Posted on 06/18/2006 5:18:35 PM PDT by wjersey
The owner of a Los Angeles car dealership is suing Mercedes-Benz, its parent company DaimlerChrysler and other affiliates, alleging that a $1.7 million car purchased in 2004 wouldn't run for more than 10 blocks without problems.
The car, a Mercedes-Benz AMG CLK-GTR Limited Edition Roadster, was supposed to be one of only five made. In the lawsuit, the owner of exotic car dealership Grand Prix Motors also alleges that six were actually made, reducing the value of his car.
A two-door sports car, the CLK-GTR has a carbon fiber body and a 6.9-liter 12-cylinder engine enabling it to go from zero to 124 mph in 9.9 seconds. It has a top speed of 198.4 mph. According to the dealership's Web site, the car's intended retail selling price was $2.5 million.
The car is believed to be the only one of its kind in the U.S., said plaintiff Mark Johnston. It is intended to be a street car but, because of differences in safety and emissions rules between the U.S. and Europe, it cannot legally be driven on public roads here.
"Unfortunately, the car turned out to be 'exotic' in the worst possible way," dealership owner Johnston said. "When we took it off the lot in 2004 for its first customer test drive, drove the car all of 10 blocks with a prospective buyer when the oil light came on. We've been trying to get it fixed ever since, but the Mercedes folks have refused to stand behind the car as promised in our contract."
Additionally, according to Johnston, the car's transmission failed to shift properly, the hydraulic jack system failed and the car's windows came unglued. Mercedes ultimately determined that the car suffered from an oil pressure-related engine failure, the plaintiffs allege, but refused to make any repairs.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Could be. If I recall correctly, there are usually quite a few mechanics working around race cars. I agree it's a lemon, AND a lemon that probably no one knows how to work on, and you have to get parts from Jerusalem and Mars.
I figured it had to be somewhere around that. Thanks for the info.
Actually, these things originally were custom rather than production vehicles anyway. I have no idea who produced the original engines, but there were, and still are, numerous engine factories of various kinds in or near Indianapolis.
I've seen them take the bikes out for a spin before the buyer picks them up, but that's about it. I couldn't imagine anyone actually riding one, other than in a parade. The FDNY motorcycle had gold in the trim that came from gold coins they found in the wreckage of the WTC. Could you imagine being the guy that laid that bike down?
My dad has a Z06 Corvette. He used to work for GM, and he knows the guys on the Corvette racing team.
He brought his car to their shop, where they tweaked it out. They set it up like the actual racer, then went a littl ebeyond that, since he wasn't going to be pounding on it for hours on end. It's his daily driver now. Freakin scary.
Can I get them to tweak my 98 Z28 Camaro? Just adding a supercharger would increase the hp by 148 =]
Ping...someone's a really good salesman.
They used to say, "You pass a Duesenberg only with the permission of it's driver."
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