaced the pump, another 3k, only to find I'd started a chain reaction. Now the car would be down on its haunches when I'd go to get in it. Have to hit the suspension lift switch. Was told that the suspension shocks were leaking. If you replaced one the others would then fail as they were older, so you had to do all 4 corners. At $6k each!!. The new E class was just out. I traded in a fast as I could. These old MBs are too expensive to maintain. A bit like my Ferrari 575. But at least it holds its value and is a real joy to own and drive. As always, a great review.

Reminds me of my neighbour who was a hi-fi fanatic and was unable to truly enjoy anything he listened to as he was always overly-attuned to every little imperfection - like going to a classical music concert surrounded by people eating popcorn.

My dad had 1 in Florida from 98 to 2012 , beautiful engine lovely to cruise 🚢 long distance

I have 1997 W140 S600 and I daily drive it to and from work. The car is great but it has its fair share of problems as well. I do work and do all of its maintenance as well. When I do drive this, it puts a big smile in my face and I feel like "El Presidente". Take care.

My favourite ever Mercedes is the C140. I saw one as a kid with those huge doors and ever since I've been hooked.

Wow I remember when I was one of your 30k subs, now approaching 200k !! Good work lad, in a car industry thats losing its soul, seeing cars we grew up wanting really makes this the best car channel on the internet 👍

I worked at Mercedes-Benz when we made these. The problem was always the styling, which did not attract the buyers who had loved the previous C126 coupe. It was hard to sell, even when new, but was packed with technology and if you find one with full service history and careful ownership, they are quite amazing. I would definitely recommend an inspection by a Mercedes dealer or specialist before purchase.

I love this style of car reviews, it brings me back the the very best of top gear before it was all about blowing stuff up 👌

I like this generation of CL. One of the lecturer in my university has one. Every time I went home and see that black CL600 parked I do feel a tinge of jealousy and admiration.

I drove a couple of these back in the day and loved the smoothness and effortless acceleration. I remember the original TG review where JC compares this car with a countryside cottage and both cost the same at the time. Amazing.

These look much better in the flesh. For some reason photos never seem to do this one justice. Really nicely proportioned.

That generation Mercedes,W140/C140 were the absolute peak of engineering. Any model after that was just going downhill. Some might argue,but even every next model was technically more advanced,from engineering pov it couldn't come even close to that family. And I say that as non Mercedes fan. I just appreciate and recognise quality when I see one.

Excellent and accurate review. These have very solid powertrains, though their general complexity and parts pricing does make them expensive to maintain. People who didn’t care for them and let them deteriorate but still limp along have certainly made it a costly undertaking to restore the cars. With that said, every late model C140 CL600 is worth saving if it’s not excessively rusty or crashed. My W140 S500 has been a costly car to maintain, not because of the powertrain but rather everything else. However, I love the big, smooth, stable, over-engineered land yacht feeling it gives to drive. It’s pretty shocking that someone was able to buy this for 3k GBP, even with some issues. I guess that dealers in dealer auctions don’t want to deal with these. In Canada, a 1998 CL600 in the decent but imperfect condition you drove would be worth around $15-20k CAD in private sale.

These cars have absolutely SUPERB build quality. Things aren't going to break when properly maintained. Of course it's 25 years old and you have to put some new stuff every now and then but the only really costly part is the air suspension if it goes bad. But even that isn't terrible as there are good alternatives for replacement. Amazing car, very good video again. Thanks.

Remember in 95 there was a black s 600 coupe in my town and everytime i saw it i took a good look around it. It was my dreamcar at that time.

Interesting.... It is a model that I have liked and I have never seen a nice one for less than £5,000... Thanks for being dead straight about the cost of maintenance being very high. Top review... 👍👍👍

The "fluid suspension" in the 90's S Class and this coupe is actually a reverse engineered version of Citroen's Hydractive system. Because unlike Rolls Royce/Bentley who licensed the system from Citroen, Mercedes "coincidentally" made a system using the same fluid, same spheres (they're even green just like the Citroen ones), and in general the exact same functionality, and paid no royalties to Citroen. Except the fact Mercs didn't have selectable ride height like Citroens did (but neither did Rolls Royce/Bentley).

As an American I always have envied Great Britain's used car prices (even given our global situation), it's still crazy you can get a decent quirky older car for ~£3000, even taking conversion rates into account.

I ran the saloon version of this car (600SEL) for some 16 years and boy, whilst being fabulous cars they are VERY expensive to maintain. Fuel consumption is between 11 & 19mpg and the V12 engine will almost certainly require the timing chain and guides replacing between 90,000 - 100,000 miles. Service items are expensive, 6 lites of engine oil for an oil change, 12 spark plugs (the very rear ones being a nightmare to access) and 2 air filters (it has 2 throttle bodies!) Engine wiring harnesses disintegrate meaning a trip to the MB dealersip (a new one has to be hand made (££££££££) at the MB factory as they are not stock items) and throttle body wiring also self destructs. The dreaded N10 multi function relay is also problematic leading to ASR & SRS problems. Rear hydraulic accumulators leak/puncture requiring replacement and the associated hydraulic pipework is troublesome. Front coil springs fracture regularly and brake discs/pads require frequent replacing. Fantastic cars to drive though, just dont EVER think you can run one on a tight budget - because you cant.

My dad has a 94 sl 600 and here in New Zealand I have full cover on it for $450 nzd a year and I’m 21. You guys in England really get shafted for young drivers with big engines

I had a CL420, bought for 2000 euro. Never enjoyed the steering feel as if was far too light, but may have been due to the speed sensitive power steering not operating as it should. Obviously difficult to compare two back to back give their rarity. The next owner eventually sold it for 10k after it being advertised for nearly 4 years. Glad to have had the experience but it was a case of 'never met your heroes'. I'm happier with my C126 and was in awe of a C216 I had for a short while, another magnificent beast

Fantastic review James , as always !! I came extremely close to buying one a CL 600 as my first " mid-life crisis " car . The car drove beautifully , I remember it had such charisma and presence . The salesman was very keen to start the paperwork , I asked to view the car on a lift and he really started sweating , upon inspection ,it was dripping every fluid known to man and the exhaust had been welded with some type of foam filler !!! .Naturally , I walked away and soon after bought a 2004 Pontiac GTO ( Vauxhall Monaro ) , with headers and a sports exhaust which ticked all the boxes :) I would love to see you review one of those , I imagine you would enjoy it very much ! .

In Q4 1999 51 W140CL were still road registered in the UK. There can't be many left!

Perfectly timed video, James. Currently hunting the right C140 600 here in the US.

Amwesome. Love that your constantly buying all the cars I have in the states. Great content as always

I know as an ex Pom living in Western Australia, the reason cars deprecate so fast in the UK is they rust like crazy !

Absolutely awesome 👌🏻 What a stunner. It’s great to see these big luxury executive saloons still being driven. I really do love it and always feel great when I see something like this out on the road. Thanks for showing us these big classics 😉👍🏻

I really love this model! I had one and it is my biggest regret selling it. The brakes are actually good, but they will only work the way they were intented with genuine Mercedes components, unfortunaly.

Brilliant video matey, had 3 of these over the years, bought all off them very cheaply one was a dutchalet and carat, which allegedly cost 120000 when new in 1994, also had a few of the saloons and some r129 sl,s , not being flash everything was in the trade and keenly priced, but my point is most were 5 speed automatic,s and I never had any trouble at all, in fact I always used it as a positive when it was time to move them on. The electrical gremlins did catch me a few times ,very expensive to repair anything on the blower systems, entire dashboard out jobs, very time consuming and very expensive if you could find someone to even take the job on. After a while you become more casual about having a car were everything works , the odd warning light on here or there or a switch the didn't do anything anymore ,never really detracted from driving about in these things, just great car's.

Back in the day, I bought an S600 140 when it was 1 year old with 40k kilometers for 40% of its new price, in Switzerland, was told by the Swiss Merc dealer who maintained it, the 12 cyl engine was a sealed unit guaranteed by Mercedes for 300k kilometers. One bank of 6 cylinders had electronically controlled acceleration, the other bank of 6 cylinders had mechanical control, so electrical. problems would allow a 6 cyl limp home mode of 200bhp. Even at just over 1 year old, the main dealer service and maintenance costs were over £7k equivalent a year and insurance was the same (no long warranties back then). When it came out of the company leasing I hit it over the head with a shovel, because of its running and insurance costs at nearly £20k a year. Beware of the eye watering costs, these have great build quality but it’s like a swiss watch.

Veeery nice video.Im a huge MB fan,and i also do alot of MB stuff on my channel.But a little correction to the "CL vs/ Sec." thing..is that this is still an S class coupe..aka SEC.The reason for Mercedes Benz changing it to CL..is that Mercedes changed the model designations to suit their new nommenklature. The same happend for instance,to the w124 series.In 1994..they started using these prefixes like E klass,,, S klass etc,in a different way. For an example, the w124 500e became the e500:And the "e" in the "500e", does not say that it was an E klass(the E in the ending of the 500,stands for Einspritzung, not E class :) The cool thing with the updated version (from 1996),is that alof of the engine electrics changed.They went from distributor, ignitionmodule engine electronics,,to feature coil on plug setup,which is far more reliable and durable.What is eternaly important on these era Mercedes is to check all the engine wiring harness,especially on the 1991-1996 year cars.Also throttle bodies is a high risk area,especially on a v12 where there is two throttle bodies,two MAF sensors, etc etc.It can quickly become a diagnostic disaster if you do not what you are getting into with a car like this :) I know..cause i am a Car/ diagnostic technician :) Eitherway,Lovely video,and lovely channel:)Greetings from Norway,Stefan

Watching this, I immediately wanted to buy one - again!

Good video info. I’ve had my 1996 S600 Coupe V12 approx15 yrs , your right they need proper servicing which makes the car A joy to drive. My car has done 145K miles and drives like new , the V12 engine and gearbox are bomb proof , no clunking From gearbox and engine is quiet, again your right there are gremlins but I normally get them sorted straight away making An affordable classic car to run but don’t be fooled some gremlins can get expensive. Yes the are cheap to buy but my advice Would be do your homework, Another thing to look out for is front and rear windscreens they are prone to moisture around the edge Of the glass which is a white misty colour, I replaced mine front and rear, the reason I spend money on it because it’s a great car to Drive and good examples looked after are very rare to find which in time values will rise and as for mine everything works which possibly One of the best in time ,

I owned many S-Class MBs. The 140 series was my favorite, way better than the ones who came after the 140. Reliability and quality went way downhill after the 140. I wouldn't even consider buying the latest one.

My favorite era of Mercedes-Benz. I used to own an E Class from this era. It was a tank and I wish Merc was still up to this standard. Good video Jay on to the next one bloke. (:

Have a little cry when the biodegradable engine wiring harness disintegrates on earlier 600s, as I've read they're not available anymore.

have always loved these since the day they came out. Gotta be one of Europe's chunkiest ever 2 doors.

I believe the early ones had power operated inside rearview mirror. But people kept breaking them

I have one of these w140 S600 same colour as the one your driving i have every receipt and service inspection from when it was bought new 25 years old and it drives like a dream with an immaculate interior, Beautiful car.

This car is great and handles fantastic if you are competent and know how to steer and break. Take driver training for security staff and you will see what these cars a really capable of.

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl had a W140 and absolutely loved it.

Awesome car. Saw a few of the later generations available for sale in my country but the running costs are way too high for me. They truly are imperious as you. Fantastic video production. Keep up the good work.

My W140 also thinks it's 58c outside in the middle of winter and has done for many years now.

I have always been a fan of the 140. Fun video. I like seeing the Countryside. Beautiful area. I live in Denver. Driving in the mountains is a treat and the scenery will take your breath away. Cheers!!!

M120 is an engine I’ll never forget. The way the power is delivered, the ultimate pace. 408hp/420lbs/ft (slightly lower rating here in the states) felt like it was at the wheels.

The buzzing noise you’re hearing is a small climate control fan located in the ceiling light pod. All you need to do is pop the unit out, carefully disassemble the brittle plastic parts, and simply clean and lubricate the impeller. Takes 10 minutes.

The best thing about over these over engined barges is their effortless ability to do a good rolling burnout, in comfort👍

Perhaps the ultimate car of the year of my birth, 1995. It is certainly a strong candidate for my future weekend car, one to save, maintain and enjoy for decades to come.

Commendable that you give a realistic picture of what ownership of a car like the CL is. These days, luckily, I don't see as many articles anymore naming dream cars or high end luxury cars you can buy for the price of a golf or focus. I always thought those articles only encouraged unhappy situations: cars that suffer poor maintenance because of owners trying to save costs and owners that get disillusioned because the experience isn't what they expected.

Your reviews remind me of the best ones from old Top Gear. Actually about the car and what it's like to drive it without too much theatrics.

I love how there's enough room & luxury to have a grab-handle even for the rear passengers.

Hope you can get a first gen CLS to review; would love to hear your thoughts on it

Loved this model since I was a teen in the 90’s…. I still want one

I owned one of these for six months - had a drink problem that made Keith Richard’s look sober ! And the electrics made me want an RAC Van following me ! But I loved it !

God I love this channel Jay you're a pleasure 🙏 thank you

Love that old Mercedes-Benz 😍

Couldn't work out how you could think this was a good looking car until I saw your end credits.

These are worth big money in the states!!!

Stunning!!

This could go for $20k in the US. One of the best looking cars ever made in my opinion.

The double glazing on these generation cars is so thick that along with the sheer heft of them, a lot of people came away with the idea that these cars and the S600 brethren were armored cars from the factory.

Had 2 W140 S-classes, a coupe (officially C140) and a saloon. Both 5 litre V8, so never experienced the V12-ness, but he's right they are imperious. Had loads of XJ's and the S-classes ride quality is far better. The smoothest cars I've ever owned and picked up both for ridiculously low prices, £950 for the coupe and £1500 for the saloon. Great days, sadly never to be repeated, but thank goodness I had the chance to own and drive such wonderful machines.

Great car . She's built like a tank and is an absolute beauty mate ! Even after so many years this thing has an awesome presence. I'd snatch one up in a jiffy if I could find one , cool !!!

I've got a 400 SE W140 92 reg. and a S 500 C140 94 reg. They're just the best two cars I ever have, and believe me, I had many.

Fun fact: people who ordered w140 saloon s from factory and then changed their minds and wanted a coup were charged a 100k DM fee for the priviledge. The price list difference was only 30k DM but that came with a 2 year plus waiting list.

Oh yeah been waiting for this

Thanks James, a lovely contender for my virtual garage. Yes, potentially expensive to repair but what a huge amount of car for the money. In fact I've just seen a '95 500 Coupe for £12k... tempting, but I'm very attached to my Baby Benz 190..

Undoubtedly a fantastic car to drive. I came close to buying one two years ago: it was in superb condition with the same owner for 11 years. But ... he had spent £5,000 a year to keep it that way, and that included doing some of the work on it himself. I doubt whether I would have found a better one, but in the end I decided not to buy it and got a W124 E420 instead. Not quite a V12, but a 4.2-litre V8 isn't too shabby either. It was specified with the badge delete so it's rather more discreet too.

Enjoyable content and I much prefer the less edgy, laid back delivery 👍🏻

Man what a great buy, a maintenance history and and knowledgeable inspection and you would have a great car. After all, WHO among US wouldn't want a V12 in their lives at least once, and being in the European theater, you have knowledgeable people, and I assume parts availability.

As a babysitter of the last 1999(!) s600 w140, everything that you have said about this car is true. Its already racked up 3x of its purchase price in a year, due to it being "dry" stored for 10 years without use. Just be weary about rust on these cars UK Car cancer beats even the biggest battle tanks.. and where the water and grit sits....

I the SEL 600 ran it for 3 years and sold it for just £ 500 less than I brought it for. At traffic lights it would take off really well leaving the boy racers wondering what the he'll was under the bonnet. I remember booting it on the motorway and it changing up at 138mph. They were limited to 150mph. Not a slow car and it did it all with ease.

As always well composed and narrated review. Thanks!

We used to have a 96 S500 coupe that had the same color/wheel combo. I still remember it as the “best car” ever made.

THE BMW 850i must be a strong competitor. Also it looks so much cooler.

Just be mindful if anything goes wrong with the engine electronics, it requires the services of IBM!

Magnificent! The 126 was a hard act to follow and the initial reaction was not good, however with the passage of time it's now viewed differently. I feel the interior has dated very well and is perfect Mercedes classic design.

I got to drive a V12 Mercedes once, the sedan. To me, the engine behaved like it wasn't there. Acceleration was provided by a large paddle which extended down into a very fast flowing river. When you pushed the gas pedal down, the paddle dipped further into the river, and the car was thus accelerated. Nothing so crass as a combustion powered engine, just a smooth boost. Gearchange? What gearchange? This pedal makes the car go faster, (LOTS faster if you want) This makes it slower, much slower than you would think possible This wheel makes it go round corners. Nothing. Else. Happens. Bounce, twitch, lurch, thump, buzz..... none of that nonsense. It felt like you were using some kind of luxury video game.

I bought a 1998 CL500 about 6 years ago. The body work was a bit tatty, but the beige interior was immaculate. Engine and gearbox were spot on. The front wings rot really bad on these, so i decided to replace them. However the ones advertised on ebay were worse than the ones i had. I bought 2 brand new front wings from Mercedes Cardiff, they cost £800.I had to wait 6 weeks to get them. When i collected them, the guy in Mercedes said, do you realise that you have just bought the last 2 available. I had a full professional respray in original obsidian black. I can honestly say, it was a beautiful, immaculate car. I bought the car for £520 and sold it for £9000. Had to sell it, because i had 5 cars at the time, and no longer had anywhere to store them. Still regret it today.

thank you.... it was my dream car. There was one in switzerland last year. was like new. 20"000 CHF. but i was not in position to buy at all. life sucks sometimes. hope to find a perfect one one day.

If you put all windows down you can drive at highway speeds without the cabin being too noisy. It’s an absolute marvel to drive

Fun presentation, a real JayEmm on Coupés with an imposing member of Das Haus! It's great you could and still can buy a V12 for those inspired to own and drive one. Thank you.

The car really is gorgeous, I would throw some nice paint-matched 2 pieces just like effspot.

Great video, my daily driver is a Bentley T2 (Rolls shadow 2). I could not find a new car with a budget of £40k ish that had a soft ride and without the stupid privacy glass etc. I reckon that the depreciation of a new car purchased today on my budget will offset the purchase price of my T2 within 2 years, all I have to do is keep putting petrol in it but as it is over 40 years old there is no road tax and the insurance is cheap.

In ireland because of the massive drop in cars being imported from the uk post brexit/covid, the price of, say a 2006 Renault clio has RISEN by almost 50% over the last year, finances are weird.

These are great cars, also definitely the LAST mainstream big brand luxury car with a proper interior. In the future though cars like this will become VERY hard to run, as they’re deceptively reliant on technology and electronics. The thing that makes cars like this hard to keep nice (affordably or at all) is that so much of it is injection moulded plastic and filled with computers. Rolls Royces were very oldschool and nice in the 90’s so anything is theoretically replaceable by just making one, and the parts industry for those cars is likely to remain healthier over time as it’s mostly just metal pressings and basic machining jobs. Silver Shadows are old as hell now but basically the same to maintain as they were when these Mercs were new. Anyone who has owned a rare more normal car from the past, but made after mass manufacturing and plastic, knows how hard that is. There’s parts that a coach builder or leather trimmer couldn’t make (not to match or interface with plastic and synthetic materials anyway) for you. You have to go through the process of reverse engineering shit and manufacturing something fundamentally very different indeed to do the same job without plastic - now add computers to the mix!!! Ahhhhh!!!! On my car thus far it’s just been a folded plastic hinge (not a true hinge with separate, discrete barrels and pins that fit together), it’s an outlier on my car, as it has extremely little plastic components really and none of them having a mechanical role whatsoever, save the fuel door hinge. I’ve spent bloody ages and a bit of money making brass ones by hand, going nicely thus far but on hiatus due to the many difficulties involved, soldering or riveting them together is my stumbling block. Due to the design of the original and it’s relationship to the door I cannot just replace it with some other hinge, or can I satisfactorily modify or combine other off the shell hinges. If I had a mill or knew someone who did, making one would be very easy indeed, drill a straight/parallel hole, mill out the lobes, do the same again a few times, then do one with two holes and two sets of lobes, fill them to shape or maybe mill them into shape so they’re not just oblongs of brass, drill and tap 2 sets of threads, file some bolts and nuts to be extra low profile, then hammer a brass rod to achieve a rounded end, holding the barrel. Easy. Most times with a merc it wouldn’t be that easy even with tools. I absolutely wholeheartedly agree with Jayemm that maintaining older cars and things in general is the way. It should still be the done thing. However manufacturing things that can be maintained is also important, it’s a big catch 22 with so called “green” things as to make them satisfy whatever requirements it is and still work as products and be attainable it necessitates making crap that can’t be fixed or looked after whatsoever. There’ll be nothing harder than trying to get a 2022 car to age 120 like a veteran car. In fact it won’t happen. They’ll be unusable and their condition so tenuous nobody ever interacts with them if they do survive. Their appeal is so lacking that there’s little incentive for anyone to try anyway, certainly not once it gets hard.

The electric adjustable rear view mirror on these if not broken is just too cool, not sure if any other car ever had that.

Cl73? 73!?! I say again seventy damn three?!? Wow! Didn’t even know that engine existed! Google get here I’ve research to do!

I have been ADDICTED to Mercedes Benz in my life.